UWO Dentistry Interview Invites

[TheWolfofDentistry]

:S 11k deposit? that's pretty ****ed lol

 

I know, tell me about. I think they put it there to prevent people from considering other schools. The Dean mentioned that a lot of students would give up their deposits in opt for other schools or programs (medicine, etc.), so they implemented a high deposit a few years ago to force students to show commitment to the university. Lame policy IMO.

 

 

REJECTED!!!

 

With a 3.93 GPA and a 28 RC (25AA). Like seriously, WTF!

 

Last year I got an interview with a 3.81 GPA and 24 RC.

 

The only possible explanation could be that they deducted a lot of points because my 4th year was not a full course load?

 

Does anyone know how much they deduct, or have any clue how much of an influence that has? Or has there been a huge mistake, because this was my last hope this year. I didn't apply to the states because I really thought I had a strong chance of getting in this year!

 

How much of a reduced course load? Is that 3.93 GPA your cGPA or Best 2?

I believe that 3.93 GPA translates into ~87%. Considering you didn't take a full course load that probably reduces that down a percent or two. Although you have a good DAT score (dat isn't worth much...only 15%), GPA is king (worth 60%). It seems like you barely missed the cut off (I am assuming it is around 87-88% and 19 RC). You might want to enquire about what your GPA translates into percentage wise. It's unfortunate though, past a certain point the numbers won't determine how proficient a dentist you will be. It's really strange that they (and some of the other dental schools) don't take a more holistic approach.

 

You might want to consider UofT if your 4 yr GPA is decent. The average for those that got an interview was 3.88. You would definitely have a shot considering your high DAT score. UofT doesn't penalize for having a reduced course load.

[tweety14]

Invite, 94%, 23 RC

[UWOhopeful7]

How do all these people have >90% averages? This is very rare to get at UWO. Do schools like McMaster who use the GPA system give 95% for 4.0, 87.5% for 3.9, 82.5% for 3.7, etc

[jameskim9]

How do all these people have >90% averages? This is very rare to get at UWO. Do schools like McMaster who use the GPA system give 95% for 4.0, 87.5% for 3.9, 82.5% for 3.7, etc

 

not just Mac, but most schools in Ontario uses a 4.0 system.

[TheWolfofDentistry]

I went to McMaster and we don't have percentage grades - so everything is based on a letter scale. If I did take the midpoint of each letter grade, I would have:

 

90% (3.91 GPA using my letter grades) in third year with a full course load (10 courses).

91% (3.95 GPA using my letter grades) in fourth year with 8 courses.

 

Are you sure that they take the midpoint, and not the the lower end of the letter grade (i.e. an A+ which is 90-100% would not be 95, but would be 90%). This would significantly reduce your calculated GPA, and could be why you didn't get an interview.

 

I don't think the course load penalty is that steep, I didn't have a full course load in my last year and still got an interview. My university goes by credits. 30 credits is a full course load (i.e. 5 full year (6 credit) classes or 10 half-year (3 credit) classes). I took 28 credits (had 10 half-year courses but 2 of my courses were 2 credits only). I don't think I got penalized severely.

 

This is all speculation though...

[tweety14]

Sorry for any confusion but I simply took my percent grade from best two years with full course load (3rd & 4th) and calculated their average. My Uni gives both letter & percent grade. I hope I calculated it correctly.

[jameskim9]

Are you sure that they take the midpoint, and not the the lower end of the letter grade (i.e. an A+ which is 90-100% would not be 95, but would be 90%). This would significantly reduce your calculated GPA, and could be why you didn't get an interview.

 

I don't think the course load penalty is that steep, I didn't have a full course load in my last year and still got an interview. My university goes by credits. 30 credits is a full course load (i.e. 5 full year (6 credit) classes or 10 half-year (3 credit) classes). I took 28 credits (had 10 half-year courses but 2 of my courses were 2 credits only). I don't think I got penalized severely.

