ABS question

[royals]

Hey guys if Ottawa is the only Ontario school I am applying to, do I just enter my top 3 things per category? Or do they look at all 40 possibilities and just the top three marked ones in detail?

 

Thanks for you help, I am just really confused.

[MDwannabe02]

Ottawa only takes your top 3 in every category that were completed during your undergrad. If you're only applying to Ottawa, you might as well just pick 3 for each category because you'd be just filling up space to use all potential 48 spots on your ABS. Just make sure you have verifiers for everything.

[z12345]

does it necessarily have to be undergrad? I thought is was as long as it is done during post-secondary studies it is ok

 

Ottawa only takes your top 3 in every category that were completed during your undergrad. If you're only applying to Ottawa, you might as well just pick 3 for each category because you'd be just filling up space to use all potential 48 spots on your ABS. Just make sure you have verifiers for everything.

[MDwannabe02]

Good to know. Sorry, I wasn't trying to give bad advice. I just figured it would save time, stress, and energy to not do the whole ABS if you don't need to. Honestly, that's the part of the whole app I like the least, lol.

[Handsome Premed]

So, do we need to give the supplemental details for all items, or just the top 3 in each category?

[UottawaMedHopeful]

If you are just applying to Ottawa U, therefore only needingto mention the top three in each category (not including the "other" category that OMSAS gives) I would still write everything. You have nothing to lose, after reading some people's posts and thinking about it, there is no harm in including everything. Plus according to some who were interviewed, the interview panel actually asked questions about activities that were done and not apart of the applicant's top three. I guess the interview panel receives the entire ABS not just the top three items. Personally I think having more than three items on the ABS for the interview panel to see is better. There are a lot of activities that I wish I could include in my top three that I can't that I would like for the interview panel to see.

Also with respect to only listing things done during undergraduate studies, U Ottawa website states post-secondary not just undergraduate. Therefore things completed during a masters, PhD or Professional Degree I find are valid.

[Leon]

I'm going to say : Take the time and fill out the sketch as if you were applying to all of Ontario. The reason I say this is because there have been cases where an applicant has discovered that activities outside their "top 3" (last year it was top 5) were considered.

 

Also, last year there was major confusion as many applicants assumed they were supposed to indicate only their "top 5" items out of the entire ABS instead of 5 in each section. AFAIK several applicants who did this still got interviews, suggesting Ottawa still looked at the rest of the ABS (how could they possibly award an interview based on 5 items?)

 

This is not concrete but if I was you, I would fill out the ABS proper.

 

Nothing to lose.

Possibly a career to gain.

lol