University of Waterloo Application Thread

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My GPA barely meets (but does!) but my pre-req GPA is significantly higher. I've repeated only 1 pre-req, and even with the old grade my overall and prereq GPA meet the requirements. It's mostly non-related classes that brought down my GPA 😡. I've read that they convert everything to % though and according to my calculations I should be alright. I am only missing statistics and kinetics for them to assess which will be completed next month. Most of my semesters have 5 classes. I have 2 years work experience as a pharmacy technician in a rural area (but I myself am from a big city) and my reference was from my pharmacist boss. Previous work experiences include 2 semesters of TAing organic chem II, shadowing children with special needs in a day camp, day camp counsellor, tutoring and retail. Extra currics range from hospital volunteering, volunteering at a center for refugees, school newsletter writing, tennis, school first aid club, and I forgot which other ones I selected to write on my Admissions Profile lol. I'm really worried about my overall GPA though even though it meets the minimum standards and I really hope they're not any harsher on out-of provincers like myself even though they say they're not! I've been reading this thread for months but only joined a few days ago 🙂. Good luck everyone!
 
Mtl2011 said:
My GPA barely meets (but does!) but my pre-req GPA is significantly higher. I've repeated only 1 pre-req, and even with the old grade my overall and prereq GPA meet the requirements. It's mostly non-related classes that brought down my GPA 😡. I've read that they convert everything to % though and according to my calculations I should be alright. I am only missing statistics and kinetics for them to assess which will be completed next month. Most of my semesters have 5 classes. I have 2 years work experience as a pharmacy technician in a rural area (but I myself am from a big city) and my reference was from my pharmacist boss. Previous work experiences include 2 semesters of TAing organic chem II, shadowing children with special needs in a day camp, day camp counsellor, tutoring and retail. Extra currics range from hospital volunteering, volunteering at a center for refugees, school newsletter writing, tennis, school first aid club, and I forgot which other ones I selected to write on my Admissions Profile lol. I'm really worried about my overall GPA though even though it meets the minimum standards and I really hope they're not any harsher on out-of provincers like myself even though they say they're not! I've been reading this thread for months but only joined a few days ago 🙂. Good luck everyone!
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I think you should be fine. I heard somewhere that if you meet the the GPA requirement and all other requirements, you should be okay. I don't really know what the case is for out-of-province students, but your ECs are really good and you've got lots of pharmacy experience. Don't worry; all we have to do now is wait till april 7th! 10 more days!! :luck:
 
yazahra89 said:
I think you should be fine. I heard somewhere that if you meet the the GPA requirement and all other requirements, you should be okay. I don't really know what the case is for out-of-province students, but your ECs are really good and you've got lots of pharmacy experience. Don't worry; all we have to do now is wait till april 7th! 10 more days!! :luck:
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Hopefully they won't change that this year due to a higher number of applicants or something (if there IS a higher number of applicants). It's really annoying how super private they are about everything like stats of admitted applicants, number of applicants, etc.
 
Mtl2011 said:
Hopefully they won't change that this year due to a higher number of applicants or something (if there IS a higher number of applicants). It's really annoying how super private they are about everything like stats of admitted applicants, number of applicants, etc.
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Yeah I know. I guess as soon as they've established a good set of numbers, they'll release them - I don't think it's been a steady estimate these few first years for Waterloo (applications have been increasing and will soon reach a plateau, which is when they will probably release some information).
 
yazahra89 said:
im praying for you to be right honestly, one bad grade or w.e shouldn't harm someone's chances of getting in - i freaked out cuz this is exactly what it said: "You will need a 75% overall average (all courses) as well as in the required courses to be considered for our program."

i'm really starting to get annoyed with this whole application system in North America - everyone deserves a shot at being what they want to be.
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Wait where did you hear that??? Now that's getting me nervous 😱 :scared:

I highly doubt that you would need to have minimum 75% in EVERY single prerequisite course... that would be just ridiculous.
 
No I highly doubt it, I understand that response as being your overall average has to be above 75% and your overall prereq AVERAGE has to be above 75% as well.

Anyways guess we'll find out April 7th lol.
 
helloeveryone said:
Wait where did you hear that??? Now that's getting me nervous 😱 :scared:

I highly doubt that you would need to have minimum 75% in EVERY single prerequisite course... that would be just ridiculous.
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Yeah, I freaked out too - I asked her about the GPA cutoffs just out of curiosity for previous years and she said that we need a 75% as the overall GPA and in the prereqs - so right away, I assumed she meant that we need a 75% in each prereq, which I don't think is that case. She wasn't clear, so after I read the email I literally looked like this --> :scared: because I have two grades that are slightly below 75% and they're haunting me. Plus, I don't think they would just ignore all the A+s and As and focus on a B- or a B. That would be shallow lol

Mtl2011 said:
No I highly doubt it, I understand that response as being your overall average has to be above 75% and your overall prereq AVERAGE has to be above 75% as well.

