Guest McObssession Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 Is it true that Mc invites only about 20 people for the interview? According to the 2005 class stat, there seems to be quite a number of people in the 3.30-3.59 CGPA category. Does that mean that if you do not have a unique life experience (i.e. mature applicants, native applicants, or with very exotic life experience with demonstrated dedications, etc), you do not have much chance? I am currently in the fourth year and my GPA is just below 3.50......... I dug this information from pre-med discussion forum and am quite nervous about it because Mc is the only place I applied this year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Biochem10 Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 Umm...I think it's only 3 short weeks before we'll have our notices about interviews/rejections, so since you can't go back now and apply to more schools for this year, is there really any point in worrying about how many interviews are granted? If you did your best with the 15 questions and added some interesting life experiences in the mix, you shouldn't worry about what your GPA is (you can't change that at this point). Just sit back, relax and wait for the letter. Personally, with such an amazing number of applicants to Mac I'm not going to kill myself thinking about what my odds are. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peachy Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 I generally agree with what Biochem10 said, but want to add that there are certainly more than 20 interviews offered! I don't remember the exact numbers, but it's likely on the order of 400 or so interviews... And it's also generally a bad idea to pin your hopes on any one school, especially one with the odds as awful as Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tirisa Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 Hi McObs, I'm not a moderator, but I can certainly try to clarify the interview stats. I'm not sure where you got the number 20 from, in terms of interview invites, but according to the Mac website and to earlier threads on this board, you'll see that Mac generally sends out just under 400 interview applications (I believe it's around 385 actually). From these, 138 invitations to med school are sent out. As students decline their spots (in order to attend another school), more invitations are sent out in order to have a complete 2003 class of 138 students. As for getting the interview, it's a combination of 50% GPA and 50% application, but since GPAs only range between 3 and 4, and application scores could range from 0 to 4, the main deciding factor is really the application. As for uniqueness, almost anything could be considered a unique life experience, so don't start to be too concerned if you haven't worked overseas or can't juggle bowling balls :lol . I know two guys who received interviews two years ago (neither accepted) who hadn't done anything too incredibly exotic, but had very solid applications and great GPAs. At any rate, you've put in your application and one can assume you've done your best. There are only two more weeks of waiting, so try to relax. In hopeful anticipation, just start thinking about how you would answer many of the questions you've seen on this board, along with other questions that you have seen. If you get the interview invite, then you can start seriously preparing (after you celebrate that first big hurdle). If not, then don't begin to lose hope, since many applicants are on second and third rounds, and get in. You just need to begin to think about how to better yourself for the following year. Anyway, best of luck to you. Cheers, T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmh2005 Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 I just wrote this long post, but it got swallowed up again...I don't know how that happens??? But, basically Tirisa is correct...approx. 400 are interviewed...not 20, perhaps you got that from the "personal qualities" stat on the class composition summary. If you have a 3.00 and have amazing life experiences and get the 100%-ile on the sketch...these are the people who are interviewed on "personal qualities". However, look again at the ages of the class...most have just a bachelors...this is the majority don't forget...too many people hear about the one or two people every year that are a bit older and have done some neat things...however, this really is not the norm... A 3.5 is very respectful (probably just below the median) so with a great sketch, this could easily get an interview... Just a few more weeks to wait, I saw them with sketches and papers just yesterday, so they are getting ready...just remember it won't be the end of the world either if you don't interview, even though it may seem like it...it took many of us a few kicks at the can to get where we are today! Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest McObssession Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 I obtained the stats from the general premed discussion board and I meant to say that 20 people "with GPA under 3.5" get invited for the interview out of something around 400. I agree with all of you who have replied to my post earlier in that the 15 questions are the major determinant of the interview invitations. However, considering that about half of the Mc applicants have GPA 3.5 or below, 1 in 20 ratio of being accepted between those with GPA lower than 3.5 and those with 3.5 or above sounded quite discouraging to me. Of course, only if it is true at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tirisa Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 Hey JMH2005, I haven't heard very much about the "personal qualities" interviews. How does the interview differ from