We’ve been getting some questions about the following topics:
BC residency
We sometimes get the question “Does my university transcript prove BC residency?” This is really a question to ask yourself. First, decide which BC residency definition you fall under (if you meet more than one, just pick one). Then, look at your transcript. Does it show the required number of years and/or dates, based on the BC residency definition you picked? For example, does it show that you studied in BC for all three of the 2009/2010, 2010/2011, and 2011/2012 academic years? Or, does it show that you lived in BC for four (not necessarily consecutive) years?
If your transcript has the correct years on it, then yes, your university transcript proves BC residency. If it doesn’t, please submit a different proof of BC residency like a secondary school transcript, letter from an employer, rental contract or letter from landlord, etc. Driver’s licenses, BC CareCards, tax returns, and property tax statements are not accepted as proof of BC residency.
We also want to remind everyone that we will contact you if we have any questions about your BC residency. If it turns out that you don’t actually qualify as a BC resident, you won’t be disqualified. You’ll just be considered an out-of-province applicant for the rest of the cycle.
Academic Awards
The phrase “since senior-level secondary school” seems to be generating some confusion. We apologize for the ambiguity. We mean that you can include awards going back to grade 11 (we consider grades 11 & 12 to be “senior-level secondary school”).
We’ve also been getting a lot of questions like “Can I include award x?” This we can’t help you with. Our instructions are that the Academic Awards section is reserved for academic awards, and awards that have a non-academic component should go in the non-academic section instead. It’s your responsibility to make the decision whether or not to include an award or where to put it. Remember, if you put it in the ‘wrong’ section you won’t be penalized (but please do try to follow the instructions as best you can).
WES/ICES evaluations
We have gotten many variations on the question “Do I really have to get a WES/ICES evaluation?” I always imagine an implied 🙁 at the end, which is understandable. It’s expensive, and we know some of you were only away for one term. However, the answer is yes ( 🙁 ). You do need to have your foreign transcript evaluated by WES or ICES even if you were on exchange, even if you didn’t take many classes, even if the grades show up on your home transcript, even if you are a UBC student, even if your transcript is in English, and even if you were only abroad for one term.
The number of questions we’ve been getting reflects the increasing numbers of applicants who go abroad, which is why we instituted this policy. The experts as WES and ICES will give your courses a fair and accurate evaluation. As a side note, we find that they tend to be a bit more generous than we would be in some cases, based on our policies. Maybe that will help to make the cost a little more palatable.
In addition to the evaluation, to comply with UBC requirements, we still need the original transcript from the foreign institution even if the evaluation service includes a verified copy with the evaluation report. This transcript should arrive by the September 17th deadline (or August 15th if you are trying to meet the early submission deadline). The WES/ICES report does not have to arrive until October 1.
As a reminder, U.S. transcripts do not require a WES or ICES evaluation.
We need to be able to acknowledge that your WES/ICES evaluation has been received via the online application system, so please enter WES/ICES on the Transcript page (instructions are in the Help Guide). Ideally, you will enter the courses as they appear on the evaluation. If you don’t know what to enter because you won’t have your WES/ICES done by the time you submit your application, just add a school year with WES/ICES as an institution but don’t add any classes. You should also enter your foreign transcript as usual.
Feel free to ask any questions here, but as always, if your question is specific and applies only to you it’s better to email us through the online application system.
The ICES application form states that UBC requires both the Comprehensive and Supplemental evaluations. Do we need both, or can we just get the Comprehensive?
We actually only require the Supplemental Evaluation for prerequisites. If you didn’t take any prerequisite courses abroad then you don’t need to get the Supplemental Evaluation, just the Comprehensive.
Thanks for pointing this out – we’ve contacted ICES and they will update the UBC Faculty of Medicine sheet soon.
So I really need to fork out $245 dollars for some agency to assess 3 courses I took on exchange in Australia?? That is more than double the UBC med application fee! Does anyone else find this a tad bit unfair??
We understand that WES/ICES evaluations are expensive, but if you have foreign transcripts, it is (unfortunately) a necessary expense to apply to the program, just like the MCAT. We will keep your evaluation on file should you need to reapply again next year so it should be a one-time expense only.
For the Academic awards section, can I include entrance scholarships that were received from multiple institutions even if I did not attend that particular university?
Thanks
It’s up to you – if you decide to include them, please be sure to indicate you didn’t actually accept the scholarships.
Question about the Non-Academic Activities section. It says to “List each experience only once. If an experience falls into more than one category, then choose the one you think is the most suitable.” What if we held 2 extremely different positions at the same organization (like Vice-President and Events Coordinator)? I tried cramming them into the same entry, but doing this didn’t seem to do justice to the work I did at the 2 positions.
If they were different positions it’s ok to list them separately. In cases like this it’s your choice – if you think the positions are different enough to be considered two different experiences and are therefore better described in two separate entries, that’s fine, but if you took on multiple roles with a lot of overlap between them, it’s also fine to list them all under one entry. Either way, please make sure your description is clear so we can understand your experience.
Hi there, Are research awards (ie. CIHR Master’s Award) considered academic awards? They are based on research achievement and potential, academic performance, candidate abilities, and research training environment. Thanks.
Like it says in the post, that is your decision to make.
Do we have to get WES ICAP or WES basic ? since we have to send our original transcript to you any ways, it seems more reasonable to me to just request a basic course by course WES which wouldn’t send my transcript again along with the evaluation. I just want to make sure .
Thank you
The WES Basic is fine. We require the course-by-course evaluation option but will accept either WES Basic or WES ICAP for that.
Is the $10 sealed envelope necessary for any reason?
Sorry, it’s a little unclear what you mean. We require that transcripts and other documents arrive in official, sealed envelopes. If you have a question about WES’s $10 Sealed Envelope service/fee please contact them.
If an applicant is applying for the second time, do they need to resubmit their high school transcripts to show BC residency? Or will high school transcripts be retained?
If you applied last year and submitted your secondary school transcripts at that time, you don’t need to resubmit them. We will transfer them to your new file.
Under Academic Awards there’s a heading “Amount Awarded” that doesn’t have any explanation offered either in the manual or on the page itself… does that refer to the monetary amount awarded, or to the amount of recipients of that prize per year?
It’s the monetary amount.
I noticed that the dates you can put on the awards go past the June 1, 2012 cutoff date. Does this mean that we can enter awards that were given to us past June 1, especially since most of the awards awarded this summer were based on the past winter session?
The system will allow you to enter later dates for this section but we still have a June 1 cutoff, so please enter awards before June 1 only.
hiii…
i aplpied for crediantila assesment through WES via an agency. Unfortunately we didn’t get our refrnce number or any other information 10 days from that agency , excpt an automate mail form WES regarding the registraion.I am worried abt the reliability of that agency. I would like to apply through a newe agency. Does the first registarion cause any issues with assesment procedures as my details are already submitted by the latter.?
We also accept evaluations from ICES, (International Credential Evaluation Service) – see link on our website: https://mdprogram.med.ubc.ca/admissions/admission-requirements/ – if you wish to use this service instead of WES, that is acceptable.