Anyways guess we'll find out April 7th lol.
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Yeah, you're probably right. I guess we'll wait and see - I'm losing my patience 🙁
 
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lulz said:
I'm an OOP! 🙂 Guess that means you and I are fighting for their 1% of spots reserved for OOPs. Ah.. Gotta love it.[/QUOTE1

1%?! That's really intimidating. This what it says on their website though:

33. Do you accept students from other provinces or other countries?
Yes. We admit the most qualified applicants regardless of their place of residence. Out-of-province and international students are encouraged to apply if they believe they are qualified.

Note the "regardless of their place of residence". Really hope this is not changing over time.

Where are you from?
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Mtl2011 said:
lulz said:
I'm an OOP! 🙂 Guess that means you and I are fighting for their 1% of spots reserved for OOPs. Ah.. Gotta love it.[/QUOTE1

1%?! That's really intimidating. This what it says on their website though:

33. Do you accept students from other provinces or other countries?
Yes. We admit the most qualified applicants regardless of their place of residence. Out-of-province and international students are encouraged to apply if they believe they are qualified.

Note the "regardless of their place of residence". Really hope this is not changing over time.

Where are you from?
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Isn't Ontario one of the toughest places to get into pharm school? I mean we have 2 schools but the population of Ontario is by far greater than any other province so we probably have a higher ratio of applicants to spots (generally). I don't know why we get so many OOP students.
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I had a super general question:

Does any one know, or heard from anywhere how Waterloo's overall selection process work???

for example, how do they select candidates to invite for interviews?
do they still look at you AP (application profile) after the interviews?

It's just weird that after all these years that Waterloo pharmacy has been around, we still can't quite understand how their process works 🙄
 
helloeveryone said:
I had a super general question:

Does any one know, or heard from anywhere how Waterloo's overall selection process work???

for example, how do they select candidates to invite for interviews?
do they still look at you AP (application profile) after the interviews?

It's just weird that after all these years that Waterloo pharmacy has been around, we still can't quite understand how their process works 🙄
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Hey helloeveryone!!

This is what I've read on the site:
- Generally speaking, an Offer of Admission will not be made to a student who underperforms on any component of the admissions process.

- The initial screening of applicants will be based on academic performance (the GPA, as confirmed by official transcripts), the Pharmacy Admission Profile, and the Letter of Reference. It is expected that 240 students will be interviewed for the 120 spaces in the program. It is likely that a small group of applicants will be placed on a waiting list, and subsequently invited for an interview in the event that another applicant declines their offer to participate in the second stage of the admissions process.

I don't think they look at the AP after interviews - after that, it will mostly be the interview itself, the test and the grades (completion of courses) in June.

BTW, have they contacted any of the refs yet? I heard they don't do that anymore.
 
1%?! That's really intimidating. This what it says on their website though:

33. Do you accept students from other provinces or other countries?
Yes. We admit the most qualified applicants regardless of their place of residence. Out-of-province and international students are encouraged to apply if they believe they are qualified.

Note the "regardless of their place of residence". Really hope this is not changing over time.

Where are you from?
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I'm from BC. I don't know that it's strictly 1%, I was just going off of what someone posted earlier. But I would assume very small.

As for the reason why I applied anyway, my answer is 'why not'. Waterloo is a great school and although I don't have the best chances, at least I know I tried.
 
lulz said:
As for the reason why I applied anyway, my answer is 'why not'. Waterloo is a great school and although I don't have the best chances, at least I know I tried.
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Whether or not you get in (hopefully you do :xf:), that spirit will get you somewhere, I'm sure. It's just a matter of throwing a rock, and seeing how far it lands and where it lands. Good luck!
 
yazahra89 said:
Hey helloeveryone!!

This is what I've read on the site:
- Generally speaking, an Offer of Admission will not be made to a student who underperforms on any component of the admissions process.

- The initial screening of applicants will be based on academic performance (the GPA, as confirmed by official transcripts), the Pharmacy Admission Profile, and the Letter of Reference. It is expected that 240 students will be interviewed for the 120 spaces in the program. It is likely that a small group of applicants will be placed on a waiting list, and subsequently invited for an interview in the event that another applicant declines their offer to participate in the second stage of the admissions process.

I don't think they look at the AP after interviews - after that, it will mostly be the interview itself, the test and the grades (completion of courses) in June.

