Forgive the TL;DR nature of this post, but I'm going to address a number a peoples' posts at once: guest2121, guest089, guest87 (and I go through the admissions stats for a while...exciting stuff
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@guest089
RE-WRITING THE MCAT
I concur that plenty of people have been admitted with lower MCAT scores than the averages. Especially since the MCAT makes up the smallest component of the admissions score, it is definitely possible to make up for a below average MCAT with the remaining parts of the application.
As for the time needed to study to re-write the MCAT: I'm not going to make the decision easy on you since this really depends on how you study and your prior experience. I know people who spent months studying: some people in little bits over time, others intently for the entire time. By contrast, I'm a procrastinator, so I think I started around Monday and wrote the test Wednesday or Thursday (including going over organic chem in the parking lot the morning before...not fun). But that's just the way I happen to study, and it works for me. So you just have to ask yourself if 2 months is enough time for
YOUR particular style of studying and level of experience with the MCAT subjects. Sorry it's not a solid answer, but I think you're the only one who can
really answer the question.
@guest87
RELEASE OF ADMISSION STATISTICS
I seem to remember they were out last year sometime in the summer (i.e., July or August), not overly long after the admission decisions. But I don't know about for other years, so I don't know if that was normal or not.
@guest2121
ANALYSIS OF ADMISSION STATISTICS (i.e., is any group unfairly favoured?)
I feel what you're saying guest2121; as a male, non-U of G student, I had heard rumours as well from various people that not only were U of G students preferred, but also that they favoured girls over guys. To echo what guest87, guest25, and clark have said: the admissions committee does
NOT inherently favour Guelph applicants over externals (there's also no favouring of either gender); the process is designed to be as fair and equal as possible for
ALL applicants. Just to add some actual numbers to this, here's another spreadsheet of mine that summarizes
ALL the currently posted admissions statistics (what can I say: I too went through the stressful admissions process, and I like analyzing my chances...also, I was in engineering for some time, so I like spreadsheets...
):
docs.google.com/open?id=0B08j-U1CX9S9M1FTeXdjdEFWVDg
For anyone not wanting to look at tables of numbers (and prefers reading my long paragraphs...
), here's a basic (but kind of long) summary of some key points:
1.) The OVERALL external admission percentage is lowered by international students (who are mostly from external schools and have a low admission percentage)I think what throws some people is if they just look at the stats for the
TOTAL applicant pool as a whole; this can be misleading since that includes both domestic
AND international applicants,
BUT, annually, 105 of the 120 seats are reserved
solely for Canadians. As such, the admittance percentage is
far lower for internationals compared to domestic undergrads (8.2% vs. 35%, respectively). Since the vast majority of internationals come from external schools (i.e., NOT U of G), this drags down the admittance stats for students from external schools taken as a whole (i.e., the percent of
TOTAL applicants admitted from U of G versus External is 36.2% vs. 20.6%); this can make it
appear that U of G students are favoured. However, a more appropriate comparison is of domestic U of G undergrads vs. domestic External undergrads, for which the percentages admitted from each category are essentially the
same (35.5% vs. 33.2%, respectively).
(keep in mind that I'm also focusing on domestic undergrads because they represent about 90% of the admitted class)2.) For domestic students, a greater number are applying from U of G than external schools, so it naturally follows that admitted classes have a majority of U of G studentsAs you said guest2121: the majority of admitted students come from U of G. Numbers-wise for domestic undergrads, there is an average annual ratio of 2.4 students admitted from U of G for every 1 student admitted from an external school (70 vs. 30, respectively). However, this is merely a consequence of the applicant pool, which is comprised of a majority U of G students. For domestic undergrads, there is an average annual ratio of 2.3 students applying from U of G for every 1 student applying from an external school (202 vs. 89, respectively). So, for domestic undergrads:
Applying: 2.3 U of G for every 1 external
Admitted: 2.4 U of G for every 1 external
(essentially the same)
3.) A greater percentage of domestic undergrad applicants from U of G get interviews compared to external studentsAn average 73.4% of U of G domestic undergrad applicants get an interview, compared to only 58.7% of external domestic undergrads. This is a somewhat interesting statistic, as interview selection is based on your academic ranking and thus does not inherently favour either group. There are many possible causes, but some that come up off-hand are:
- The larger group of people at U of G looking to get into the vet program (relative to at external schools) has likely produced a more competitive undergrad micro-environment (e.g., biomed, etc.), resulting in U of G pre-vet students getting higher grades
- As guest87 said, being at U of G may help in terms of more access to resources like volunteering opportunities, the FVC group, and people to practice with (and compete with, as mentioned above)
- At U of G, the accepted pre-req courses are easily laid out for students and there are arguably more options, while externals must figure out courses that will work and may have less selection (I know I did when trying to find courses that were acceptable for OVC admissions...not an overly enjoyable process
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4.) For domestic undergrads, external students seem to do better in interviews than U of G studentsFor domestic undergrads reaching the interview stage, an average of 57.7% of external students are admitted, compared to 49.3% of U of G students. Why? I don't know...I just think it's kind of an interesting stat.
5.) There is no inherent favouring of either genderFor domestic undergrads, the male and female percentages successful in getting an interview or being admitted are essentially the same throughout the process.
ADMISSION DECISIONS, APPEALS
The admissions committee considers in-depth
ALL the information available to them in the admissions process, and makes the final admissions selections
exceedingly carefully; I'm almost completely sure there is
NOT a means to appeal
AFTER the admissions process has completed.
DURING the process, if an applicant feels they are unfairly disadvantaged (e.g., course approvals; extenuating personal circumstances like family, serious illness, etc.; conflict-of-interest during interviews), there are processes to address this (e.g., appeals of course approvals; presentation of extenuating circumstances to the admissions committee for review; alternate interviewers). However, I
really don't think applicants can appeal a final admissions decision. If you still really want to double-check, my guess would be Deanna Lundmark, since she handles most questions related to the admissions process, but I wouldn't count on getting the response you're looking for. Sorry.
You said your grades and MCAT were "within the range accepted" and your interview score was "ABOVE the average accepted range." I would say it's
far more important to consider how your scores compare to the
AVERAGES,
NOT just being in the range of accepted grades/MCAT. As the grades appear to be essentially normally distributed, the vast majority of admitted students have grades around the average, with fewer having grades on the higher or lower end of the range. So:
- If your grades were BELOW the average of admitted students (so academic was below average and interview was above average), perhaps your above average interview score was not high enough to make up for the difference, even though you were still in the range (especially since grades are worth by far the most of the admission score). Admitted students with below average grades most likely have really good interviews and MCAT scores to make up the difference. Or they may have below average prerequisite marks and above average marks for the last 2 semesters, combining to give average or above average grades overall (or vice versa).
- If your grades were ABOVE the average of admitted students (so academic and interview were both above average), that would probably mean you need to look at your BIF and reference letters, as that's really all that's left in the application. As clark touched on about reference letters: a really bad letter might be able to hold you back regardless of how you did on any other part of your application. Be really sure your references are giving you a good reference, as the admissions people have mentioned in past information sessions that there have been cases in the past were the submitted references were unfortunately NOT positive (e.g., from a prof that barely knows the student, from a vet that was not impressed with the student's work, etc.). Also make sure you have a reasonable amount of vet and animal experience for your BIF.
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