U of O grad school submission: how is it tallied??

[Guest mydream88]

I hope that people read old threads!!

 

It's too bad that we are not able to submit (as one year masters) our research productivity but get the extra grades in the wgpa calculation. That is why I don't beleive I stand much of a chance at ottawa i.e. 3.83 rumoured gpa cut-off for out-of-ottawans this year.

 

I have been reading through the threads and came across a rumoured U of O point system, can anyone verify if this is in fact true?

 

thanks so much for your insight

mydream88:)

[Guest Kirsteen]

We meet again mydream88,

 

Do you mind if I ask? Assuming you're in a one-year Master's program, which one is it?

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest mydream88]

Dear Kirsteen,

I am happy you ask because I saw from one of your responses in earlier strings that you are also one of us i.e those pursuing medical research from the biostats/epi realm 8o !! May I ask, are you now in med school? Have you graduated already from epi??

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi again,

 

No, I'm not in medical school; hopefully by this time next year I may be though. I'm not in a 1-year M.Sc. either--I'm one of the traditionaliots, i.e., 2 years including thesis.

 

In what program are you? Sounds like a professional, i.e., MHSc?

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest mydream88]

Hi Kirsteen,

Good for you. I am positive that a second year of buggin my professors, etc. would have been extremely beneficial for me. I will be receiving my MSc officially in about a week. The one year masters was designed for students who mainly wanted to go on to their pHD. Just today I brought in some textbooks, etc. to work because I feel like I am forgetting everything! That is fantastic that you are busy working on your thesis, I really admire that because I know that it is a SUPER TON of work, but worth it;) I hope to be in medical school by this time next year too I pursued my masters in biostats so in case of the worst, I am still able to contribute to medicine albeit, indirectly through research. Are you working on your MSc or is it a masters in public health science?

 

have a great day,

mydream88:D

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi again,

 

I'm in the M.Sc. Epidemiology fold. A one-year M.Sc. in Biostats--would that be from U. Waterloo perchance?

 

Cheers and good luck this year,

Kirsteen

[Guest mydream88]

I have my Master's from U Of T. Best best of luck to you too Kirsteen, I know this sounds silly because you've never met me but I have read a bunch of strings where you have been involved and I truly think it sounds like you deserve very much to get in THIS very year and I sincerely hope you (and the rest of us) do!! I am upset about the one-year-masters not qualifying per se as full graduate student status at U of O. I wish I could submit a grad school submission, etc. In absolute disbeleif I have called the admissions office and asked them if they were SURE that I would not be able to do this! Oh well. GPA cut off is quite high for Ottawa...oh well.

 

Have a nice evening ,

mydream88

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi again,

 

From UofT, eh? Although I may not know you, I'm sure you know quite a few of the folks around me. For example, my supervisor is a fairly well known Biostatistician and I currently TA the Biostatistics course for Pharmacy students (the other TA is in Biostats, like you). Did you enjoy the program? Were you required to take 8 courses or less, or more?

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest mydream88]

Hi Kirsteen,

I took 10 courses in order to complete the course-based Masters. some of which were Epi courses i.e. introduction to categorical analysis for epi students, prospective studies in survival analysis, and biostats II (ironically the HARDEST course I took in my program where not being an epi student was a MAJOR disadvantage as I approached solving problems quite differently, though I learned a TON from this course in the process!!!!). I wonder if I do know the other biostats persons you are mentioning!! How many courses do you have to take in conjunction with your thesis?

speak to you soon,

mydream88:D

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi again,

 

Yeh, Biostats II is a beloved one. :b However, I hear that it's quite a changed course this year given that many types of regression analysis are now covered in Biostats I, leaving time for a more in-depth look at survival analysis, etc., in Biostats II.

