Official 2012/2013 Applicant Thread

[dazzle]

For awards and scholarships, are people entering the value of the award (particularly graduate awards)? For example, CIHR is valued at $17500. Should I enter the value or does that seem pretentious? Plus, I didn't really get $17500... it just supplemented my grad stipend.

 

I think adding the value is good. Professors, for example, always note the size of the grant they received on their CV. It must be a sign of competence to get large sums of money contracted to you.

[dazzle]

While doing my ABS, I am wondering what I can include. In particular, I was wondering about these:

 

1) Travels

 

2) I played Soccer for many years. I have reserved an entry for this. However, I also got an MVP award for the school team and was captain for about a decade. Could I write "captain" and "MVP" entries separately? (one under extra-curricular and the other under awards?)

[dazzle]

I have some courses that are worth 1 credit from McGill. The system only allows me to enter 2-9 credits per course. I also have some courses with 1.5 credits and only integer values are allowed.

 

What do I do?

 

Also, I have some courses with a "Withdrawal" grade. At Mcgill, this is different from an incomplete. Do I still put incomplete?

[lemons22]

Hi guys,

 

Been creeping this thread for a while now but I've never posted...

 

I got my Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) grade 10 violin certificate in high school and I was wondering if you would put something like that under Awards and Accomplishments, or under formal education since I took private violin lessons as part of a program at the RCM all throughout high school?

 

Thanks in advance!

[ArchEnemy]

Hi guys,

 

Been creeping this thread for a while now but I've never posted...

 

I got my Royal Conservatory of Music (RCM) grade 10 violin certificate in high school and I was wondering if you would put something like that under Awards and Accomplishments, or under formal education since I took private violin lessons as part of a program at the RCM all throughout high school?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

I would classify this under Formal Education.

[EngineeringToMed]

Hey guys,

 

For OMSAS, does the transcript have to be received before the Oct 1st deadline, or as long I submit the OMSAS package before Oct 1st on OMSAS, is it okay?

 

I know transcripts take 1 week to process, so is it possible to just send transcript portion of OMSAS, without submitting the whole OMSAS application?

 

So that the school can send the transcript as soon as possible, and I get more time to work on the application.

 

Thank you in advance!

[Savac]

Hey guys,

 

For OMSAS, does the transcript have to be received before the Oct 1st deadline, or as long I submit the OMSAS package before Oct 1st on OMSAS, is it okay?

 

I know transcripts take 1 week to process, so is it possible to just send transcript portion of OMSAS, without submitting the whole OMSAS application?

 

So that the school can send the transcript as soon as possible, and I get more time to work on the application.

 

Thank you in advance!

 

If you go to a university in Ontario, don't worry about your transcript. Just submit your application and OMSAS will do the rest.

[PreMedAK]

I have some courses that are worth 1 credit from McGill. The system only allows me to enter 2-9 credits per course. I also have some courses with 1.5 credits and only integer values are allowed.

 

What do I do?

 

Also, I have some courses with a "Withdrawal" grade. At Mcgill, this is different from an incomplete. Do I still put incomplete?

 

I would suggest to talking to either Mcgill in regards to the equivalent of 1.5 to the OMSAS scale, Im pretty sure they get that question alot considering the campus houses its very own medical school. You can always just send OMSAS the complaint as well.

[PreMedAK]

I think you can add 2 seperate entries for both of them, since the achievements are both so distinct. Not every captain gets an MVP, and vice versa.

 

While doing my ABS, I am wondering what I can include. In particular, I was wondering about these:

 

1) Travels

 

2) I played Soccer for many years. I have reserved an entry for this. However, I also got an MVP award for the school team and was captain for about a decade. Could I write "captain" and "MVP" entries separately? (one under extra-curricular and the other under awards?)

[Savac]

While doing my ABS, I am wondering what I can include. In particular, I was wondering about these:

 

1) Travels

 

2) I played Soccer for many years. I have reserved an entry for this. However, I also got an MVP award for the school team and was captain for about a decade. Could I write "captain" and "MVP" entries separately? (one under extra-curricular and the other under awards?)

 

I would put the MVP award as its own entry, but the 'Captain' should be part of the description for your soccer entry. Three entries for one activity would be overkill, especially when it's so easy to combine them.

