Guest thesaug Posted August 5, 2003 Report Share Posted August 5, 2003 hi! I am applying for the 2004 entering class and was just wondering about the Ottawa application. How much depth should be put for each activity/award/experience??? What should be focused on? 100 characters does not seem to be a lot, and will be filled up pretty quickly by just listing duties. If anyone could help me out here, that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot! thesaug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest V Posted August 5, 2003 Report Share Posted August 5, 2003 If you search the threads here, there is one devoted to your question. This is a common question every year come application time. If you cant find it, then feel free to post another message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MED07 Posted August 5, 2003 Report Share Posted August 5, 2003 Hi, Just write what you think is the most important thing you did in that activity. and V is right. Do what he said. And best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thesaug Posted August 6, 2003 Report Share Posted August 6, 2003 Hi! Thanks for the replies. I searched around and this is what I found: -write what the activity meant to you -what did you learn from it Is that the best approach to take? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Shahenshah Posted August 6, 2003 Report Share Posted August 6, 2003 yes that is the right approach...if u r writing about a specific activity, think of why you chose to write that activity in the first place and why you think it might help you in your medical career..think and write along these lines and you should be fine.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest blinknoodle Posted August 14, 2003 Report Share Posted August 14, 2003 hi everyone, I had a question about the detailed sketch. When evaluating the detailed sketch, will the original autobiographical sketch also be around? If I used my "job title" as the activity for the a/b sketch, do I have to repeat myself in the description of the employment for the detailed sketch? I'm trying to skim down on unnecessary words! Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest V Posted August 14, 2003 Report Share Posted August 14, 2003 Just to be safe, make everycomponent of your application complete such that if they only have it in front of them then they can still understand. This make for an easier read and let effort on the part of the markers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest blinknoodle Posted August 19, 2003 Report Share Posted August 19, 2003 Thanks for your previous reply! Now I have another question.... I'm working on the research section. I quickly realized that I don't have enough room for the entirety of my research project titles. I think my longest title is this: "The effect of oxidation on the enzyme-catalysed biodegradation of polycarbonate-based polyurethanes by cholesterol esterase" and I only get half-way through it before it is truncated. So, my questions: 1) Can I use acronyms (ie. PCNUs = polycarbonate-based polyurethanes, CE= cholesterol esterase)? 2) Or should I make my title easier to read for the layman? (I sort of did that my for 48 characters for the initial sketch) 3) Have any other ideas? Is this a very important section? 4) For the "my role" section, is this analogous to the "my responsibilities" section? Are you interested in the techniques I used (I wouldn't think so, but you never know)? Thanks for your advice! -blinknoodle Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest V Posted August 20, 2003 Report Share Posted August 20, 2003 I say use laymen titles... who cares what your research is in (not being rude, i just mean in general)... if you studied the alpha hemolytic pathway instead of gamme carboxylation of Hb does it really matter? Try this: The effect of oxidation on biodegradation of polyurethanes by cholesterol esterase. Im sure you could even make it simpler If they want to know more then they will ask at the interview , but again use layman terms or at least aim for the educated layperson. In this section they just want to see your critical analysis skills and team work abiloities have been excercised and that your hypothesis generation and problem solving skills were applied to a real life problem (however enzyme specific they may be!!!! ). I think this is an extremely important section.... dont keep it blank and try to fill it all up (as all the other sections) without being verbose. For your role, i suggest saying.... somehting like this was my personal project and I was given the responsibilty for undertaking all the experiments, gathering relevant research articles, data collection and analysis. Nothing too specific as the techniques you used mean nothing to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tanya24 Posted August 23, 2003 Report Share Posted August 23, 2003 Dear blinknoodle, I asked the same question last year. Since space is truly at a premium on the Ottawa application, I did not want to waste space by having to repeat the title of my activity! When I posed this question to Ottawa admissions, they told me that when the computer printout emerges, it merges the 2 documents together: your one-page OMSAS sketch and your detailed Ottawa sketch. Thus, each title will appear above each corresponding description. Hope this helps. Good luck on your application!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 Okay you empathetic Ottawa folks who have emerged successfully from this... When do you know that you have done enough tweaking, primping, reviewing and adjusting of the Ottawa sketch items? I've spent a good few days of life doing all of the above and although my OMSAS application is now complete, and technically ready for me to press the "submit" button, it's the Ottawa sketch that keeps whispering, "Tweak me some more". How do you know when to resist and finally end the wrestle? :rolleyes Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest richie2003 Posted October 6, 2003 Report Share Posted October 6, 2003 If you are right at the border of GPA cutoff, how could you snag an interview? I have read that people with close to 4.0 GPA did not get interviews? How could this be? If based on Detailed Sketch, isn't this so subjective? I'm sure those people did a ton of activities too. How could one person's activity, say football is judged more valuable than another person's cookie baking contest? Wow, I would stand no chance based on the sketch compared to some posters like Kristeen, Peter and others after reading what they had accomplished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UOMeds06 Posted October 7, 2003 Report Share Posted October 7, 2003 Nobody really knows how to guarantee an interview. In fact, you can't really. You really just do your best and hope for an interview. Grades don't determine how good of a doc you're going to be...nor does research. It is, however, believed that a well rounded person makes a better med student. You COULD ask the question "what can I do (more) to get an interview" and you'd get 50 different responses from 50 different people....and not one of them could be sure of what they were preaching. In an IDEAL world, you'd just do what you WANT to do and that would be exactly what would make you a great candidate for med school....after all, isn't that what you're trying to proove to adcom at the interview anyway....not someone you're pretending to be? Again, this is ideal and some people do not choose to have faith in it. Once you've got the interview, there's not much more you can do in terms of a CV/sketch that will improve your odds. It's really about showing them that you'd be the ideal UofO med student. Borderline or not, if you make the GPA cut off then the rest of your application will either get you the interview or not. A borderline GPA and extraordinary application will get you an interview. As far as I know, if you've got a dismal application but a phenominal 4.0 that won't likely get you an interview. I don't believe that they judge how valuable some one's activities are (such as football vs cookie baking) but they can look at one person's sketch and do their best at determining how balanced that candidate is from what they are given. When you review literally thousands of applications, you don't have the time to go over the details of each applicants life, so although the sketch may be a bare backbone of what you've accomplished, it should be enough to indicate to the adcom that it be worth getting to know this person a bit better....hence...the interview. Richie2003, you mustn't qualify your sketch to others, especially the others poster here as they aren't a random sample of people applying. You have to step back and take the gestalt of your sketch and question how well it reflects what you've accomplished or at least the accomplishments that you are truly proud of. There is no sense in going out there and doing something that you'll suffer through for the sake of it looking good on the sketch anyway. That's not the kind of way you want to get into med school. People believe that these are the people that don't make it past the interview. If you believe that you've got what it takes to be a doctor (and forget about how you compare to others) then let that come out as well as you can in your application and then pray for that interview...cause if you make the adcom believe that you're right, you'll get that acceptance. Best of luck to you Richie, and to you Kirsteen....and the rest of you. UOMeds06 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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