Academic rigor is a complex matter. Online and offline, we have heard a lot from applicants about their concern that new applicants to our program will achieve higher GPAs by taking easy courses instead of organic chemistry and biochemistry. Other people have pointed out that “easy” vs “hard” is subjective and differs from person to person. We agree – different people are strong in different areas, and there is usually a correlation between what one finds easy and what one is good at. In addition, there is the issue of different institutions, different faculties, different departments, different sections, and different course instructors and markers. An “easy” course at one school might be a “hard” course elsewhere.
At the same time, some applicants try to seek out classes that have a reputation for being easy. This isn’t going to change, and we were hoping the last post would give applicants who had a specific concern about this in light of the prerequisite changes a chance to say which courses they were worried about. It’s interesting for us to hear which courses are considered easy and which are considered hard, even if we cannot say a course is objectively easy or objectively hard.
In the last post we mentioned that the committee will be looking more carefully at your courses. Although we may not be able to say that one particular class is easy or hard, we can see if a transcript seems to indicate an unusual pattern of course-taking. For example, are there a lot of repeated courses, or a large number of lower-level courses that seem kind of random? This wouldn’t be something like taking electives in different areas to fulfill requirements in your major or taking a few post-degree courses out of personal interest. Additionally, courses taken toward a specific major or minor wouldn’t raise concerns. We also understand that the only way to raise a GPA is by taking additional courses and we don’t expect everyone to pursue an additional degree to do this (although if you need to take a substantial number of courses to boost your average, it is in your best interest to do so, as it shows dedication to a particular subject and you are less likely to have your course selection questioned). It’s really more about a pattern of course selection that suggests the applicant is reluctant to face challenging course material.
If you are worried that your course selection may raise concerns, there is an opportunity at the end of the application to explain exceptional circumstances affecting your degree. You may use this section to provide a brief explanation for your course selection, unless you have something more pressing to write about.
Hi there,
What day can we expect final decisions to be emailed?
We plan to start sending them on May 11.
Sorry, to clarify, you are emailing offers of admission for the current application cycle starting on May 11?
That’s right! Applicants to the 2015/2016 cycle will be notified of admissions decisions starting on May 11. We have updated the website with this information as well.
Hello,
I was wondering if in addition to “Accepted & Enrolled” and “Declined Offer” statistics that are published there was information about the number of applicants that remove themselves from the wait list (particularly for OOP)?
Sorry, we do not provide statistical information beyond what is published on our website.
Wouldn’t the most easy way to determine if a course is hard or easy is to look at the class average of a course and compare that to the student’s performance? You could determine how many standard deviations they are away from the average to determine their true performance.
In addition the above approach of looking for odd patterns of courses, does not address the fact that some institutions and universities will simply be more difficult and rigorous than others (regardless of course selection). Instead of making models and assumptions, I’d also actually suggest that the admissions committee actually try taking the same course at two different universities and see how they perform. I’ve actually done that and there are some schools that are far easier than others. My two cents.
I’d also strongly warn against a student go back to school to complete another 4 year degree; it may show dedication to a medical school committee, but if that applicant can’t gain admission to medical school they’ve wasted another 4 years of time, money and effort. Another degree may also not make you marketable to employers either. Better to make alternative plans by working or preparing for another career.
Some universities don’t use percentages for class average or post the class average at all. It would just be a disadvantage to UBC applicants specifically.
Thanks for your comment Joe.
But I would still ask why don’t all Canadian universities provide you with the class average? At my school they did. Schools have the data; a whole class with grades and they could easily the average on your transcript.
It’s amazing isn’t it? It’s 2016 and we still can’t standardized reporting of grades from all Canadian universities. I’d suggest universities provide the student’s percentage, letter and GPA with the class average.
I don’t think it would be that easy to just look at averages. Some programs have a more rigorous admissions process with higher standard (ie. Pharmacy, Honours programs etc.) and therefore the academic quality of the students taking these courses will be higher and drive the average up – but that wouldn’t indicate the class is “easy” – it would indicate that the students in the class are of higher academic quality than other undergraduate students.
What about taking half your pre med prerequisites at a college such as langara?? i want to take a year at langara before transferring to university (UBC) to major in biology. to do so, that requires me to take first year science courses at the college, which are most the prerequisites. what would you suggest i do? will this ruin my chances of med school??
No worries! We do not have a preference for taking the prerequisites at one institution over another, and it’s also fine to start out at a college.
Hey,
This is sort of unrelated to the topic, but what about the MCAT? I think now that the prerequisites are removed, it would be fair also to drop the science MCAT sections (except for CARS). This would certainly open up the field to a lot of people who have excellent critical reasoning skills needed for practice of medicine.
Progressive universities such as McMaster and Calgary have already started only considering the CARS section. This won’t make it any easier for people, as CARS is quite challenging on it’s own, and for most chem/bio/biochem majors, this is the section they most struggle with…
I feel that medical school is where the foundations should be learned, not premed.. Also I’m not sure of the figures but if I had to guess , I’d say (80+%) most students enrolled in medical school do graduate… if the quality of medical students needs to be upgraded, then considering CARS only would be a great way to start. I am still advocating for anatomy and physiology but the MCAT almost completely lacks in this respect.
