Canadian applicant, what schools to apply to?

[Lirak88]

Year in school: 4th year PhD, looking to apply next summer as I'm finishing up my PhD. I am looking for schools which are big on research. In particular I am leaning towards radiology as a specialty, since I have done research in xray (BSc thesis, MSc), MRI (PhD), and PET (a summer in undergrad). I would like to continue research but on a more clinical / translational side.

Country/state of residence: Canada

Schools to which you are applying: Not entirely sure yet, probably a few Canadian ones as well as a dozen US ones (Washington St Louis, UPenn, Chicago, Stanford, as well as some other ones, not sure yet which)

Cumulative GPA: 3.88 BSc, 3.89 MSc, 4.00 PhD

Science GPA (undergrad) 3.98

MCAT Scores 35 (11 verbal, 11 bio, 13 physics)

Research – 5 first author publications in reputable journals, 1 co-authored publication, 5 posters, 1 oral talk (7 years graduate school plus 2 summers of undergrad research and a bachelor thesis), all in medical physics (xray and mri research), probably around 20,000 hours total (oh god)

Volunteering (clinical) – 100 hours at veteran's wing of hospital

Physician shadowing – none

Non-clinical volunteering - volunteer tutor throughout undergrad / grad school

Extracurricular activities: Run a club out of my department, also organize research meetings amongst groups

Employment history: 2 summers of research in undergrad, then 7 years of grad school

Please include time span and weekly commitment for volunteering/research/shadowing/extracurriculars: 6 hours a week

Immediate family members in medicine? n

Specialty of interest: Radiology or oncology

Shadowing experience: None but I have collaborated with several MDs on papers, so I have gone with them to the clinic for patient recruitment.. not sure if this counts.. I was also the one to scan them for several experiments (with the assistance of a MRI tech)

Graduate degrees: MSc/PhD (top 20 school)

Interest in rural health: n

Also I should mention that I do not have the full year in organic chemistry requirement many schools seem to have adopted. I did my undergrad in physics so I never took organic chem. This seems to limit my choice of schools to apply to, as about 50% seem to have this requirement (not sure if some waive the requirements or not). The schools I listed do not have such requirement, but I will probably apply to more just not sure which ones yet

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[gyngyn]

Year in school: 4th year PhD, looking to apply next summer as I'm finishing up my PhD. I am looking for schools which are big on research. In particular I am leaning towards radiology as a specialty, since I have done research in xray (BSc thesis, MSc), MRI (PhD), and PET (a summer in undergrad). I would like to continue research but on a more clinical / translational side.

Country/state of residence: Canada

Schools to which you are applying: Not entirely sure yet, probably a few Canadian ones as well as a dozen US ones (Washington St Louis, UPenn, Chicago, Stanford, as well as some other ones, not sure yet which)

Cumulative GPA: 3.88 BSc, 3.89 MSc, 4.00 PhD

Science GPA (undergrad) 3.98

MCAT Scores 35 (11 verbal, 11 bio, 13 physics)

Research – 5 first author publications in reputable journals, 1 co-authored publication, 5 posters, 1 oral talk (7 years graduate school plus 2 summers of undergrad research and a bachelor thesis), all in medical physics (xray and mri research), probably around 20,000 hours total (oh god)

Volunteering (clinical) – 100 hours at veteran's wing of hospital

Physician shadowing – none

Non-clinical volunteering - volunteer tutor throughout undergrad / grad school

Extracurricular activities: Run a club out of my department, also organize research meetings amongst groups

Employment history: 2 summers of research in undergrad, then 7 years of grad school

Please include time span and weekly commitment for volunteering/research/shadowing/extracurriculars: 6 hours a week

Immediate family members in medicine? n

Specialty of interest: Radiology or oncology

Shadowing experience: None but I have collaborated with several MDs on papers, so I have gone with them to the clinic for patient recruitment.. not sure if this counts.. I was also the one to scan them for several experiments (with the assistance of a MRI tech)

Graduate degrees: MSc/PhD (top 20 school)

Interest in rural health: n

Also I should mention that I do not have the full year in organic chemistry requirement many schools seem to have adopted. I did my undergrad in physics so I never took organic chem. This seems to limit my choice of schools to apply to, as about 50% seem to have this requirement (not sure if some waive the requirements or not). The schools I listed do not have such requirement, but I will probably apply to more just not sure which ones yet

Buy the MSAR.
Identify the 62 schools that accept internationals.
Eliminate the ones that have not matriculated more than one or two in a year.
Apply to at least a dozen to 20 of the rest.
Find a way to get clinical experience.

