OOP Admission Average Insane or What?

[xylem29]

How is it possible for someone, taking a full course-load, to ahieve an average of 88%-90% in two years?

 

I know that it IS possible but these have to be some gifted people. Even if you spent your entire time studying and doing no ECs, it's very difficult IMO to be consistently pulling in 90s no?

 

I can see how students can consistently get 4.0 since it's usually 85+ but even this is quite difficult to do...

 

Am I misunderstanding the system - are they actually indicating a GPA converted to a percentage score instead of the actual % grades?

[HBP]

certain schools are converted to percentage

 

ie A = 88%

 

A+ = 95%

[xylem29]

Is there a conversion chart available on their site? Imma go and look!

[reverse_transcriptase]

How is it possible for someone, taking a full course-load, to ahieve an average of 88%-90% in two years?

 

I know that it IS possible but these have to be some gifted people. Even if you spent your entire time studying and doing no ECs, it's very difficult IMO to be consistently pulling in 90s no?

 

I can see how students can consistently get 4.0 since it's usually 85+ but even this is quite difficult to do...

 

Am I misunderstanding the system - are they actually indicating a GPA converted to a percentage score instead of the actual % grades?

 

yeah they go by GPA, i mean the percentage in a course isn't even reported (not at my school at least)

[xylem29]

Okie, well - just heard back from USask. UToronto grades are taken as is on the transcript.

[imagine]

So when do we find out if we made the cut?

[youngdad]

Yeah! When?

[Pantaloons]

88%-90% is pretty ridiculous.

 

I suppose I should have known--seeing as USask has no way of evaluating my community work.

[md16]

I read somewhere on one of the other threads that the avg this year went up to 92%!! I really hope thats not true because it was 90.5 last year..

[xylem29]

88%-90% is pretty ridiculous.

 

I suppose I should have known--seeing as USask has no way of evaluating my community work.

 

Yea, this is not even a factor!!!

[DMD]

I know many people who got over 90% during their undergrad years at UofT and they also have a long list of extracurricular /volunteering activities. those are the people who study hard, manage time well and put real effort into everything they do.. they made me look like a slacker.. anyway.. it is possible

[Pantaloons]

I know many people who got over 90% during their undergrad years at UofT and they also have a long list of extracurricular /volunteering activities. those are the people who study hard, manage time well and put real effort into everything they do.. they made me look like a slacker.. anyway.. it is possible

 

Oh, thanks.

[xylem29]

I know many people who got over 90% during their undergrad years at UofT and they also have a long list of extracurricular /volunteering activities. those are the people who study hard, manage time well and put real effort into everything they do.. they made me look like a slacker.. anyway.. it is possible

 

I disagree - I know people who study hard as well but just don't possess the thought processes required to do well. At a certain threshold, differences in intellectual ability become apparent - have you ever taken MAT135Y at U of T? Perfect example.

[youngdad]

Any clue when Sask lets the OOPs know if they made the first cut? I can't find it anywhere.

[xylem29]

...and some people are spending time during exams to try and feed needy families in the community as well as finding Christmas presents for their kids.

 

I guess my problem is I just have to "Study Harder, Manage Time Better, and put 'Real' Effort into everything I do" in order to make up for my lack of "intellectual ability".

 

Apologies for the vent.

Love you all.

 

Pantaloons, lol - I didn't mean to say that you need superior intellectual abilities to get into medical school, far from it. Without knowing how to put it into words I'll just use two examples:

 

It is impossible to score a 90% grade in MAT135Y - unless you were intellectually gifted. Anyone who has taken this course at UToronto knows that at the end of every single test - there is a question (out of 10-12 marks) that only a handful of students could answer (out of 1500 students). Without getting this question (and you were either given the full marks or zero), your mark would automatically drop below 90. Not once, did I ever get the "special question" - I never even knew how to start them.

 

And the other example is: there is no amount of time that someone can put into the MCAT in order to score a 39+, you either have it or you don't.

 

This is all I meant Pantaloon, in the world of medicine - it's trivial and useless information, lol.

 

I guess I'm overreacting by equating the USask OOP average of 92% with something that only gifted students can achieve. To understand where I'm coming from though, please understand:

 

I graduated with the highest GPA in my class (within my college for those familiar with the St. George college system) and was nominated for a Governor General Silver Medal as well - my percentage average was nowhere near 92%. For me, I've already achieved as high as I possibly can for myself, I just can't get the 92% average - no matter how I tweak my approach towards studying.

