What did you people do to push your GPA's in undergrad? more

[Guest mitchie41]

Well,

 

keep in mind that at UBC, (and possibly other schools) your official transcript has two marks lister for each course: Your Mark, and the class average for your section.

 

But, I'm not sure as to whether UBC does\does not weed out the mark padding courses(i've heared from a friend that they do weed out these courses), but I'm pretty sure that UBC could if they wanted to, because your transcipt SAYS ALL!

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Fox, peachy - excellent point about arts and humanities courses. Some science students look at these as "bird" courses. . . they almost always are absolutely not if your goal is that holy 80. From my experience, it is usually easier to pass an arts course but most of the marks end up in the C-B range. . . it can be quite tough to get even an A-, and you usually have to really impress the prof to get an A or A+.

 

I knew a bunch of science students who got burned by this attitude in an arts course I took in undergrad. . . they hoped it would be a bird course but many ended up with 'C's and 'B's, which can be death if you're trying to keep that GPA above 3.7 for the year.

 

And I wouldn't go searching for bird courses. Even the bird courses can screw you if you don't do the work and don't have interest. I knew people burned by that in undergrad as well.

[Guest starflower]

It depends on the type of arts course.

 

Psych courses tend to be easy, just lots of memorization, and you can score over 90 if you just know the information.

 

Those logic Philosophy courses were really easy when I took them with Burkholder. However, I've heard the real philosophy courses (the ones on abstract thinking and analysis) are not a walk in the park.

 

Lower-level poli sci courses are all right (e.g. poli 100 and 101). The midterms have m/c and short answer questions which just require regurgitation. Watch out for the argumentative essays though, which they generally mark harder. Upper-level poli sci courses are much harder...you will have to read and read and write and write...

 

English courses...well, upper year level ones are usually harder to get over 85% in. In my 300-level English courses on literature, very few people get over 85%...and it's tough to get over 90...you gotta write a near-brilliant essay for that. I love English but I was frustrated with consistently getting grades between 80-85 and never breaking past an A no matter how hard I tried.

 

As you can tell, I've taken lots of arts courses. I've always been strong in the humanities so I took them as electives, but I was aware of the differences between arts and sciences in terms of the kinds of marks to expect.

 

My advice is that if you're looking for an easy arts course to get 90+ in, take psyc.

[Guest J da riCe]

ratemyprofessors.ca/canad...School.jsp

[Guest j282]

Hi

 

While it's been mentioned that a 3.7 will do the trick at most schools, I would strongly advise you to aim for those 90's(or at least 86's) that you were thinking about earlier. My reasoning is a higher GPA will always help you in the collation process (scoring after interview). Infact a 3.7 won't be good enough at two very good med schools. UofT meds had a GPA average of 3.81 for the entering class and UofOttawa had an entering GPA of 3.8. So of course it's in your best interest to cast the widest net possible and to exclude these two schools might limit your chances somewhat (especially UofOttawa in the case that your MCAT doesn't make the cutoffs for the other schools.

 

As for easy courses, I have several friends who did the old psych switch trick (first year science requirements with bad to horrendous marks, quick switch to psych with a focus on the easiest psych courses). However, please note that they were rejected at most schools but ended up getting accepted to Western. I think that best year last year jazz helped them. One of the students who gained admission infact had an overall GPA of 2.9, but took the easiest psych courses she could find for two years. The other med schools told her to take a hike without interview but she's wieseled into Western thanks to the best year/last year rule.

 

Again, please don't let the aformentioned story make you slack until the last two years. Put in a solid effort, get excellent grades, strive for 90's and cast the widest net possible when applying. My friends who crawled into Western openly admit that if they hadn't been accepted to UWO, it was game over.

 

Cheers and good luck with your exams:)

[Guest EMHC]

Hi,

 

So with UWO, they just look at the last two years of your undergrad? Is that true also for UBC? I heard from someone that UBC looks at both your entire undergrad percentage as well as your last 60 credits.

 

With psych, is it UBC Psych 100? And if so, is it practically all memorization?

 

So strategically thinking, someone applying to UWO, to ensure the GPA cut off (and even go higher), they should do some major easy courses in the LAST 2 years so to really push their marks up?

 

I'm sort of confussed. Is there some sort of "loop hole" that one can get around with med school admission?

[Guest Biochem10]

Hey, I totally agree on the point made about Arts classes not being easy. Here's an example from two classes I took in undergrad:

 

Film Art (supposedly easy) B- average (65-69%)

First-year Physics (supposedly hard) A- average (80-84%).

 

In this case it was all about the professors who were teaching... The physics prof put stuff on the exam that was straight out the homework, the film teacher had us write an original essay on the final in which she didn't take any BS. It's definetly a good idea to talk to people before you decide on taking a course.

 

On another note, McGill has a great system where you can take one class a year as Pass/Fail. This way you take a course that's interesting, still keep a full year courseload, but you don't have to worry so much about getting a good mark (you need at least a 55% to pass). This is how I'm taking my Biomedical Ethics class and I find it great because I do the reading for my own interest, but I don't have to stress out so much about writing the exams.

[Guest therealcrackers]

EMHC, that's not correct about UWO. They look at the two BEST years of your undergrad, each of which must be above the cut-off; both have to full 5.0 course load years between September and April, and at least of the years has to have 3.0 or more honours level courses (200 level or higher at UWO, or third-year at other institutions). If you repeat a course, that year will cannot be used for your GPA calculation (so watch out). If these are your last two years, that's OK. The cutoff this year was 3.70; in future years, no one knows what it will be until the January before school starts.

Remember, the GPA will get you in the door, but the interview at Western counts for 50% of the overall admissions score. You also have to meet absolutely the minimum requirements on the MCAT for your application to proceed to the interview stage.

