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Interview invites out!


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I got the email at 3:55pm

 

I was cut because of my GPA. I did a co-op program in undergrad so they were looking only at my first and second years... and I bombed first year before transferring faculties.

 

Good luck to those with interviews

 

Hi,

I was in the same situation too. I am in the coop program from the university of ottawa, and i am in my final year of study of biochem. So they only counted my first two years.

 

It's quite unfortunate that they do this to us coop students considering the fact that many bomb their first year.

 

Andy

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Hi, got the rejection letter today, and i was just wondering what ottawa is looking for in terms of ECs.

my cGPA is 3.90 so no problem there, since highschool....

1 summer working

volunteered 2 summers at hospital,

volunteered 1 summer as a research assistant for a neuroradiologist approx 35 h/week,

volunteered with mentally disabled adults during the year,

science tutor,

dodgeball team :),

lots of clubs, although i wasn't exec on any of them,

 

and this summer I haven't been able to do anything because i spent most of it in hospital as a patient, although there wasn't exactly a space to include that in the application.

 

also have MCAT 34R, but 10 in bio, so not expecting interview from western, so with all the rejections coming in, pretty frustrating...any thoughts about what my Ottawa application was missing??

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Just got an invite, stamped 2:23pm. I can honestly say I'm shocked. Was 100% expecting a rejection as my sketch is ...much less than stellar, but I am obviously happy with this turn of events.

 

For those who didn't get invites and don't understand why, I hear you. I am just as confused as you are on this one. IMHO, it seems like U of O set the gpa cutoff way too high and is scratching the barrel for interviewees... but that's just my speculation. Congratulations to everyone who received an invite, and good luck to those who didn't.

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Hi, got the rejection letter today, and i was just wondering what ottawa is looking for in terms of ECs.

my cGPA is 3.90 so no problem there, since highschool....

1 summer working

volunteered 2 summers at hospital,

volunteered 1 summer as a research assistant for a neuroradiologist approx 35 h/week,

volunteered with mentally disabled adults during the year,

science tutor,

dodgeball team :),

lots of clubs, although i wasn't exec on any of them,

 

and this summer I haven't been able to do anything because i spent most of it in hospital as a patient, although there wasn't exactly a space to include that in the application.

 

also have MCAT 34R, but 10 in bio, so not expecting interview from western, so with all the rejections coming in, pretty frustrating...any thoughts about what my Ottawa application was missing??

 

It's a crap shoot. There have been several threads dedicated to Ottawa's retarded "assessment" of the ABS, all of which have ended in the agreement that there is no magic formula that will give you an interview. There have been people with stellar resumes who have been rejected pre-interview, and there have been people with bullsh!t resumes who have been invited. I read a post from a dude who was invited last year, but was rejected this year despite having IMPROVED his list of extracurriculars. Can you believe that sh!t?

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hmm i just got rejected too :(

my gpa made it through but not my abs.

 

Does anyone know if grad students will be given a chance to submit a grad package later on in the process?

 

I believe they will contact you in the near future about your grad package. There was a big recent thread discussing this.

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To the person who has a cGPA of 3.90- that's horrible that you didn't get an interview. Did you apply to Queen's? You'd get an interview there for sure. Makes me feel a whole LOT better about the fact that I didn't get one, though.

 

It IS a crapshoot- having such strict cutoffs really does cut out a lot of great people. I go to school in the States, and it frustrates me to see many classmates who I have known for four years get multiple interviews with worse grades and less extra-curriculars than me. And they are getting interviews at some very good schools that have great reputations.

 

Why is Canada SO difficult? It doesn't make sense, and it's not like these schools are at THE forefront of the most advanced medical research or anything as far as I have heard.

 

Even Harvard doesn't have cutoffs, and certainly not 3.87 cutoffs.

 

Luckily, though, places like U of T seem to do it more the "American" way (not that I'm in love with America)- ie looking through the WHOLE application and not making cutoffs.

 

Good luck to everyone, and if it doesn't work out, you can always try again, or realize that there IS a world outside of medicine. You might just find a career you enjoy better :).

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I know this is no consolation, but I applied last year and got the "you met the cutoff but your sketch sucked" rejection. Not much has changed this year with regards to my application, but this year it was a yes (although my gpa was right on the dot for last year and is now well above the cutoff... not sure if that's an issue). I tried to write a more balanced sketch this year: included sports that I have been recently involved in, which was really the only noticeable addition I made... gave a more interesting description of my activities... (also omitted many high school things... but those wouldn't have been looked at by ottawa anyways). I agree it's probably quite subjective, but like has been repeated before, if you've worked hard enough, and applied broadly enough, you're bound to get an interview somewhere (eg. disapointed: i hope you applied to and were offered an interview at Queen's). It's not about getting interviewed everywhere; it's about getting ONE... because that's all you really need if you've prepared well enough. If you've been around for more than one application cycle, or have read far enough back, you will see that there are many people offered interviews almost everywhere, and still end up rejected, whereas there are those with just one interview and one acceptance.

 

keep your chins up guys, if you want it badly enough, keep trying, focus on the positives, and focus on what you can improve on for next year.

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Hi Dissapointed,

I know how you feel. I also had a stellar resume and got my ass kicked with a rejection. Does not make sense in the least. It seems like people who work hard get screwed, and people who party get rewarded! I wish there was some sort of law against this mental abuse, I feel like I may have a mental breakdown.

 

Hope you get in some where!

 

Hi,

 

I'm totally disappointed too. I have my masters, 2 papers under my belt, massive clinical experience (volunteering with Dr.s), clinical research on recently approved FDA drug, hospital volunteering for 3 years, lots of EC's including teaching kids, boxing, martial arts! Sucky part is I interviewed 2 yrs ago and was good waitlisted...this system is flawed! I'm sure this is my last time applying. After 4 times trying I'm thinking of starting a Phd instead. Oh well... Good luck to those who got interviews

 

Best wishes and kindest regards,

 

Dr. E77

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Even Harvard doesn't have cutoffs, and certainly not 3.87 cutoffs.

 

Luckily, though, places like U of T seem to do it more the "American" way (not that I'm in love with America)- ie looking through the WHOLE application and not making cutoffs.

 

Good luck to everyone, and if it doesn't work out, you can always try again, or realize that there IS a world outside of medicine. You might just find a career you enjoy better :).

 

... Or you can join me in the Caribbean! :P

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Congratulations to everyone that received interview invites. I just wanted to say that I think there defenitely is SOME luck involved in the whole process, meaning someone who sees your application has to like it for whatever reason, but I also believe that everyone who gets into medical school has worked very very hard, whether you think they deserve to get in or not.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

Good luck to everyone.

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