calculation of entire academic record score

[boodog]

yes i just put mine up for an example. actually i suspect that a GPA even slightly lower, with the right trends, could even get a higher score than mine.

[triguy]

Originally Posted by arctic_monkey

No you're wrong. A 4.0/4.0 will not give a 50/50. The guy before you had a 3.835 and by making this out of 50, you get 47.9375/50. He did not receive this score but received something like 41.32/50.

It's not just your grades. I'm not exactly sure how they do it but I would think that they look at if you took some of the recommended courses and the difficulty of the courses you have taken as well.

I really doubt that a GPA of 0 would equal 0 seeing as how there is a minimun application cut-off around 3.4. Your GPA/4.0 does not give you your score out of 50. It seems to me that a small GPA range, perhaps 0.8, is graded on a 50 point scale.

[Jixe]

Originally Posted by triguy

So your 4 year average is 3.835.
Your best 3 years is 3.86 (I don't know if that matters but at UofA it does.)

I have to assume that a 4.0 GPA would give you a 50/50. So 8.68 marks out of 100 can be earned by increasing your GPA by only 0.165!!!!!! That's a load of crap. 8.68 marks is extremely significant. Magnifying the differences in GPAs by so much makes grades the most significant part of the application. Why bother investing the resources in grading ECs, references and the interview? Please correct me if I'm wrong.

ONLY 0.165?? That's still pretty significant seeing as though most competitive applicants have GPAs that span from 3.7 to 4.0. That's a difference of 0.3.

[osmosis]

Originally Posted by boodog

yeah its pretty subjective:

yr 1: 3.82
yr 2: 3.76
yr 3: 3.80
yr 4: 3.96

This scored a 41.32/50. Hope this helps you anyone! I did a Bachelor of Science major in Cellular Molecular microbiology (CMMB at the U of C) with an honours project.

i was just wondering, given these academic stats, were you rejected pre-interview or post-interview?

b/c if you were rejected pre-interview, the problems could range from mcat to ec's. however, being rejected post-interview has nothing to do with academics, it's more a problem with the MMI and on-site essay.

[boodog]

these got me on the waiting list then into U of C and U of A in late June. But yes, you're absolutely right....the interview is the most important!!!

[Saberial]

how were you able to find out your pre-interview score, boodog?

[boodog]

i was on the waiting list, and just asked the admissions office for it. they responded within 2days. this is the "advice" that U of C gives you on how to improve your application. it is pretty good advice, since it points out what they think of your EC's and references, etc. In all though if your grades are good, it all comes down to an interview.

[Stretch]

What're the on-site essays like?

Time given, essay topic, etc.?

[boodog]

hey Stretch, 1hr total, 2 essays. So bank about 30mins for writing and revising each.

One essay topic was a one line question...along the lines of "What do you think of X?"

The other topic had some documents an essay, some stats, and a picture, and they asked you to write an answer to a question based upon the documents.

Good luck.

[Stretch]

Thanks Boodog, it sounds like they're looking at your ability to coherently throw together your thoughts in writing and your critical thinking skills.

Any idea what they're looking for in those essays?

Ability to present multiple points of view? An eye for detail?