I don’t see the benefit in not considering the other sections of the MCAT. I would actually argue the opposite; UBC Med has already emphasized that they want students to demonstrate aptitude in science even though they have removed strict prerequisite requirements — > The MCAT is one of the ways this can be done
I can understand your perspective. However, I think aptitude in science should be differentiated from aptitude in Health science. Not necessarily some one with a science background will perform well in medical school vs. a health science background. For example, I think BSc Nursing would be much better physicians than BSc Phys, Bio or Chem, and if you look into nursing curriculum, you won’t find any single course focusing on these subjects. Now let’s consider undergraduate programs such as kinesiology. So many specific health policy, psychology, anatomy and physiology courses, and no chem.bio.physics. There may also be other examples out there, but point is it’s quite one sided to think only physical sciences would determine your aptitude in medicine compared to health science skills.
I don’t think individual ‘courses’ per say really does make a difference. Yes, taking 1-2 ‘easy’ courses may increase your GPA, but there are entire degrees which pump out more MD graduates than others.
Best example in Canada is Mac Health Sciences – I don’t know any program where over half the class gets into medical school EACH year. http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/bhsc/graduates.html
When there are programs like this across Canada that pump out medical students, one has to question if med schools are selecting the undergraduate degree an individual takes, or how well an applicant performs compared to his/her peers.
I personally think that schools need to start moving from a GPA transcript calculation, to a percentile/rank basis. Ask students to give Academic Advisors of their own institutions a form that asks for a student’s class rank in his/her individual program (ex. Biology, Chemistry, Physiology, Health Sciences, etc), rank in the faculty (Science, Arts, etc), and rank in the overall class year. It would provide a more ‘holistic’ outlook to understand how an applicant performs compared to their peers. One cannot hide how well they did when they have a 90% average, but ranked 50th in his/her program of 80 people. And on the flip side, schools would see how a person receiving a 80% average, but ranked 3rd in his/her program out of 400 people is probably a more ‘competitive’ applicant.
It probably would be a difficult system to implement, but would be best for everyone. Less of the ‘strategy’ that plagues med admissions where people avoid certain courses and degrees altogether because they know they can’t score >85% in them.
I agree, this system seems to be a better match than simply a percentage game
Foolish to think that some courses are NOT easier. These days in the med game a 4.0 in basket weaving outweighs the kid with a 3.85 who got the lower grades because he also took tons of labs and worked on a research project. Some courses ARE harder! Hard sciences often have labs and require one to actually do homework and practice problems to master the material. Compare that to a course where half your grade is an essay about your feelings on a social topic. there should be some kind of bonus or credit for having multiple labs. After all do you want me to be a med student who can run an assay? Or is writing a reflection on my patients feelings enough to help them?
Quick Question! I am a science (microbi) major. I have my ochem, biochem, 3rd/4th year microbi courses. So I’m assuming that this would indicate that I’m not trying to “get out of system” because I believe that science is an integral part of medicine and that it’s important to have a good foundation in these courses. In addition to these science courses, would it be acceptable to take “easy online gpa boosters” to up our chances for admissions? I know that you guys have talked about “looking for trends in courses”, but if I have taken ochem, biochem, upper-level science courses, would it be okay for me to fill up the rest of my credits (i.e. may display a trend) with easy online gpa boosters, even though I have already taken all of the science courses? Any opinion would be appreciated! Thanks so much!
We may not be able to say that a particular course is easy or hard, but we would discourage applicants from taking courses they think are ‘easy online gpa boosters.’ Applicant grades are high and good grades are important, so we understand why applicants are concerned with their GPAs. However, a grades-over-learning mentality is not something we want to encourage. In terms of displaying a trend, your transcript might present a pattern that suggests you are reluctant to (or even unable to) sustain a challenging course load. This might cast doubts on your ability to handle the rigorous curriculum of medical school.
Quick question — I was wondering if taking courses in a large variety of specializations would indicate a pattern of unusual course taking. Outside of my major (only 42 credits, since I’m in Arts), I typically take courses in various social sciences and humanities, and will likely end up taking only 2-3 courses in each of these specializations. Almost all of these courses are 300 or 400 level courses, with the exception of those that I took during my first year, and they are not courses that would typically be considered easy. Would this present a strange pattern? And would it perhaps be better (show more dedication) to instead focus more on just one or two areas outside of my major or to simply take more courses in my major?
Electives or other courses taken to satisfy degree requirements are not an issue, and it sounds like you are taking upper-level courses for the most part. It’s not necessary to pursue a minor or concentration (although it is of course fine to do so). If you are concerned about the committee misreading your coursework intentions, there is a section of the application that allows you to briefly clarify things about your application. This is not likely necessary for the situation you describe, but it is an option for you if you are worried about it.