BTW, have they contacted any of the refs yet? I heard they don't do that anymore.
Click to expand...

I also read (probably around the forums) that the interview is closed booked! so they don't see your AP, but I think that is the best way to be unbiased. I have a friend that got an interview there last year, so I will be sure to ask them (in a week when interview invites are out). and I'll let you guys know what I find out!
 
pharmacy0 said:
I also read (probably around the forums) that the interview is closed booked! so they don't see your AP, but I think that is the best way to be unbiased. I have a friend that got an interview there last year, so I will be sure to ask them (in a week when interview invites are out). and I'll let you guys know what I find out!
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Thanks! That would be great.
I'm praying for the best for all of us!
:biglove:

I don't know if I should be excited or sad about April 7th - I find out about interviews, but I have my organic final at 7pm! :scared:
 
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yazahra89 said:
Thanks! That would be great.
I'm praying for the best for all of us!
:biglove:

I don't know if I should be excited or sad about April 7th - I find out about interviews, but I have my organic final at 7pm! :scared:
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yikes lol! good luck!! my organic final is on the 9th at 7pm but just before that i have a med micro final at 9 am, so i'm not really looking forward to the 7th rolling around too quickly, although i am very curious about interview invites!!
 
mochaswirl said:
yikes lol! good luck!! my organic final is on the 9th at 7pm but just before that i have a med micro final at 9 am, so i'm not really looking forward to the 7th rolling around too quickly, although i am very curious about interview invites!!
Click to expand...

good luck to you too!! :luck: - as you can tell, i'm using SDN to escape the studying, it's my excuse for a break lol

organic is so misleading, when you study it seems so easy and not complicated, than u get into the exam and it's like the profs were writing the exam so that we come out of the course permanently traumatized
 
yazahra89 said:
good luck to you too!! :luck: - as you can tell, i'm using SDN to escape the studying, it's my excuse for a break lol

organic is so misleading, when you study it seems so easy and not complicated, than u get into the exam and it's like the profs were writing the exam so that we come out of the course permanently traumatized
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Lol, don't stress it too much... I'm also studying for orgo now and I can definitely feel your anxiety, but what keeps me motivated is that all of this will be over in a few weeks and hopefully starting next year we'll be able to study for what we truly care about (ie. pharmacy) 😛

And SDN for sure is a great get-away from study, but even a better distracter 😡

Anywho, can't wait for the 7th... BEST OF LUCK TO ALL OF US 😀:xf:
 
pharmacy0 said:
I also read (probably around the forums) that the interview is closed booked! so they don't see your AP, but I think that is the best way to be unbiased. I have a friend that got an interview there last year, so I will be sure to ask them (in a week when interview invites are out). and I'll let you guys know what I find out!
Click to expand...

So you think we don't need to review what we wrote in the AP ??? I'm just afraid that they might ask me questions regarding what I wrote in there and I won't be able to recall exactly what I wrote !

Any suggestions from people who did the interview before: should we or should we not review our answers in the AP prior to the interview?
 
helloeveryone said:
So you think we don't need to review what we wrote in the AP ??? I'm just afraid that they might ask me questions regarding what I wrote in there and I won't be able to recall exactly what I wrote !

Any suggestions from people who did the interview before: should we or should we not review our answers in the AP prior to the interview?
Click to expand...

Just my thoughts but if they say closed book then questions such as "why have you chosen pharmacy" or "why waterloo" etc. are fair game for the interview since the interviewers would not have read what we wrote in our APs.

Also, w/ the AP you can also have someone edit it and perfect your answer so to ask questions like that in the interview may give them a good sense of who you are as a person and your motivations for pharmacy as well.

Secondly, w/ panel type interviews - through my experiences (as well through reading previous SDN threads), questions tend to be behavioral and situational. So for example, "tell me about a time you demonstrated x quality" or "tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult situation" etc.

If anyone who has been through the process has more info that'd be great! 🙂
 
helloeveryone said:
So you think we don't need to review what we wrote in the AP ??? I'm just afraid that they might ask me questions regarding what I wrote in there and I won't be able to recall exactly what I wrote !

Any suggestions from people who did the interview before: should we or should we not review our answers in the AP prior to the interview?
Click to expand...

I don't know about you guys, but I always save a word document of all my answers before sending them. Just in case my profile responses get erased by accident, or for future reference. Or it could just be one of my neurotic tendencies of keeping a record of everything.

Just think about how you would truthfully answer the question, and most often than not, it'll match the answer on your AP.
 
lulz said:
I don't know about you guys, but I always save a word document of all my answers before sending them. Just in case my profile responses get erased by accident, or for future reference. Or it could just be one of my neurotic tendencies of keeping a record of everything.

