Allow Optional Consideration of Winter 2020 Grades in Admission to McGill Medical School

Allow Optional Consideration of Winter 2020 Grades in Admission to McGill Medical School

Started
June 16, 2020
Petition to
MDCM Applicants and 2 others
Petition Closed
This petition had 321 supporters

Why this petition matters

Started by Aaron Wang

The Situation: As of August 31, 2020, there were changes to the Fall 2021 Admission Cycle to McGill Medical School. In short, the main concern arises with the statement that, "Winter 2020 grades will not be considered in the academic evaluation (GPA, R score)". This implies that the Winter 2020 grades (and maybe even Fall 2020 grades) will most likely not be considered in future application cycles as well. 

For more information on McGill's website, visit https://www.mcgill.ca/medadmissions/about/special-notices-covid-19-updates 

Petition Summary: If the grades are consistent with your overall grades and trends upward, you should be allowed to have it count. Thus if the grades are not consistent i.e. there's a huge jump in grades, up or down, it'll be spotted quickly by admissions and be discounted, or the student can hide the grades by making it Pass/Fail optionally.

Impacts of COVID-19: The COVID-19 pandemic cut short the Winter 2020 semesters of almost every student, in which schools were closed and students were forced to complete their studies remotely/online on top of dealing with the stresses that comes with a pandemic. As such, each student had different circumstances that they had to face, such as caring for others that were sick, being sick themselves, studying in a less-than-optimal environment, dealing with the death of loved ones, etc.

Objectives of the Office of Admissions: Understanding this, McGill has taken a step to "equalize" the playing-field by simply removing the grades consideration for the affected semester. However, this has led me and many of my peers to be frustrated. Our blood, sweat, and tears went into achieving the grades we wanted, yet now we feel that all was for naught. 

Tuition: Students have paid large sums of money to acquire the education and grades necessary to apply to McGill medical school. To not consider a semester and possibly a full year’s grades is essentially saying that we paid our universities and colleges for grades that do not matter. 

Fall 2020?: Many schools, including McGill University, will have their Fall 2020 semester remotely. The COVID-19 situation will not disappear during the Fall 2020 semester, and thus this next semester will probably also be impacted by COVID-19. A student can still lose a loved one. A student can still be sick and will be unable to study. Will another semester's worth of hard work not count toward our future?

There is a better compromise.

Proposal: Give Us an Option

Simple yet effective, McGill Medical School's Office of Admissions should allow applicants to choose the option to make the Winter 2020 grades be considered or not. 

  1. If this semester's grades help the applicant, the applicant should choose for it to be considered.
  2. If this semester's grades hurt the applicant, the applicant should choose for it to not be considered. 

The semester was halfway finished by the time COVID-19 really struck the majority of universities/schools. Midterms were essentially finished. Half the material was covered. Grades are based on Midterms, Finals, other assignments and/or papers, and so a good final mark can only be achieved by doing well in the first half of the semester that was COVID-19 free. Therefore, those who were on track to do well in the first half of the semester were most likely going to do well through the end of the semester. The students who worked hard and rightfully deserved their good grades should be allowed to show that strength on their application, and do not deserve to be punished in order to equalize the playing-field.

We acknowledge that there may be some students who were doing well in the first half of the semester but were hit badly with COVID-19 that led to upsetting grades, and so they should be given the option to have their grades not be considered. 

Students also have to deal with the troubles regarding paying tuition. We pay colleges and universities for their classes and grades on our transcript. To not consider our grades for the semester equates to us students realizing we paid for education and grades that don’t matter. Yes, these credits will work towards our degrees. Yes, we enjoy learning about the topics that we study. But our goal is Medical School, not a bachelor’s or master’s or any other degree. 

This proposal also applies to the Fall 2020 semester. COVID-19 will not disappear. Will McGill not consider the Fall 2020 semester as well? Again, it should be up to the student. If students do well despite learning remotely and/or learning while under stress of a pandemic, then they deserve to show that strength in their application. If students do poorly due to COVID-19 (anyone can still be infected, loved ones can still die), they can choose to hide their grades. 

This is the best and most flexible solution that will appease the most people. 

Conclusion: All in all, students should not be or feel punished for their hard work.

This means that students should not be punished for being greatly impacted by COVID-19 and doing poorly in class. This means that students should not be punished for studying hard and doing well despite being amidst a pandemic.

This means that all we want is an option: a consideration, a non-consideration. 

Petition Closed

This petition had 321 supporters

Share this petition

Share this petition in person or use the QR code for your own material.Download QR Code

Decision Makers

  • MDCM Applicants
  • Med-P Applicants
  • Medical School Applicants