Canadian Applicant applying to US schools looking for some advice

[canmedthrowaway]

Hi everyone, long-time lurker here looking for some tips.

I applied to 6 Canadian schools this cycle and unfortunately didn't get any interviews. I'm trying again and this time I thought I could also apply to a few American schools.

Here are my stats:

Year in school: Junior (going into my 4th year this September)

Country/state of residence: Ontario, Canada

GPA: 4.00

MCAT: 523 (132/127/132/132) The 127 in CARS killed me :/

Research: Two summers and two semesters of research in a microbiology lab. No publications however but it was for a research award.

Volunteering (clinical): ~800 hr at my local hospital in the ER over 3 years. ~100 hr at another one close to my school.

Physician shadowing: None...I don't even think this is legal in Canada.

Non-clinical volunteering: The usual soup kitchen, food bank, teaching kids, fundraisers...maybe ~200 hr altogether

Extracurricular activities: Just a bunch of club stuff. President/Co-Pres of 3 clubs, Exec in 2 others. Acted as a mentor to first years in both my sophomore and junior years. I also do a lot of art stuff but that was mainly when I was in high school.

Employment history: Just the two semesters of summer research (full-time)

Immediate family members in medicine? No

Specialty of interest: Not sure

Interest in rural health: No

Race: East Asian

As I am unfamiliar with the US system, I'm looking for help in developing a school list. Also, how disadvantaged am I if I am a Canadian? I'm also wondering if applying in late June/early July is too late.

Any help is appreciated. Thank you!

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[summergirl]

Aim high. Apply to at least 20 schools. You are pretty much guaranteed to get in somewhere.

 

[canmedthrowaway]

Aim high. Apply to at least 20 schools. You are pretty much guaranteed to get in somewhere.

By "aim high" do you mean try schools like these?

Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
Yale
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Brown
UPenn
UChicago
Northwestern
WashU at St. Louis
Duke

How realistically do I have a shot at these schools since I haven't really done anything extraordinary or even published anything.

 

[summergirl]

By "aim high" do you mean try schools like these?

Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
Yale
Columbia
Cornell
Dartmouth
Brown
UPenn
UChicago
Northwestern
WashU at St. Louis
Duke

How realistically do I have a shot at these schools since I haven't really done anything extraordinary or even published anything.

Your GPa & MCAT combo pretty much seals the deal if you don't screw up too much in the app process (i.e. Submit early, act normal during interviews etc.). Looking at your school list, off the top of my head, Dartmouth really likes older non-traditionals, brown strongly favorites its own grads, so reconsider these if you are limited on time/money. Also add a couple of mid-tiers just in case, like Vanderbilt, NYU, Baylor, and California schools are probably also worth a shot. US schools like clinical experience more than research. And most applicants never published anything. Relax, you'll do great this cycle.

 

[canmedthrowaway]

Your GPa & MCAT combo pretty much seals the deal if you don't screw up too much in the app process (i.e. Submit early, act normal during interviews etc.). Looking at your school list, off the top of my head, Dartmouth really like older non-traditionalist, brown strongly favorites its own grads, so reconsider these if you are limited on time/money. Also add a couple of mid-tiers just in case, like Vanderbilt, NYU, Baylor, and California schools are probably also worth a shot. US schools like clinical experience more than research. And most applicants never published anything. Relax, you'll do great this cycle.

Thank you so much for your advice! Would you say that late June/early July is too late?

Updated school list:
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
Yale
Columbia
Cornell
NYU
Baylor
Boston U
Vanderbilt
Case Western
UCSF
UCLA
UPenn
UChicago
Northwestern
WashU at St. Louis
Duke
Dartmouth
Brown

 

[nonamesleft]

Where in Canada did you apply this past cycle? You would've been a sophomore at time of application, right?

 

[canmedthrowaway]

Where in Canada did you apply this past cycle? You would've been a sophomore at time of application, right?

I was in my 3rd year of university (I go to UofT). I applied to McMaster, Queen's, UofT, Ottawa, Dalhousie, and UBC and didn't get an interview from any of them. McMaster is like purely VR/CARS so my 127 killed me plus I think I failed the Casper (lol). Ottawa and Queen's are crapshoots since they are so vague and opaque about the process and Dalhousie has a heavy Atlantic-provinces bias. UBC apparently also thought I didn't do enough ECs...

 

[nonamesleft]

I was in my 3rd year of university (I go to UofT). I applied to McMaster, Queen's, UofT, Ottawa, Dalhousie, and UBC and didn't get an interview from any of them. McMaster is like purely VR/CARS so my 127 killed me plus I think I failed the Casper (lol). Ottawa and Queen's are crapshoots since they are so vague and opaque about the process and Dalhousie has a heavy Atlantic-provinces bias. UBC apparently also thought I didn't do enough ECs...

My guess is that you'll have much better luck this year with Ontario schools (Western, Ottawa, Queens, Toronto), since you'll be a senior. Juniors are judged more harshly I think. If you can do better on Casper, Mac will probably like you too. Otherwise, what about Calgary or Alberta? They've got regional bias (just as UBC does), but you've got the stats to apply?

My recommendation: pick your dream US schools and apply for fun. In the end, I think you'll end up at a Canadian school where you won't have to take on massive debts to attend.

 

[canmedthrowaway]

My guess is that you'll have much better luck this year with Ontario schools (Western, Ottawa, Queens, Toronto), since you'll be a senior. Juniors are judged more harshly I think. If you can do better on Casper, Mac will probably like you too. Otherwise, what about Calgary or Alberta? They've got regional bias (just as UBC does), but you've got the stats to apply?

My recommendation: pick your dream US schools and apply for fun. In the end, I think you'll end up at a Canadian school where you won't have to take on massive debts to apply.

Western is off the table. They had a 130 CARS cutoff last cycle and I highly doubt they will decrease it. Alberta has a 128 CARS cutoff and Calgary is likely going to raise CARS to 128 as well.

Yeah...with 132 on the other sections I'm incredibly hesitant to rewrite the MCAT.

 

[nonamesleft]

Western is off the table. They had a 130 CARS cutoff last cycle and I highly doubt they will decrease it. Alberta has a 128 CARS cutoff and Calgary is likely going to raise CARS to 128 as well.

Yeah...with 132 on the other sections I'm incredibly hesitant to rewrite the MCAT.

Ah.. ok. I wasn't sure if you were SWOMEN region for Western. In this case, be prepared to answer "Why US (or why X school)" with an answer other than "my CARS score didn't meet Canadian cutoffs."

Aim high, but apply to some mid-tier/stats match schools as well. Look at the MSAR, and apply to the schools that accepted Canadians within the last few years. The list you've got seems like a good start.

Edit: PM'ed you some stuff