Grade Conversion Info Released

[cbfc]

Thanks!

Are you an applicant this year, sugar?

 

Nope, only second year

 

All my A+'s at SFU have been 95% or higher. All of my 90-93% marks turned out to be A's. It probably depends on what department you are in and what classes you take, but I don't think I've seen an A+ given out for having less than 95%. For an English class, I had the top mark in the class (~92%) and still only got an A (I even tried asking for an A+ ).

 

I guess it does depend, in the first 2 years classes are heavily scaled, and I've gotten A+'s with percentages <80. (BPK Major)

 

Oh and as for 95+ = A+, as an example: Kin 201 (Biomechanics) has a cutoff of 90+ for an A+. (http://www.sfu.ca/~leyland/images/Grade%20Cut-Offs.pdf)

[notmeadoc]

This is amazing. I feel like tap dancing in the street!!!!!(I am a former tap dancer!!)

 

My average goes up by about 3% with rough calculations. A lot of my A+'s(read ..most of) have been 90-93% and my A's are frequently in the 85-87 range (I'm always scraping to meet the next grade).

 

Wow. Congrats to everyone who's been disadvantaged for so long.

[Asta]

Wow, so many schools have really different scales for grades. At my school, A is 90-94 and A+ is 95%. So while I am happy with the changes, this still is not 100% reflective of my grades and my grades are a bit under-represented. Oh well - still way better than before!

[Cerena]

Happy to hear this captaincrunchman.

 

I was so heartbroken after being rejected last year that I thought it would be pointless to apply. And just infuriated at how little credit was given to me for academic qualities.

 

This year, things are very different for me and many others. Let's work hard on our applications, make them stellar, and do our best. Medicine is an amazing field where we have the opportunity to follow our passion, help others, pursue research, and make a difference. And the application opening date is just around the corner. How exciting!

 

We can do this

[flytotheblue]

Is no one else here from UBC? Am I the only person that's not happy about this?

[Cerena]

Is no one else here from UBC? Am I the only person that's not happy about this?

 

This rule is for applicants that are not assigned percentages but letter grades. I'm sure it was implemented for the reasons applicants have alluded to earlier in this thread. There was an obvious disadvantage for students assigned letter grades before this change.

[iwh333]

Hey Cerena,

 

If you don't mind me asking (please PM if you feel necessary), how much did your average go up by?

 

Seems like with these new rules (drop one year and gpa conversion), it could quite possibly be a pretty big advantage to be applying as a BC applicant but from another school.

[Jojef]

Wow, I just randomly came across this now. Awesome news!!!! This does not disadvantage UBC students - it simply removes the boot from SFU/UVic students' collective heads. I myself was the recipient of this academic curb-stomping: at close to a 3.7 I was not even breaking 80% ...

 

The fact is that UBCs prior method of calculating grades (i.e., giving students the floor function of each percentage bracket corresponding to each letter grade) was statistically flawed. In a large enough grade distribution, the grades will, ON AVERAGE, tend towards the middle of each percentage range for each letter grade. The new changes simply reflect this statistical reality.

 

I know I'm singing to the choir here, but for last year's admission cycle (class of 2014) UBC students were admitted at a ratio of roughly 9:1 (129 UBC to 14 SFU). You're telling me that UBC has 9X as many qualified applicants despite having only 1.5X the undergraduate population (38,000 to 25,000). In other words, for every 1 SFU student, 6 UBCers got in. C'mon.

 

Justice in the world!!!! Of course, it remains to be seen how exactly these adjustments will shake out, but kudos to UBC for having the balls to institute this (massive) change.

[Mithril]

This does not disadvantage UBC students...

 

I know I'm singing to the choir here, but for last year's admission cycle (class of 2014) UBC students were admitted at a ratio of roughly 9:1 (129 UBC to 14 SFU). You're telling me that UBC has 9X as many qualified applicants despite having only 1.5X the undergraduate population (38,000 to 25,000). In other words, for every 1 SFU student, 6 UBCers got in. C'mon.

