Transcript by Rob Moreland - Western Pre

The Ontario Medical Schools
Interview Invite and Acceptance Criteria
Targeted Tactics to Improve Your Application
19/06/10
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Each school has its own relatively unique methods
of determining who is invited for interview, and who
eventually will be accepted to the school
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The rules change yearly and you must keep up
with the changes
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There are ways to increase your chances, and
ways to dramatically cut them as well
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3 Year Program
Interview invite is based on:
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Autobiographical Sketch
Cumulative GPA
Score on the MCAT Verbal Reasoning section
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Final Acceptance is based on:
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Cumulative GPA
Score on the Verbal Reasoning part of the most recent
MCAT
Interview Score on the MMI
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Under their new MCAT policy, people with lower
GPA scores but solid MCAT VR sections, and well
developed responses to the ABS questions will get
interviews.
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Since the school counts all courses in their GPA
calculation it is extremely important to avoid low
grades
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Interview invite is based on:
◦ Strict MCAT Cut offs that vary from year to year
◦ GPA in two separate years must be above cut off
◦ This year GPA > 3.70, MCAT VR11/PS9/BS10/WS P
◦ SWOMEN Advantage
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Final Acceptance is based on:
◦ GPA from two separate years
◦ Score on the MCAT
◦ Interview score on closed panel interview
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Has one of the BEST methods for recovering a low
GPA as it only counts your best two years
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Does not count summer courses in GPA
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Has a SWOMEN program which is powerful edge if
you are from the associated area
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Has course overloading (but be very careful)
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Second degree students exclude first degree
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Has a unique weighted GPA system where later
years count more than earlier ones, and only your
last three years count
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Has regional GPA cut offs based on geography,
heritage, and language status
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Interview invite is based on
wGPA
Initial Autobiographical sketch review
Since sketch review is included, meeting cut offs does not
guarantee an interview
Final acceptance is based on
wGPA
Interview score on an open panel interview
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If you are from the associated area, or can speak
French this school will give you a special
advantage
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wGPA allows eventual forgiveness of earlier years.
Your last year count 3x your first one
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Boosts to relevant extracurricular work enhance
the likelihood of an interview
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Does not count summer courses in GPA
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Interview invite is based on
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Fixed and rigid MCAT cut offs
Fixed GPA cut offs
Estimated GPA of 3.7, MCAT of 10,10,10 R
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Invite GPA Cut offs are either
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Last two years (does not include summer courses)
All courses ever taken including summer courses
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Final acceptance is based on
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Solely the interview score on a generally standardized panel
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The last two years GPA route is an excellent way to
recover from earlier poorer performance
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The 100% interview score evens the playing field
for all applicants
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Strong emphasize on writing skills
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Has a grad route that allows for even lower GPA
students to get interviews
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Interview Invite is based on
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Holistic appraisal of entire application package, including
 GPA
 MCAT (recommend min 9/9/9/P)
 Letters of Reference
 Extra curricular activities
 Course Difficulty
 Research Productivity including graduate degrees
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Final Acceptance is based on
60% Academics
40% Interview plus all other remaining components
Interview itself is only 20% of final score
Due to the holistic approach the final class is
skewed somewhat between higher GPA undergrad
students, and lower GPA graduate students. Be
careful analyzing statistics from the school as a
result.
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Very flexible and forgiving admission system due to
full file review
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Strong advantage to graduate students
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Does not officially count summer courses in GPA,
but they will see what courses you took
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Extremely useful course drop policy
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If you take 5.0 course between Sept 1 and Apr 30
for every single year you are in university then you
can drop the lowest 1.0 courses per year
3rd Year students drop 6 typical courses
4th Year students drop 8 typical courses
For this reason Toronto makes dropping a course
undesirable, but this must be balanced against the
GPA policies of all other schools
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Our newest and smallest medical school with a
rural medicine focus
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Interview invites are based on:
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Essay question responses
GPA
Geographic residency
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Final Acceptance is based on
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Interview scores combined with pre-interview score
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Very flexible with respect to course load
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Substantial graduate student bonus to effective
GPA
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Strong rural bias to northern Ontario
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You must take an active interest in learning and
keeping up with the admissions policies at your
targeted schools
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You have to plan in advance your approach
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Don’t count on any one particular school’s policies
to help you – remember luck plays a role and
polices change.
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Of all things GPA is usually the primary19/06/10
barrier for
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The Canadian Premed Forum (you are not alone):
◦
http://www.premed101.com/forums/index.php
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OMSAS PDF
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http://www.ouac.on.ca/omsas/pdf/b_omsas_e.pdf
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