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Uoft Interview Discussion 2017

Shazam4343

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Hammmmmy Newbie

Hammmmmy

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Wait, so, is there any point of writing an academic explanations essay if we already have weighting and a 3.8+ wGPA? From what you guys are saying it sounds like the most they'll do GPA-wise is bring someone up to full weighting if they didn't previously qualify. 

Why did you write one in the first place? Not trying to patronize but just trying to understand your situation. Like I said in my earlier posts, they are at their own discretion to do whatever they want to your application within the confines of the assessment process. They will manipulate any grey area that they can to your favour if you give them a strong enough reason to. I would write it regardless. They don't penalize you for it and it only brings about good results. 

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pixie094 Newbie

pixie094

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I watched that admissions committee video last night, which was probably my 3rd or 4th time watching it. It really does seem that your GPA is used as a cutoff point. They talk about determining if your GPA is competitive, resulting in a rejection if it is not, similar to rejecting someone who doesn't meet MCAT cutoffs. This competitive GPA cutoff can vary from year to year as they mention.

 

Additionally, they mention the increasing average GPA for accepted students. I believe this is just do to more and more competitive applicatants applying each year. I would make sense that U of T, one of the top 15 med schools in the world, would receive many applications from strong applicants with high GPAs. Furthermore, with weight lifting and academic explanation essays, it's no surprise that the average accepted wGPA is ~3.95.

 

From the initial batch of applicants, they reject pretty much half of them right away based on not meeting MCAT cutoffs, incomplete applications, non-onjective LORs, uncompetitive GPA, etc. Then those half remaining go to a detailed file review in which approximately 1 in 6 receive and interview invite. The file review is a lengthy process so only a certain amount can move on to it. However, U of T offers more acceptances than any other med school in canada, so it would make sense that they would want to be able to review the maximum amount of files that time constraints can allow, in order to be able to interview the best 599 candidates who applied. With this all being said, it would make sense that U of T sets each year's wGPA cutoff to a set point that would initially reject around half of the applicants so that they are left with an amount of applications that will allow them to perform a full detailed file review for all of them between the time of initial rejections and invites to the last interview date.

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Hammmmmy Newbie

Hammmmmy

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I watched that admissions committee video last night, which was probably my 3rd or 4th time watching it. It really does seem that your GPA is used as a cutoff point. They talk about determining if your GPA is competitive, resulting in a rejection if it is not, similar to rejecting someone who doesn't meet MCAT cutoffs. This competitive GPA cutoff can vary from year to year as they mention.

 

Additionally, they mention the increasing average GPA for accepted students. I believe this is just do to more and more competitive applicatants applying each year. I would make sense that U of T, one of the top 15 med schools in the world, would receive many applications from strong applicants with high GPAs. Furthermore, with weight lifting and academic explanation essays, it's no surprise that the average accepted wGPA is ~3.95.

 

From the initial batch of applicants, they reject pretty much half of them right away based on not meeting MCAT cutoffs, incomplete applications, non-onjective LORs, uncompetitive GPA, etc. Then those half remaining go to a detailed file review in which approximately 1 in 6 receive and interview invite. The file review is a lengthy process so only a certain amount can move on to it. However, U of T offers more acceptances than any other med school in canada, so it would make sense that they would want to be able to review the maximum amount of files that time constraints can allow, in order to be able to interview the best 599 candidates who applied. With this all being said, it would make sense that U of T sets each year's wGPA cutoff to a set point that would initially reject around half of the applicants so that they are left with an amount of applications that will allow them to perform a full detailed file review for all of them between the time of initial rejections and invites to the last interview date.

I challenge you to break down the notion of why the high GPA trend is not a result of an embedded ranking system of applicant GPA. That is the crux of discussion. 

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anbessa21 Newbie

anbessa21

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I watched that admissions committee video last night, which was probably my 3rd or 4th time watching it. It really does seem that your GPA is used as a cutoff point. They talk about determining if your GPA is competitive, resulting in a rejection if it is not, similar to rejecting someone who doesn't meet MCAT cutoffs. This competitive GPA cutoff can vary from year to year as they mention.

 

Additionally, they mention the increasing average GPA for accepted students. I believe this is just do to more and more competitive applicatants applying each year. I would make sense that U of T, one of the top 15 med schools in the world, would receive many applications from strong applicants with high GPAs. Furthermore, with weight lifting and academic explanation essays, it's no surprise that the average accepted wGPA is ~3.95.

 

From the initial batch of applicants, they reject pretty much half of them right away based on not meeting MCAT cutoffs, incomplete applications, non-onjective LORs, uncompetitive GPA, etc. Then those half remaining go to a detailed file review in which approximately 1 in 6 receive and interview invite. The file review is a lengthy process so only a certain amount can move on to it. However, U of T offers more acceptances than any other med school in canada, so it would make sense that they would want to be able to review the maximum amount of files that time constraints can allow, in order to be able to interview the best 599 candidates who applied. With this all being said, it would make sense that U of T sets each year's wGPA cutoff to a set point that would initially reject around half of the applicants so that they are left with an amount of applications that will allow them to perform a full detailed file review for all of them between the time of initial rejections and invites to the last interview date.

