spa Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 Hi All, Had two questions regarding Calgary Med. 1) In Appendix 1 of applicant manual, two scales for GPA conversion are given: 90-100% = 4.0 A and A+ = 4.0 My school has both a letter grade reported on transcript as well as percent.. so if I have an 87% in a course, which also equals an A letter grade, will get 3.9 or 4.0 in the GPA conversion? 2) How important are non-CARS section for Calgary? I know it says objective assessment will be done only using CARS, but do any of you have experience writing only CARS and getting in, or having poor scores in PHYS/PSYC/BIOL and getting in? In Global Review of Academic Merit, would having 5 courses taken each term be weighed more than taking BIO for example? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
End Poverty Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 Hi, 1) You may e-mail the admission office to confirm how your GPA will be converted/calculated. 2) The other non- CARS sections of the MCAT (PHYS Chem/PSYC/BIOL), the number of courses taken per semester, and the difficulty of the courses are used in the global review of academic merit. There are probably other variables in the calculation of the global review of academic merit that I may not be aware of. Best of Luck spa 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Borborygmi Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 I entered the letter grade when I applied. I seem to remember admissions telling me to use whichever would be better. You could always call to confirm. I don't know the answer to #2. Sorry! spa 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popetopus Posted January 10, 2017 Report Share Posted January 10, 2017 If both the letter grade and percentage score are on your transcript, like you've said, you can enter whichever one you'd like into the UCAN transcripts section. It auto-calculates your GPA based on what you've entered so you pretty much just play around with it and input whichever one yields a higher GPA. The conversion function similar in other grade ranges as well. For example, at UBC, a final grade of 76% will have a "B+" letter grade on a UBC transcript. According to the UCAN conversion charts, 76% = 3.00 GPA while B+ = 3.30 GPA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spa Posted January 11, 2017 Author Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 If both the letter grade and percentage score are on your transcript, like you've said, you can enter whichever one you'd like into the UCAN transcripts section. It auto-calculates your GPA based on what you've entered so you pretty much just play around with it and input whichever one yields a higher GPA. The conversion function similar in other grade ranges as well. For example, at UBC, a final grade of 76% will have a "B+" letter grade on a UBC transcript. According to the UCAN conversion charts, 76% = 3.00 GPA while B+ = 3.30 GPA. Thanks! This is great news... So basically I would just enter A wherever I got 85% and +... but doesnt this system disadvantage those who got A+... because now their grades are worth the same as A's... so if some got 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86, 86 and another person got 95, 95, 95, 95 ,95 ,95 ,95 , 95, 95 , 95.. They would both be 4.0! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BernieMac Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1994 Posted January 11, 2017 Report Share Posted January 11, 2017 It is so unfair that the GPA system for OOP students applying to UofC is so forgiving while Alberta students are screwed when they apply to Ontario and UBC........you could literally have a 4.0 GPA at U of C (all A's) and that would only be a 87% average for UBC which is miles from competitive for even an interview and that 4.0 Alberta GPA would be 3.9 if you applied to Ontario which is not competitive for Ottawa or Toronto, what a joke...what makes it worse is that many courses at U of C require a 90% grade to get the letter grade A, and 95+ for A+ but since we only get letter grades on our transcript we are screwed when want to apply to UBC and Ontario... I don't know what the conversion is like for Albertan students when they apply to OOP schools, but let's not pretend that only Albertans are disadvantaged when applying OOP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelingTheBern Posted January 24, 2017 Report Share Posted January 24, 2017 It is so unfair that the GPA system for OOP students applying to UofC is so forgiving while Alberta students are screwed when they apply to Ontario and UBC........you could literally have a 4.0 GPA at U of C (all A's) and that would only be a 87% average for UBC which is miles from competitive for even an interview and that 4.0 Alberta GPA would be 3.9 if you applied to Ontario which is not competitive for Ottawa or Toronto, what a joke...what makes it worse is that many courses at U of C require a 90% grade to get the letter grade A, and 95+ for A+ but since we only get letter grades on our transcript we are screwed when want to apply to UBC and Ontario... I think that's an unfortunate circumstance, but I hope you also recognise the privilege of being IP in Alberta as well... There are so many non-traditional students from Ontario (my self included) who can't apply to Western or Ottawa because they didn't have the traditional September - April academic term because of coop and/or other mandatory pass/fail courses. In addition, NOSM really doesn't apply to most Ontario students because most of Ontario's population is in the south and considered "non rural". That only leaves Mac, Queen's and Toronto. If you had a bad first year, you're disadvantaged with Mac. Imbalanced MCAT score? Sorry Queen's won't even look at your file. Don't have a ridiculously high GPA? Sorry Toronto's out of the question as well. Also getting a 128+ on the CARS section just to be considered is no joke... It's difficult. I'm not saying that your position doesn't suck, because it totally sucks in its own way, but if I could turn back time and tell my immigrant parents to choose a province to settle down in knowing I'd want to pursue medicine, I would scream Alberta. Statistically Quebec is the easiest, but my parents already speak broken English, it would be cruel to ask them to learn and understand French. Hope you understand a Ontarian's perspective/hardship as well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justhoping Posted September 22, 2021 Report Share Posted September 22, 2021 On 1/10/2017 at 12:05 PM, Borborygmi said: I entered the letter grade when I applied. I seem to remember admissions telling me to use whichever would be better. You could always call to confirm. I don't know the answer to #2. Sorry! Does anyone know if this is still the case in later application cycles? I'm applying this year and not sure if I can just pick whichever one is better or if I have to enter a specific one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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