momo555 Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Hello, I'm little confused with U of C and I can't believe we have to wait until June to find out the score. If you are IP, have reasonable average (3.79), and V = 10 and + Msc, 2 years of work experience...yet still you are rejected pre-interview... I see that for so many invites, IP (compared to OOP) were around that.... so I'm just really....sad and disappointed... McMaster and U of C with 3 year program in Canada... I wanted to save a year and wanted to at least get an interview.. but no love.... I don't know why... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozenarbitor Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 I'm sorry to hear that momo. From the invite posts so far, it looks like both IP and OOP applicant pool are fairly strong this year. I swear it's a bit random sometimes, and often it comes down to luck. Hope you feel better soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abcdmed Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Im sorry to hear that Momo. I'm sure theres no doubt that your ECs were extensive, but I have learned that it really is about how you write about them and portray what you've learned from them/how they've effected and influenced you/what they mean to you etc more so than what that EC actually was. I didn't get an interview last year, and my stats are like yours, 3.69 GPA, VR9, finished an MSc thesis based and worked. I have a lot of volunteer experience, community involvement, music education, work experience, research experience, etc but so does everyone else applying. Honestly, from last year to this year, not much has changed application wise for me. I looked at my scores from last year to see where I could improve, and reworked some references where there was a bit of a lower score. I used the same references except for one. I literally used the same top 10's but I rewrote all of my top 10 impact statements and had several people read over my statements, who didn't know me as well and asked them if what I wrote portrayed to them the kind of applicant UofC was looking for in their 7 categories. That seemed to do the trick. I hope that helps you out a little. Best of luck next year. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oilcountry Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 Medical school is overrated anyways. Go to a technical college, get a 2 year diploma and make as much money as a family doc (which half of you will become) with half the stress and 1/5 the schooling required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylamonkey Posted February 1, 2013 Report Share Posted February 1, 2013 I literally used the same top 10's but I rewrote all of my top 10 impact statements and had several people read over my statements, who didn't know me as well and asked them if what I wrote portrayed to them the kind of applicant UofC was looking for in their 7 categories. That seemed to do the trick. I did the same thing (for UBC) and my EC score went up every single year. Your stats are fine, as you know. You need to rewrite your ECs. Ask me for help next cycle if you like, OK? PM me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
futureGP Posted February 2, 2013 Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 Medical school is overrated anyways. Go to a technical college, get a 2 year diploma and make as much money as a family doc (which half of you will become) with half the stress and 1/5 the schooling required. i think you should lead the way Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjc2 Posted February 2, 2013 Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 Regrets IP GPA: 3.6 (If the 10 year rule was a 9-year rule, my GPA would be 3.9) VR 10 I have a BA, and am graduating with my Honours in Microbiology this year. I am a TA for two intro BIOL labs. I have backpacked through Europe, volunteered in the health field, and worked professionally for three years in the Office of the Registrar, and in fact was promoted to Manager of my unit. I have an album, have toured all over Alberta and BC. I study obesity & gut bacteria and yeast populations for my Directed Studies and Honours projects, respectively. I also have tons of experience working with the Students' Union. This is my third year applying. I am getting worn down by rejection. I read on the blog that someone was waitlisted last year and didn't even get an interview this year. I know that they had 200 more applicants, but I find it hard to believe that these 200 ppl got interviews and bumped someone from being interviewed and waitlisted to not being interviewed at all. It just doesn't make sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zizo5 Posted February 2, 2013 Report Share Posted February 2, 2013 I completely understand, i'm in the same situation. I feel that UCalgary's admission is really subjective and sometimes you just get lucky (which in my opinion can be unfair). I don't understand how they can rank applicants based on a written application. For example, how are they so sure that the applicant was the one who wrote the EC statements, or did someone else write it for them? What about the references? etc. The MMI is where you can get personal/subjective about the applicant... What makes it even more frustrating is that they won't release your scores until July. So by the time I know why I didn't get selected, it will be time for me to apply again... :mad: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boourns Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 It is a difficult pill to swallow. I am a first time IP applicant and thought I at least had a chance to get an interview given my EC's even though my GPA and VR were lower - 3.61 and an 8. I have a MSc, and was starting my 4th year of grad school and 2nd year of my PhD at the time. I thought I had excellent EC's, but perhaps it was a false sense of security. I mean I've brought in $200000 of scholarship money, had 4 first author pubs in mid-high impact journals - 1 featured as a "must read", 2 submitted, 11 conferences/abstracts, and lots of leadership volunteer positions on a national level. I also thought I wrote my EC's well (my writing sample was S). When I found out on thursday I was rejected pre-interview, I simply felt so inadequate and unwanted, which people have told me is ridiculous given that apparently I am a "rising star" in science (not my words). At this point, I am re-evaluating the whole process and debating whether to put an end to this fruitless dream. I wish all the interviewees the best though and there are some great stories out there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momo555 Posted February 4, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 Hey sorry to hear that... I think if you improved your VR, you probably would have gotten interview for sure. I think you have a really good shot at U of T for sure and for Queen's only if your VR gets 10. There's no reason why you should not get itnerviews there given your excellent ECs. Yes, I was quite surprised by how it turned out... and they even calculated my GPA incorrectly at the beginning and I had to send an e-mail...but then again U of A also incorrectly calculated the GPA.... (I called last week to correct it finally...just waiting for result) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boourns Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 Thank you Momo. I am sorry to hear that you were rejected pre-interview as well, especally with your stats! I am considering rewriting MCAT, just focusing on my research career right now, since preparing for the MCAT takes quite a bit of time. It's a toss up right now, as I am thinking about giving this up - difficult decision! