Possible Admission Changes In 2016

[Freedom]

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/U-of-M-looking-to-make-changes-to-medical-school-admission-in-2016-303522391.html

 

Snippet for those that can't get pass the paywall.  I had to edit manually so I apologize for any errors.

 

5/13/2015 U of M looking to make changes to medical school admissions in 2016 ­

 

 The University of Manitoba could make sweeping changes to medical school admissions for 2016 that would cut out-of-province spaces in half and make them available to a wide range of qualified but traditionally underrepresented minority groups. That could include single parents, the children of single and/or teen parents, indigenous students, non-heterosexual students, students who grew up in a low-income home, or refugees. The proposal goes before the university senate Wednesday for approval. "We’re only going to be the second medical school in North America with a low socioeconomic stream," Dr. Brian Postl, dean of both the faculty of health sciences and the college of medicine, said Monday. The only other one is in Texas, he said. "We want our medical school to be representative of the people they serve. We have to create the mindset that you can come to medical school from low socioeconomic settings," Postl said. The U of M medical school accepts 110 students each year. The proposal going before the senate would reduce out-of-province spaces to five per cent of each new class from 10, and make those spaces available for qualified candidates from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds. Postl said the medical school receives more than 1,000 applications each year for its 110 spots. Only Canadian citizens are allowed to attend medical schools in Canadian universities, so there are no international students accepted, he explained. Postl said the U of M already has a number of spaces set aside for qualified indigenous, francophone and rural students. Tuition runs about $8,000 a year, which is a deterrent for many students capable of succeeding in medical school, he said. However, there are extensive bursaries and scholarships, and the province will cover tuition for medical graduates who agree to practise in Manitoba, he pointed out. Between 1989 and 2011, only 36 per cent of out-of-province medical grads took postgraduate education here, and only four per cent of out-of-province medical grads stayed here to practise. "You tend to go home after medical school," Postl said. The weighted application process would give 41 per cent to family history, 37 per cent to economic information, and 22 per cent to other sociocultural determinants. Altogether, applicants would be assessed on 24 criteria. U of M has been studying increased diversity among medical students since 2013. In the report to senate, director of admissions Dr. Bruce Martin noted, "There has been growing expression of concern regarding the significant and chronic under-representation of some minority groups, and the continued barriers that remain for underrepresented groups to access medical education." The report noted the University of Saskatchewan accepts only five per cent of its applicants from out of province, and the University of British Columbia, while having no firm limit, took only 6.5 per cent in its most recent medical class. The U of M report says most medical students are from high-income families — little progress has been made attracting indigenous medical students and other sociocultural and ethnic groups. Manitoba needs doctors reflecting our diversity in ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic conditions, and sexual orientation. Postl said while the proposal covers only medical school, the access changes could apply in future to students in dentistry, nursing and pharmacy, all within the faculty of health sciences.

 

 

The proposed criteria by which the University of Manitoba will evaluate medical school applicants from underrepresented groups. Family history will be worth 41 per cent of the evaluation, economic information 37 per cent, and other socioeconomic determinants 22 per cent. The weight assigned to each criterion within a category adds up to 1.0.

 

Family history:

 

1 Were you raised by teen parent, or by a single parent due to divorce, death of a parent? 0.09 

 

2 Were you raised by family other than your parents? 0.09

 

3 Were you ever a child or youth in care? 0.26

 

4 Has your family ever had an open file with Child and Family Services 0.16 

 

5 Are you a parent taking care of one or more children on your own? 0.13

 

6 Did your parents or guardians graduate from college or university? 0.09

 

7 Were you or your family admitted to Canada with refugee status? 0.18

 

Economic information:

 

1 Did you or your family ever have to use a food bank? 0.17

 

2 Did you or your family ever have to use a homeless shelter? 0.26

 

3 Did you or your family ever live on social assistance? 0.19

 

4 During the second decade of your life, was the annual gross income in the household in which you lived less than $20,000? 0.19

 

5 During the second decade of your life, was the annual gross income in the household in which you lived between $20,000-$40,000? 0.05

 

6 During the second decade of your life, was the annual gross income in the household in which you lived between $40,000-$75,000? 0.01

 

7 During the second decade of your life, did you have to work to contribute to family income? 0.04

 

8 Will your parent(s) be paying for the tuition fees if you get accepted to our medical school? 0.05

 

9 Do you currently receive student aid? 0.02 10 Is your current debt from student aid greater than $10,000? 0.02

 

Other sociocultural determinants:

 

1 Do you consider yourself to be a member of a visible minority? 0.05

 

2 Do you identify as First Nations, Metis, Inuit or other North American Indigenous ancestry? 0.23

 

3 Is your primary language other than English or French? 0.09

 

4 Do you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, intersex, queer, transgender, transsexual or two spirit? 0.13

 

5 Do you have a participation or activity limitation that has an impact on your day-to-day life? 0.17

 

6 Were you raised or are you living in a household in which there was/is a person living with a disability? 0.10

 

7 Were you raised or are you living in a household in which there was/is a person living with substance abuse? 0.23

[amichel]

Interesting. Two thoughts.

 

1) The tuition is not the reason said groups are underrepresented in medical school. The reasons they are underrepresented start decades earlier in elementary school, so I'm not sure allocating spots at the admissions level fixes anything, really.

 

2) Further to that, why do all the questions ask about one's second decade? What happened to the formative years?

