Official "What are my chances for McMaster" Thread

[MedicineLCS 353]

The study is where I got the SDs to enable percentile calculations from, it does not provide the data I calculated myself:

https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-020-02126-0

[corgi321 48]

Hey everyone! Wondering what everyone thinks my chances are of getting an interview at Mac (IP Ontario)

GPA: 3.76

CARS: 131

[ijustwantanmd 14]

On 9/22/2020 at 1:50 PM, corgi321 said:

Hey everyone! Wondering what everyone thinks my chances are of getting an interview at Mac (IP Ontario)

GPA: 3.76

CARS: 131

depends alot on Casper, I got one with 3.84/128 so opp of yours, except your CARS is great

[premed0104 0]

Can anyone let me know what my chances look like with a 

3.74 cGPA

131 CARS

Haven't written casper yet 

IP

[Psych 158]

20 minutes ago, premed0104 said:

Can anyone let me know what my chances look like with a 

3.74 cGPA

131 CARS

Haven't written casper yet 

IP

You have a good shot if you do okay on casper! According to the lovely stats done by @MedicineLCS (see the page before this) you need to get at or above the 38th percentile of casper to get an interview, so not a guarantee but you have a good chance

[rli2 15]

Chances?

IP
3.65 cGPA
127 CARS
CASPer - think it went pretty well, was able to finish all questions with coherent thoughts (also didn't get a Dal casper rejection email)

Last year of research MSc, pretty good ECs, quite a few publications (a couple first author, few second/third author), international conference experience

[PopShoppe 13]

21 minutes ago, rli2 said:

Chances?

IP
3.65 cGPA
127 CARS
CASPer - think it went pretty well, was able to finish all questions with coherent thoughts (also didn't get a Dal casper rejection email)

Last year of research MSc, pretty good ECs, quite a few publications (a couple first author, few second/third author), international conference experience

Interested to hear what people think, I'm pretty much the exact same as you haha

[DrOtter 345]

On 9/25/2020 at 2:55 PM, rli2 said:

Chances?

IP
3.65 cGPA
127 CARS
CASPer - think it went pretty well, was able to finish all questions with coherent thoughts (also didn't get a Dal casper rejection email)

Last year of research MSc, pretty good ECs, quite a few publications (a couple first author, few second/third author), international conference experience

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but it's going to be really tough. 

Your CARS is 2 points below the admission average and your GPA is a whopping 0.2 below. McMaster doesn't care about ECs at all unfortunately. It's purely a numbers game with them. The MSc adds a 1% bonus to your pre-interview score but that's very inconsequential. 

Unless you score in the 90th++ percentile in CASPer, I'd say your chances are quite slim, especially given the whole guaranteed interviews from last cycle's lottery debacle as well. 

[Cc1020 0]

31 minutes ago, DrOtter said:

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but it's going to be really tough. 

Your CARS is 2 points below the admission average and your GPA is a whopping 0.2 below. McMaster doesn't care about ECs at all unfortunately. It's purely a numbers game with them. The MSc adds a 1% bonus to your pre-interview score but that's very inconsequential. 

Unless you score in the 90th++ percentile in CASPer, I'd say your chances are quite slim, especially given the whole guaranteed interviews from last cycle's lottery debacle as well. 

Out of curiosity, is the 1% added if you are enrolled in a masters or if you have completed a masters? OP said they are enrolled in their last year and I was under the impression you only got the bonus if it was completed.

[InNeedofMD 10]

.

[bearded frog 393]

On 9/26/2020 at 5:37 PM, Cc1020 said:

Out of curiosity, is the 1% added if you are enrolled in a masters or if you have completed a masters? OP said they are enrolled in their last year and I was under the impression you only got the bonus if it was completed.

you have to have graduated

[bearded frog 393]

On 9/27/2020 at 8:52 AM, Grind4MD said:

Chance me:

cGPA: 3.71

Cars: 127

This is the only relevant stuff. That MCAT is going to hurt you and your GPA is below average. You'd have to crush casper but who knows.

[InNeedofMD 10]

8 hours ago, bearded frog said:

This is the only relevant stuff. That MCAT is going to hurt you and your GPA is below average. You'd have to crush casper but who knows.

Ahh thanks! I got a 129 on CARS actually so that may increase my chances a bit more. I’m gonna prep to slay the CASPer.

[Acnoid 0]

Hey guys what do you think my chances are?

GPA: 3.85

CARS: 130

 

[Premedwithadream 17]

GPA: 3.95

CARS: 130

Would appreciate some insight so I know how well I have to do on CASPer!

[MedicineLCS 353]

@Acnoid and @Premedwithadream

No one can give you any certainty, use the charts I made on the last page to guesstimate your required minimum CASPer and self-evaluate your odds after that.

I know it might be comforting to have some tell you "good/great" and to have some opinions to dampen/enhance neuroticism, which is great, but it's simple math with a big CASPer x-factor. At Mac it's literally 3 things (and grad degrees potentially), all objective numbers, 2 of them you know already, so no one else can really add anything other than noting they got an interview/in with the same stats (which you can see for yourself in the interview invites/results threads). 

Really, the process for anyone wondering "What their chances are" is really simple:

1. Calculate OMSAS cGPA, find minimum CASPer percentile using chart and your CARS score. If you need 110th percentile CASPer you're not going far, if you need 20th percentile your odds are great. 

2. Focus on CASPer if not already written. 

3. Try to focus on other things other than interview invites. 

4. Find out in January/February if your CASPer was good enough for your GPA/CARs combo. 

)

[AB27 18]

1 minute ago, MedicineLCS said:

I know it might be comforting to have some tell you "good/great" 

This is prob the biggest thing, reading these forums/looking at stats it can feel pretty impossible even if your stats are good. We all prob need a support group and our schools premed societies aint cutting it lmao

[offmychestplease 167]

-

[AB27 18]

2 minutes ago, offmychestplease said:

buddy you have a literal perfect GPA, perfect CARS, and 100th percentile MCAT...literally anyone's stats you would read are lower than yours....you are the last person that needs a support group...

Ok maybe I can recognize how people feel even if I'm not in the same situation? And you don't know my story so please don't tell me how to feel

[UalbertaG 2]

OOP

3.88

129

Does that chart apply to OOPs or do I have no chance really as my gpa is on the lower end 

[MedicineLCS 353]

There isn't enough data to tease out the minimums for OOP, which are likely more volatile anyway since it's only 50 seats. 

Basically you can use the main chart for baseline competitiveness then add whatever OOP margin you feel is appropriate based on your stats (so saying "add 15 percentile points" doesn't make sense if you're already at the very top or bottom, the difference will fluctuate). With the smaller OOP interview numbers it's harder to predict as less people post those in the first place. 

[deadliftgod 0]

@MedicineLCS

GPA: 3.96

CARS:127

Felt fairly good about CASPER and answered almost every question. Any thoughts on interview chances this year?

[MedicineLCS 353]

Well the data would suggest you need ~50th percentile CASPer (at a minimum) so if you feel you did well don't be too surprised if you get an interview but you're not a shoe-in either. 

You're in the mushy middle where you have decent odds but it could go either way, feelings about exam performance are fickle things and no one can change anything at this point post-CASPer so it's an unfortunate waiting game.