Guest lcloh Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 McDreamy, I don't know how self-serving it really is. The school has a waitlist, and they're trying their best to service it. It's not like they intend to put people through torture, it's just the way it is... the fault really lies with the lack of funding and facilities for training spots that limit the process as such, and that responsibility lies with the government. I'd venture to say that if you were #350 on that 350 person wait list, you'd be happy that you're on there at all, no? It's like the lottery - have a ticket and your chances are about equal to being run over by a bus at 4am whilst being struck by lightening versus not having a ticket at all. You don't bank all your hopes on the lottery ticket, you go on with your regular life, but you also still have that ticket... This isn't meant to come across harsh - it's meant to highlight the bright side - you have a lottery ticket! And for it, I wish you all the luck I can! LL (from Auckland!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest straightalker Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Quote: It's like the lottery - have a ticket and your chances are about equal to being run over by a bus at 4am whilst being struck by lightening versus not having a ticket at all. ---- It's not exactly like a lottery. In a lottery, every player should have an equal shot at getting selected. If you are ranked 350...or even 300....out of 350 waitlistees I think it is safe to say that your chances of being admitted are very close to 0. Isn't it better for an applicant who's ranked very low on the waitlist to be informed of his/her position so that they could move on with their life? as McDreamy and others have mentioned, it's not easy to focus on things at hand when you keep analyzing your waitlist chances. I believe NOMS lets applicants know of their waitlist position, and even Toronto and Ottawa have give out applicants general chances of being admitted(good/bad waitlist). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest johnke Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 I totally agree with what McDreamy is saying. Based on past stats, I think all the med schools should have a pretty good idea of about how many people are actually going to make it off the waitlists. Its pointless to keep 300+ waiting blindly. If we are given the number we are at on the waitlist, then at least we have a general idea of whether we should keep hoping or not. Cause there is definitely a difference between being #20 on the waitlist and #350. It appears that the med schools do not want to take any responsibility and so everyone is given the same message - waitlist. However, it doesn't seem fair at all. I mean, have they ever gotten past calling say 200 people off the waitlist? Why not give the people at the bottom a more definitely answer? or at least tell us where we are on the list, then looking at past stats, we can at least make a better guess at our chances. I think NOSM has got the right idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NeuroObsessed Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 *I got the idea from reading last years posts!* Maybe we should start a Western Meds Waitlisted Support Group... Hello, I am NeuroObsessed and I am waitlisted... I have explained the waitlist to family/friends/co-workers hundreds of times, as I have discussed why I am not accepted already considering that we have a shortage of doctors. As well, I am now starting to consider what I need to do to re-apply and prepare better for next year. So... fellow waitlisters please post your thoughts on our current position so that we can keep the hope alive! Good Luck everybody! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mcpherv Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Neuro, haha - thanks for the laugh. Your first post is a tough act to follow - we can all relate to the constant explanations. Hello, I am mcpherv, and I am waitlisted... I have several times answered the phone with my heart in my throat, and I have also visually checked the phone for the message light despite knowing for certain that it hadn't rang in the minutes since last checked. I have given thought to the masters program I might attend next year in preperation for my next application. I am mcpherv, and I am waitlisted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peanuts Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Lurker coming back onto the board (it's been a while since I've posted). So, this is my 3rd time on waitlist for Western. Once lucky (got called, refused acceptance due to personal reasons), once unlucky (last year), and once again, I'm on waitlist. My thoughts? It's tough on the waitlist. Really tough in some ways. But life goes on, and I'm planning for it. I'm getting married next week. With loans from family, my fiancee and I bought and fully paid off a condo in Vancouver, and we're getting a mortgage to invest. Fiancee and I both have stable jobs with large biotech/medical device companies, rising quickly in the ranks, and I'm persuing a marketing diploma part-time in addition to working full time and fundraising for the JDRF. We've already got the minivan, and after we've hiked the world and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro together before the glacier is gone, I don't doubt we'll get the kids too. So what does potentially going to med school mean to me? Well, possibly 4 years of separation from my new wife since she's got her own career in Vancouver, possibly tight financials, a definite crimp on our travelling plans, and especially on having kids. I've got a lot to lose. But would I go if I got the chance? Hell yeah. It's the dream, the impossible wonderful dream of doing what I've wanted to do, because it's the one thing that with conviction for which I feel wholly ready to accept as a responsibility. But I'm on the waitlist - I'm not in yet. Heck, I probably won't make it in - I know my marks weren't great back in uni, and my MCAT was only middling. So? Life goes on. In other words, quite bluntly: suck it up. Good, you're on the waitlist, treat it as a bonus. I certainly am. Continue on - plan your plans, dream your dreams, and achieve what you can. Just have a backup plan in case of the oh-so-hopeful call from Western. I've been doing that now for the last few years. Some others have described the waitlist as a lottery. We're all in the same boat, not knowing our position on the list, so I think it's a good analogy. Are there people that bank on winning the lottery? Well, yes... but are they smart to do so? "If I knew the exact odds though, I could like plan my life better!" would be a good rebuttal. My response would be: as an aspiring physician, do you always know exactly what you're up against when you're trying to figure out what's wrong? More importantly, do you have a backup plan if that guess is wrong? And do the odds really matter all that much? We know the odds of morbidity and mortality from driving cars, yet we do so every day regardless. "Not knowing where we are on the list is unfair!" Well, if you think life is unfair, tell that to the senior who's 63 years old, small enough pension that makes her unqualified for welfare or Trillium, who just found she doesn't have all the money to pay for the drugs and equipment to keep her newly diagnosed diabetes in check, and 2 years away from full coverage as a senior (and if you think that's bad, try talking to a Nova Scotian with diabetes). "How can I plan my life with this uncertainty?" Simple - plan anyways. "The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next" says Ursula K. LeGuin, one of my favourite all time authors, and I think she's absolutely right. Just like a cancer patient, go ahead - live your life, make plans, alternate plans, and fight the good fight while preparing for all eventualities. And if the eventuality of not making it in scares you, think hard: more than anything else, do you have that strength of fortitude to pick yourself up and go on if that happens? In summary: don't bank on that magic call, but continue on. Prepare. Show the world you've got the patience and foresight worthy of being a physician. