slapped with a thinvelope....now here is a question.

[Guest ploughboy]

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Hi Mikey Five Niner,

 

Thanks for the words of encouragement.

 

It's interesting that you used the word "poetic" to describe your first (unsuccessful) set of essays. If there was one word to describe what I tried to achieve with my answers, that would be it. What can I say, I'm an artsie trapped in an engineer's body... I sweated blood over my essays, lying awake at night worrying about imagery, the connotations of specific words and the inter-relationship between my answers. I aimed for short, direct sentences with powerful impact, and sometimes I relied on the reader to connect the dots in my answer and see what I was getting at (hey, I only had 700 chars). I realized this left me in a position where the evaluator would either really resonate with my answers or would be sitting there scratching her head going "What the hell is he on about?", but it was a deliberate design decision and I figured it was worth the risk. Apparently it didn't work out for me this year.

 

Of course, there were a couple of questions that I completely missed the point on with my answer - I'd like to think they contributed to my pfo letter. My GPA ain't gonna win me no prizes, neither...

 

I really hope that Mac will release my percentile scores this summer, so that I can re-evaluate my strategy. Mac is still far and away my number one choice, and I hope to study meds there some day.

 

Good luck on the interview man, kick some butt!

 

pb

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[Guest Lynlloyd]

To MACbetty,

Your a spring chicken!!!

I'm 42, applied for the first time and........I can't beleive it......I have been invited for an interview. This is certainly not you last chance. Keep going for it!! I thought my age would be a barrier but it hasn't been so far.

[Guest OU812]

Hello Lyn:

 

I would be really interested in hearing your background, what kind of stuff you did before, if you have a family etc?

 

 

In any case I wish you nothing but the best for your interviews. You go gett'em Tiger

[Guest MayFlower1]

Lynlloyd,

 

Geeze, I thought I was the oldest applicant |I I'm 39...I strongly believe age can work to our advantage. This is my second time applying...I had my interview today... It felt good... I guess we'll see on June 1st! Good luck on your interview.

 

Peter

[Guest VwDubber]

Hey Peter,

 

I thought all Mac interviews were going to be conducted the weekend of the 30th and the 5th?

 

Guess I was wrong In any case, you must be relieved that it's over now? I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

 

Cheers

[Guest Lynlloyd]

Thanks OU812 and MayFlower1,

I'm married with three kids (7,5, & 2) so I guess I'm a little later than most in achieving life's common goals!! I have 20 years in nursing and worked in a variety of fields from critical care to teaching to public health.

 

I'm from the UK and came to Canada at age 25 as an RN. I went back to school and earned my BScN (from Mac...'92) with a GPA of 3.84.

 

I worked part-time while studying full-time. I have contributed as a volunteer in a variety of ways (currenty on a non-profit Board of Directors). When I read the accomplishments of some who have applied I feel humbled. I did spend a lot of time on the answers to the 15 questions and maybe being familiar with the "Mac way" helped somewhat.

 

I'm feeling very nervous about the interview and I hope I don't "blow it". Good luck to all fellow interviewees and also to future applicants who were'nt as lucky as me this time around.

 

Lynlloyd

[Guest Lynlloyd]

MayFlower1,

I'm interested to know your background if your comfortable posting.

[Guest mtws]

Oh he's comfortable.

 

Your post struck me as funny, for all of us long time lurkers feel like we know Mayflower like a brother. He is one of the most open and honest posters (if not the) just look around, you'll find stuff about him.

 

Or wait a few minutes - he'll let you know... rumour is he doesn't sleep.

Cheers,

Matt

[Guest MayFlower1]

Just to clear something up... I didn't apply to Mac as my personal journey has told me that it's not the right environment for me... cool school... great people ... but I need a bit more structure, I believe... nothing about the school... it's about me. I hang in this forum because I find the people great and the discussions interesting...

 

mtws,

 

You're too funny...you're right, I'm not the most shy person you'll ever meet...and, judging by the time on the clock right now (5:37am EST, and the fact that I've been up since 4:00am EST)...the rumour that I don't sleep isn't really a rumor By the way...I'm completely flattered by your post...you are too kind.

