19/06/10 The Ontario Medical Schools Interview Invite and Acceptance Criteria Targeted Tactics to Improve Your Application

19/06/10  Each school has its own relatively unique methods of determining who is invited for interview, and who eventually will be accepted to the school  The rules change yearly and you must keep up with the changes  There are ways to increase your chances, and ways to dramatically cut them as well

19/06/10  3 Year Program  Interview invite is based on: ◦ Autobiographical Sketch ◦ Cumulative GPA ◦ Score on the MCAT Verbal Reasoning section  Final Acceptance is based on: ◦ Cumulative GPA ◦ Score on the Verbal Reasoning part of the most recent MCAT ◦ Interview Score on the MMI

19/06/10  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.  Since the school counts all courses in their GPA calculation it is extremely important to avoid low grades

19/06/10  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  Final Acceptance is based on: ◦ GPA from two separate years ◦ Score on the MCAT ◦ Interview score on closed panel interview

19/06/10  Has one of the BEST methods for recovering a low GPA as it only counts your best two years  Does not count summer courses in GPA  Has a SWOMEN program which is powerful edge if you are from the associated area  Has course overloading (but be very careful)  Second degree students exclude first degree  Has a conditional acceptance system

19/06/10  Has a unique weighted GPA system where later years count more than earlier ones, and only your last three years count  Has regional GPA cut offs based on geography, heritage, and language status

19/06/10  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

19/06/10  If you are from the associated area, or can speak French this school will give you a special advantage  wGPA allows eventual forgiveness of earlier years. Your last year count 3x your first one  Boosts to relevant extracurricular work enhance the likelihood of an interview  Does not count summer courses in GPA

19/06/10  Interview invite is based on ◦ Fixed and rigid MCAT cut offs ◦ Fixed GPA cut offs ◦ Estimated GPA of 3.7, MCAT of 10,10,10 R  Invite GPA Cut offs are either ◦ Last two years (does not include summer courses) ◦ All courses ever taken including summer courses  Final acceptance is based on ◦ Solely the interview score on a generally standardized panel interview and possibly on site essay (likely won’t be the on site essay in 2010)

19/06/10  The last two years GPA route is an excellent way to recover from earlier poorer performance  The 100% interview score evens the playing field for all applicants  Strong emphasize on writing skills  Has a grad route that allows for even lower GPA students to get interviews

19/06/10  Interview Invite is based on ◦ 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

19/06/10  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.

19/06/10  Very flexible and forgiving admission system due to full file review  Strong advantage to graduate students  Does not officially count summer courses in GPA, but they will see what courses you took  Extremely useful course drop policy

19/06/10  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

19/06/10  Our newest and smallest medical school with a rural medicine focus  Interview invites are based on: ◦ Essay question responses ◦ GPA ◦ Geographic residency  Final Acceptance is based on ◦ Interview scores combined with pre-interview score

19/06/10  Very flexible with respect to course load  Substantial graduate student bonus to effective GPA  Strong rural bias to northern Ontario

19/06/10  You must take an active interest in learning and keeping up with the admissions policies at your targeted schools  You have to plan in advance your approach  Don’t count on any one particular school’s policies to help you – remember luck plays a role and polices change.  Of all things GPA is usually the primary barrier for most applicants and is the hardest to improve

19/06/10  The Canadian Premed Forum (you are not alone): ◦  OMSAS PDF ◦