Mac Student Profile

[Guest EZPLF]

When I interviewed at Mac I observed a few things that both surprised, as well as confirmed some of my expectations.

 

First, I found that there were many more applicants who were in their third year of their undergrad degree. Also, in my group I know of only one applicant with a grad degree (and one other who was in a Masters program at the time). I expected a mix that tended to the mature side, with M.Sc's and M.A.'s all over the place.

 

Second, I found that the applicants were almost all from the sciences, with less than a handful of exceptions. I expected more variability in the applicants' background.

 

I did find that there were more females among those interviewed, but it was not a severe majority.

 

These observations may have been limited to my interview time slot, so I need a less biased view. My main question is this: "What is the profile of Mac's student body?"

 

Is Mac truly inclusive of students from outside the natural sciences? Are its students chosen for their maturity (which does not necessarily mean age)? What is Mac looking for? Is it the same thing as the other schools, the only difference being that they cast a wider net?

[Guest Anon]

I must say that I found my interview day much the same. The students that I met were not from as diverse a background as I may have expected. I did meet people with BA backgrounds and nurses, however, I was surprised that most applicants were only just finishing their undergrad. I am not sure what this means - I am unsure as to what McMaster was truly looking for in the interview...I felt that it was focused mainly on one's ability to evaluate themselves rather than their 'maturity'.

[Guest Sizzlechest]

I also noticed an over-respresentation of 3rd years. This is because Mac does not discriminate between those who have a degree & those who don't at the interview-granting stage. As long as you've got the marks and submission score, they'll invite you over. However, at the interview, applicants with degrees (especially Masters) have a distinct advantage because of their increased maturity and breadth of experience. I suspect you'll find very few/no 3rd years being accepted.

 

My interview group was highly diverse: a rural nurse practitioner, a lawyer, a chiropractor, an MBA, and these are only the ones that I had the pleasure of speaking to.

[Guest Anon]

Sizzlechest is right... The avg age of the current 1st year class in September was 26 or 27 with many people having done two degrees or some other life experience in that time...

[Guest gucio93]

I had a slightly different experience when I interviewed at Mac. In my group of six there were two M.Sc. and one (almost) Ph.D. One person was just finishing her third year. One was a forensic tech. And one had absolutely no science background. However, I did run into a few more third year and, same as you, was surprised that they were invited for an interview as I thought more mature students were preferred. Well, we can only wait and see what happens (and hope and pray at the same time!)

[Guest rubberneck]

Likely many of the 3rd years will be eliminated during the collation stage. This bodes well for those interviewees already holding Honours and Masters degrees, considering the sheer number of 3rd year students invited for an interview.

[Guest JD]

I have unofficial stats saved from a message posted on the other board (Anandmed)last summer. There's 38 people 24 years old or under, so I guess undergrads are still reasonably well represented, even though it might be less than at other schools.

 

Stats for the Class of 2004 at Mac:

 

3000 applied, 100 accepted (108 after the increase).

Ages: 20-24yrs (38 accepted) 25-26 (26) 27-29 (18) 30-32 (8) 33-34 (2) 35-37 (2) 38-40 (5) 41-43 (1)

 

66 were female, 34 male

 

Grade Point averages were: 3.00-3.10 (6) 3.11-3.16 (4)

3.17-3.19 (0) 3.20-3.29 (8) 3.30-3.59 (35) 3.60-3.69 (14)

3.70-3.89 (25) 3.90-4.00 (8) Mean GPA was 3.55

 

92 from Ontario, 8 from the rest of Canada, 0 from other. It states though that 5 applicants were accepted from the international applicant pool.

 

Interview stream was selected by: academic and personal qualities (367) and personal qualities (20)

 

19 of the accepted had a background in Arts, 66 from a science background, 4 from Kinesiology, and the rest of the areas of study all had an average of 1.

[Guest JD]

Looks like some of those numbers were messed up by those happy face icons. Hehe...

Here's the corrections:

 

- 18 people between 27-29 years of age.