 

[Lirak88]

I see, I've identified the schools that I meet the requirements for and they are:
Albert Einstein
Stanford
UChicago
UPenn
Vanderbilt
Washington University
Harvard (stretch)
Yale
NYU

If I got clinical experience what is the chance that I could get into one of those? I realize those are all very competitive schools and my MCAT score isn't that great.

 

[candbgirl]

Did you do what gyngyn advised? Do all of those schools take international students? How many have they enrolled each year over the last 3-4 years? It's a crap shoot at most of those schools for US students so I'd imagine it would be for you too. I don't think anyone can tell you what your chances are. You need to look at some of the mid-tier schools that admit international
students. gyngyn advised applying to 12-20 schools. You've got 9 of the most competive schools listed. Might not be the best strategy.

 

[Lirak88]

Those were the schools with the most international applicants.

 

[candbgirl]

Except gyngyn advised you to" eliminate the ones that have not matriculated more than one or two in a year." Is that what you did or are these as you said "the schools with the most international applicants"? There is a vast difference between the two.

 

[Lirak88]

Sorry, I meant to say those were the schools with the most internatioanl matriculated.

 

[Banco]

All of those schools are stretches for anyone, they are extremely selective - your research experience will definitely help for them though.

Those schools are a good place to start, but apply to at least 15 total and balance out your list.

Look into Pittsburgh as well, they love research.

 

[GrapesofRath]

Couple things

1) you really need to invest in MSAR
2) Something like 13% of international applicants get into MD schools. THIRTEEN(give or take a few percent). And the number isn't low primarily because international applicants aren't qualified. It's just really really hard to get into a US MD school from Canada. So before listing top 20 schools consider the fact that your odds are about 3-4 times worse statistically of an MD acceptance than a US citizen.
3) To echo what is said above there have been a number of users here who have had some trouble getting into ANY MD school from Canada with 3.8/34 type stats.

I don't have MSAR in front of me and this is important because you really need to look at schools recent trends of taking internationals(the ones who say they do but haven't in a couple years aren't worth the time).
Here are some I might consider known to take international applicants(again check if these schools take internationals recently and invest in MSAR)
Loma Linda(read about it)
Georgetown
George Washington
Emory
Rosalind
Northwestern
Boston U
Saint Louis
Creighton
Einstein
NYMC
Mt Sinai
Jefferson
Penn State
DO's that take internationals(do your HW on this)

Read the fine print really carefully about schools who say they take internationals. Some like Pitt require at least a year of undergrad/grad work in the US(although you would qualify if your grad work was in the US).

 

[Grace184]

I Know that you have great stats, and even if you had it all, as gyngyn said, matriculation for international candidates at MD schools is very low. Most Canadians attempt the DO route.
http://www.aacom.org/docs/default-source/data-and-trends/2014_Mat.pdf?sfvrsn=12
The total number of matriculants was something like 56/250. Therefore your overall chances may better going DO than being one of 2 or 3 that matriculate from these schools. Not saying don't apply MD- just consider applying DO as well

 

[Lirak88]

ok thanks very much for your input, I will

 

[ConfusedChemist]

I Know that you have great stats, and even if you had it all, as gyngyn said, matriculation for international candidates at MD schools is very low. Most Canadians attempt the DO route.
http://www.aacom.org/docs/default-source/data-and-trends/2014_Mat.pdf?sfvrsn=12
The total number of matriculants was something like 56/250. Therefore your overall chances may better going DO than being one of 2 or 3 that matriculate from these schools. Not saying don't apply MD- just consider applying DO as well

I would highly advise you NOT to go DO if it all possible as a Canadian
In most Canadian provinces, DO=IMG, so yes, that means your considered after the first round match occurs, right alongside caribbean grads, etc.
You can do a US residency that's non-DO and then move back to Canada, but if you want to do your residency in Canada it's highly unlikely as a DO

 

[NewHorizons]

-

 

[Grace184]

I would highly advise you NOT to go DO if it all possible as a Canadian
In most Canadian provinces, DO=IMG, so yes, that means your considered after the first round match occurs, right alongside caribbean grads, etc.
You can do a US residency that's non-DO and then move back to Canada, but if you want to do your residency in Canada it's highly unlikely as a DO

I was assuming she would continue her residency in the states. That's my bad for making that assumption.

 

[gyngyn]

I was assuming she would continue her residency in the states. That's my bad for making that assumption.

They usually do.

 

[Lirak88]

Hi, thanks very much. Since I ultimately want to be a Clinician Scientist I do not think the DO route is the proper one for me. Hopefully applying to most Canadian schools and about 10 American schools (although most of the ones I am able to apply to are very competitive) gives me a decent chance. Thanks for all of your input