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Western Interview Discussion 2015

Leon

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rmorelan Community Regular

rmorelan

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I agree with your premise. My issue is with the fact that they change these cut-offs year-to-year so that the combination of scores from each section are just enough to limit their interview pool to a certain number of applicants. Based on what evidence do they choose to make the verbal cut-off 11 or BS cut-off of 12 or PS cut-off 9 (or 10..can't rmr)? Do they think the VR is more important than PS? What evidence is there that a certain MCAT score will predict the applicant's success in medical school? I think the problem with the MCAT is similar to that of GPA. At what point is the MCAT or GPA no longer a strong predictor of success? You run into the same problemw ith all schools of course, because others will prioritize high GPA. But that's why you have to take a holistic approach and assess all components of the application and not simply over-emphasize one aspect (e.g. MCAT VR or BS). The way I see it, maintaining these high cut-offs (in comparison to most schools) is a very simple and easy way to limit how many files you have to review to determine interview decisions. That's what I have an issue with...

 

Even the top-schools in U.S. do not dare set "cut-offs" to automatically decide that you're not worth interviewing. 

 

well there is a physical limitation on how many people they can interview - they other schools for the most part are doing something similar behind the scenes so the only have to interview a reasonable number of people. As the skill of the applicants on the MCAT rose (in part because the test changed - dropped  section, became shorter, able to rewrite basically endlessly....) the cut offs rose to meet the challenge. It is a form of an arms race I suppose (just like for other schools long term ECs or number of hours doing X seems to be stretched).

 

Western and Mac prioritized the VR historically because is actually the main old MCAT section correlated with some measures of end performance on standardized tests in the US. Far from perfect but and if I recall there are now at least over 20 studies gong back and forth on the research on this.  Who of course knows how the new MCAT will work out :)

 

Plus this isn't a passive process - they use feedback from student performance back into the system to see how accurate their choices are and adjust accordingly.

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BeeDoc Newbie

BeeDoc

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Please keep in mind that the Admissions Office does not provide a specific date or time when the interview invitations go out but have indicated  they will they be sent late January or early February.  It's not likely they will be sent today given that it's already late in the day.

 

Is that a reply that you've received from the admissions office?

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jmatt1122 Newbie

jmatt1122

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There's a chance that this page (http://www.schulich.uwo.ca/medicine/undergraduate/future_students/admission/requirements.html) might update with the new stats before we get emails, if anyone's interested in some refreshing...

 

I highly doubt they'd update that webpage before sending out invites. Just my $0.02 though. Feel free to refresh away... I preferred refreshing pm101 this time last year, though. :P

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dassy Newbie

dassy

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I highly doubt they'd update that webpage before sending out invites. Just my $0.02 though. Feel free to refresh away... I preferred refreshing pm101 this time last year, though. :P

 

They have before. When I got an interview there in 2012, they updated the page and then sent out emails either later that day or the next day can't remember.

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jmatt1122 Newbie

jmatt1122

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Do they invite everyone above the cut off? Does anyone know how many they invite for interviews?

 

Yes, everyone above the cutoffs gets an invite. I think they normally invite ~400 for the 171 spots, which is amongst the best odds in Ontario.

 

Edit: I lied. It was 447 for the class of 2017. (source: http://www.schulich.uwo.ca/docs/about/dean_report_2013.pdf)

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RichardHammond Newbie

RichardHammond

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Do they invite everyone above the cut off? Does anyone know how many they invite for interviews?

Yeah everyone who meets the cut off should get an interview. A couple people might meet them but not get invited, usually due to an error. I remember that happened to some people here but after contacting the office, they got an interview scheduled.

I think the number invited was about 400 but someone else will probably know better

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1919 Newbie

1919

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The only issue I have with MCAT cutoffs is when they get as high as Western's are. What truly is the difference between someone who got 11,12 or 13 on Bio or 10,11,12 on verbal. I'm not an expert on how the MCAT curve works but naturally there is a standard deviation and there are applicants who possibly "should" have done better on bio that won't get interviews and applicants who "should" have done worse that will. I am beyond biased seeing as I got 11 on Bio and felt I could have done better haha. 

 

Absolutely MCAT cutoffs have value, but I'm not sure its "fair" as some are claiming when they are that high. I can't imagine there is a huge difference between my 11 in bio and someone else's 12. (we all guess on a few questions, perhaps I guessed poorly, or alternatively perhaps I guessed well on verbal and my 11 there should have been 10) There's no way to know

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