Graduate Students Applying to Ottawa

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi all,

 

I just learned some interesting information regarding applying to the University of Ottawa as a graduate student (from Nicole Racine-Admission Office).

 

If you apply to Ottawa as a graduate student, your degree must have been achieved within the sciences. That is, non-science degrees, such as an MBA, cannot be used in consideration for their program as a graduate applicant. The reason for this is due to the fact that graduate students are assessed on their "productivity" during graduate studies. Ottawa defines productivity in terms of publications, research endeavours, etc.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest Ian Wong]

Damn. That sucks for you. I hope that your application is still good to go? Thanks for letting the rest of us know.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi Ian,

 

Yep, the application is still good to go this year...but not to Ottawa, malheureusement!

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest mimi]

hi!

just a question for you guys, does Ottawa include your graduate GPA or do they consider only your undergraduate GPA, like the university of Toronto? Ihave 3 publications and I've presented at few scientific meetings, it's just really annoying that there's no cut and clear criteria when it concerns med school admissions for grad students.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi mimi,

 

It would be best to check with Ottawa directly, as I'm not sure if they include your graduate marks in your GPA, however, they do scan your graduate marks to make sure that you surpass the 85% requirement for graduate courses. That is, they feel that since graduate school offers a "second chance" at academics, you must have 85% in these courses.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest GBud]

I recently defended my M.Sc in the department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the U of O in the faculty of Medicine. I tried to get into the Med program as a grad but the catch is that you must have an A average in all of your graduate courses but the undergraduate gpa cutoff decreases to 3.3. This may help those who slacked off in undergrad but may not help other grad students who struggled with one of their grad courses. Also I know the vice-dean of admissions at Ottawa U meds and he told me that they have a point scale for grads in order to objectively determine which grads qualify for an interview. A publication of your research in any scientific journal, regardless of the impact factor gets you more points than an M.Sc degree but less than a Ph.D degree. They also seem to accept grad students in bursts every two or three years. Luck of the draw i guess.

[Guest themule]

I was speaking to U of O on Thursday morning and I was told that they were mailing out the letters to request your publications and other evidence of research productivity that day. I guess you'll know if you're still in the running for September 2002 at Ottawa this week if you're a grad student.

[Guest AZ]

I heard that if you're a grad student applying to U of O, you are in 1 of 2 pools. (1) If your undergrad grades aren't high enough to make the undergrad cutoff, you are in the grad student pool where you have to have a certain # of publications, etc (2) If your undergrad grades do meet the cutoff, you're in the undergrad pool so that you don't need all the publications and stuff.

Can anybody clear this up?