the regular interview stream (other than what you have mentioned above, re: applicants have 3.00 GPA and 100%-ile app). Do they still do the group simulation and video exercise?? Just curious. (I wouldn't qualify anyway) Cheers, T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmh2005 Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 Whatever was posted in the premed forum is incorrect. You just rationalized it yourself...maybe they only interviewed 20 people with a GPA of 3.00-3.10 or 3.00-3.19...but definately not 3.5 (which as has been pointed out, it generally just below the median GPA) No worries...I like said, only a couple more weeks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmh2005 Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 The interview process is EXACTLY the same for all applicants. You don't even know if you were one of the ones who was interviewed just because of "personal qualities", nor would the interviewers. I suppose if you had just a 3.00 but wrote about saving the lives of people from a village in India from something terrible, this might qualify...but really I have no idea, I'm purely speculating... Back to work... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tirisa Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 Great thanks. I would have been surprised if the interview was different for different people. Back to work for me too. Ciao, T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest faqir9 Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 I have seen this question asked before but have never received a definitive answer: Is the GPA converted to a percentile FIRST and then the two percentiles (essay and exam) equally weighted 50/50, or is it as the poster said 50/50 using a 0-4 essay scale and 3-4 GPA scale (the latter obviously weighting the essay much more than 50%)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JSS02 Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 faqir9, By no means do I know what the official policy is, but your latter scenario would make a lot more sense. If you have a GPA near the 50th percentile of 3.5 (as people posted above) you definitely have a shot at an interview if they really like your answers to those 15 questions, references, etc... but if your essay percentile is only 50th, there's pretty much no way you can get an interview, no matter how high your GPA is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmh2005 Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 Your marks count for 50% and the sketch counts for 50%...totally equal weight. The top 400 scores in the total of GPA and sketch out of all the applicants get an interview, it is that simple. You must meet the 3.00 GPA cut off...a GPA of 3.00 is likely the 1st percentile, the applicant with a 4.00 GPA will likely be in 100th %-ile (simple statistics). As far as I know, everything is rank according to %-iles, what they do with the numbers after that I can't say, ie. rank out a scale of 8, etc...If you interview, it is the interview score that will make you or break you at this point...Some one told me when I was applying you must score within the 50th %-ile in order to be considered for a potential spot in the class and then your letters, GPA, sketch and interview are all revisited and a rank-order list is generated (again, this is what I heard from people when I applied, so take it with a grain of salt!). Hope that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mala2003 Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 So according to this logic, then a person with a GPA of 3.7 would rank in the 70 percentile and then they would have to have higher than a 90th percentile in the 15 questions to get an interview? (this is from reading the other posts that you need to be in the 84th percentile to get an interview). Is this true? Somewhat true? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peachy Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 Who knows? This question has been asked before, numerous times, and I don't think that anybody is going to give us a straight answer. Not the people at Mac, and not the people at any other medical school. This question applies to ALL of them - when U of T says that 50% of your final score (or whatever it is..) is grades, what does that mean? Who knows! It could be on a scale from 0 to 4, it could be on a scale from 3.6 to 4.0, or it could be anything else! For all we know, it's non-linear! ... Personally, I'm just going to try to do as well as I can on every scale and trust that when the medical schools tell us that "Grades are worth x%" that they are telling us that in good faith. That is, that they are using some grading scheme that ACTUALLY makes grades worth approximately x%, and doesn't in reality make them worth nothing or everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jmh2005 Posted February 19, 2003 Report Share Posted February 19, 2003 You never know from one year to the next what the applicant pool is like...it differs greatly from year to year (huge differences from year to year sometimes, but sometimes not...my friend graduated from Mac in 2001, the mean GPA was above 3.7, my class is 3.5 something...)...scores that may be high enough to get an interview one year, may not be high enough the next... As for the comment about needing the 84th %ile on the sketch if you have a 3.7....I was merely speculating...I have no idea...and again, it depends strickly on the applicant pool from year to year... The only people that really know are the admissions chairs and coordinator, and yes, this has been discussed at length. I am going to close the discussion. Good luck to all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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