U of Ottawa Update

[Ian Wong]

Hi everyone,

As with the last message board, I'm attempting to summarise information from each medical school on it's own thread. If you have any new information for this school, please post it here so we all can benefit. As this information is taken from previous threads, don't take everything you hear as gospel.


U of Ottawa:

Some interview notices have already been sent. This year, 2100 applications were received. Of these, approximately 50 will receive interviews and will then be competing for 91 spots. Some rejection letters were sent at the end of January. Apparently the GPA cut-offs were: 3.89 for OOP students, 3.76 for Ottawa area students, and 3.50 for French students applying to the French program.



Ian
Can, MS2

[anon]

Hi All,

I got some info. that will interest U of O interview candidates. First, there is a web-site for the first year class (although, if you are looking for interview tips/types of questions, you will not find them here:

members.home.net/gunner4949/intro2.htm (http://members.home.net/gunner4949/intro2.htm)

(I hope my link works!)

Also, the class for next year will be up to around 130 (class size for the current year is 101), with most of the "new" seats going to the french program.

[Jane]

Anyone have any info on Ottawa's waiting list? There seems to be two types of letters going around - a good and a bad. Did anyone recieve the good one and know how many people are on it???

Thanks

[waitlisted]

The good one I believe is actually neutral and does not mention if you have a good or bad chance of getting in, only that you have been waitlisted. The bad one explicitly states that there is a low chance of getting in due to your low rank on the waiting list. Hope this helps.

Anyone know how many people are on the good waiting list? Has anybody called UofO meds to ask?

[bibs74]

I believe there are approximately 90 spots on the "good" waitlist and the rest are on the poor waitlist (info. received on another forum). Also, out of the 450-500 interviewee's, approximately 60 were for the "French" program (extremely good odds), which makes me think that only so many of the new spots can actual go to the French program, since they don't have a very large pool to select from. Best of luck.

[gazou]

Just to confirm to everyone. the total spots for French students will be 40 for the upcoming year and that's confirmed. So it goes from 33 to 40.

Hope that helps!

[k]

Hi gazou!

Do you know the # of spots (in total) that will be added to U of O? Or do the extra spots only benefit the French students? (PS. Do you know about the the distribution of the spots for other schools?) Thanks!

[JJ]

Hey Ghazou,

where did u hear about those numbers? I don't get it.. some ppl are saying Mac wil get 20, and other are saying western will get 14, and then u are sayiing ottawa will about 7, but that doesn't add up to 40, and then what about queen's ??

I got my info from www.delphi.com/anandmed but can anyone really verify their info ?

JJ

[JD]

Queen's told me (via e-mail, and others have reported seeing it in some newsletter) that they are most likely accepting 10 more students this year (for a total of 90), and yet another 10 more next year, for a total of 100 in the class of 2006. So for this year (assuming the numbers are all correct), Queen's has 10 new spots, Western has 15, and Mac has 20. It was mentioned above that Ottawa's taking 7 more students in the French program, but there's probably some extra spots for English students too. That leaves 28 spots to be split between Ottawa (English) and Toronto. I doubt Ottawa will get all 28 of these new spots, so it looks like U of T will have to take more students, whether they like it or not.

[JJ]

JD:
Correct me if I'm wrong... but I thought that for this year's clas only 40 more spots were being added in all of Ontario... and then an X amount for next year's class... I forgot the number, was it also 40 ? Just wondering if my understanding was correct.

Thanks.
JJ

[gucio93]

80 seats were added for this year and 40 for next year

[jagman]

Hi, I was on the U of O "good" waiting list and was called yesterday (June 14) with an offer of admittance. Just wanted to let people know that they are starting to fill their spots already. Good luck to all those still waiting

[JJ]

Jagman,

Do you mind sharing u're stats ? Specifically your GPA, 'cos I heard the way Ottawa ranks is that they group all people according to their interview score, and then within that category according to your marks... so if you could give us an idea as to where u were in terms of the Ottawa weighted GPA that would help.

Also, did u apply for the English/French stream? And ... I'm assuming you accepted the offer (or are you going somwhere else) ...

Thanks for the info.
Anxiously waiting!
-JJ

[JJ]

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to update you on my status. I got a call off the Ottawa Waitlist today, and I have accepted the offer.

Nicole Racine said that they had just started calling the people off the waitlist and were relatively at the top of the list.. she said I was like 90-something. They have yet to decide about the number of new spots.

Good luck and keep us posted guys !!

JJ

[HHH07]

Hi all,

I got an acceptance last night from UO, but turned it down because I had already accepted at UBC. However, I talked to the admin officer and apparently they are at about #120 for the 90 non-french spots. I would assume they have not added any of the new 'government spots' yet. I am not sure when (or if) that will be done. Good luck to those still on the waitlist.

HHH07

[gazou]

It comes from the BAF "Bureau des affaires francophones" at Ottawa U Faculty of Medecine. They told us, the french class, that they would be 40 students in the class of med2005. We are currently 33.

Hope that helps!

[Jordan]

Just wanted to know if there was any point in applying to UofO as an out of province student with a WGPA of 3.78 when the cut off is 3.89?

[MC27]

Hi everyone!
I had a similar question to Jordan's. I am in my fourth year at U of T and I only applied to McMaster this year due to my GPA and MCAT. Assuming I do pretty well this year, I should have about a 3.8 to 3.82 WGPA for Ottawa for 2002 admissions. Is there any realistic point in applying? Is 3.89 their cut off to reading your application or is that the average for the entering class? Either way it's insanely high!
Thanks
Good luck everyone with MCAT scores and letters in February
MC27

[JSS02]

Ottawa's 3.89 cutoff is for out of province students. In Ontario (outside of the Ottawa region), it's a still high but more manageable 3.8-3.83 or so...

[bad hombre]

Hi,

I was wondering, once you make the initial WGPA cutoff, what kind of scheme does ottawa use to evaluate its applicants (ie interview 50%, WGPA-50% ?)

Thanks.

[cheech10]

As far as I know, they give interviews to everyone who meets the cutoff. Then they score your interview, and within each interview score you are ranked acoording to GPA. So all those who got 9's are separated from all those who got 8's etc. and then a list is made based on GPA. It makes their interview REALLY important, and if you have a borderline interview, the GPA helps.

[ThugJaan]

Sorry,

Ottawa DOES NOT interview everyone who makes the WGPA cutoff. I made the cutoff last year, as did some other people in my school, and none of us received an interview. The letter we got said "Although your makrs do meet the cutoff, your autobiographical sketch does not warrant being marked at this time" or something to that effect. What makes this even more suprising is that one of these people got an interview at Mac as a third year student, so obviously not all schools thought that our sketches did not warrant being marked. All of the above mentioned people are now at UofT meds, so don't worry if you get that letter; chances are other schools will find your sketch to be acceptable.

[cheech10]

Sorry then, I thought they interviewed all those that made their cutoff. At least things worked out well for the others who weren't interviewed.

[Jason]

www.ottawameds.com (http://www.ottawameds.com)

[Jason]

BTW the above website has a BB that you can post questions, that will be answered by current med students, some of which are on the admissions council. Cheers

[Ian Wong]

Cool. Thanks Jason.

Ian
UBC, Med 3