Anyone on here applying to Waterloo??

[qwopty99]

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[still_confused]

wow, people who took statistics that dont know what standard deviation is.... maybe the person knew it as sigma?

not sure if its the same in canada, but at my school in the US, our averages are usually a B-/C+ but that doesnt mean those corresponds to a 80%, usually the average runs around low 70's with the professor deciding if that warrants the B- or C+ average. maybe UW uses a similar formula?

anyways, interesting stuff, and yes i know my post adds nothing to the discussion ^^

 

[qwopty99]

anyways - this is a discussion board.

everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, and people typically like to believe the "norm" as opposed to "radical ideas", unless they see the facts for themselves. it's predictable and i accept that.

there really is no use in debating any of this anymore. it's too easy for everyone to simply "deny" that anything i say is true or could have happened.

ok - that's fine with me good day.

 

[ML1983]

This sounds like it's turning into a UT vs. UW thread. Why the bitterness towards UW? You don't know how it is if you didn't go through it. All this "hearsay" is funny. Yea some courses are easy, others are hard. It's like that everywhere.

 

[Looman]

I'm not sure when you went to waterloo, but marks are no longer posted in a glass case anymore, probably because of people like you we now get our marks online through a protected password so that we can have privacy to our own marks. Secondly, how much support was there by the students for Dr. Cullen's nominations? As it stands right now he's the most out of touch prof there is in our school, actually he's retired just teaches one or two lectures and invariably throws up a picture of a naked girl. I'm not sure when you went to school but times are very different now. For one, due to the huge number of people in university now, the applications to Opt have increased, therefore only top students, even from waterloo, are getting in. In our class, the top people are from Waterloo. In the end marks depend on the amount of work put into the class. If someone is not from waterloo they don't know anybody at the school and thus stick their heads in the books every night. If someone is from waterloo, not only do you have optometry friends, but all your undergrad friends as well. That means there's just that much more to do rather than study. Also, maybe some are content to get by with 60's, I know U of T is competitive so you'll probably keep that competitive attitude the rest of your life, but others won't. Bottom line, your argument holds water maybe when you were at Waterloo, but not anymore.

 

[qwopty99]

deleted

 

[qwopty99]

to reply to your post:

1. i don't think i had anything to do with marks being now accessible by password only.

2. answer sent to u.

3. i've heard that applications are up - that's good to hear.

 

[still_confused]

so now canadiens > american opt students ?

maybe its time to do some real research concerning grades, trends, and even socio economic effects, and not base it on what you observed or what a professor showed you. in the statistic world, that kind of "evidence" means nothing and in any academic arena will be laughed out of the room.

oh and you worked hard during school and had a part-time job? welcome to life. i know at least one graduate of UW (my co worker) that was worth her marks, and is nothing short of brilliant and get this, she also had a part time job!

 

[qwopty99]

so now canadiens > american opt students ?

maybe its time to do some real research concerning grades, trends, and even socio economic effects, and not base it on what you observed or what a professor showed you. in the statistic world, that kind of "evidence" means nothing and in any academic arena will be laughed out of the room.

oh and you worked hard during school and had a part-time job? welcome to life. i know at least one graduate of UW (my co worker) that was worth her marks, and is nothing short of brilliant and get this, she also had a part time job!

as for real research concerning grades, who said i didn't have the data?

and yes, congratulations to your brilliant friend.

 

[tybuff]

waterloo science is a joke. people come out with 100% in organic chemistry (and then u talk to them and they don't *understand* why u CAN'T get 100% in orgo...). in the optom class i was in, the students who came from UW in the same year said their orgo class average (the advanced class apparently) was 86%. i did my undergrad at UT. i had the 2nd highest mark in my section (over 300 students). i got an 87. i also got 400 on orgo on the OAT with no specific preparation (just taking the course at UT).

take a walk through the UW science buildings - u'll see all these courses with class averages in the Bs. ALL UT science courses average in the Cs - and UT is a pre-med undergrad (having been at both schools, i can say that UTs were smarter students).

what's a "pre-med" undergrad?

your argument for B average is baseless; My quantum mechanics class had a B+ average, did that mean it was easy? I guess so. but then again, there was only 6 of us, so only half a dozen found it easy.

profs determine averages, that's all there is to it.

 

[qwopty99]

Ur way late in the discussion. people only replied to snippets out of a big volume of posts. anyways...

i'm defining a pre-med undergrad as the undergrads where the institution has a medical school.

your argument for B average is baseless; My quantum mechanics class had a B+ average, did that mean it was easy? I guess so. but then again, there was only 6 of us, so only half a dozen found it easy.

profs determine averages, that's all there is to it.

u did quantum mechanics - u should be smart enough to understand this:

2nd year biology
class of 6 students - average B. THIS IS OK

2nd year biology
class of 200 students - average B. This is generally NOT OK.

 

[ML1983]

Ur way late in the discussion. people only replied to snippets out of a big volume of posts. anyways...

i'm defining a pre-med undergrad as the undergrads where the institution has a medical school.

u did quantum mechanics - u should be smart enough to understand this:

2nd year biology
class of 6 students - average B. THIS IS OK

2nd year biology
class of 200 students - average B. This is generally NOT OK.

