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2020-2021 Application Cycle


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On 5/19/2020 at 4:45 AM, Cllliu said:

Applied 5/15, verified 5/18.

From reading last year's thread, it seems they require secondaries. Does anyone know if they've changed that for this year or if they're just sent out after application submission? 

according to their website it looks like they send a link to the secondary after they receive CASPA.  "Upon our receipt of your CASPA application you will be directed to create your account in our system.The first time you sign in, click “first time user account information” below the login boxes and on the application itself, select your term of entry. We will confirm that you meet our minimum requirements upon receipt and processing of both the primary application. " 

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1 hour ago, Danielle21 said:

according to their website it looks like they send a link to the secondary after they receive CASPA.  "Upon our receipt of your CASPA application you will be directed to create your account in our system.The first time you sign in, click “first time user account information” below the login boxes and on the application itself, select your term of entry. We will confirm that you meet our minimum requirements upon receipt and processing of both the primary application. " 

There's actually no separate supplemental/secondary application for Western U anymore, starting this cycle! Everything to apply for the program is all on CASPA now because they said their secondary application in previous cycles was stuff that could be done through CASPA. This has been confirmed through their live chat on their website and at a webinar they had a few days ago.

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  • 3 weeks later...
32 minutes ago, soniahopePA said:

Hello all!

  Is there anyone I can contact concerning admissions? I know with COVID-19 staff has been limited, but I was wondering if anyone knew where to get a hold of someone. 

Yes, I reached out via email and received a response a few days later!  Here is the link to their website with contact information https://prospective.westernu.edu/health-sciences/mspa/contact/

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Got an email regarding repeated coursework and I was wondering if anyone could help clarify.. I have emailed admissions but still waiting.

 

 Does this only apply to coursework repeated in the same institution? IE: I took genetics twice at UCSB. Or does it also apply to classes I took in different institutions? IE: Microbiology (lecture only) taken initially at UCSB but microbiology (with Lab) repeated at community college.

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6 hours ago, DTHAI said:

Does this only apply to coursework repeated in the same institution? IE: I took genetics twice at UCSB. Or does it also apply to classes I took in different institutions? IE: Microbiology (lecture only) taken initially at UCSB but microbiology (with Lab) repeated at community college.

Per CASPA definitions:

"Courses should only be marked as repeated if you repeated them at the same institution (i.e., you retook the course for a higher grade). ... Courses taken at different schools ... are not considered repeated."

I would assume Western U defines repeated coursework the same way.  Hopefully this provides some guidance.

Good luck!

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10 hours ago, DTHAI said:

Got an email regarding repeated coursework and I was wondering if anyone could help clarify.. I have emailed admissions but still waiting.

 

 Does this only apply to coursework repeated in the same institution? IE: I took genetics twice at UCSB. Or does it also apply to classes I took in different institutions? IE: Microbiology (lecture only) taken initially at UCSB but microbiology (with Lab) repeated at community college.

I was literally just wondering the same thing. I'm a re-applicant and in previous cycles, WesternU would recalculate GPAs using repeated courses that were repeated at both the same or different institutions. However, since they will be going off repeated courses designated on CASPA, I think they will only be recalculating GPAs with coursework repeated at the same institution for this cycle. I feel like this is going to affect a good amount of the application pool (GPA wise). Plus COVID also affected alot of applicants as some were forced to take Pass/Fail over a letter grade. WesternU is calculating a "pass" as a "B" grade for the GPA calculations. Personally, I think their incoming class average GPAs may be lower this time, but we'll see. 

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1 hour ago, missxchar said:

I signed up too late for the info session 😞

I attended the info session today and while no one specifically asked that question, they did touch on how they would go through applications and they were basically describing the GPA tier system so it sounds like they will be using it again this cycle.

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41 minutes ago, christinat said:

I attended the info session today and while no one specifically asked that question, they did touch on how they would go through applications and they were basically describing the GPA tier system so it sounds like they will be using it again this cycle.

Thank you! 🙂

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 6/27/2020 at 6:44 AM, fingerscrossed2020 said:

Could someone explain what this is?