 

This is all speculation though...

 

in his/her case, s/he took 24 credits and this will result in penalty that could be 4-5%.

 

in your case you basically took 9 or more courses per year. S/he took only 8.

[mrewmrew]

How do all these people have >90% averages? This is very rare to get at UWO. Do schools like McMaster who use the GPA system give 95% for 4.0, 87.5% for 3.9, 82.5% for 3.7, etc

 

Pretty huge advantage using this conversion haha. It's very hard to get 95+ consistently, but getting low 90s consistently isn't too bad. Unfortunately there's no other fair way for UWO to do this -- they have to take the midpoint.

[kristinad]

Does anyone know how many interviews get sent out?

[TheWolfofDentistry]

in his/her case, s/he took 24 credits and this will result in penalty that could be 4-5%.

 

in your case you basically took 9 or more courses per year. S/he took only 8.

 

Your right about that. But, what I was trying to get at is that I think s/he's calculating his/her % GPA incorrectly also. I am pretty sure they don't take the middle % of a letter grade, but take the lower end. This would also significantly reduce his/her calculated GPA.

 

Example if someone has the following 8 letter grades (equal credits each): A+, A, A, A-, A+, B+, A+, A =

 

If using the middle %: 95, 87, 87, 82, 95, 78, 95, 87 = 706/8 = 88.25%

If using the lowest %: 90, 85, 85, 80, 90, 77, 90, 85 = 682/8 = 85.25%

That is a 3% reduction in GPA over only 8 courses. For 18 courses, it would be even more drastic.

 

I had a friend from McMaster who applied for UBC medicine and from what he told me was that they took the lowest percentage. It makes sense too, since getting 90% is much easier than getting 95%. If I just took the middle % of all the letter grades from my university (gives letter grades and %), it would inflate my GPA by a lot. I don't know UWO GPA conversion policy so I might be incorrect about this. This is something you will have to contact UWO admissions to find out about.

[Amomynous]

I doubt this is the right place to ask but.....does anyone know if you take one of your 10 half-year courses (which is 5.0 credit and full course-load) as pass/fail, does UWO still consider the year full-courseload? and is there any penalty for taking pass/fail?

I've already sent an email to the admission office but no reply...

[z12345]

Your right about that. But, what I was trying to get at is that I think s/he's calculating his/her % GPA incorrectly also. I am pretty sure they don't take the middle % of a letter grade, but take the lower end. This would also significantly reduce his/her calculated GPA.

 

Example if someone has the following 8 letter grades (equal credits each): A+, A, A, A-, A+, B+, A+, A =

 

If using the middle %: 95, 87, 87, 82, 95, 78, 95, 87 = 706/8 = 88.25%

If using the lowest %: 90, 85, 85, 80, 90, 77, 90, 85 = 682/8 = 85.25%

That is a 3% reduction in GPA over only 8 courses. For 18 courses, it would be even more drastic.

 

I had a friend from McMaster who applied for UBC medicine and from what he told me was that they took the lowest percentage. It makes sense too, since getting 90% is much easier than getting 95%. If I just took the middle % of all the letter grades from my university (gives letter grades and %), it would inflate my GPA by a lot. I don't know UWO GPA conversion policy so I might be incorrect about this. This is something you will have to contact UWO admissions to find out about.

 

I don't think taking the lowest end of the scale does make sense. If A+ is 90-100, then there is a very high chance that your average is greater than 90% if you have all A+'s. There isn't really a fair way to do it and someone will always lose out. I think some schools treat A+ as a 93%, some as a 95%, etc. It will always be a less favourable conversion for somebody depending on their actual percents in those courses and to what scale the score is being converted.

[Guest qwertyy]

I don't think taking the lowest end of the scale does make sense. If A+ is 90-100, then there is a very high chance that your average is greater than 90% if you have all A+'s. There isn't really a fair way to do it and someone will always lose out. I think some schools treat A+ as a 93%, some as a 95%, etc. It will always be a less favourable conversion for somebody depending on their actual percents in those courses and to what scale the score is being converted.