 

Lynlloyd,

 

My background is dark and meandering I was born in Montreal (sorry...just teasing... I'll start a few years later). I completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology and graduated with honours from Concordia University in Montreal...my honours thesis was in the field of perception and Human Factors. I went on to do a Masters degree in Experimental Psychology...my area of focus was visual perception and low vision (low vision occurs when someone has an acquired or congenital visual condition like cataracts, macular degeneration, glaucoma). I volunteered at the Royal Victoria Hospital's low vision centre, conducting basic vision research and providing diagnostic and rehabillitative services to individuals with low vision. After graduating, I delivered these same services (on a volunteer basis) for an Ophthalmologist/Cataract Surgeon in Montreal at his private practice. Around the same time, I began my first career...I was hired by a company in Montreal called "Phoenix International Life Sciences"...a pharmaceutical research company. I started out collecting samples (urine, poo, blood)...when they found out I had a masters degree in a research discipline, I was promoted to study manager. I was responsible for planning and executing pharmacokinetic, bioequivalence and efficacy studies, primarily for testing of new generic pharmaceuticals but we did do [sorry, I mean't test] some innovator drugs as well.

 

About a year into my career at Phoneix, I began talking with folks at Bell-Northern Research (now known as Nortel Networks) in Ottawa as I heard they had a huge division of other psychos (oops, psychologists) like myself doing human factors work for the purposes of product development. To make a long story short...they offered me huge bucks... sent a moving van to montreal... packed my stuff up...and brought me to Ottawa to work for ... well... 11 years as a market researcher/human factors specialist. I was hired to answer three primary questions: 1) what do people want/need/value and 2) once we knew the answer to that question, what product configuration will satisfy that need and 3) once we knew what they wanted, the basic configuration, could they actually use it...and if not, how to change it to make it usable, easy to understand, etc. The last four years of my career was spent as a product design manager, guiding multi-disciplinary design teams comprised of engineers, human factors types, user interface designers, industrial designers, etc. You may know some of the products that our group designed... Norstar business telephones...Vista residential telephones...Nomad cordless telephone... and earlier on... signature telephones, harmony telephones...we also designed high speed switching gear for internet, wireless networking equipment ...blah blah blah. Well, about two years ago...you know the story...the demise of Nortel...we were all laid off...

 

What an opportunity...the golden handcuffs (i.e., lots of cash...stock options (now worthless)...fun, impactful job...great people...balanced lifestyle) were finally undone...I was FREE! Well, at least cheap, anyway.

 

I began thinking about what I wanted to do when I grew up. I decided to follow a dream I had when I was younger but, at that time, decided I was too immature to go for...yes, medicine. As a backup plan, I set up a local R&D company in Ottawa with 5 colleagues from Nortel...it's still going...they're doing great...I'm not there anymore...you can see what we were up to:

 

Design Interpretive

 

After Design Interpretive...I got a long-term contract with Statistics Canada as a senior quantitative research manager. I planned a national study for them on behalf of Health Canada on Maternity Experiences, looking at the experiences of Canadian mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and early parenthood. I completed the pilot phase of the project prior to the end of my contract.

 

Since then I've been contracting for Ekos research in Ottawa. I'm presently finishing up a project being conducted on behalf of the federal government looking at how they can take better advantage of the internet for on-line consultation and engagement of Canadian citizens on important issues, etc.

 

And in the mean time...I'm hoping to get into med school this year...second time applying...hope to not have to go through the process yet again...my adrenal glands can't take any more!

 

Hope this has helped...and I apologize if I've been too long winded.

 

Good luck.

 

Peter

.

[Guest macdaddyeh]

I was just about to ask the same question previously posted. Do you ever |I ? I hope so; I don't want you to look like :x ! Sometimes if one doesn't get enough sleep one can get >: . I hope I haven't made you . Wake up :eek open your eyes 8o and take a :smokin break from the computer:lol . Besides the weather looks good today, you may need to get out and put on your hat and glasses:hat and take a walk.

 

PS. Is the canal still frozen over?

[Guest Lynlloyd]

mayFlower1.......WOW!!!

I'm impressed and feeling even more humble!

Good luck for med-school this year...medicine will definitely benefit from you and your experience.

Thanks for sharing!

[Guest Dannyboy]

Gosh. Peter Mayflower is SUCH a show off......that will cost you yet another martini mister!

 

Glad to hear that your interview went well...not that I ever doubted that you would wow them.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Jeez, I wish I had your ability to not sleep. That will come in really handy in med school!