 

In our program (which, incidentally, will be defunct as of next September) we're required to complete eight courses in conjunction with the thesis, but I decided to be a bit of a masochist and completed nine.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest mydream88]

Dear Kirsteen,

good thing you got in and out of your program when you did (by the sounds of it)! Yeah, there was coverage of survival analysis in biostats II i.e. one unit. It was great i.e. we were given great SAS code for this unit and the prof was awesome (she was a pHD student). I am quite concerned about my performance in this course however overall especially how it may impact my grad school submission to U Of T (one year master's so I can't submit a grad school package to U Of O). I have posted my concern in the U Of T section of the forum. I would appreciate your opinion if you are ever checking that section out!

It has been great exchanging messages with you,

sincerely,

mydream88:rollin

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi again mydream88,

 

Sorry, but I just read your post here after responding to a similar iteration of it in the UofT forum. I figured that it might be a Biostats II issue. I took the course at the same time as you and I know there were quite a few people who were very unhappy with the management of the course, all SARS issues aside. For one, there were many complaints re: the duplication of assignments, i.e., a few teams had copies of last years' assignment solutions which were identical to the assignments we received this year. The final exam was a little contentious too, since (and I heard this from at least one TA for the course) the professors did not meet to judge the suitability of their questions for the exam. Therefore, there was a bit of overlap between questions and overall, the exam was far too long for the time allotted to write it (hence allowing us an extra fifteen minutes to complete it). It looks, however, that they have addressed these problems in this year's version of the course. :rolleyes

 

If you feel that SARS did affect your performance in the course then I'd submit something about that. However, I'd caution you to make your reasoning bullet-proof, for a couple of reasons. For one, there are some folks who could conceivably be involved with the UofT MD admissions process who are quite familiar with Biostats II. Secondly, I know of a decent number of graduate students applying to UofT meds this year who also took Biostats II last spring, who did manage to pull marks at A- or above.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest mydream88]

Dear Kirsteen,

thank you for this response too! I am glad that at least someone else agrees with me about the unfairness factor of this course. I was doing really really well until the final, when it all went to shreds. You are right though, I really don't feel like playing with fire certainly not when it comes to my chances for admissions to medical school. For that reason alone, I will not include a letter explaining this grade and will wish/hope/pray 25 times every day that it can be overlooked.

 

Just another hurdle between me and 'mydream'.

 

discouraged,

mydream88

[Guest Nikhila]

Hello mydream88 and Kirsteen,

 

My name is Nikhila, I think Kirsteen answered one of my questions once too, you are really well-informed, definitely a huge step in the right direction! I'm also in Toronto in grad school, I'm in my first year of genetic counselling, its a great program and I'm getting TONS of clinical exposure so its been very worthwhile. If we all get interviews, which at least I'm sure the 2 of you will (don't want to get my hopes high), we should meet up and practice on each other, I think it would be really beneficial. Anyways, good luck with the rest of the term, I hope I will get to meet you both some time in the coming new year. I truly wish you guys success in your medical school applications

Bye for now,

Nikhila

[Guest mydream88]

Dear Nikhila (and Kirsteen ),

Hello to you too. Nikhila, that is fabulous that you are pursuing a masters in genetics counselling. I have done research with a genetics counselor and I am fascinated with her job. Her clients find much comfort in consulting with her and she has truly impacted their lives. Good for you!

 

I myself needs tons of practice for interviews because I have never attended one. I have started out by reading the posts under the link on this forum titled: "med school interviews". If you go back a number of pages in that section, there are tons of questions and people posted answers to them (including Kirsteen ). Definitely check them out.

 

I wish you the best of luck as well :\ . I am not so sure that I will get AN interview but that is definitely my greatest hope. In the event of that occurence, I would be very happy to get in touch regarding interview practice, etc. In the meantime, I can always be reached here, on the med school forum and I hope that we are able to continue to exchange information by this method as well. It's so wonderful to be in contact with so many informed and nice people. So, it is great to meet you and I too hope that we will meet in person one day

 

Best of luck to you guys,

I am rooting for you,

mydream88:)