ECs

[koba18218]

Does anyone know much weight is usually given to ECs. I am hoping my ECs will make up for medicore grades. I have the 3.7 cut off, and havent written the MCAT yet but I have serious ECs.

 

Vice President of Student Union

Captain of the Debate Team (semi-finalist at Nationals)

President and founder of the Political Science Students Association

Councillor on Student Council representing my faculty

Sitting on external affairs committee, finance committee, clubs policy committee

Student rep on Senate

 

 

Just to name a few.

 

 

My biggest concern is just getting an interview, I have a long list of ECs as well as volunteer experience in the community to talk about, and having debate experience, I have very strong speaking and communication skills so the interview should be a breeze.

 

I know Im probably just being over paranoid but, does meeting the cut offs usually garuntee you an interview?

[preppy038]

depends on where u are from,

 

SWOMEN, probably.

non-SWOMEN? i'm not sure

[koba18218]

Yeah Im Non-SWOMEN

[HBP]

Interview invites are based on GPA/MCAT. EC's have nothing to do with it.

 

If you get a 10/11/11/Q, I'd say you'd be safe MCAT wise. R would be better since it guarantees Queens too.

 

3.7 might sink you, it was 3.75 the year before last. What's your best 2 year OMSAS GPA?

[rmorelan]

yeah at western ECs only help you post interview if you can bring them up in a positive way during the interview (which is closed so they don't know anything you don't tell them). The cut offs as mentioned as strict so do have to meet them. Hopefully in your case the GPA cut off won't rise as you are right on the border right now (unless that wasn't your best two years GPA, which could be good for you as you GPA may be higher than you think then).

[koba18218]

My best two years can easily change. I still have two more years to go, so I think I could easily bump it up to 3.8 at least.

[jp.mylittlepwny]

how do you find the time to sit on all the council positions o.O

[rmorelan]

how do you find the time to sit on all the council positions o.O

 

Doens't sound easy - probably why his GPA is suffering. Be careful - ECs will not really help that much compared to a high GPA.

[koba18218]

Its actually not too bad. Most of the meetings are in the evenings and most are only once every other week. Some are even less.

 

 

Also, would it look bad if in my fourth year I decided to do a double major requiring the 'special year'? I already have a number of history credits, if i can boost my GPA is it worth it to do the special year to complete a double major? Will it look unfavourable?

[rmorelan]

Its actually not too bad. Most of the meetings are in the evenings and most are only once every other week. Some are even less.

 

 

Also, would it look bad if in my fourth year I decided to do a double major requiring the 'special year'? I already have a number of history credits, if i can boost my GPA is it worth it to do the special year to complete a double major? Will it look unfavourable?

 

If you did a fifth year prior to graduating that would not be a special year. You would only have to adhere to the normal senior course load rules.

 

So yeah go for it - be careful though. My only concern is something may be distracting you from doing as well as you need to be as competitive as you can be. I would hate that to get in the way!

[naspec]

Doens't sound easy - probably why his GPA is suffering. Be careful - ECs will not really help that much compared to a high GPA.

 

Agree with rmorelan. It'd be a shame for all your ECs to go to waste because your GPA just missed the cutoff (which can be quite inflexible depending on where you're applying). If you can easily increase it to 3.8, go for it, but don't hesitate to cut back on ECs if there's the slightest indication of not having enough time to study. Make sure you're calculating it by weighted average of individual courses instead of estimating it from your overall average, since those can be quite different.

[gb35]

I think it's such a shame that ECs are worth so little at some schools.

 

Granted, it isn't fair that someone with money can essentially buy their way to better ECs.

 

I guess, and I never thought I'd say this, I'm becoming more of a fan of U of T's holistic view day by day. I also think the way Dal does things is fantastic.

 

(Really though, I'm just bitter than my P on the WS might get me cut at Western, haha)

[koba18218]

Wait, so the special year only counts if you have graduated and take another year? I thought anything beyond your fourth year counted as special?

 

I actually have plenty of time to focus on my classes even with all that. Also..my school is non the most academic so its easier to get a 3.8 plus.

[rmorelan]

Wait, so the special year only counts if you have graduated and take another year? I thought anything beyond your fourth year counted as special?

 

I actually have plenty of time to focus on my classes even with all that. Also..my school is non the most academic so its easier to get a 3.8 plus.

 

That is right - you actually have to graduate before the special year rules apply. It is set up that way as sometimes (double major or extra minors etc) it legitimately takes longer than 4 years to get the basic degree.

[rmorelan]

I think it's such a shame that ECs are worth so little at some schools.

 

Granted, it isn't fair that someone with money can essentially buy their way to better ECs.

 

I guess, and I never thought I'd say this, I'm becoming more of a fan of U of T's holistic view day by day. I also think the way Dal does things is fantastic.

 

(Really though, I'm just bitter than my P on the WS might get me cut at Western, haha)

 

yeah it would be nice if we could somehow balance things - trouble is it is just so hard to evaluate an EC. GPA is somewhat subjective too of course, but EC are just so hard to pin down and so very much harder for a school to properly verify.