Just think about how you would truthfully answer the question, and most often than not, it'll match the answer on your AP.
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lol I keep record of everything too - I printed out my AP after I submitted it, so I can review it before the interview, although you kind of know what you wrote since you wrote it.

5 more days :scared:
 
what's everyone's stats like?

at the moment, mine are:

cGPA: 82% (two courses are really worrying me, since they're below an A) - will be ~ 85% by the end of this school year
lots of pharmacy experience
lots of ECs (volunteering at hospitals, heart and stroke, societies at my university, dance lessons, tutoring, lots of work experience, etc)
all courses will be completed by June
LOR completed by a pharmacist
all that is worrying me are those two grades, they're giving me nightmares lol
 
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yazahra89 said:
what's everyone's stats like?

at the moment, mine are:

cGPA: 82% (two courses are really worrying me, since they're below an A) - will be ~ 85% by the end of this school year
lots of pharmacy experience
lots of ECs (volunteering at hospitals, heart and stroke, societies at my university, dance lessons, tutoring, lots of work experience, etc)
all courses will be completed by June
LOR completed by a pharmacist
all that is worrying me are those two grades, they're giving me nightmares lol
Click to expand...

Is this your first time applying to waterloo? What year are you in now?
 
UWpharm12 said:
Is this your first time applying to waterloo? What year are you in now?
Click to expand...

No, it's my second time. The first time I didn't get in because I was missing Organic I an II and Thermodynamics.
I'm in 3rd year.

How about you?
 
yazahra89 said:
what's everyone's stats like?

at the moment, mine are:

cGPA: 82% (two courses are really worrying me, since they're below an A) - will be ~ 85% by the end of this school year
lots of pharmacy experience
lots of ECs (volunteering at hospitals, heart and stroke, societies at my university, dance lessons, tutoring, lots of work experience, etc)
all courses will be completed by June
LOR completed by a pharmacist
all that is worrying me are those two grades, they're giving me nightmares lol
Click to expand...

lol don't worry! your gpa is fantastic!!! don't stress about it..

my gpa is not nearly as high as yours, i've likely got about a 3.2-3.3 by the end of this year (~77-79%).

some pharmacy experience (~1.5 years)

lots of ECs as well, currently working at St. Mike's in Toronto, some research experience @ Toronto Rehab, volunteering as well.

also finished all the pre-reqs after this term (argh organic chem😡)
 
^ thanks so much! hopefully our hard work pays off. how's st. mike's? I volunteered at sick kids for about 1.5 years.

as for organic chem, i understand lol - organic chem is the death of me
 
yazahra89 said:
^ thanks so much! hopefully our hard work pays off. how's st. mike's? I volunteered at sick kids for about 1.5 years.

as for organic chem, i understand lol - organic chem is the death of me
Click to expand...

i really like it a lot, i'm casual staff but it's awesome b/c that means i get to go everywhere/anywhere so it's great to have that experience/opportunity to learn so much about how the hospital works and to be able to see all the different units...

in terms of the job, it just involves things like making beds, patient transport, delivering meal trays etc., but i'm hoping to work my way up to a secretarial job or something along those lines!

what was sick kids like? that sounds like a really cool volunteering opportunity.
 
mochaswirl said:
i really like it a lot, i'm casual staff but it's awesome b/c that means i get to go everywhere/anywhere so it's great to have that experience/opportunity to learn so much about how the hospital works and to be able to see all the different units...

in terms of the job, it just involves things like making beds, patient transport, delivering meal trays etc., but i'm hoping to work my way up to a secretarial job or something along those lines!

what was sick kids like? that sounds like a really cool volunteering opportunity.
Click to expand...


That sounds great! Like you said, the experience is really good. Would you ever consider medicine or are you strictly into pharmacy?

Sick kids was amazing - I did pretty much the same, and just being with the kids most of the time (comforting them, playing with them, being their friend, really). It was heart breaking though, because some of them were in critical condition, and you just end up getting so attached to some, that you really just go back home and all you think about is them.
 
yazahra89 said:
No, it's my second time. The first time I didn't get in because I was missing Organic I an II and Thermodynamics.
I'm in 3rd year.

How about you?
Click to expand...

I am in second year..first time applying!
I just want it to be Thursday alreadyyyyyyyyyy....FOUR DAYS!!!!!!!!!
 
yazahra89 said:
That sounds great! Like you said, the experience is really good. Would you ever consider medicine or are you strictly into pharmacy?