Get over it. I'm assuming u're an O.D. grad. from UW. What's the big deal, why are you so bitter against UW undergrad? What do you have against the other UW undergrads in the opt. program? Think their 90% GPA isn't the same as your UT one?

 

[qwopty99]

i'm not asking anyone to agree with me. obviously it was a mistake to bring the issue up. if i offended anyone, i apologize. i did not, however, "make anything up".

further, i'm entitled to my opinions as u are yours. if u don't like my opinions, then really, discuss the opinions. why is it always that people respond in sheep-herd mentality when someone brings up a radical idea? obviously - attack the INDIVIDUAL, not the IDEA. i saw a trend that may have existed so obviously there's something wrong with ME.

i'd like to thank looman for discussing the concept, and at the least, conceding it's conceivability.

a very ambitious president from a prestigious university just resigned for stating his opinion on why females are less represented in the maths and sciences. despite the fact that the unequal representation can be shown by statistics, the fact that he mentioned a "plausible", perhaps "obvious" (i.e men and women are different) explanation did him in. but hey, who cares if he's right, he obviously has a bias against woman - the guy is a nut.

yes. and the world is flat. just ask Galileo - like he said in front of the Spanish Inquisition.
[edit: the S.I. was about the motion of the earth and the sun. i won't go into why i bring this up]

 

[Looman]

I don't deny any of your data or facts, the point I am making is that your data is only from a few select years out of an almost 40 year old school. The point is, currently there are top students from all backgrounds and undergrads, and in the end no matter where you are from you have to work hard in professional school to do well. Either way you should have known that claiming that a certain university is less academically rigourous than another would have been offensive, and this forum is not a place for offensive comments.

 

[loo_grad]

14 of spades & Tybuff..
I remember a student who would walk around UW Opt and gripe about this kind of stuff. I went to UW and did my undergrad/opt program there. I got 95% in Calculus. Was my mark over-inflated cause you didn't achieve the same thing at UT? I also tutored students whose major was math & engineering in calculus and algebra. I also recieved 96% in Organic... again this is obviously high cause Tybuff recieved a 87% at UT with a class of 300 students. I also recieved 14/15 on the MCAT in the physical sciences so maybe I was capable of understanding and applying something related to science. I received a score of 380 in the orgo section on the OAT - not bad considering i hadn't finished my first term in it and I was ill with the flu & had high fever at the time. Maybe UW has some graduates deserving of the marks that reflect their efforts and some of these students would be able to compete at other schools? I guess standardized testing would be the only way to appropriately guage the abilities of students across school rather than a BIASED analysis of CAREFULLY collected class averages that you would call your DATA. I really disagree with the lack of an evidenced based approach.

i'm not asking anyone to agree with me. obviously it was a mistake to bring the issue up. if i offended anyone, i apologize. i did not, however, "make anything up".

further, i'm entitled to my opinions as u are yours. if u don't like my opinions, then really, discuss the opinions. why is it always that people respond in sheep-herd mentality when someone brings up a radical idea? obviously - attack the INDIVIDUAL, not the IDEA. i saw a trend that may have existed so obviously there's something wrong with ME.

i'd like to thank looman for discussing the concept, and at the least, conceding it's conceivability.

a very ambitious president from a prestigious university just resigned for stating his opinion on why females are less represented in the maths and sciences. despite the fact that the unequal representation can be shown by statistics, the fact that he mentioned a "plausible", perhaps "obvious" (i.e men and women are different) explanation did him in. but hey, who cares if he's right, he obviously has a bias against woman - the guy is a nut.

yes. and the world is flat. just ask Galileo - like he said in front of the Spanish Inquisition.
[edit: the S.I. was about the motion of the earth and the sun. i won't go into why i bring this up]

 

[ML1983]

I think Tybuff "quoted" 14 of spades. Tybuff goes to UW I think. Only 14 of spades is saying UW averages are inflated. I wonder if you compare OAT scores what you will find. If the average OAT from UW is better than UT, i wonder if it's still because our marks are overinflated.

14 of spades & Tybuff..
I remember a student who would walk around UW Opt and gripe about this kind of stuff. I went to UW and did my undergrad/opt program there. I got 95% in Calculus. Was my mark over-inflated cause you didn't achieve the same thing at UT? I also tutored students whose major was math & engineering in calculus and algebra. I also recieved 96% in Organic... again this is obviously high cause Tybuff recieved a 87% at UT with a class of 300 students. I also recieved 14/15 on the MCAT in the physical sciences so maybe I was capable of understanding and applying something related to science. I received a score of 380 in the orgo section on the OAT - not bad considering i hadn't finished my first term in it and I was ill with the flu & had high fever at the time. Maybe UW has some graduates deserving of the marks that reflect their efforts and some of these students would be able to compete at other schools? I guess standardized testing would be the only way to appropriately guage the abilities of students across school rather than a BIASED analysis of CAREFULLY collected class averages that you would call your DATA. I really disagree with the lack of an evidenced based approach.

