The latest updates from the MD Admissions team.
Explanation of Scores and FAQs
By Admissions on Dec 03, 2012 Please read our Evaluation Criteria page for more in-depth information on our evaluation criteria, but here is a quick summary: OGPA = Overall GPA in UBC percentage AGPA = Adjusted GPA in UBC percentage AQ Score = OGPA (if not eligible for AGPA) or AGPA, converted to a number out of 50 (50 is the maximum score). That’s it- the AQ score is just your OGPA or AGPA, automatically converted to a number out of 50 by our computer system. The conversion mechanism is confidential. Just a warning: your AQ score might be really low, like 5 or out of 50, even if you have a good GPA. As long as your OGPA or AGPA is right, your AQ score is also right. NAQ Score = the score given for the non-academic portions of the application. All file reviewers are carefully trained, there are various checks throughout the process to make sure reviews are being done consistently, and the NAQ score is standardized to make up for any scoring variations between reviewers. TFR Score = AQ Score + NAQ Score. Your TFR score might be really close to the cutoff. We have double-checked these files for accuracy, so unfortunately you might just be one of the unlucky ones whose score is really close but not quite high enough to get an interview this year. One note about the scores: It can be really disappointing not to get an interview. However, please try to see the AQ, NAQ & TFR scores as numbers, not personal judgments. If you get a low AQ or NAQ score we are not saying your GPA is bad or your non-academic experiences are worthless, or that you would be a bad doctor, or anything like that. The scores are an assessment of how your application compares against our evaluation criteria, and that is all we intend them to be. Please read the FAQs below for help. FAQs I received a Regrets, No Interview letter with my academic and non-academic scores. Can I get more information on the definition of these scores? We cannot provide any further details or specifics regarding the results of your file evaluation, but our Evaluation Criteria page explains the scoring in more detail. You may also find it helpful to review the Interim Statistics on our Statistics page to assist you in determining the competiveness of your file. I was not invited for an interview; can I talk/meet with someone to discuss my application? I would like some more feedback. Due to limited resources, we regret that we are not able to offer any feedback advising to applicants who were not granted an interview, nor can we provide any further information about the evaluation of your file. I think that there has been a mistake in the academic evaluation of my file. The academic evaluation was based on the credits and grades entered by applicants. If you believe that there has been a specific error, please send an email via the on-line application detailing what you believe the mistake to be. Please note that some applicants entered wrong information – eg. did not include all courses, excluded failed courses or used letter grades instead of percentages. In these instances the Admissions Office had to correct these mistakes by verifying courses and grades on official transcripts. Therefore, there may be a discrepancy between averages calculated by an applicant & the grades as they appear on the Application Status page of his/her application. The calculation of the AQ Score is automatically performed by the online application system, so as long as your OGPA or AGPA (if applicable) is correct, your AQ Score is also correct. I thought I should have been eligible for the Adjusted Academic Average to determine my academic score, but it does not seem to have been used. The AGPA was calculated based on the courses and grades entered by applicants. The online system automatically determined (a) the lowest academic year which could be eliminated and (b) if this year could be dropped (i.e. if there were still 90 remaining credits). The Admissions Office verified that grades had been entered accurately by comparison with the official transcripts. My overall GPA (or adjusted GPA if applicable) is slightly below the 75%/80% cut-off but I still feel my non-academic experiences are very strong and should have been reviewed. Although we look for excellent non-academic qualities, these must also be accompanied by very good academic qualities to demonstrate an applicant’s ability to successfully handle the rigorous MD Undergraduate curriculum. It was determined that a lower AQ score (below 75% for BC and below 80% for OOP) cannot be offset by a strong NAQ score; hence these files were not reviewed. I attended a university that did not use percentages for its grading scheme. How did UBC calculate averages from universities with different grading schemes? Information on grade conversions, including our grade conversion tables, can be found on the Evaluation Criteria page of our website. I am not happy with the non-academic score I received. Can I request another review? We appreciate that you may be dissatisfied with the scoring of the non-academic portion of your file, but would like to assure you that the non-academic portion of your application was reviewed and evaluated fairly and consistently. We will not re-evaluate the non-academic section of your file. At the beginning of each cycle, with guidelines provided by the Admissions Policy Committee, we establish a profile of an average applicant as a benchmark and points are allotted accordingly. Reviewers are trained and files are cross-checked. Although there cannot help but be a degree of subjectivity involved, we feel the standardized process keeps this to a minimum. I was not invited for an interview and would like to appeal the decision. We realize the importance of your application and appreciate that the results may be disappointing. Please be aware that we do our best to ensure that our evaluation practices are fair and consistent. Files are often double and sometimes triple checked to ensure accuracy. While we are unable to discuss your application over the phone, you may email Admissions through your on-line application if you have any specific concerns regarding your file evaluation. Please note that we will not re-evaluate the non-academic section of your file. We will not make appointments with the Dean, Associate Dean, Director or an Advisor/Coordinator to discuss your application. I’m not sure if I am seeing the right thing under the Scores line on my Application Status page. This is what you should see, depending on your application status: Ineligible: no scores Regrets, Partial File Review: OGPA, AGPA (if applicable) Regrets, No Interview: OGPA, AGPA (if applicable), AQ, NAQ and TFR Invited to Interview: no scores Permalink | 4 Comments
Countdown to Interview Notifications
By Admissions on Nov 28, 2012
Interview notifications are getting closer and closer! We will send notifications starting next week. Sorry, we can’t say the exact date and time we will send the notifications – before we send them out there are many things we need to do, and unfortunately a lot of them can’t be done in advance. We know you are very anxious to know whether or not you got an interview, so we apologize we can’t be more specific with the time. Just rest assured you will receive an email explaining your interview decision sometime between 8:30 a.m. Monday, December 3 and 4:30 p.m. Friday, December 7. You can also check the Application Status page for your status, but this will change only a minute or two before you get the email. As a reminder, applicants who are invited to interview and who met the early deadline will find out their status a day early.