Here's a post from the last cycle that someone shared from the previous cycle. Hope this helps!

--

Here is a post from Aug 25th, 2018 in the 2018-2019 thread that I’m going off of. 

PAhopeful6 wrote: “Hey everyone, just thought I would share some information I received at the preview day today. I spoke with an admissions counselor and asked when I should expect to hear something back (I applied 7/17) and asked if they are going through applications by date of submission. She informed me that they do not go by application date, but by gpa. She explained that they use a tier system to tier your application and the tier you are placed in is based off of your lowest gpa (whichever is lowest out of cGPA, sGPA, pre reqGPA). They then start at the highest gpa tiers and go down from there. She then informed me that last year they did not even go lower than the 3.5 gpa tier. I took this to mean that applications under 3.5 did not get reviewed. “

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On 6/15/2020 at 8:35 AM, DTHAI said:

Got an email regarding repeated coursework and I was wondering if anyone could help clarify.. I have emailed admissions but still waiting.

 

 Does this only apply to coursework repeated in the same institution? IE: I took genetics twice at UCSB. Or does it also apply to classes I took in different institutions? IE: Microbiology (lecture only) taken initially at UCSB but microbiology (with Lab) repeated at community college.

As far as I know it applies to any and every institution. You are supposed to list every college level course you have taken. Now, if you only took one class at an institution that you don’t need as a pre req and you didn’t receive any sort of degree from (I.e a community college), I doubt they would find out if you left it out. Otherwise you need to list it cause they will see it in your transcripts anyway. Even though the first microbiology class was lecture only it will still count as a science class and be factored into your gpa. At least that’s how it was when I applied. I currently attend Western. 

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On 7/1/2020 at 5:53 AM, Chrissylee said:

Here's a post from the last cycle that someone shared from the previous cycle. Hope this helps!

--

Here is a post from Aug 25th, 2018 in the 2018-2019 thread that I’m going off of. 

PAhopeful6 wrote: “Hey everyone, just thought I would share some information I received at the preview day today. I spoke with an admissions counselor and asked when I should expect to hear something back (I applied 7/17) and asked if they are going through applications by date of submission. She informed me that they do not go by application date, but by gpa. She explained that they use a tier system to tier your application and the tier you are placed in is based off of your lowest gpa (whichever is lowest out of cGPA, sGPA, pre reqGPA). They then start at the highest gpa tiers and go down from there. She then informed me that last year they did not even go lower than the 3.5 gpa tier. I took this to mean that applications under 3.5 did not get reviewed. “

As far as I am aware they do not do rolling admissions (I.e. awarding interviews first come first serve) so it does not particularly matter when or how soon you apply. I currently attend Western, and just an FYI, I turned my application in at 11:50pm the night it was due (Nov 1st). I got an interview invite two weeks later. They rely heavily on their gpa system and I highly doubt those applications with GPA below 3.5 were seriously (if at all) considered. Granted they have a few Different calculated gpa’s (science, non science, overall) based on your coursework, so perhaps if only one of those was below 3.5 you might be fine. But the GPA thing is something that won’t go away once you attend Western if you get in. You have to maintain at least a 2.75, but since all their classes are weighted differently for calculation of gpa it’s easy to fall behind if you even get one C in an important class. If you have anything less than a 3.0 you will be on the “watch list” and your progress will be monitored by the professors and the administration. We lost 4 people from our program this year cause they couldn’t make the cut grade wise. So if I had a really low GPA, I personally would not have bothered applying to Western. 

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Just an FYI, I applied last month (reapplicant) and I thought they had completely got rid of the supplemental application. However, I got any email saying my application was incomplete because I did not include the repeated coursework form. On the application checklist they provide, it did not say to include any forms or to use the WesternU portal (for this cycle). However, I guess we are still using the WesternU portal. I logged in and saw that on there is where you list your repeated coursework. So in a way, there kind of is a supplemental, you just don't have to pay this time or really do anything else other than list repeated courses on there. 

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