- 8 people 32-34

- 8 people with 3.2-3.29 GPAs

- 8 people with 3.9-4.0 GPAs

[Guest rubberneck]

I wonder how many of the 38 people aged 20-24 are actually 3rd years... I suspect most of these are honours graduates, but I could be wrong.

[Guest carolyn]

I know that we definitely have some people that came out of 3rd year... I can think of 3 or 4 of the top of my head and of course I really don't know the background of everyone...

[Guest Anon]

Although it is interesting to look at the stats from last year I don't think that it would be fair to disregard individuals that do not have education beyond their undergraduate years. Everyone has such unique backgrounds and this all factors in. It is so hard to wait for the big news but good luck to everyone...we are all very worthy of getting in somewhere I think!!

[Guest EZPLF]

I would not want a candidate excluded from med school just because they would only have three years of university. Rather, I am of the opinion that there should be a place for as many of the qualified and able candidates as possible: youngish to oldish, bright and keen to weathered and experienced. Only so long as they will make good physicians.

 

However, I think the Mac model is better suited to the student with maturity (not necessarily agewise). Other schools (e.g., UWO and Queens) may be better suited to the candidate who hasn't had the chance to develop self-directed learning skills. I've talked to two Mac med grads that have commented that it really isn't in a candidate's best interest to go to Mac if they haven't had the growth experiences. One of these grads said that they would have probably gotten more out of U of T or Queens because they do better with externally imposed expectations.

 

Personally, I am at once anxious and excited at the prospect of being involved in Mac's approach to med ed. I believe I fit the bill of the mature self-disciplined learner, and that I would thrive in its curriculum; still, it is not the tried, true, and familiar learning settings of U of T, Queen's, Ottawa, UWO, and others.

 

Are there any third years out there for whom Mac would be their first choice if they had offers elsewhere?

[Guest hopeful]

EZPLF,

 

Although this was a thread from last year's applicant pool, I found it interesting and wondered what this year's applicants thought of your question. As a mature (based on age > 30!) applicant, completing my 3rd year undergrad now, I would definitely have to say that McMaster is my first choice. It is the unique learning environment that attracts me to MAC and with many years of work & life experience I think the PBL and self-directed learning approach are more suited to my learning needs.

 

I would be interested in finding out how many other applicants feel that MAC is their first choice (& why). If you have applied to MAC + other schools and were to be fortunate to be granted admission to both, would you choose MAC over the more conventional schools?

 

Just curious - what is everyone's view on this?

[Guest cheech10]

On the Mac Stats page

( www-fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdpro...s_2004.PDF ) it states that 53 students out of 128 had a Bachelor's in progress (mainly 3rd year students), and a further 40 students had completed their Bachelor's (mainly 4th year students, but it's likely that some had completed 3 year degrees). So 93/128 had no Masters or PhD. To me. this discredits the notion that older applicants have an advantage in the McMaster selection process. I think the key is maturity, not age, and the two do not always correlate well. Granted there are some older students in the class, but the majority of the class stats look to be in line with those of other schools (eg, the UBC stats posted on this site have a similar portion of students without Masters of PhDs).

[Guest hopeful]

Cheech,

 

I agree that age does not always mean maturity and maturity does not necessarily mean age. It is funny though that whenever a questions comes up about age/maturity people start pulling out the MBA/PhD thing as well - I don't think that MBA/PhD = age/maturity. Sure if one has a graduate degree then they will have a few years on someone who is in their 3rd year of undergrad (directly from highschool) but I guess I am biased in thinking that age means over 30. There are many "aged" applicants (over 30) that do not have an MBA/PhD and have recently returned to school to work on their undergraduate degree, and therefore are old/mature/3rd year applicants.

 

I thought the question that was raised about whether someone would go to Mac if they were accepted somewhere else as well was interesting. On one of the other webboards it has been inferenced that people only apply to Mac in case they don't get in anywhere else (which is why there are 3000+ applicants at Mac and much less at other schools) or if they have low GPAs. This is not my personal belief - as I mentioned before, Mac is my first choice. I was just curious about how many of the other 3000 applicants would choose to go somewhere else if they were given the choice.