Once you get the email, you will know our decision. If you are invited for an interview, congratulations! When you log in, you will see a new tab called Interview. This is where you can book your interview slot, send emails to references, complete the Site Preference form, etc. In your email there will be a link to a document that has a lot of important instructions and information about the interview. If you can’t see the link, you may have to enable links in your email program. This document is important so please read it carefully.
If you didn’t get an interview this year, you will be able to check the Application Status page for your scores. Which scores you will be able to see will depend on your application status:
Ineligible: no scores
Regrets, Partial File Review: OGPA, AGPA (if applicable)
Regrets, No Interview: OGPA, AGPA (if applicable), AQ, NAQ and TFR
Invited to Interview: no scores
We will explain more about these scores in a blog post next week. This post will also cover some common questions we receive from applicants who were not invited to interview.
Permalink | No CommentsAboriginal Admissions 10-Year Anniversary
By Admissions on Nov 20, 2012
Our Aboriginal Admissions program recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a special celebration held at the UBC Longhouse. The festivities included a special dinner, speeches from a range of people involved with the program, and lively music and dance performances by Coast Salish and Métis artists. An online collection of quotes and pictures from the evening is available here. The Globe & Mail also featured the Aboriginal Admissions program in a short article, which you can read here.
All of the participants were happy to reflect on and celebrate the successes of the program, which was created to increase the number of Aboriginal physicians working in BC. So far, 35 students have graduated from the program. Many are already working in Aboriginal communities or plan to do so when their residency training is finished.
If you would like to learn more about the Aboriginal Admissions program, please contact James Andrew, Aboriginal Student Initiatives Coordinator, at james.andrew@ubc.ca. Our website has some information about the program as well. Congratulations again to everyone involved with Aboriginal Admissions!
Permalink | No CommentsHappy Thanksgiving
By Admissions on Oct 05, 2012
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! The big deadlines have passed for now and we are busily evaluating applications. Guess how submitted applications we received? A new record… over 1900! Thanks to everyone for taking the time and paying the fees to submit the application and necessary documents. It definitely takes time and money and we appreciate your effort.
Speaking of documents, unfortunately we are finding that some applications have missing or late documents, which means the application can’t move forward. It may seem harsh, especially if your transcript was delayed in the mail or the institution just forgot to process your request, but the vast majority of applicants do get everything in on time without issue, and to be fair and consistent we cannot make exceptions for those who don’t. This year applicants had about 14 weeks to submit documents. Especially since we aren’t including summer grades, we feel that there was definitely enough time for all transcripts to arrive by the deadline. It’s a good lesson for everyone: if you need to reapply next year, submit your documents early! International (including US in this case), AP, and IB transcripts and transcripts from institutions that do not offer courier service seem to take the longest to be processed and/or delivered in our experience. But even if your transcript does not fall into one of these categories, it’s better to be safe than sorry and just submit it as soon as possible.
Since we have started evaluating applications we are doing some verifier checks. If one of your verifiers gets contacted it doesn’t mean anything, good or bad. Sometimes we want confirmation, sometimes we need more information, and sometimes we just do random checks. We are still planning to send out interview invitations the week of December 3rd. As that time gets closer we will send out more information about the process.
