PreMed2014 Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 Hey all. I plan to apply to NOSM in the future. Thing is I'm not from Northern Ontatio, I'm from BC. I know that NOSM mostly admits applicants from Ontario but I hear that there are a few (something like 3 or 4) students not from Ontario that get in. I was thinking I could take a chance at NOSM anyway. Think I should do it or should I not waste my time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 Hey all. I plan to apply to NOSM in the future. Thing is I'm not from Northern Ontatio, I'm from BC. I know that NOSM mostly admits applicants from Ontario but I hear that there are a few (something like 3 or 4) students not from Ontario that get in. I was thinking I could take a chance at NOSM anyway. Think I should do it or should I not waste my time? Are you rural? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 Are you rural? and if so exactly how rural Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Real Beef Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 If you are from rural BC, have lots of community involvement and a great GPA I would give the can a kick and see what happens. If you lack one of those components it greatly weakens your application against an applicant pool with a significant number of applicants who have near maxed out context scores, plus the other factors. Good luck. Beef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Tyrannus Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 Even if you are rural, have great EC's and are invited to interview you are still likely not going to be accepted. Med schools like to give people false hope to keep them applying over and over. Keep this in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rural_roots Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 Even if you are rural, have great EC's and are invited to interview you are still likely not going to be accepted. Med schools like to give people false hope to keep them applying over and over. Keep this in mind. Not sure I agree with that statement. Applying over and over is part of the process for many applicants - including ones who are ultimately successful. I think that reflects the intense nature of how competitive the process is rather than any malicious intent on the part of the medical schools who have the unenviable task of choosing few from so many. I agree with Real Beef. If you are rural, have great EC's and a high GPA try it out. If you rock the interview you might make it. If you don't, experience in the process will only help your journey trying to get into any medical school, I would think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 Not sure I agree with that statement. Applying over and over is part of the process for many applicants - including ones who are ultimately successful. I think that reflects the intense nature of how competitive the process is rather than any malicious intent on the part of the medical schools who have the unenviable task of choosing few from so many. I agree with Real Beef. If you are rural, have great EC's and a high GPA try it out. If you rock the interview you might make it. If you don't, experience in the process will only help your journey trying to get into any medical school, I would think. I don't think they like to see that either other than it means they know great candidates apply and may not get in on a particular year but still get a chance another time around. They take no joy in it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Real Beef Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 Even if you are rural, have great EC's and are invited to interview you are still likely not going to be accepted. Med schools like to give people false hope to keep them applying over and over. Keep this in mind. NOSM reduced their number of interview invites last year from 400 to 320 because they found that those in the bottom 80 people or so historically never got in or mathematically could not make it in even if they aced the interview so they chopped out the people who only had a 'false hope of getting in'. So now people with an invite actually have a fighting chance of getting in. So I too have to disagree with that statement in regards to NOSM. Futhermore I am not sure why other schools would bother to do this. I mean once they have your application fee and reject you, it gives them no further financial gain by inviting people that have no chance of getting in. Rather if they invite way more than needed they just increase the administrative hassle for the school without an increase in financial gains. So I really doubt thoughtful schools are doing this. Beef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rex Tyrannus Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 I was mostly just talking about NOSM...... But is it possible that med schools will invite applicants who have no chance of acceptance in order to give hope to others with similarly low chances and thus encourage them to apply? Evidently some schools (like NOSM) have even if their intentions were more noble........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockeynut Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 if you don't have any rural ties/grew up rural I wouldn't apply. That being said if you do it's always worth a shot. Plus Northern Ontario is awesome, why would you want to be anywhere else! As per the invites, I have a feeling that very few outside the top ~100-150 get in, in any given year. Given that interview is 50% of your score. Just my 2 cents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Real Beef Posted February 7, 2014 Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 @Rex: lol ... I don't think so. I have a sense that a lot of premeds believe that the admissions process is run by a centrally intelligent being ... a 'Wizard of Oz'-esque deity if you will, that has every minute piece figured out. Such that this deity feels sympathy for some applicants and wish to make them feel good by giving them hope and encouraging hope amongst other lowly applicants. However this is not the case. The applications process is a process that is run by dozens upon dozens of staff and volunteers from all aspects of the community and academia. They are not a symbiotic collective that could come up with such an unified hidden agenda of "Lets invite people who have no chance to make them feel good ... " or whatever urban myth about NOSM that is out there. It is a directed activity with very public mandates made up by multiple stakeholders and no secret agendas or conspiracies as you suggest. This is counter to the fact that the process seems very much like it works within a black box. Good luck. Beef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PreMed2014 Posted February 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 Thanks for the replies everyone. Unfortunately I didn't really grow up in a rural community. I mean, I didn't grow up in the city either but I didn't grow up in a rural area. That being said, I think I will go through with an application when the time comes. If it's a chance and even a slight possibility of being accepted that is something I don't think I can ignore. Ideally though, I'd like to get into UBC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexaa. Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 a village of 1000 people count as rural, right ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z12345 Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 a village of 1000 people count as rural, right ? The context score is calculated by an algorithm that is not released. But essentially, population and distance from an urban centre are important for the determination of rural. Population wise, 1000 would be considered rural, but if the town is 30 mins from an urban city, the score wouldn't be as high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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