 

[qwopty99]

14 of spades & Tybuff..
I remember a student who would walk around UW Opt and gripe about this kind of stuff. I went to UW and did my undergrad/opt program there. I got 95% in Calculus. Was my mark over-inflated cause you didn't achieve the same thing at UT? I also tutored students whose major was math & engineering in calculus and algebra. I also recieved 96% in Organic... again this is obviously high cause Tybuff recieved a 87% at UT with a class of 300 students. I also recieved 14/15 on the MCAT in the physical sciences so maybe I was capable of understanding and applying something related to science.

interesting. well - i only spoke to ONE UW student about this subject while i was there (after which, i realized it was obviously not PC to bring it up). he happened to be someone who believed the 100% in orgo was perfectly reasonable if u did the work. in the same conversation, he also cited his physical sciences MCAT score as being "proof" that the undergrad curriculum was legitimate. his phys.sci score was high, but it WASN'T 14, so i guess u aren't that person. his MCAT subscore also seemed to be reason that he felt he was smart. i remember this conversation well. it happened in the summer of 2002. u didn't happen to also get 8 on the english portion of the MCAT did u?

I received a score of 380 in the orgo section on the OAT....I guess standardized testing would be the only way to appropriately guage the abilities of students...

i don't even know why u bring this up. but if u want to toe-to-toe on this, fine. small sample here, but u invited the comparison.

loo grad - orgo 96%, OAT 380

14 of spades - orgo 87%, OAT 400

Notes: loo grad was "ill with the flu & had high fever at the time". as well, loo grade "hadn't finished his class in orgo". points noted.

Additional Notes: spades ALSO was sick having caught a cold that week. he also hadn't finished taking his orgo course at the time of writing (who the heck has???). spades also had to travel to waterloo that morning to write the OAT, so no home-court advantage (yippee doo)

Further Notes: the highest mark in my section at UT in orgo was 89%. no commentary - take it at face value.

As for "commentary", yes, your 96% would be considered a high mark in orgo. that suggests u were near perfection on virtually every evaluation u had. an 87, i'm sure u know, is a much different mark. it means u get a low 80 on one exam, followed by a low 90 the next. quite a bit different.

I'll give u a dollar for anyone that u find who got a 96 in organic chemistry at a pre-med undergrad.

 

[tybuff]

Ur way late in the discussion. people only replied to snippets out of a big volume of posts. anyways...

what'd i miss then? fill me in on what i'm missing, seeing as how i also missed the memo on "i can only reply to posts within 5 days of origin"

i'm defining a pre-med undergrad as the undergrads where the institution has a medical school.

what difference does that make? pre-med schools harder than non? LOL

u did quantum mechanics - u should be smart enough to understand this:

2nd year biology
class of 6 students - average B. THIS IS OK

2nd year biology
class of 200 students - average B. This is generally NOT OK.

i'll ignore your your first comment.

why isn't that OK? - at my school, there was A average in intermediate biochemistry in one section, and a C average in another. two different profs, two different tests. it's prof based.

 

[loo_grad]

14_of_spades :

Yes my performance to yours on the OAT was very shabby indeed. You must be a better guesser than me. Anyways... Organic chemistry is a technical course. Do you agree? If you understand the concepts/reactions/definitions/math/formulas you should be able to answer the questions. Do you agree? Our tests were multiple choice... the answers were on the page. If you knew the material you could find the right answer. Thats all there is to it. Just like the MCAT/OAT... the answers are on the page. So it is possible for a person to receive 100%. Can a group average reach 80% - well... yes... a group can do so if technically competent. UW professors - for every course - have to go and defend their class averages in front of admin. faculty. I am sure you recall receiving your unofficial grades prior to them becoming official one month after. Class averages have been raised or lowered after the fact in response to fall in line with the rest of the school, with other sections of the same course, ect. I recall most averages for science courses at the university ranged from 65% (first year) - 70-73% (3rd-4th years) - not too outrageous I don't imagine.

 

[powerpuff]

Hi just wondering if any EXTERNAL applicants have been invited for an interview yet??

 

[Nru1]

Hi just wondering if any EXTERNAL applicants have been invited for an interview yet??

Yes, I am in Calgary and I received a call today. My interview will be on April 5. Oh, goody!

 

[powerpuff]

Ooh congrats!

two questions for ya:

1. does waterloo give off campus interviews?
2. do they choose the date for you or you choose yourself? and do they give you a big range to choose from?


thanks

 

[Nru1]

Ooh congrats!

two questions for ya:

1. does waterloo give off campus interviews?
2. do they choose the date for you or you choose yourself? and do they give you a big range to choose from?

Thanks! I'm keeping my fingers crossed As for your questions:

1. Yes, Waterloo gives off-campus interviews outside of Ontario (I am not sure whether they visit all other provinces, or only selected ones). I am in Calgary, and they are conducting interviews here at the U of C.
2. In my case, I was not given a choice for the date. I do not know whether that is the case for every location.