Why is the minimum mark required to maintain is 85 in Life Science?

I know the cut off mark is around 87 and 88

then how if someone without an early acceptance gets an 87 after 2nd sem

but the person who got early acceptance drops to an 85 or 86

so is the person with an 85 can still goes in? like guarantee?

it sounds like a conditional acceptance. basically they draw the line at 85. Fall below and u lose ur acceptance. Stay above you're fine

Maintaining a mark basically makes up for the fact that they're lowering their standards to take the risk of accepting a potentially 'lesser' student; McMaster wants to graduate super smart people, rather than people who might slack off if they don't have that kind of pressure on them

the cutoff is probably really high cuz a lot of people apply to the program
u may be accepted to the program with a lower average but based on a conditional offer

The last marks they consider for giving acceptances are your midterm marks. After you get accepted you must maintain 85 to keep your offer.