Admissions Blog

MCAT 2015 Resource and Date Reminder

By Admissions on May 06, 2015 Although the Admissions Office does not endorse any third-party MCAT study guides or prep courses, we would like to pass along a series of videos that has been developed by Khan Academy for the MCAT 2015 exam. All of the content in the videos has been reviewed by the AAMC and there are some practice questions on the site as well. The best part about these videos is that they are free! However, it’s important to note that the video series is not intended to be a study program for the MCAT. All of the videos can be found at this website: https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat. There are tons of videos and they are organized according to foundational concept, so if you’re stuck on a topic consider checking one out! As a reminder, MCAT exams must be taken by the end of August in order to be accepted in the upcoming application cycle. Based on MCAT exam dates this year, the latest exam date we will accept for the 2015/2016 application cycle is August 22, 2015. If you have not yet taken the MCAT and want to apply for this upcoming cycle, you must take the MCAT on August 22 at the latest. If you have already taken the MCAT and have valid scores, it’s your choice whether or not to retake the exam – just keep in mind that if you take the MCAT in August or earlier we will use the MCAT 2015 scores in your evaluation, even if they are worse (and even if they are ineligible). If you take the exam in September or later your scores will not be reviewed in this application cycle. This might be an option to consider if you are happy with your scores but are required to take MCAT 2015 for application to a different medical school (as long as they accept September test dates, of course). Speaking of other medical schools, we know some schools have expanded their accepted dates to include September exams, but we do not plan to do this. We are not requiring all applicants to take MCAT 2015 and many of our applicants will have already taken the MCAT, so we do not think it is necessary to accept September test dates. In addition, AAMC has said they have increased the number of seats available per sitting to mitigate the impact of reducing test dates. Seats fill quickly so we hope everyone who wants or needs to take the MCAT can register for a sitting as soon as possible. Permalink | No Comments

Why Not Wait Until May 15?

By Admissions on Apr 29, 2015

In light of several medical schools sending their offers well before May 15, we have decided to move up the offer notifications to May 8. Hopefully this extra week will make it easier for some applicants to make decisions and start planning for the future. Please note that applicants who receive an offer in the first round will have until May 22 to accept the offer and submit the $1,000 deposit. Future rounds of offers will have shorter deadlines, ranging from a week in the earlier rounds to just a day or two in the later rounds.

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Why Wait Until May 15?

By Admissions on Mar 09, 2015

Interviews are over and the timeline says offer notifications are still weeks and weeks away… but why? Many applicants may wonder why we wait until May 15 to send the offers when the interviews are finished in February. There are a couple of reasons: one is that there are still several things to do before we can send the offers (or even know who to send them to), while another one is that we harmonize our offer date with that of other Canadian medical schools.

The first thing that happens after the interview is the post-interview file review. After the interviews, a second file review is performed. This review includes all aspects of your file, including references, MCAT scores, etc.

At the Final Selection meetings, the Admission Selection Committee discusses applicants and reaches a consensus to decide who is admissible to the program and who is not. The Selection Committee is not aware of site preference rankings – they just decide who should be offered a position in the program if one is available and who, unfortunately, should not be admitted this year. Since your entire file is up for review, there is a lot for the committee to discuss and these meetings take some time to complete.

When the meetings are finished, we know the list of admissible applicants. These applicants are then allocated to sites based on their ranking order and site preferences. Basically, we assign applicants to their first choice site unless that site is already full. We assign those applicants to their second choice, third choice, etc. as necessary (but not to any site marked “No Interest”). Applicants who are not assigned to their preferred sites are most likely put on the waitlist for those sites. If all of an applicant’s listed sites are full by the time we get to their name, they are placed on the waitlist.

Finally, we have our list of who is going where, who is on the waitlist, etc. Although we have this information before May 15, we wait until then because many other Canadian medical schools send their offers on or around this date as well. This allows applicants who receive offers from multiple schools time to consider the offers simultaneously. In addition, the process of filling the positions in the class goes more quickly and smoothly if applicants who decide not to go to UBC can decline their initial offer rather than withdrawing their acceptance later (but we of course understand that this is sometimes unavoidable). We also like to have a set day so applicants know to check their email and/or Application Status page on that day.

It is very hard to wait, especially the last few days, so we really do appreciate your patience!

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Interviews – Timing and Talking

By Admissions on Jan 26, 2015

Interviews start next week! We hope your preparations are going well and we look forward to seeing you soon. This week we would like to answer a couple of interview-related questions we have received about timing and talking.

1. Is there a clock or timer in the room? Can I wear a watch to time myself, or will the interviewer tell me when the time is almost up?There may be a clock, but there won’t be a timer, and the interviewer will not let you know how much time is left. You are allowed to wear a watch but we would discourage you from trying to time yourself – it’s a distraction and is not necessary. Try to keep your focus on responding to the scenario rather than the time. It is common to be in the in the middle of a thought or sentence when the bell rings, and this is ok. If you are worried about being thrown off by this during the interviews, you might want to practice wrapping up your thoughts in a few words so you can quickly leave the room and focus on the next scenario.
2. Am I supposed to talk for the entire 7 minutes?The interviews are more of a dialogue than a monologue. After your initial response to the scenario, the interviewer may ask some follow-up questions. This is normal and doesn’t indicate anything about the quality of your response. If you provide a particularly expansive response to a scenario and the interviewer doesn’t ask any follow-up questions, that is fine, too. Again, try to focus on responding to the scenario to the best of your ability rather than worrying about the ‘right’ number of minutes to talk.
3. Should I share my personal experiences or is that frowned on?It’s up to you. There is nothing wrong with sharing a personal experience if it is relevant to the scenario and if it supports the point you are making. However, if you prefer not to share a particular experience there is nothing wrong with that, either. It all depends on what you think is the best way to respond to the scenario at hand.