[future_doc]

I think it's such a shame that ECs are worth so little at some schools.

 

Granted, it isn't fair that someone with money can essentially buy their way to better ECs.

 

Going abroad is totally unnecessary. McGill looks at your volunteering/ECs and LORs. Each school has their own recipe.

[koba18218]

What schools look at ECs more?

[gb35]

What schools look at ECs more?

 

Dal, Ottawa, U of T are the ones I know of.

 

Also, to respond to f_d. Yes, definitely, you don't need to go on a trip. But some people need to work a lot in the summers/during school, and that hamstrings them. Like, lab jobs don't pay as much, so maybe you do drywalling during the summer and bartend during the school year.

 

Obviously schools would like the diversity, dedication and work ethic those jobs demonstrate, but it cuts into time for research/volunteering, etc.

[maodiddymao]

Something everyone really needs to remember is that as far as extracurriculars go, it doesn't matter WHAT you do, but WHAT YOU GOT OUT OF IT.

 

If you did something that sounds unimpressive but discuss it and share something really insightful that you learned from it, that's much more useful than having something that sounds impressive on paper and just describing the position.

 

It's not what you do, it's what you got out of what you've done that's important.

 

In that sense, if you've done very little extracurricular activities, it's not great. If you've done a ton, it only really helps you if you can say something about them that separates you from the hundreds of other people that have done just as much.

[Pantaloons]

Something everyone really needs to remember is that as far as extracurriculars go, it doesn't matter WHAT you do, but WHAT YOU GOT OUT OF IT.

 

If you did something that sounds unimpressive but discuss it and share something really insightful that you learned from it, that's much more useful than having something that sounds impressive on paper and just describing the position.

 

It's not what you do, it's what you got out of what you've done that's important.

 

In that sense, if you've done very little extracurricular activities, it's not great. If you've done a ton, it only really helps you if you can say something about them that separates you from the hundreds of other people that have done just as much.

 

I agree completely with my colleague maodiddymao.

Go explore and do interesting things; however, set some time aside to reflect on why you're doing these things.

 

• What do you hope to learn from these experiences?
  
• Why have you chosen to pursue these things?
  
• What impact did your actions have on those around you? On your community? On yourself?
  
• What skills were you required to develop?
  
• What challenges/difficulties did you encounter and how did you deal with them? What did they teach you?
  

 

These are a few basic but important questions to consider; they divide the wheat from the chaff in the competitive admission process. Just my two units of currency.

[gb35]

I agree completely with my colleague maodiddymao.

Go explore and do interesting things; however, set some time aside to reflect on why you're doing these things.

 

• What do you hope to learn from these experiences?
  
• Why have you chosen to pursue these things?
  
• What impact did your actions have on those around you? On your community? On yourself?
  
• What skills were you required to develop?
  
• What challenges/difficulties did you encounter and how did you deal with them? What did they teach you?
  

 

These are a few basic but important questions to consider; they divide the wheat from the chaff in the competitive admission process. Just my two units of currency.

 

 

Yeah absolutely, I agree with both of you, you don't need to go abroad or do anything fancy and exotic to take a lot away from your ECs. But, I think my point still stands that some people, for financial reasons, are forced to work too hard at jobs that really won't help their resumes, and their GPAs suffer because they are constantly working. They don't even get the chance to do things they like as ECs.

 

This is not the case for me, my parents helped a ton. So I didn't start off here with the intent of talking about whether or not ECs are affected by financial situation, and I hope I didn't come across as whining.

 

My original point was just that I think it's a shame that some schools don't look at ECs, because I think if you look at GPAs in a vacum it doesn't tell you much about a person at all. But, in true MMI style, I recognize the other side of the argument: ECs are far more subjective, and also some people simply cannot involve themselves as much as others for financial (or other) reasons that would no longer be an issue if they were a medical student.

[rmorelan]

Yeah absolutely, I agree with both of you, you don't need to go abroad or do anything fancy and exotic to take a lot away from your ECs. But, I think my point still stands that some people, for financial reasons, are forced to work too hard at jobs that really won't help their resumes, and their GPAs suffer because they are constantly working. They don't even get the chance to do things they like as ECs.

 

This is not the case for me, my parents helped a ton. So I didn't start off here with the intent of talking about whether or not ECs are affected by financial situation, and I hope I didn't come across as whining.

 

My original point was just that I think it's a shame that some schools don't look at ECs, because I think if you look at GPAs in a vacum it doesn't tell you much about a person at all. But, in true MMI style, I recognize the other side of the argument: ECs are far more subjective, and also some people simply cannot involve themselves as much as others for financial (or other) reasons that would no longer be an issue if they were a medical student.

 

As a side note my job was my main EC and it worked out fine - just saying the adcoms are aware of the burden that employment has and do consider it

 

Anyway I guess there really isn't a perfect solution to all of this - EC vs GPA will always be a point of contention.