The latest updates from the MD Admissions team.
Offers Process Overview
By Admissions on Apr 25, 2012 Just like you, we at the Admissions Office are counting down the days until we send out the offers! It is an exciting time for us as we see who will finally make up the class of MED 2016. This post is the first in a series of posts about the offers. Today we’ll cover the general process, and later on there will be posts about receiving an offer, being wait-listed, and receiving regrets. As a reminder, there are 32 spaces available at NMP, SMP and IMP, and 192 available at VFMP. Basically, we go down our list and offer spaces to people based on their site preferences until each site is full. If we get to your name and only your third choice is still available, we’ll offer you your third choice and will most likely put you on the wait-list for your top two choices (please see our Site Selection post for more information on this). If we get to your name and you said No Interest to the site that is still available, we won’t offer you that site, but will put you on the wait-list for your other preferred sites. Your position on the waitlist for your preferred sites is the same in either case. Out of the 288 spaces, up to 10% (29) can go to out-of-province applicants. Because it’s ‘up to’ 29 spaces, not ‘exactly’ 29 spaces that are reserved for OOP residents, we don’t have a separate waitlist for them and we don’t always replace one OOP with another OOP – we go down the list and fill spots based on the list order, making sure we don’t exceed 29 OOP spaces. There are usually quite a few highly-ranked OOP applicants so OOP declines do tend to be filled by other OOP applicants, but it really depends on how the list falls. Here’s a quick overview of what will happen when you are notified: you’ll get an email, most likely on May 15. This email will tell you whether you got an offer, were placed on the wait-list, or neither (a.k.a. regrets :(). You can also check your status on the Application Status page in the online application system. Once you know your status you can go from there (more on this later). We know it would be great to tell you the exact time we are going to email you, but we really don’t know when that will be. We are planning to start notifications on May 15 for sure. The exact time is up in the air because there are a couple of steps we have to complete the day we send the notifications, and these steps can take some time. It’s hard to wait, but we appreciate your patience! One request: please don’t call us and ask if we’ve sent the offers yet. We promise we will email as soon as we can, and you can always check your Application Status page too. If you don’t see anything there it means we haven’t sent you your notification yet. One last thing: soon, when you go to the Application Status page you will be able to see a new line called Offer Status. It will say something like “There is no offer status for your application.” This is normal. As soon as we send the notification your offer status will be updated. That’s it for now! Feel free to ask general questions here. If you have a question that applies to your own specific situation, please email us through the online application system instead. Permalink | 4 Comments
Early Submission Incentive
By Admissions on Apr 23, 2012
This year we are offering a special incentive to encourage applicants to submit their application and transcripts early. Applicants who have everything in by August 15 (including a completed application, transcripts, BC residency documents, name change, etc) will get a chance to book their interviews a day before the other interview-granted applicants. These applicants will also be able to find out that they have received an interview invitation a day early. Applicants who apply early but aren’t invited for an interview won’t find out their interview decision any earlier, though. As always, once the application is submitted it can’t be re-opened for changes. Things like the MCAT and any necessary WES or ICES evaluations don’t have to be in by August 15. They are still due at their regular deadline, October 1.
Since we aren’t counting summer 2012 courses in the OGPA or AGPA this year (edited for clarification: we are excluding summer 2012 courses only – courses from summer 2011, summer 2010, etc will be included) and since the cutoff for all non-academic activities (including work experience, research, and rural experiences) is June 1, there isn’t much reason to hang on to your application all summer. Moreover, the early submission deadline offers a few good benefits to applicants who get an interview. The biggest one is selectivity – you may have a better chance of getting the interview time you really want. Since you can book earlier, you can also start making concrete plans for the interview weekend earlier, and of course just knowing about the interview decision as soon as possible is a positive for most people, too.
If you can’t or don’t want to submit early for some reason, that’s totally fine. We promise it won’t have any impact on how we view you as an applicant and all files, whether they meet the early deadline or the regular deadline, will be evaluated in exactly the same way. We’re just hoping to space out our workload a little more and reduce the flood of transcripts, calls and emails we get every year right before the deadline. This will (hopefully) mean that we can be more responsive around that time in terms of updating transcript statuses and answering inquiries.
What do you think? Will being able to book an interview spot motivate you to submit your application early? Are there any other incentives that would encourage you to get everything in a month before the regular deadline? Please leave your ideas in the comments – we might consider them for use in a future cycle!