Sick kids was amazing - I did pretty much the same, and just being with the kids most of the time (comforting them, playing with them, being their friend, really). It was heart breaking though, because some of them were in critical condition, and you just end up getting so attached to some, that you really just go back home and all you think about is them.
Click to expand...

wow, being at sick kids would be really hard on me, but that sounds amazing.

i considered medicine - spent the whole summer actually studying for the MCAT then winged the PCAT. needless to say the MCAT is a monster lol, i didn't do as well as i had hoped but i applied to med schools anyways just for the experience (it was NOT FUN, but some good things came out of it - for example getting to try Mac's new CASPER program - an online MMI of sorts).

I didn't end up getting interviews though. To be honest, I don't think medicine is for me. Writing the MCAT and applying was more so just to please my family...

what about you, did you/would you consider medicine? your marks seem really on par with those getting in to med school (at least from what i've seen)
 
mochaswirl said:
wow, being at sick kids would be really hard on me, but that sounds amazing.

i considered medicine - spent the whole summer actually studying for the MCAT then winged the PCAT. needless to say the MCAT is a monster lol, i didn't do as well as i had hoped but i applied to med schools anyways just for the experience (it was NOT FUN, but some good things came out of it - for example getting to try Mac's new CASPER program - an online MMI of sorts).

I didn't end up getting interviews though. To be honest, I don't think medicine is for me. Writing the MCAT and applying was more so just to please my family...

what about you, did you/would you consider medicine? your marks seem really on par with those getting in to med school (at least from what i've seen)
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medicine would probably be something i would do if i give up on pharmacy (at which point i would probably think i would never get into med if i couldnt get into pharmacy)
i actually signed up to do the practice run of the Casper program but the date was inconvenient so i never ended up doing it. mac isn't too worried about MCATs, is it?

As you can probably tell, I did consider med (mostly because everyone told me that with the grades and experience I had it would be a good choice, but i never applied or wrote the MCAT simply because I've always wanted pharmacy anyway and I couldn't imagine a life as a doctor - its not the type of life i want but that doesnt mean its a bad thing, its just not the right thing for ME

you seem really motivated and driven, never lose that!
let's pray that thursday will be a happy day for us
 
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THREE DAYS LEFT! ahh

are you guys as nervous as me?
 
helloeveryone said:
FYI, those of you who haven't check the timetable for second term of first year pharm, check it out 😱😱😱 I wonder when we would have some time to just live some life OUTSIDE of school!

http://pharmacy.uwaterloo.ca/pdf/year-one-spring-schedule.pdf
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WHOA! that's a little crazy. Although i wonder if that is just the timetable for all courses/labs. Maybe certain labs are smaller and everyone doesn't do them at the same time. For example if you look at the wednesdays, 3 labs in a row - maybe there are different sections? or maybe i'm just being hopeful...
 
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mochaswirl said:
WHOA! that's a little crazy. Although i wonder if that is just the timetable for all courses/labs. Maybe certain labs are smaller and everyone doesn't do them at the same time. For example if you look at the wednesdays, 3 labs in a row - maybe there are different sections? or maybe i'm just being hopeful...
Click to expand...

I think you are right - all of the labs are posted on the timetable and we'll probably get to choose from the options.
 
yazahra89 said:
lol omg that's intense
why can't it just be THURSDAY ALREADY?!😡

helloeveryone - what are your stats like? will you be completing all the courses?
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Well I'm still finishing pre-reqs, but I predict that my overall average would be around 82% ish.

I've been also working in a pharmacy as a tech for about 2 years now and volunteered in a hospital pharmacy for a few hours... and I've got the usual EC's such as volunteering in festivals, sports, arts, etc 😉

I'm just nervous that my AP wasn't good enough to be granted an interview 🙄
 
yazahra89 said:
Two more days!
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Lol each morning I log in to come here and say *** days left, just to find out that you've beat me... your fast lol 😛 😀😀

but we're so close guys, TWO MORE DAYS !!!!!!!!!!!
 
helloeveryone said:
Well I'm still finishing pre-reqs, but I predict that my overall average would be around 82% ish.

I've been also working in a pharmacy as a tech for about 2 years now and volunteered in a hospital pharmacy for a few hours... and I've got the usual EC's such as volunteering in festivals, sports, arts, etc 😉

I'm just nervous that my AP wasn't good enough to be granted an interview 🙄
Click to expand...

I'm sure you're going to get an interview! Those are great stats! I'm the one who should be worried.

helloeveryone said:
Lol each morning I log in to come here and say *** days left, just to find out that you've beat me... your fast lol 😛 😀😀

but we're so close guys, TWO MORE DAYS !!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

lol tmrw is on you 😉 i'm so excited for the wait to be over.
 
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