 

Well, the unfairness did give UBC students an edge. Now the competition for UBC students from students of schools like UVic and SFU is stiffer.

[igeorgex]

just to give you an example for how this change translates for OOP kids with letter grades...

 

when I applied I had an OMSAS 3.80 cGPA, and this translated to an 85% on the UBC scale. they also looked at your last 60 credits which, for me, was an 81% on the UBC scale (3.75ish cGPA)

 

now with a bit of a better cGPA after dropping my worst 30 credit year (GREAT new rule!), I have an OMSAS 3.93 cGPA which translates to a 90.4% on the UBC scale. my last 60 credits translates to 91.5% on their scale.

 

just goes to show how much difference ONE year in applications can make. if I hadn't got in somewhere else this year and reapplied, I'm positive my AQ would have jumped from the ~13 or 14 points I received to something much higher.

 

lesson: keep applying folks! you never know how one year's difference can make a change beneficial to your application

[RyanMaverick]

My observations:

 

1) Holy crap - talk about a complete re-haul of their policies!

 

2) This will likely put UBC students at a disadvantage now; however not nearly so much as it put letter-grade students prior to this change. For instance, I would argue that the majority of A+'s fall between 90 to 95, not 95 to 100.

 

3) I think it's important that for everybody who's numbers went up that they realize what a huge change this is going to make in the overall applicant GPAs. This change is going to increase a LOT of people's overall GPA. Couple that with the dropping of the last 30 credits and pretty sure we're going to be like USask where you need a 92% average. Just keep it in mind, because it's going to have big ramifications.

[technicity]

I think it's important that for everybody who's numbers went up that they realize what a huge change this is going to make in the overall applicant GPAs. This change is going to increase a LOT of people's overall GPA. Couple that with the dropping of the last 30 credits and pretty sure we're going to be like USask where you need a 92% average. Just keep it in mind, because it's going to have big ramifications.

 

Yeah, this worries me now... at first I was elated because with the new conversion, I'm at about 87.5% (not eligible for dropped year), but then I realized if the average applicant GPA shifts up a similar amount (or more!) I'm really no better. Oh well, I guess it's fairer for non-UBCers, which is what we were asking for.

 

Did anybody else notice that they removed CHEM 286 as a prerequisite course? That brings down my prerequisite GPA a full 1%! I wish they'd told us earlier as I could've saved the money/time spent on that course...

[Rwethereyet]

Perhaps I'm just being biased and overly optimistic -

 

But from the accepted/wait-listed sticky, it seems like UBC was still admitting those with oGPA's slightly below 80.

 

Why would they all of a sudden make it near impossible for these candidates to obtain admission?

 

I strongly believe that these new policies that heavily favour academic performance will be balanced by an increase in MCAT and prerequisite percentage importance. The new policies are designed to balance the edge given to UBC students, but I'm confident that UBC doesn't want to eliminate the 78 to 82% candidate pool entirely. There appears to be a large emphasis on interview performance. Many schools have stressed that this is a good indicator of future performance as a physician. Doesn't make sense to me to completely deprive those with lower averages of the opportunity to show some savage interview skills.

 

Then again, they could have simply been more lenient to those with lower averages this year in preparation for these changes... Medical school admittance in Canada is, after-all, extremely competitive.

[keepontrying]

If UBC continues to use the new AQ scale with the changes that they have made now, I think it's safe to say that applicants below the low 80s will never have the chance anymore. Although the interview seems to be the make or break deal, I do know someone who has above average interview score and got rejected this year, so obviously something has changed.

[sfuguy]

Remember that not everyone will have their gpa boosted. I think the average ogpa will increase but I highly doubt that it will increase by something like 5%! It also depends on how many applicants there are from the bc gpa schools.