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest therealcrackers Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 How can there be 350 people on the waiting list? Western only interviews about 450, and 139 would have gotten first round offers... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NeuroObsessed Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Hi Peanuts, I really appreciate that post... I just finished 3rd year undergrad... I'm 20 and I have my whole life ahead of me... yet I have been whining and making everybody's summer miserable. I totally understand what you're saying... as a physician, these sorts of setbacks will become part and parcel of the profession and we must have the strength to sustain ourselves through obstacles and uncertainty. I should move ahead and plan to apply next year and if that lucky call should find its way to me... well, it'll be a bonus. I hope everything works out for you... whatever is meant to be will be... and (early) Congratulations on the wedding... it must be an exciting time! Thanks again for your insight... it really made a difference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmh2005 Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 You're 20???????????????? Yes, I would relax, enjoy life a bit, because (trust me...) once you are in medicine and really working (ie. as a resident and later a 'real physician') you will wish you had spent some time doing things other than obsessing about medicine in your early years...Just my two cents... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NeuroObsessed Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 haha jmh... Yes... I'm December-born and I only did 4 years of high school and 3 years of undergrad... hence, 20... but a lot of people in this application cycle are in the same position that I am... so I am by no means an anomaly! Thanks for your advice... i'll mull over it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jonascarter Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 I just got off the waitlist this morning, got a call at 9:15 am. I am ridiciulously happy right now. I was half-asleep, so I had to call back to verify that it was not a dream. Just to be on the safe side. Still waiting on UofT, just of curiosity really, but Western is definiately my 1st choice. My stats: best year: 3.88. MCAT: 10, 11, 10, R (V/PS/BS/WS). To those still waiting, I know it's tough, but stick it out. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mcpherv Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Congratulations, jonascarter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest johnke Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 congrats jonascarter!! you must be happy the waitlist support group sounds like a good idea Neuro. :lol here's my intro: hello. my name is john ke. i'm 21. i'm waitlisted... i too have spent the past few weeks sitting by the phone and obsessively checking my e-mail (the phone is now moved beside the computer ). yes, i need to get a life. i'm rewriting the MCATs this summer, which helps explain the incessant e-mail checking as an effort to avoid studying. i guess i am happier to be on the waitlist rather than outright rejected (altho i hear they no longer reject anyone post-interview). what can i say? maybe if i gave it one extra push during the application process, i might not be in this position. oh well. for those of you who are second time applicants or thinking of applying again, did you rewrite responses to the essay questions for schools like UT, Queen's or Mac? especially if you got an interview at those schools this year, are you still going to rewrite or just copy and paste from last year? thx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sajicd Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Hey Everyone, just got the call this morning. Phew is that a huge rock off my chest (forget the shoulders, this thing was pressing down where it hurts) For those still in purgatory, hang in there!! Best wishes to all D best year 3.77 MCAT verbal 10, essay R Non-SWOMEN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NeuroObsessed Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Congratulations jonascarter and sajicd... enjoy these moments of elation! I think I have moved beyond obsessively checking my e-mail and waiting for the phone to ring... I guess we'll just have to accept that whatever happens happens for the best! Good Luck everybody! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Maple21 Posted June 13, 2006 Report Share Posted June 13, 2006 Hi everyone, just wanted to let you know i got a call this morning and an offer off the western waitlist, which i will accept. Good luck to everyone, the list must still be moving! maple21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NeuroObsessed Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 I just got the call!! Good luck to everybody on the waitlist... I am sooo unbelievably happy... can't believe it's real!!! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sajicd Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 THATS awesome!!! congrats and see you in september!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lcloh Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Congrats! You're younger than I was when you were accepted, and you're in for a heckuva ride! LL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NeuroObsessed Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Thanks Sajicd and lcloh, I can't wait! I'm sporting this ridiculously large smile on my face... :D My stats: Best year: 3.90 Just finished 3rd year undergrad at U of T (Neuroscience) MCAT: PS - 13, BS - 13, VR - 10, WS - S Non-SWOMEN To those waiting... I know it's really tough... I created the support group . Just hang in there and you'll pull through! Good Luck everybody:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jonascarter Posted June 19, 2006 Report Share Posted June 19, 2006 Congrats, Neuro!!!!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kellyl20 Posted June 20, 2006 Report Share Posted June 20, 2006 Peanuts: is your new wife Simpson? Your story sounds like her fiance's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NeuroObsessed Posted June 23, 2006 Report Share Posted June 23, 2006 To those still waiting.. don't lose hope! A friend of mine just got the call this morning! Good luck everybody Thanks Jonascarter.. I'll see you in August! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SilverHeart Posted June 23, 2006 Report Share Posted June 23, 2006 This is probably a long shot, but can anyone hazard a guess at how many calls would go out BEFORE July 3rd? I've accepted provisionally at another school but still waiting on UWO... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peanuts Posted July 2, 2006 Report Share Posted July 2, 2006 kellyl20 - Just got back from hiking the Trail and Tofino, and it was fun:) Yes, I'm Marlon, and no, there was no spandex worn for once. Although I did have a dream one night of riding my 'cross bike on some of the logs I crossed on foot... heh! Best part, I'm still not divorced after spending some of my first 96 hours of marriage "stinkily" together in 4' x 7' tent! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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