Of those who reach full file review, 1/3 recieve interview invites (approx 600/1800); I believe it's 599/1777 to be exact. 

 

EDIT: I agree with the rest of your assessment. It appears as though a wGPA is set that allows for the immediate nullification of ~1/2 of the applicant pool. It is known that GPA values achieved in undergrad are on the ascent here in Ontario (and have been for quite some time now); as the applicant pool grows more competitive, so too does the cutoff wGPA. this is simply a function of global increase in competition; if they were to assess wGPA competitively (assign it a score along with the rest of one's file), this means that every file would have to be reviewed. This is something that is not at all feasible given the amount man-power required to execute detailed file review. The only counter-argument would be that after a cutoff wGPA is employed to reduce the size of the applicant pool, it is reintroduced as a metric for determining II's along with the rest of one's file (which I doubt as this is a redundancy, and is not overtly stated by the committee on admissions).

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pixie094 Newbie

pixie094

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I challenge you to break down the notion of why the high GPA trend is not a result of an embedded ranking system of applicant GPA. That is the crux of discussion. 

 

You're right, and that crux is definitely a large reason that I'm still not fully convince of my own argument. It's funny that even after releasing a very informative video on their admissions process, U of T can still remain a black box in some ways. I have always thought U of T used a ranking system for GPA, but after paying close attention to the language used by the admissions committee member in that video, I understand where the arguments to suggest otherwise are coming from. I think there are convincing arguments to be made on both sides.

 

Of those who reach full file review, 1/3 recieve interview invites (approx 600/1800); I believe it's 599/1777 to be exact. 

 

Sorry, my early morning math was definitely not up to par there. But if anything, with 1 in 3 (of the detailed file review applicants) receiving an invite, it only strengthens my point that U of T would use GPA as a cut off in order to review the files of as many competitive applicants as possible.

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Hammmmmy Newbie

Hammmmmy

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You're right, and that crux is definitely a large reason that I'm still not fully convince of my own argument. It's funny that even after releasing a very informative video on their admissions process, U of T can still remain a black box in some ways. I have always thought U of T used a ranking system for GPA, but after paying close attention to the language used by the admissions committee member in that video, I understand where the arguments to suggest otherwise are coming from. I think there are convincing arguments to be made on both sides.

 

 

Sorry, my early morning math was definitely not up to par there. But if anything, with 1 in 3 (of the detailed file review applicants) receiving an invite, it only strengthens my point that U of T would use GPA as a cut off in order to review the files of as many competitive applicants as possible.

 

Through their community of support program, I got a hold of the associate registrar's e-mail. I don't think this e-mail is typically offered through their website so I will definitely take advantage of this and e-mail them about this issue. 

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zaxop Newbie

zaxop

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Why did you write one in the first place? Not trying to patronize but just trying to understand your situation. Like I said in my earlier posts, they are at their own discretion to do whatever they want to your application within the confines of the assessment process. They will manipulate any grey area that they can to your favour if you give them a strong enough reason to. I would write it regardless. They don't penalize you for it and it only brings about good results. 

Yeah, no worries, I do recognize that a 3.8 wGPA isn't exactly in need of rescuing. I wrote my essay because I was dealing with some serious financial issues in my first two years that affected my GPA. My cGPA for my first two years was ~3.5, but my 3rd year (after getting financial assistance from school/scholarships) was 3.95. My wGPA came out to be ~3.85 and while I recognize that this certainly isn't bad by any means, it's also far from the previous wGPA accepted averages of 3.94-3.96, and I didn't feel like it represented my true academic ability. From reading over the past few years of accepted/rejected threads it doesn't seem like there are a lot of undergrads with <3.9 GPA so it seems like wGPA is pretty important in the assessment process, at least for non-grad students.

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aray623 Newbie

aray623

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Yeah, no worries, I do recognize that a 3.8 wGPA isn't exactly in need of rescuing. I wrote my essay because I was dealing with some serious financial issues in my first two years (often didn't have enough food, unable to pay for medications I needed, etc) that affected my GPA. My first two years, my GPA was 3.3 and 3.6, but my 3rd year (after getting financial assistance from school/scholarships) was 3.95. My wGPA came out to be ~3.85 and while I recognize that this certainly isn't bad by any means, it's also far from the previous wGPA accepted averages of 3.94-3.96, and I didn't feel like it represented my true academic ability. From reading over the past few years of accepted/rejected threads it doesn't seem like there are a lot of undergrads with <3.9 GPA so it seems like wGPA is pretty important in the assessment process, at least for non-grad students.

I'm in pretty much the same situation as you (some of my years aren't what they should have been due to various personal reasons, but things worked out and now I'm doing well.) With the weighting I've got a 3.88. I also wrote an academic explanation essay, but already have the weighting. Totally get where you were coming from.

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catchlynall Newbie

catchlynall

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Well...

All schools I applied to have now replied with rejection.

Can't say I'm not bummed out, but at least the wait is over.

 

Look at it this way - you're right on track for getting ahead of next year's application. It is a tough pill to swallow. First time I applied I got No's from all 5 schools and this time I've gotten No's from 8/10 so far.

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