Finally, if your application was submitted, your application fee was paid, all of your documents were received, and your MCAT scores were in by the deadline, you can relax for a while. We do not confirm file completeness, but we will contact you if there are any issues with your application that you wouldn’t be able to see from the Application Status page (prerequisite questions or concerns, for example).
Permalink | 35 CommentsTranscript Statuses
By Admissions on Aug 29, 2012
This is a long post (taken from an even longer reminder email!), but it addresses many common situations. Please read the whole thing before contacting our office about your transcripts and other documents.
1. If you requested that your documents from last year be carried forward but the status still says “Not Received”: As we have said before, since we already have all of last year’s transcripts in our office, we are not prioritizing these transcripts, so it might take a while for them to be marked as received. We will work on them throughout the summer but we might not have them all updated until after the application deadline. As long as you have checked the appropriate box on the application and do not need to submit a new transcript, don’t worry that the transcript status still says “Not Received.” Your transcript will be considered received on time as long as the box is checked, you do not need to submit a new transcript, and your application was submitted by the deadline. Please do not call or email us about this – contacting us just delays the process. We’re not going to make you ineligible because we in the office did not have a chance to update your transcript status before the deadline.
2. If you requested your UBC transcript be accessed electronically but the status still says “Not Received”: Same thing – these transcripts are not our highest priority so it will take longer than normal for us to update them. As long as you have checked the appropriate box on the application, don’t worry that the transcript status still says “Not Received.” Your transcript will be considered received on time as long as the box is checked, your UBC information was filled out correctly, and your application was submitted by the deadline. Again, please do not call or email us about this.
3. If you sent your transcripts to us by courier and the courier status is showing as received (or if you dropped off your transcripts in person), but your transcript status on your online application is still showing as “Not Received”: It takes 1-2 business days for your documents to be sent from our mailing address to our physical location, so until they arrive in our physical location, we will not be able to mark them as “Received” online. Don’t worry – as long as it arrived at our mailing address by the deadline, it will be considered “Received”, even if we are not able to update your status to reflect this right away. If you have courier or signature proof that your transcript was delivered more than two days ago to our mailing address, please email us through the online application system with the tracking information and we will look into it as soon as possible.
4. If your institution says they sent your transcripts a week ago, but your transcript status on your online application is still showing as “Not Received”: Regular mail can take a while to get to us, and schools are very busy this time of year with transcript orders, so make sure to give yourself lots of extra time. We are working hard to keep on top of the high volume of transcripts that we receive so that you will know when we have them in hand, but remember, once you put a document in the mail, our office has no way of determining when it will arrive, or why it has not yet arrived. If you are really concerned about your transcripts arriving by a certain time, you may want to consider having them couriered.
5. If you have proof that you ordered a transcript at your Registrar’s Office, or proof of your school sending your transcript to us by regular mail, but your transcript status on your online application is still showing as “Not Received”: It is not considered an exceptional circumstance if your transcript takes longer than expected to be processed by your school and/or to arrive to us by regular mail – we will not accept emailed proof that you ordered your transcript early, or electronic versions of your documents until your official documents get here. It is your responsibility to ensure your official transcript arrives at our mailing address by the deadline, so send them in plenty of time, keep an eye on your transcript status, and if you think it seems like an unreasonable amount of time has passed since you sent it, request another be sent. Please don’t call and ask us what is a reasonable amount of time is, or if we think you should send another or not – our guess is as good as yours.
6. If you want to bring forward transcripts that were received by our office during last year’s application, but you also need to send us one updated transcript:
a. If you check off the box asking us to bring forward your documents from last year, and you send us one updated transcript, we will use the newest version of the transcript received before the deadline, along with any other transcripts that you asked to be brought forward.
b. If you want to bring forward your documents from last year, but you need to update your UBC grades, check off the box asking us to bring forward your documents from last year, and check off the box asking us to access your new UBC transcript electronically. We’ll understand what you mean if you check off both boxes.
7. If you submitted your transcripts a while ago, but had not yet added that institution to your online application: Our office cannot mark your document as “Received” until you add it to your online application. This goes for university transcripts, IB/AP transcripts, high school transcripts and WES/ICES evaluations. If you recently updated your application to show another institution, you do not need to contact us. We are constantly going through ‘unmatched’ transcripts to update them for you as quickly as we can. These items have been date-stamped so we know when they arrived.
8. Seeing a red exclamation point after you pay the application fee: Right before the early deadline, a couple of applicants reported seeing a red exclamation point on the Application page even after their payment goes through successfully. If you can see your payment transaction details on the Application Fee page of the application, you can trust that your payment was successful and was received at the date and time indicated. The red exclamation point should update to a green checkmark overnight.