[Charlatan]

I disagree - I know people who study hard as well but just don't possess the thought processes required to do well. At a certain threshold, differences in intellectual ability become apparent - have you ever taken MAT135Y at U of T? Perfect example.

 

88-90% is definitely achievable. However, I think (1) solid foundation (mostly study habits, organization, time management, etc) from early education (elementary school and high school are there for a reason) is what some people with low grades seem to lack (e.g. if you were star-crafting 24-7), even if they demonstrate (2) perseverance in studying diligently.

 

IMO, getting high grades is not so much of a talent/intelligence thing.

 

Just my own little observation...

[youngdad]

Who cares anyway?

[Michael1919]

I'm feeling Xylem's pain that all fields of study are not created equal. I took a second year course where the class average was 39% (MT 223), if someone was in the 95% percentile of the class they probably got a 70. (I had 67, and all of a sudden I can't even think about using that year on an application)A fourth year course I took I received the highest mark in the class....80%. Painful grades for a medical school application.

 

I contrast this to my friends in the Humanities who have class averages in the mid 70's (on a 40hr instead of a 100hr work week) and it is exceedingly painful, especially as the top students don't seem to have any difficulty exceeding 90%.

 

However, after wrapping up my Engineering masters in April, I'm probably going to bite the bullet, and take humanities myself for a year or two (barring an unexpected acceptance this April).

 

In reality I fail to see how this will in any way increase my capacity to be a doctor. It will however greatly increase my capacity to successfully apply to med schools.

 

Peace,

 

M.

[Guest usask_woopwoop]

oop people find out at the same time as everyone else. you can check the website, it should be early february. they also changed the MMI weighting for oop applicants - it's 100% if you get an interview.

[abcwxyz]

oop people find out at the same time as everyone else. you can check the website, it should be early february. they also changed the MMI weighting for oop applicants - it's 100% if you get an interview.

 

whaaat

[xylem29]

It's true - OOP admission is based 100% on the MMI now. I fail to see the reasoning behind this, though I don't really care anyway since I don't have the OOP average to start with

[abcwxyz]

It's true - OOP admission is based 100% on the MMI now. I fail to see the reasoning behind this, though I don't really care anyway since I don't have the OOP average to start with

 

I would assume that the reasoning is that all of the OOP have an average within several %, making differences differences between their averages are not relevant to the medical school's purposes. This is different from their IP admission criteria since they still feel that admissions averages in the range of IP students play a role (albeit small) in selection of their best candidates. This is ironic because, were the weighting system 75/25 to be maintained, the OOP students would still all have a similar academic weighting.

 

It's discouraging though; interviews seem to be so huge at every school but U of T, making them all the more stressful.

[~me~]

*sigh* ... i just hope the cut-off is not a 92%; that's ridiculous for those of us who have to convert from letter grades, because the max is pretty much capped at 95%

[youngdad]

Guess what. My department at UVic gives A+ for 95% and up, A for 90-95, and A- for 85-90. Big deal, its a tough scale right? Well the rest of the school (except one other dept) uses a different grading scheme. A+ for 90% and up, A for 85-90, and A- for 80-85. But we just get letter grades on our transcripts and those letter grades are subject to the grading scheme for the rest of the university. Anybody in kinesiology or psychology at UVic gets screwed because on our transcripts we just get letter grades. So if I have straight A+ for my entire undergrad any school that takes the lowest percentage for that letter grade will give me 90%.

If dirty Saskatchewan sets the bar at 92% and takes the lowest percentage from letter grades it is impossible for me to get in. Wait a minute! If they do that than it means that it is impossible for ANYONE from the University of Victoria to get in. I find it hard to believe that Saskatchewan is that ignorant.

[Guest usask_woopwoop]

ok well first of all usask is clearly not dirty. secondly, the "bar" is not "set" at 92, it's just the approximate grade an oop will need to get an interview, since hundreds of oop people apply and usask doesn't interview them all, so you have to cut them off somewhere.

 

one of the reasons why the mmi was changed to 100% is because it takes the weight off the averages from oop, where it is difficult to convert grades/gpas to percentages.