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NAQ Myths Debunked – Part 2

By wong79 on Dec 17, 2014

We hope that you found NAQ Myths Debunked – Part 1 helpful. In Part 2, we will be focusing on issues and questions related to NAQ Scoring. Again we will highlight a few especially problematic speculations about our scoring system from the Premed 101 Forums, in order to provide more accurate information.

NAQ Scoring

“My application consisted mainly of research activities…Would this be something UBC does not value very much?”- PM101

Research-based work or volunteer experiences are considered on par with many other work and/or service-based activities, and can be a major component in a good score. Research is challenging because it is a vague category that encompasses a wide variety of activities, which is why an accurate description of what you did is important to us. We want to know what kind of work you performed so that we can appropriately value it. That being said, if all you have done is undergraduate lab research, you are less likely to have demonstrated strong diversity of experience, capacity to work with others, or leadership (if you do not have a dedicated leadership role). Very strong applicants score well in all categories. This is clearly outlined on our website, so it should not be a surprise.

Concern around research publications seems to be of particular significance to many applicants. It is important to note that no one activity is prioritized above others in our scoring, and this includes research publications. If you have 5 first author papers, we do find it very impressive and are glad you are interested in your field. However, we are also looking for a number of other traits, so having just research does not necessarily provide you with an above average NAQ score. If you have done this level of research, dedicated years of service to a number of disadvantaged or marginalized groups within your community, and have held significant leadership roles, your score will likely be better because of your combined experiences. To reiterate, we look for well-rounded, mature, compassionate, dedicated applicants.

 
“Actually, I think I might have a theory on how the NAQ is scored based on my observations of the limited data of the posts here: it seems possible that the NAQ score has at least a slight correlation on the applicant’s age and his/her standing in education–that is, an applicant in 3rd year is probably going to get higher score in NAQ in comparison to an applicant who has graduated and/or is in a graduate program with identical/similar activities.

This makes logical sense in a few ways: that UBC now has a “standard” profile of what to look for for applicants based on their years that isn’t going to be based on the type of activities or the hours spent. By this I mean that for an undergraduate, their experiences are going to be more of volunteering and part time jobs than a large amount of scientific journals/publications/research, etc. Obviously I don’t mean that undergraduates *don’t* have these experiences, it means that UBC takes into account what sort of activities a typical student will have rather than looking at unique experiences individually…
Again, just my own theory.”- PM101

We are very appreciative that this poster emphasized that this was just their theory, as it is not correct, and is a good example of why you should take all theories on this board with a grain of salt. We are not going to share our scoring breakdown, but would like to assure everyone that it is not overly complicated. Generally if you have done more, and have demonstrated meaningful, long-term commitments (including work) within your community, you will receive a higher score.

 

On why you may not have received an above-average NAQ score: We receive a lot of calls and emails from applicants, wanting to know why they received a score that was not reflective of their achievements. It is very important to note that you are not competing against the general population; you are competing against our (extremely accomplished) medical school applicant pool. We received over 2300 applications this year, many of which listed an amazing list of commitments and accomplishments. We have many of the most talented, well-rounded, and driven applicants in the country (I could say in the world, but that would also just be my theory). Unfortunately this means, that what may normally be considered excellent, may in fact be below average in comparison to our pool. We understand that this is very difficult to accept when you feel like you have put everything you are into your application, but please understand that a lower score does not mean that your accomplishments are not impressive or valuable; it does mean that you may not have done as much as others who have applied. Luckily this is an area that you can continue to strengthen and improve! We want you to know that we are often in awe of all of you. We can see how hard you have worked to get to where you are. Many of you have overcome incredible odds and were very close to receiving an interview invitation. We wish we could invite more of you.

 

“it’s also worrying because they use random arts and lay people to score our NAQ. that doesn’t bode well since I doubt that the average person is going to understand little nuances in NAQ like writing an abstract or proposal or literature review constitutes like 50% of the work in a research project, sometimes even more.”- PM101

We don’t mean to sound defensive here, but we can assure you that all NAQ evaluators, regardless of their academic background, are trained on how to assess common NAQ activities, such as research abstracts and literature reviews. However, the reality is that even if we hired a team of cell biologists or physicists, they would probably not also come with expert knowledge on running a rape crisis centre, or a nuanced understanding of the different levels of competitive swimming in North America. Not one NAQ evaluator is going to know everything about everything. We do work together to combine our knowledge and do our best to research any activities that we feel we need more information about. We will often request additional information from our applicants to help guide our decisions, as well as discuss activities with verifiers or field experts as needed. However, if there is very important information that you would like to ensure we have, it is ultimately up to you to add it in your activity description.

 

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