Answers to some McGill admission questions

[Gavanshir]

I was at McGill admissions today for a question/answer session with Mr. Dansereau. These are some of the questions that I've had as an applicant and I thought I'd post them here along answers straight from the admission officer. I hope it will be useful to others.

 

Q. Are CEGEP grades taken into consideration for undergrad students who will apply with a bachelor's degree?

 

A. Absolutely. No matter how many university level credits you've completed, McGill will look at all of the grades that you received in CEGEP. They will note if your university grades show a significant and steady improvement but all CEGEP grades will be looked at either way.

 

 

Q. Does McGill particularly value undergrad research?

 

A. Not particularly, it certainly is a positive on the application but McGill, as with any school, will mainly look to see if the research was done out of genuine interest or just to have done it to pad an application.

 

 

Q. Is a Master's degree useful if one is not accepted straight from undergrad? Can a Master's degree compensate for a low undergrad GPA to any degree?

 

A. A clear and simple no. The Master's GPA will never be taken into consideration and the GPA achieved during an undergrad will always remain for McGill. Mr. Dansereau recommended redoing an undergrad degree, taking a second undergrad or just taking extra undergrad courses over obtaining a master's degree as it would not change the applicant's GPA. If the undergrad GPA is not competitive, then the applicant will remain uncompetitive.

 

 

Q. What about the new MMI interviews? Will McGill adopt them?

 

A. Yes. Starting next cycle, all interviews will be conducted in the MMI format and 1 on 1 interviews will no longer be held.

 

 

Q. How strict is the full-course load requirement?

 

A. Very strict. McGill looks for you to have obtained 30 credits every year as an indication of whether you'll be able to handle the medical school course load which is approximately twice that number of credits in the first year. It is okay to have done 18 credits in one term and 12 in the other, just as long as the number of credits total 30 per year.

 

Q. Does McGill have a set number of seats that it accepts from each of the Quebec universities?

 

A. No, all in-province applicants are placed in the same IP pool and no special consideration is given to what school you are applying from.

 

Random notes Online courses were strongly suggested against. Specially for main science courses, taking 1 or 2 is acceptable as long as they are not in the sciences or from the core credits.

 

I will add more if I remember anything else from the session.

[aclementine]

Q. What about the new MMI interviews? Will McGill adopt them?

 

A. Yes. Starting next cycle, all interviews will be conducted in the MMI format and 1 on 1 interviews will no longer be held.

 

I can't believe they're doing this!!! McMaster has successfully brainwashed everyone!

[lansky]

"Mr. Dansereau recommended redoing an undergrad degree, taking a second undergrad or just taking extra undergrad courses over obtaining a master's degree as it would not change the applicant's GPA. If the undergrad GPA is not competitive, then the applicant will remain uncompetitive"

 

I dont get this....I thought that McGill will look negatively upon those who take extra courses after graduation to boost up their GPA or even when an applicant takes more than 4 years to finish an undergrad degree...this is stated in their website....

[Gavanshir]

"Mr. Dansereau recommended redoing an undergrad degree, taking a second undergrad or just taking extra undergrad courses over obtaining a master's degree as it would not change the applicant's GPA. If the undergrad GPA is not competitive, then the applicant will remain uncompetitive"

 

I dont get this....I thought that McGill will look negatively upon those who take extra courses after graduation to boost up their GPA or even when an applicant takes more than 4 years to finish an undergrad degree...this is stated in their website....

 

That still stands. McGill wants you to finish your program in its allotted time. So for example if you choose to do Molecular Biology and it's a 90 credit program, then you are expected to finish the program in 3 years, without any summer courses. Now if you finish your program and your GPA is not competitive, you can take an extra year of a full course load as an independent student or do a second undergrad (he mentioned that a second undergrad would take only 2 years if you already have another undergrad). So as long as you are finishing what you start while maintaining a full course load then you are following their guidelines. What they don't want you to do is to EXTEND the length of your program and finish a 3 year program in 4 years or more.

 

What Mr. Dansereau didn't mention is that doing a second undergrad is risky and probably not the smartest thing to do since you are essentially putting all your eggs in one basket.

[tyro]

Thanks Gavanshir for your inquiry. That was really helpful information. I just have a quick question regarding the second degree.

 

Like you said, a second degree takes two years to complete. So can you apply after the first year of this second degree? If so, is your GPA just based on this one year of the second degree, or do they look at your first degree as well then?

 

Thanks again!

 

 

That still stands. McGill wants you to finish your program in its allotted time. So for example if you choose to do Molecular Biology and it's a 90 credit program, then you are expected to finish the program in 3 years, without any summer courses. Now if you finish your program and your GPA is not competitive, you can take an extra year of a full course load as an independent student or do a second undergrad (he mentioned that a second undergrad would take only 2 years if you already have another undergrad). So as long as you are finishing what you start while maintaining a full course load then you are following their guidelines. What they don't want you to do is to EXTEND the length of your program and finish a 3 year program in 4 years or more.

 

What Mr. Dansereau didn't mention is that doing a second undergrad is risky and probably not the smartest thing to do since you are essentially putting all your eggs in one basket.

[mikkey]

From what I understood, you can apply after one year, since you already have a degree. As to what grades they look at, I am not too sure, since some people have a terrible first degree and a good second one and they only look at the second one. However, if you only have one semester then I guess they would look at the first one, since a single semester doesn't tell them much.

[Gavanshir]

Hi tyro, that's a good question and I don't know the answer for sure. I can only guess, but I don't see why not. I think they would look at your year 1 but what I can tell you is that my impression was that they will ALWAYS look at your first undergrad's GPA. It's just a matter of how well you can prove to them that you have truly improved in your second undergrad and one year of courses might or might not be convincing enough.

 

I'd still suggest emailing them and asking about this.

[Sergie]

Hi tyro!

I will second Gavanshir: this is the matter of impression. As to me, I would study for one year, say Sept 2008 - May 2009, then apply (complete your application ) to McGill in January 2010, not in Sept-Dec 2009. At least, they will see all 3 semesters of FT studies and you could show a good improvement. Thus, instead of one-two you could submit grades for 3 semesters which is much more informative. Moreover, you could also apply for the next year.

Do not forget though that you are given another chance to emphasize what you'll have done in your autobio and CV, which have 20% weight in admission formula.

GL!