you say that like it's a good thing.
To be honest, yes, it may not sound like a good thing. But from my situation, I believe I do deserve being accepted as a low GPA applicant. I am a hard worker, and I focused my life mostly on studying from very young. I took a lot difficult courses (quite notorious among students too) in my undergrad because I stupidly decided to be enrolled in a difficult major. My school has 3 different levels of majors, and I chose to take the highest level - the most difficult. My electives were also difficult to because I took them out of interest. The class average was obvious at C. The class average for the tests, also at C.
Those so called "normal" courses I took, as well as a few prerequisites I took in other insitution, I have obtained A in them. So this proves that I am capable handling science courses.
The upper level courses that were difficult, I also obtained B+, A. So this also proves that I can handle science courses.
And I can confidently say "my school, my program is much harder" because I took courses at other insitution and at other programs, and they were much lighter in terms of workload and amount of material, and level of difficulty. I spent signifincantly less time studying, and I was able to pull off A.
The handouts from PCO specifically said, they evaluate applicants academic index based on which school you went, what majors you were in, what courses you took, etc. So you see, PCO must have considered these factors.
No offense to Americans but Canadian education system is known to be more challenging than American system. So the admission councilors (not only from PCO but also from others-NECO, SUNY) said that if you are Canadian, they will consider this factor even if Canadians have lower GPA.
Also I did really well on interview. I talked about the lessons I learnt at my work experience at a private office for 3 years. I talked about my principles of patient-doctor , staff-patient, doctor-staff relations . I talked about duties invovled in private office. All the information that people wouldn't know unless they worked at the office for a LONG time. My interviewer was really impressed with my insights and level of knowledge in optometry and she constantly agreed and was amazed with my thoughts.
So you see, PCO does look at all aspects of applicant's stats, and really tries to get an overall view of whether he/she is a promising candidate. So if you did bad in courses because you slacked or because you can't handle them, then those applicants should not be applying. If you have good reasons for low GPA, then admissions will know and will understand you.