"Loopholes" ideally are not what you are looking for; you will need a whole pile of school knowledge and life experience to be able to understand what happening to your patients, but also to be able to relate to them. Find some way to pick up the background material that will be useful not only to help you get in, but also help you succeed once you get there.

[Guest fox]

here's my words of wisdom, and you can take them or leave them. obsessing over getting good marks will probably backfire in the end. if you worry too much about marks, you may tend to approach profs about getting extra marks, and in the end this may hurt you when it comes time for letters of reference. when i was in undergrad i pushed myself to get good marks for personal goal reasons, at the time i had absoutley NO intention of applying to med school. i am now glad i didn't slack off, but am equally glad that i didn't beg for extra marks or worry too much about getting the top marks in the class. remember, academics are only PART of the application. if you look at some schools (for example, calgary) people with 3.98 were rejected for interviews. and here's my experience. last year i applied to med school (9 schools in total) and got only one interview (u of a- which is completely mark based). since i was doing a master's, i didn't have any course work between last year and this year, so my marks didn't change even a little. BUT, in the last two years i have gotten two jobs at the hospital, volunteered, coached soccer, played soccer, the list goes on. i have done a lot of things i wanted to do (including shadowing a physician) and this year i got 5 interviews and have already been accepted. so, obviously, there was something a lot more important in my application than my marks that got me an interview at 5/7 schools i applied to this year that differentiated my app from last year. of course, this is just my experience, but something to keep in mind. everything i have done has not been just to get into med school, and i think this is really important in allowing yourself to develop as a person, which, for me, was very important in the interviews i had this year!

[Guest EMHC]

Thanks everyone. This gave me a lot more insight and understanding in setting the ground work needed for applying.

[Guest avenirv]

i am surprised by one fact: there are so many guys in canada being rejected by the medical school even having gpa's in the range of 95-100% (in A range). in usa harvard would send a limo for you if have this gpa (of course with a nice mcat too). why ?

thank you in advance.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

j282 - As I pointed out in my post, getting super high GPAs (ie 3.9+) certainly doesn't hurt you for applying. And yes, there are schools where you need at least 3.8 to give yourself a shot. . . typically out of province schools if you want to go out of province, U of O if you aren't from Ottawa (which only requires a 3.65) or one of the other designated communities, and somewhat-so for U of T (I know at least one person who got a U of T interview with a 3.72 GPA, though most of the people I've heard getting in to U of T are in the 3.8 range.)

 

That being said, I'm sure there are people reading this board who are in mid-undergrad who, for whatever reason, aren't getting marks that high but nonetheless are great students (don't be one of "those" who thinks anyone with a GPA less than theirs isn't a good student.) To suggest they should be getting 3.9-4.0 could freak someone out needlessly or could easily fool someone into quitting some extra-curricular, sports, volunteer and character building activities, which would be a major mistake.

 

There are MANY MORE schools where a 3.7x mark gives you a good shot at getting in: UWO, Queen's, McMaster, maybe U of O (depending on where you're from,) and most of the other schools I know of if you're in-province (well, at least Dal, McGill and UBC.) In fact in many cases a 3.60 overall is sufficient, and maybe even a tiny bit lower than that. I arbitrarily chose 3.7 because it's exactly equal to an A- and is good enough for many most schools.

 

Don't get fooled into thinking there's a hierarchy of med schools based on their GPA requirements. . . up until this year, though their GPA requirements were lower than U of T, both Queen's and UWO had higher MCAT requirements than U of T. And all three have fairly similar CaRMS match profiles - roughly 80% of grads into specialties, 20% into family medicine last I checked.

 

But yeah, if you can get 3.8-4.0 and maintain a healthy balanced lifestyly, there ain't no excuse for slacking.

[Guest fox]

just to reaasure everyone out there... my ovreall GPA was 3.79 on OMSAS scale and 8.5 at U of A, and i got five interviews. when i got rejected for interviews last year i was told my GPA was in the top 9% of all applicants (at all the schools i didn't receive interviews at). so, you obvisouly don't need a 4.0 to get it. (once my lowest year was dropped my GPA was higher, but not 4.0).

[Guest peachy]

i am surprised by one fact: there are so many guys in canada being rejected by the medical school even having gpa's in the range of 95-100% (in A range). in usa harvard would send a limo for you if have this gpa (of course with a nice mcat too). why ?

This isn't true - you need to have the whole package at US schools, just as much as here. Take a look at www.mdapplicants.com/scho...choolid=22 if you don't believe me - there are tons of Harvard applicants with very high GPA's and MCATs who aren't getting in.

[Guest kylle345]

Thanks to all who replied once again!

 

This is a reply about the 4.0 GPA and bird course situation. Yes I do go into every course aiming for that 4.0 GPA mark, however i do come up short. Most of you probably think the same way and also come up short (some more than others). I understand that you dont need that 4.0 to get into med. school. I am basically looking for a course that would allow a 4.0 that will allow me to apply into most med schools. Some courses offered at U of T only have like 1 student out of 100 with a 4.0 OMSAS. So if i do that a course which allows many more 4.0's then my chance of getting it would be higher.

 

Is there a better way to think when approaching a course?? Im sure most of you think like that for just about everything in life. For example, when you play basketball, you will try and make every shot. No misses a bucket on purpose! Same goes for golf! If you have a 8 footer in front of you for birdie, you are gonna try and sink it. However not all of us sinks the putt and ends up with a par or even worse a bogie.

 

I do plan to take many easier courses in university that interest me. I'm not trying to bird my way through university! If a course interest me but just dont allow any A's, then i will probably not take it. Same goes for a course that does not interest me at all, but does allow many A's.

This post originally was kinda like a survery to see what courses gave people good marks and if it did interest me, then I might decide to take it!

 

Kyle