Permalink | 18 CommentsUpdate and reminders for 2012-13
By Admissions on Mar 21, 2012
It has been a while since we have posted anything here, mainly because since the interview weekends the Admissions office has been very busy preparing for the final selection meetings where the MED 2016 class will be chosen. Interview scores and information provided by referees has been amalgamated with academic grades, MCAT scores etc and we have been double-checking all the information in the files to ensure that applicants can be assured of a fair discussion and decision. Offers will, as we say on the 2011-12 timeline, be made beginning May 15th, no earlier – sorry, know the wait is agonizing.
If you have not already done so, you may wish to have a look at our updated Faculty of Medicine website. The content of the Admissions website is the same, there is just a new look and layout. This means you will still be able to access the same information. Please note, if you have bookmarked any specific pages on the website, you should now be redirected to the new site. There will also be some changes to the content and navigation of the website later this year.
A heads-up for those of you thinking forward to the 2012-13 application. The on-line application will open on June 1st and this will also be the cut-off date for inclusion of non-academic activities, employment, awards & research. The application deadline is later, September 17, 2012. A reminder that we will be requiring a WES or ICES evaluation for all non-North American transcripts and that it can be a lengthy process to (a) obtain foreign transcripts from some countries and (b) can take several weeks, or even a couple of months, for these evaluations to be completed, so it is definitely something you should think about in plenty of time.
Another change for this next cycle is that we will not be requiring re-applicants to provide us with all new transcripts. We will bring forward transcripts from this year for those institutions where no further coursework has been taken. Applicants will not have to request this – there will be a question on the application instead – but it will absolutely be their responsibility to ensure that any transcripts brought forward did not show courses in progress. If in doubt at all, please send another one by the September 17th deadline to ensure your application is not made ineligible. UBC students will still be able to request that we access their transcripts electronically. We will of course update the Notes section of the website with any updates for the next cycle.
Permalink | 4 CommentsDavis Cup During Interviews This Weekend
By Admissions on Feb 07, 2012
The Davis Cup tennis tournament will be held at Thunderbird Arena on UBC campus this Thursday, Friday and Saturday (February 10 – 12). There will be a high volume of traffic around the arena, and surrounding roads and parking lots may be closed or otherwise affected. If you are interviewing this weekend, please give yourself extra time to arrive. Our Davis Cup Information Sheet has parking recommendations and additional information.
Permalink | No CommentsClarification of Site Selection
By Admissions on Dec 23, 2011
We would like to correct circulating misinformation regarding site selection and how it impacts applicants chances of being admitted. Let us say loudly and clearly that the sites you rank DO NOT affect your admissibility to the program. In fact admission and site placement is a two step process. First, the Admissions Selection Committee decides whether or not an applicant is admissible to our medical program and second, the Admissions Office attempts to place admissible applicants to sites within the program. This second step is where your site preference comes in to play. Our commitment is to try to offer admissible applicants a position in our program at a site where they will be happy studying and living. In order to do this, applicants this year are allowed to rank sites in preference from 1 to 4. Applicants may also select “no interest” in a specific site. It is a mistake to try and second guess the process or rank the sites in any order other than the one you truly prefer.
How site placement works is like this: When we (the Admissions Office) moves through the list of applicants and comes to your name, we look at your first site of preference, if it is full, we put you at your second site of preference, if that is full, third, etc. If you are placed at any site other than your first preference, you will be wait-listed for your preferred site(s). If we cannot place you, and you have been deemed admissible, you will be wait-listed.
The one exception to the site placement rule is the Northern Medical Program (NMP); where one of the assessment criteria is the Rural Training section of the application. As stated in the application help guide, “The NMP is seeking applicants with a genuine interest in learning medicine in the context of rural, remote, and northern communities.” If you didn’t fill out the Rural Training section of the application, you will not be considered for the NMP, even if you rank it as your first choice.
Lastly, there is a “no interest” option for those who actually have NO INTEREST is going to one or more sites. Applicants should only use this option if they do not want to move to a specific location or cannot move to a specific location. If you absolutely will not, or do not want to, go to one of the distributed sites, it is very important for you to indicate “no interest.” Understand that after the deadline applicants will not be permitted to re-rank sites, irrespective of any change in life circumstances.
We understand that medical school is a big commitment for you. It’s a big commitment for the Faculty of Medicine as well. Please help us put you in a program where you will be happy by fully considering the choices you are making. Offers to the UBC medical program are site specific and are binding to the location indicated. We cannot switch people between sites once they are committed to a specific location. Each of the distributed sites in the program will be fully subscribed when the offers are all accepted. Additional seats or “openings to move” are not an option. Help us give you the best possible outcome and rank sites where you wish to live and study for the duration of the undergraduate program.
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