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearpuppy Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 Hey sorry to hear that...I think if you improved your VR, you probably would have gotten interview for sure. I think you have a really good shot at U of T for sure and for Queen's only if your VR gets 10. There's no reason why you should not get itnerviews there given your excellent ECs. Yes, I was quite surprised by how it turned out... and they even calculated my GPA incorrectly at the beginning and I had to send an e-mail...but then again U of A also incorrectly calculated the GPA.... (I called last week to correct it finally...just waiting for result) UT states min. of 9/9/9/N.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smile1230 Posted February 4, 2013 Report Share Posted February 4, 2013 I would just like to let you know that after I got my rejection, I felt the same way. However, I slowly learned to console myself and I feel like I need to let you know that you shouldn't SHOULDNT put an end to this "fruitless dream". What I learned after my rejection is that so many awesome people like yourself got rejected that I really had no reason to complain. What happens at one point of these application processes is that some applications simply become the unlucky ones that do not get chosen although the application is one of the many strong applications that are submitted. Yours was unfortunately in that "unluckY" pile this year and so was mine. That doesn't mean we stop dreaming and we stop trying. Maybe we will be lucky next year. In the mean time, you can definitely work on brushing your MCAT score so that your awesomeness doesn't get submerged for a silly verbal reasoning score. Don't give up. If you have so many publications and so much involvement in research, then you are definitely a hard working rising star! This life is so long and we have so much time to pursue our dream! Don't give up just because it wasn't your year or it wasn't your admission cycle of luck. Keep trying and you will get there! You can do it! It is a difficult pill to swallow. I am a first time IP applicant and thought I at least had a chance to get an interview given my EC's even though my GPA and VR were lower - 3.61 and an 8. I have a MSc, and was starting my 4th year of grad school and 2nd year of my PhD at the time. I thought I had excellent EC's, but perhaps it was a false sense of security. I mean I've brought in $200000 of scholarship money, had 4 first author pubs in mid-high impact journals - 1 featured as a "must read", 2 submitted, 11 conferences/abstracts, and lots of leadership volunteer positions on a national level. I also thought I wrote my EC's well (my writing sample was S). When I found out on thursday I was rejected pre-interview, I simply felt so inadequate and unwanted, which people have told me is ridiculous given that apparently I am a "rising star" in science (not my words). At this point, I am re-evaluating the whole process and debating whether to put an end to this fruitless dream. I wish all the interviewees the best though and there are some great stories out there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D3launch Posted February 5, 2013 Report Share Posted February 5, 2013 Sucks to hear, I'm in a similar boat I am IP, 3.64 GPA and verbal 11. I'm originally from BC and moved here 2 years ago for a masters (which makes me IP here as well). I have an interview at UBC but not Calgary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjc2 Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 It is a difficult pill to swallow. I am a first time IP applicant and thought I at least had a chance to get an interview given my EC's even though my GPA and VR were lower - 3.61 and an 8. I have a MSc, and was starting my 4th year of grad school and 2nd year of my PhD at the time. I thought I had excellent EC's, but perhaps it was a false sense of security. I mean I've brought in $200000 of scholarship money, had 4 first author pubs in mid-high impact journals - 1 featured as a "must read", 2 submitted, 11 conferences/abstracts, and lots of leadership volunteer positions on a national level. I also thought I wrote my EC's well (my writing sample was S). When I found out on thursday I was rejected pre-interview, I simply felt so inadequate and unwanted, which people have told me is ridiculous given that apparently I am a "rising star" in science (not my words). At this point, I am re-evaluating the whole process and debating whether to put an end to this fruitless dream. I wish all the interviewees the best though and there are some great stories out there! This is your first time applying... it's not time to give up yet. Most successful med applicants have applied 2 or 3 times. I myself have applied three times now and I think I am going to bow out - tired of playing games with med schools. I have some great prospects for grad school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bloh Posted February 7, 2013 Report Share Posted February 7, 2013 The average accepted student applies like 2.5 times before they get in. The sad reality is that it is exceptionally difficult to get into medical school in Canada and it is getting more so every year. Moreover, the process has a substantial amount of luck, not only per-interview, but after the interview as well. I would imagine that most schools interview students in batches, and those students are ranked from worst to best. There's an element of luck there because if you get randomly assigned to a group of candidates who interview exceptionally well, it becomes almost entirely a process of chance. It is expected that at least a third of the batch will be outright rejected because they will be ranked on the bottom of the scale (and will thus be far too in the hole to really make up the score in ECs, grades, letters, etc). At least that was the process when I was helping interview candidates. Sometimes, I wonder how I got in..... You just have to keep trying but the most important piece of advice I can give you is to not put your life on hold. You MUST have another plan and that plan should be an enjoyable endeavor that you can see yourself doing for a while. If you apply year after year from a miserable position then each year will be more difficult than the last. On the other hand, if you can occupy yourself and keep habitually applying, you will get in if you are competitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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