Is it a myth or is it true?

[DOC_Ma]

Recently (last week) I have met up with a UofT medical student, he told me that the older you get the less weight your GPA has when applying for UofT? So for example, the weight of GPA for a third year student is more than a 4th year student. Note I am not talking about grad vs undergrad just talking about the age of the student.

 

any ideas dear premeds?

 

oops, should have posted under uoft forum. my bad

[NewfieMike]

Recently (last week) I have met up with a UofT medical student, he told me that the older you get the less weight your GPA has when applying for UofT? So for example, the weight of GPA for a third year student is more than a 4th year student. Note I am not talking about grad vs undergrad just talking about the age of the student.

 

any ideas dear premeds?

 

oops, should have posted under uoft forum. my bad

 

age of student does not necessarily correspond to year in program. People start early, start late.

[Microbiodude]

I doubt it, as far as I know the Admissions reviewers don't see you age/ birth date or gender. This is because it would inevitably bias a candidate's scoring and U of T states that age, gender, ethnicity is not considered. It could just be that older individuals tend to have more valuable ECs which would make the reviewers more lenient towards an individual's academic score or they have more education (i.e. a 4th year student has one more more year of undergrad than a 3rd year student). Additionally, when applying in your 3rd year you don't get the U of T weighting that you do when applying in your 4th year. That also helps out the GPA. Just some thoughts.

[rmorelan]

Recently (last week) I have met up with a UofT medical student, he told me that the older you get the less weight your GPA has when applying for UofT? So for example, the weight of GPA for a third year student is more than a 4th year student. Note I am not talking about grad vs undergrad just talking about the age of the student.

 

any ideas dear premeds?

 

oops, should have posted under uoft forum. my bad

 

That doesn't sound right to me.... IMHO it would be strange for a non-transparent procedure to be used. Also it can't be directly age based as that is actually illegal (although the number of years of school perhaps could be used).

[Cnussey]

I can't speak for UofT, but some schools will treat your GPA score a little lighter if you've been out of school for a while. But your age doesn't matter if you are currently in school. They will consider the trend of scores currently compared to what they were in the past.

 

Very few schools do this--schools will often look for "maturation" in applications from older students, but many will not treat GPA or MCAT scores any differently.

[thatonekid]

I've actually heard the same rumor. e.g. if you're in 4th year your GPA is given a less weight than if you're in 3rd year. However, this has nothing to do with the actual age of the applicant. I also don't think it's anything more than a rumor. More likely, a 4th year has more experience/ECs/insight than a 3rd year, which aids in their application. But, that's just my opinion.

[DOC_Ma]

I've actually heard the same rumor. e.g. if you're in 4th year your GPA is given a less weight than if you're in 3rd year. However, this has nothing to do with the actual age of the applicant. I also don't think it's anything more than a rumor. More likely, a 4th year has more experience/ECs/insight than a 3rd year, which aids in their application. But, that's just my opinion.

 

I should probably clarify, I meant the status of the student actually not really age, so what I meant was 3rd year vs 4th year vs already graduated student (but not in any grad programs). Do u guys think uoft would give a different weight on the GPA's of the 3 cases above. So what I heard was for 4th year student and above, all u gotta do is meet some sort of "cut off" def not 3.6 as posted, then any higher would not matter for your GPA so rest goes all into your EC and interview, as for 3rd year student the higher the GPA the better. Also I do know that grad student, i.e. masters, phd's stream, for those uoft considers their undergrad GPA much less.