[igeorgex]

I think this will impact SFU, OOP and IP applicants studying at a school that uses letter grades the most... that being said, a majority of students who get into UBC med did their undergrad at UBC, so I don't think the average accepted GPA will rise dramatically this year

[Chaplin]

I think this will impact SFU, OOP and IP applicants studying at a school that uses letter grades the most... that being said, a majority of students who get into UBC med did their undergrad at UBC, so I don't think the average accepted GPA will rise dramatically this year

 

Even if most of the beneficiaries are non-UBC students it could rise by at least 2% because in addition to this grade conversion, perhaps a fair amount werent conistent in their studies and dropping their worst year could do wonders for their cGPA.

[K-Doc]

I think this is completely fair. Some people have posted saying this on average now favours GPA schools, but I really think it depends on your faculty/courses you took. Most courses I have received an A+ in have been 95+ and I have even had a course where I received 96 and got an A, and where I've gotten 93, and received an A. So although some courses you may gain some percent, you do lose some elsewhere so I would say this scale is very fair, but doesn't favour GPA students, just puts them to where they should have been.

[sfu.project]

agreed K-doc, I think that there aren't too many applicants consistently pulling off grades just at the bare minimum percentage. Granted, I definitely had some A+s that were 90.1%, but I also had others that were 98%. Getting 90% across the board for those marks was unfair and the new system would reflect my grades more accurately.

[Jojef]

Well, the unfairness did give UBC students an edge. Now the competition for UBC students from students of schools like UVic and SFU is stiffer.

 

Agreed, the changes to the grade conversion scheme do work against UBC students. In fact I can nearly hear the howls of outrage over the gentle hum of my printer here on W 19th ...

 

I should clarify: what I was getting at was that it doesn't actively discriminate against UBC students in the same way that the previous rules did to GPA students from schools like SFU, UVic etc. The playing field has now been leveled, as a previous poster mentioned - neither school enjoys a competitive advantage, which is how it should be.

 

Point taken, though. It should be interesting to see how it all works out for the upcoming cycle, definitely a whole new ball game out there.

[smile101]

How do you figure this chart will work for people coming from the u of a? Technically we do have an A+ grade, but it is worth 4.0, which is exactly the same as our A (worth 4.0)??

[Asta]

How do you figure this chart will work for people coming from the u of a? Technically we do have an A+ grade, but it is worth 4.0, which is exactly the same as our A (worth 4.0)??

 

I am going on the assumption that the A+ will be 95%. If in doubt, try to call admissions.

[Cerena]

And, a miscalculation lead to false hope for me. Not as good of a bump I initialy thought it gave me, but still 5% better than last year.

 

Ah well, that's life I guess. Just make sure you double check your spreadsheets guys.

[swank]

Yeah, this worries me now... at first I was elated because with the new conversion, I'm at about 87.5% (not eligible for dropped year), but then I realized if the average applicant GPA shifts up a similar amount (or more!) I'm really no better. Oh well, I guess it's fairer for non-UBCers, which is what we were asking for.

 

Did anybody else notice that they removed CHEM 286 as a prerequisite course? That brings down my prerequisite GPA a full 1%! I wish they'd told us earlier as I could've saved the money/time spent on that course...

 

I noticed this too. Any idea why this changed? Right now I plan on graduating 5 classes short of UBC's pre-reqs, meaning I'll have to look out of province if I want to go to med school. If they ever drop Chem 126, I'd probably just do the classes and apply to UBC.

[Chantalle47]

Wow, so many schools have really different scales for grades. At my school, A is 90-94 and A+ is 95%. So while I am happy with the changes, this still is not 100% reflective of my grades and my grades are a bit under-represented. Oh well - still way better than before!

 

My school did the same thing. Some of the chemistry/math/computer science courses even required a 95% for an A and a 98% for an A+, so to me this grading conversion seems much more fair. I know one student from our school (who is a genius) had all A+s taking those chemistry courses- so having her 98% average translated into a 90 really under-represented her abilities.

 

(Out of curiosity, which schools in Canada use the percentage grading system? I only know of UBC and Saskatchewan)