The latest updates from the MD Admissions team.
Interview notifications are quickly approaching
By Admissions on Oct 31, 2011 As you may or may not have noticed, the application timeline has recently been updated. The interview notifications (invites and regrets) will be sent during the week of November 14-18. Your application status can change at any point throughout the day (8:30-4:30 PST). We wish we could give you a specific date/time, but there are many checks that must be completed before we email the letters to you and we don’t want to get your hopes up in case something is delayed. If you are one of the lucky 640 applicants to be invited for interview this year, in addition to your invitation letter, you will receive information on how to book your interview, specific information relating to the interview and special events, and how to complete the supplemental application by the Feb. 15 deadline. This year you will be able to book your interview online through the online application system. Interviews are scheduled on a “first-come, first-served” basis, no exceptions. All applicants invited for interview will have access to the booking system at exactly the same time. If you have exceptional circumstances determining when you can interview, make sure that you schedule your interview early. We will not be able to give you a different date or time if the dates you need are already full. The deadline for booking an interview is November 28 at 12:00 (noon) PST. For more information relating to the style and format of the interviews, please see the “Interviews” page of our website. It has also been updated and will give you a good idea of what to expect this year. Good luck and we’ll be in touch in a couple of weeks! Permalink | No Comments
2011-12 application cycle update
By Admissions on Oct 12, 2011
This has been (and continues to be) a very busy time for the Admissions Office evaluating files for this current cycle. We are very pleased that so many of you want to apply to our program and we thank you for your effort filling out the application, especially the Transcript section. We know it was quite a task for some of you! Regarding grades, as a reminder we are now converting each letter grade into a percentage, based on Table 1 or Table 2 as applicable. Percentage grades are not converted
There is another change this year – the AQ (Academic) and the NAQ (Non-Academic) Qualities scores will each be out of 50 instead of 25, to give a combined score out of 100. This will mean the TFR (Total File Review) score to determine which applicants will be invited for interview will be very different from last year. The AQ score will be based solely on applicants’ Overall Academic Average or Adjusted Academic Average (if applicable). We cannot yet say what the cut-off for interview will be. MCAT scores and the prerequisite average still are not factors at this stage in the process.
The Admissions Statistics for the 2011 entering class (MED 2015) have been posted on our website: http://www.med.ubc.ca/education/md_ugrad/MD_Undergraduate_Admissions/MD_Undergraduate_Admissions_Statistics.htm
As you can see, we continue to attract and admit applicants with very strong academic backgrounds.
A heads up for next year – the application deadline will be later, September 17, 2012 and as so many applicants have attended post-secondary institutions outside of North America, next year we will require a WES or ICES evaluation for everyone, even if you were just on an exchange. This is because evaluating foreign transcripts can be a very time-consuming business and also it can be advantageous to have a WES or ICES evaluation done, as they convert all grades, from whichever country, to a North American scale, which is a very helpful comparison for us.
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Transcripts
By Admissions on Aug 12, 2011
Less than 4 days left before the application deadline! (Try not to panic!) As you can imagine, we are receiving 100’s if not 1,000’s of documents each day and therefore need some time to process them. Please be patient!
Since we know that many of you will be sitting in nervous anticipation about whether or not your transcripts have been received by the deadline- here are a few ways you can check yourself:
1) You couriered them and the status of the slip says, “received/delivered” (double check the address, and if it is the same as the one in the help guide, you are fine). Please don’t contact us. We probably just haven’t had time to update it yet. If we haven’t updated your document’s status by Thursday the 18th, please contact us with the receipt and proof of confirmation, and we’ll work together to try to figure out what happened.
2) You delivered them in person. There is a rumor out there that we don’t accept hand delivered transcripts. That is not true. We accept hand delivered transcripts as long as they are in a sealed envelope from the original institution. To hand deliver something, please go to the address listed in the help guide and give it to the receptionist. Please be nice to her!
3) You checked the “application status” tab and it states that all of your documents have been received. (Make sure you aren’t missing anything, like a college course you took for fun, or an exchange university. But if the system says we have everything and you’ve included everything, it’s ok, it’s all here).
***Please note that we DO NOT accept electronic submission of documents in any form (email, fax, etc).
Take a deep breath and inhale/exhale. This part’s almost over!
Permalink | 2 CommentsEmailing Admissions: Current Applicants
By Admissions on Aug 05, 2011
Hello current applicants! T-10 days until the application deadline! As you can imagine we are receiving a lot of questions regarding the application, documentation, etc.
In order to help us respond to your emails faster, when you contact us through the OAS please include: your first and last name as stated on your application profile.
To speed up response time we will NOT be responding to the following types of emails:
1) Inquiries regarding whether we have/have not received all of your documents. The status of transcripts, BC residency documents, other required documents, etc. are being updated daily. Please check the “application status” page of the OAS for the current status of your documents. If you sent in your document and its status states, “not received,” one of several things could have happened: 1) we have not received your document and you should probably send a new one; 2) when we received your document you had not completed the corresponding part of your application, so we could not update your document’s status- please make sure that you enter in all of the institutions you have attended, your BC residency status etc. We go through the stack of documents we have received that were not entered in to the OAS every few days. This means there is a delay in processing time of your documents; 3) If you are a UBC student and you requested that your transcript be accessed electronically and the email can be seen in the “communication section” of the OAS we have officially received your transcript. We are updating the status of your documents as soon as possible, however, it is more important for us to inform the applicants who need to request paper transcripts that their documents have/have not arrived because they will need more time to request a new one if it got lost in the mail. Please be patient.
2) If you’ve emailed us about a transcript, BC residency, or MCAT and your status has since been updated.
3) If you’ve informed us that you have updated the transcript section of your application. Please see above (2) for how we process documents we’ve received that did not have institutions, etc. listed when we received them.
4) Emails asking if a certain verifier is appropriate. As we’ve stated before, please use your best judgment. Bear in mind, if we can’t contact the verifier because they no longer work with an organization, have moved, are from a foreign country, etc, they are probably not a good verifier. We need to be able to contact someone who will be able to discuss your involvement with an activity and who will appear to be a credible source of information.
5) SISC Transcript Requests. Please see above (3) regarding why.
If you have other specific questions or concerns regarding the application/ application process, please read through the help guide and website first. If the answer is not there, feel free to contact us and we will be in touch with you as soon as we are able.
Good luck and we look forward to receiving your application!
Permalink | 11 CommentsReceipt of documents
By Admissions on Jul 29, 2011
As the August 15th application deadline is approaching fast – and it is a strict deadline – for those of you who have not yet submitted – please submit soon! We are receiving a huge number of transcripts and other documents in our office every day and we do our best to update them as received as soon as we can, within 48 hours if possible.
If they are not showing as “received” on your on-line application, please be patient and don’t email or call us asking if we have them – it could be that they arrived in our office that morning and not yet processed. Given the volume, it is too time-consuming for staff to try and search for a particular document that has not yet been filed.
If you are unsure if your transcripts have reached us, it may be best to request another copy and to have them couriered to our office to ensure you have confirmation of delivery by the deadline.
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