 

I applaud the effort but real improvement, I'm afraid, would require systemic level changes. But it's a start, I suppose.

 

Edit: http://cumming.ucalgary.ca/UME_Scholarship_Program

 

Will be interesting to see how these two programs compare. If I had to guess, I'd guess that starting earlier will be more successful.

[...]

.

[rmorelan]

very interesting - I have been reading through this. I can imagine the shear amount of effort to even get these rules organized. Not an easy task!

[aishley]

Wow the fees of U of M is really affordable...I could not control but apply next year 

 

Its hard to say that this will be helpful. But from my experience, many of my friends who are low-income have really hard time getting 'things together' in terms of med, particularly when UofS was making them ineligible because they were part-time student and their degree was not completed in ≤ 40 months of university enrolment time [such unfair rulings]. I think this would at least have some impact!

 

I would not say its just tuition that is the contributory factor but rather what these applicant are going through

[rmorelan]

Wow the fees of U of M is really affordable...I could not control but apply next year 

 

Its hard to say that this will be helpful. But from my experience, many of my friends who are low-income have really hard time getting 'things together' in terms of med, particularly when UofS was making them ineligible because they were part-time student and their degree was not completed in ≤ 40 months of university enrolment time [such unfair rulings]. I think this would at least have some impact!

 

I would not say its just tuition that is the contributory factor but rather what these applicant are going through

 

the biggest impact is probably just the fact that they have a stream - regardless of the rules in it. Now there are news reports on the problem and a take home message to the effect of yeah we know it is harder but we still want you to have a chance to go to medical school. That might spark and attempt from someone that otherwise would not even consider medical school.

[...]

.

[MathToMed]

They'll have realized they will have to fund and develop support strategies for individuals that they take on whom haven't developped the requisite study skills.

 

 

I highly doubt anyone who gets admitted, even with this low SES grace, will lack requisite study skills (after all, this is an applicant score boost - not a complete disregard for someone's statistics). The best of the low SES applicants will still be the ones accepted.

 

Sure, maybe someone like me would get in with a dreaded 3.7 GPA that normally wouldn't stand a chance, but I assure you that these people don't lack study skills...if anyone reading this has been trained to think that a 3.8+ is required for success in med school, they've been duped by the system.

 

The only reason the acceptance average is so high is due to sheer supply and demand...not because of the rigors of medical education.

 

---------------

Definitely a step in the right direction IMHO...even if the questionnaire is hardly exhaustive I can sense a lot of effort went into it. Someone has tried their best to understand the struggle, even if they weren't someone that necessarily went through it themselves. It shows that people are starting to realize this is a problem at the very least, and that's a significant gain.

 

On a more personal note, sucks that I can't benefit from something like that! It sounds as though this low-income stream will be provided to IP applicants (as OOP applicants will be reduced to half the number, and that half will become the low-income stream).

[...]

.

[mango.tea]

,

[MathToMed]

It's not about helping the privileged with low GPAs. It's there to help people who've been refugees, who've been through family services, who grew up below the poverty line or in group homes.

 

I've worked with these families for years...

 

I've been one of these families... And because I put up the good fight and managed to be the first in my family to attend university against literally all odds, you're labelling/assuming I, or others like me, are "privileged with a low GPA?"

 

 

Either that or I really don't understand why you'd interpret my post in such a way.

[taboo]

UofM hasn't admitted 10 OOP students in the last 5 classes and has only gone over 5% once in the same period.

Are they going to make 5 spots, or are they going to give them a multiplier like rural?

 

If I start smoking weed do I get points for substance abuse?

Is anxiety considered a participation limitation that impacts day to day life?

Is ADHD a disability? If a grandparent moves in with your family due to late life disability, does that have the same weight as having one yourself?

If sexuality is a spectrum a lot of people are bisexual without having any effect on their life.

You could have a horrible childhood and not be able to tick any boxes, and have a decent childhood and tick a lot of boxes.

[...]

.

[ellorie]

I like Calgary's approach - it starts a bit further upstream and seems to recognize how big a hurdle it is for some people to even get to the point where they can apply to medical school.

 

It's hard to imagine how a numerical formula could capture the whole of someone's developmental experience.  I'd think that having people write an essay or discuss it in an interview might be more elucidating.

[rmorelan]

I like Calgary's approach - it starts a bit further upstream and seems to recognize how big a hurdle it is for some people to even get to the point where they can apply to medical school.

 

It's hard to imagine how a numerical formula could capture the whole of someone's developmental experience.  I'd think that having people write an essay or discuss it in an interview might be more elucidating.

 

very hard - I don't envy that aspect of this at all. So many somewhat arbitrary choices - that need updating each year.

 

the other side of this is they are cutting OOP spots. I agree - as it stands realistically they are funding people that have a very high risk of leaving that province (higher than I suspect is supportable - other provinces may have better retention but there it seems terrible). Spots are limited, funding is scarce, and outcome is not good. Time to change.

[amichel]

I've been one of these families... And because I put up the good fight and managed to be the first in my family to attend university against literally all odds, you're labelling/assuming I, or others like me, are "privileged with a low GPA?"

 

 

Either that or I really don't understand why you'd interpret my post in such a way.

Maybe give that another read.... I'm pretty sure the poster was agreeing with you that this stream was NOT about helping 'privileged people with low GPAs. Unless I'm missing something.

[rupchatt]

This is exceptional. I am proud of the Manitoba admissions people...good job! Way to goooo! Its so important to document SES!