[Leon]

Does anyone know if it's possible to keep track of what transcripts have been received by OMSAS? I remember this is available to you after you submit the application but I don't recall if it's available to you while the application is still in progress....

 

I have to get quite a few international transcripts in so I'd like to know that they were actually received!

 

Thanks

[dazzle]

I've been encountering a problem frequently as I try to make my ABS: some companies where I worked in the mid 2000s don't have records of me anymore in their payroll departments.

 

At one of those companies, I can ask a friend who still works there. At the other, I worked at my mother's office so she would be the only verifier I can get... Any other way to do this though? Putting family in verifiers is not ideal.

[Savac]

I've been encountering a problem frequently as I try to make my ABS: some companies where I worked in the mid 2000s don't have records of me anymore in their payroll departments.

 

At one of those companies, I can ask a friend who still works there. At the other, I worked at my mother's office so she would be the only verifier I can get... Any other way to do this though? Putting family in verifiers is not ideal.

 

Family members are fine if they can verify that you worked there

[bored]

Does anyone know if it's possible to keep track of what transcripts have been received by OMSAS? I remember this is available to you after you submit the application but I don't recall if it's available to you while the application is still in progress....

 

I have to get quite a few international transcripts in so I'd like to know that they were actually received!

Thanks

 

If you Havnt pressed "submit", and Havnt paid your money to omsas to get the transcript. Than I don't think they would go get your transcript if you Havnt paid.

[Leon]

Does anyone find that OMSAS automatically lists activities from first to last, chronologically? It seems impossible to follow Ottawa's request to list them from most recent onwards....

[scotchtape11]

Does anyone find that OMSAS automatically lists activities from first to last, chronologically? It seems impossible to follow Ottawa's request to list them from most recent onwards....

 

Yep, mine is also automatically arranged chronologically. I see no way of reordering items

[caroltruong14]

I spoke with OMSAS and they said they will rearrange the order for you when they submit it to OttawaU. I made the mistake of deleting each entry & redoing them in the order OttawaU asked only to find it in the same order as before. I think the order differs for each school so OMSAS shows it one way on the website and redoes the order depending on the school.

[Leon]

I spoke with OMSAS and they said they will rearrange the order for you when they submit it to OttawaU. I made the mistake of deleting each entry & redoing them in the order OttawaU asked only to find it in the same order as before. I think the order differs for each school so OMSAS shows it one way on the website and redoes the order depending on the school.

 

LOL yes I did the exact same thing and after deleting and reentering everything i was like WTFFFFFFFFF

[aborjona]

Does anybody know if I need to add verifier for every activity? I did stuff ages ago, and I have no way of adding verifiers.

[undergrad519]

^ They say that they realize that it's difficult/impossible to have a verifier for some activites, just to use your own judgement.

 

 

 

My question:

I'm part of an entirely student-run club/event. Is it okay to have the event chair/president (a master's student who's like two years older than me) as a verifier?

[bored]

^ They say that they realize that it's difficult/impossible to have a verifier for some activites, just to use your own judgement.

 

 

 

My question:

I'm part of an entirely student-run club/event. Is it okay to have the event chair/president (a master's student who's like two years older than me) as a verifier?

 

yessssssss

[FacelessMage]

This may be a really stupid question, but are we supposed to include completed degrees under the "formal education" heading in the ABS?

[Leon]

This may be a really stupid question, but are we supposed to include completed degrees under the "formal education" heading in the ABS?

 

I've attended two universities and I just did one semester at the first one. I'm including both. I'm assuming formal education refers to universities/colleges attended.

[dazzle]

This may be useful to some:

 

 

I called to see what to do on OMSAS when entering credit-amounts for courses that don't match what is available in the drop-down menu. For example, at McGill I did a few courses that were 1 or 1.5 credits, and the drop-down menu only allows integer values between 2 to 9.

 

The lady just told me to pick the value closest to the real credit value of the course and that OMSAS would take care of it after.

[polarbear89]

completely forgot to request my transcripts earlier i just did but they'll probably be late. should i just refrain from applying to omas this cycle or is there still hope haha