 

This is so not fair.

If someone gets 90% in a course and if that school uses letter grade system, this becomes an A+ and turns into a 95% at Western.

What about those people who attend Western university where the percent grades are shown? How can this be fair?

I think they should convert the Western percent grades in a way that is equivalent to all other schools so maybe they can convert a 90% into a 95% just to be fair.

[mrewmrew]

This is so not fair.

If someone gets 90% in a course and if that school uses letter grade system, this becomes an A+ and turns into a 95% at Western.

What about those people who attend Western university where the percent grades are shown? How can this be fair?

I think they should convert the Western percent grades in a way that is equivalent to all other schools so maybe they can convert a 90% into a 95% just to be fair.

 

Hmmm the same can be said for someone who gets an 89.. that's actually dropped to 87.5! Unfortunately no matter how they do it some people will lose out and some will gain. However, I do think the majority of competitive applicants will experience their average inflating, since competitive applicants in all likelyhood have the majority of their courses 90+, which if converted to letter grade first and then to UWO scheme, becomes 95.

[predental6452]

I know everyone has been posting here about Western using percentages, but I've always been under the impression that they convert it to a 4.0 GPA scale, ultimately. The OMSAS sheet tells you how to convert McMaster grades into a 4.0 scale, not into percentages.

 

When I posted my own percentages, I just did that for comparison, to show what they would be like if I used the middle number. I didn't assume that was the way it was done.

 

I don't know if anyone has emailed the admissions office ever and had this clarified, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought they just look at everyone's grades based on a 4.0 scale, regardless if the school uses percentages or letters.

 

That's why I was really confused in the rejection letter when they said 87% was the minimum. I don't get how they could have fairly given percentage grades to people with letter grades.

[jaydey]

"According to our records, you have not met at least one of our selection criteria, as stated above" <-- But I got 24 in RC at least.. Am I misunderstanding the email?

[UWOhopeful7]

"According to our records, you have not met at least one of our selection criteria, as stated above" <-- But I got 24 in RC at least.. Am I misunderstanding the email?

 

I think they meant to say this:

"According to our records, you have not met one, or both, of the selection criteria stated above"

 

Don't pick apart the email. If you didn't have an average of 87% or more, then you don't get an interview. Doesn't matter how high your RC score is.

[bubblefish]

I emailed the UWO admission office 2 months ago and they did say that for the GPA converting to percentage they would take the midpoint. So a 4.0 is a 95%.

[pshk58]

Congrats to everyone who got an interview!! Pm me if you have any questions about the program and the interview.

 

Good luck!!

[mrewmrew]

so are uwo students that get 91% also converted to 95? or is this only for schools that give out letter grades (if this is the case, lol)

 

This is not the case. I emailed and asked both UWO and Sask. If our transcript shows %, they just take it directly.

[DDS2017]

Congrats to those who received interview. If you have any questions about it, feel free to PM me.

[SHD]

I got an invite:)

RC 19

GPA 90%

[dds19]

I doubt this is the right place to ask but.....does anyone know if you take one of your 10 half-year courses (which is 5.0 credit and full course-load) as pass/fail, does UWO still consider the year full-courseload? and is there any penalty for taking pass/fail?

I've already sent an email to the admission office but no reply...

I would really like to know about this too. I know that sask would consider this as full load but not sure how UWO would consider the pass/fail courses.

[devster117]

I got an invite, somehow. I don't know how but I did. Only at UWO

 

RC 21, AA was 22 I think? PAT 18.

 

GPA: I lost track of how each school calculates it. If it's your 2 best years only then I got 3.995 GPA at TRU, so I believe that's a hair under 3.9 according to omsas. Don't know what percentage that would be.

[Drivst]

congrats! haha I know the OOP who dropped the interview spot. I'll thank her for you. LOL