Canadian reapplicant

[loungebunny]

Hello everyone,

I am a Canadian student (3.72 GPA and 32 MCAT) currently working as a research technician.

I dropped out of graduate program some years back, took necessary prerequisite courses, did extracurriculars, and submitted my AMCAS in August 2013. I guess my application was pretty standard: ~50 hrs of shadowing, ~200 hrs of volunteering, ~50hrs of clinical volunteering, 3 publications, and 2 leadership positions (from past).

My application was very unsuccessful. I applied to >20 schools. I received only one interview (and I was rejected ). With my stats, Canadian schools were far out of my reach.

I am thinking about very different options at this point.

1. Since I can't do a whole lot to change my GPA, would it be worthwhile to re-take MCAT?
2. Since I have done so much research (my resume is mostly research for that matter), would it be better if I tried a different job in a different field? (as a way of increasing my "extracurricular" points?)
3. Should I take some years off this process and come back when my "extracurriculars" become more stellar?
4. Seeing how it is so difficult for international students to get in, should I consider off-shore options?

Thanks in advance.

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[Harpsx]

1. Your MCAT is fine unless one of your subsection scores is very low. Unless you're sure you can score much much higher (like >37 IMO), I wouldn't recommend a retake.
2. Research is great experience to have for medical school. You seem to have covered your bases for the most part in terms of EC's. Maybe doing some more clinical volunteering from now until you reapply might help. Adding on more experiences always helps with reapplication
3. This is up to you. In my opinion, your EC's look fine with the amount of detail you provided. But again, I would absolutely try to beef up EC's between now and until you reapply. You don't want to reapply with the exact same application.
4. I would not consider off-shore options. The risk you take in winding up with thousands of dollars of debt and potentially no residency position is one that I wouldn't take. Your GPA is great. Your MCAT is good and you seem to have a good set of EC's. For Canadian applicants, it's just important that you apply to schools that are Canadian friendly. Which schools did you apply to, and did you check on the MSAR/school websites to see if they take international applicants? (Note: Some schools will say they take internationals but realistically they haven't admitted one in years)

Off the top of my head, I remember some Canadian friendly schools being: St. Louis University, Wayne State, NYU, BU

You say you submitted your AMCAS in August, which would yield a verified date of around late September/October? This is quite late considering you can submit your AMCAS in early June and the fact that many schools do rolling admission. If you reapply, make sure you apply in early June when AMCAS opens for submission.

 

[TeamLeafs]

Submitting your primary in August was pretty late, that means you were probably doing secondaries in sept/oct. Too late as an Canadian. You should have applied earlier and would've gotten better results.

RFU, Wayne, NYU, Albert Einstein, Wisconsin, Virginia commonwealth, Kentucky, meharry are some of them. There are more.

 

[TeamLeafs]

Hawaii and corneil

 

[loungebunny]

1. Your MCAT is fine unless one of your subsection scores is very low. Unless you're sure you can score much much higher (like >37 IMO), I wouldn't recommend a retake.
2. Research is great experience to have for medical school. You seem to have covered your bases for the most part in terms of EC's. Maybe doing some more clinical volunteering from now until you reapply might help. Adding on more experiences always helps with reapplication
3. This is up to you. In my opinion, your EC's look fine with the amount of detail you provided. But again, I would absolutely try to beef up EC's between now and until you reapply. You don't want to reapply with the exact same application.
4. I would not consider off-shore options. The risk you take in winding up with thousands of dollars of debt and potentially no residency position is one that I wouldn't take. Your GPA is great. Your MCAT is good and you seem to have a good set of EC's. For Canadian applicants, it's just important that you apply to schools that are Canadian friendly. Which schools did you apply to, and did you check on the MSAR/school websites to see if they take international applicants? (Note: Some schools will say they take internationals but realistically they haven't admitted one in years)

Off the top of my head, I remember some Canadian friendly schools being: St. Louis University, Wake Forest, NYU, BU

You say you submitted your AMCAS in August, which would yield a verified date of around late September/October? This is quite late considering you can submit your AMCAS in early June and the fact that many schools do rolling admission. If you reapply, make sure you apply in early June when AMCAS opens for submission.

I think all the schools that I've applied to were quite Canadian-friendly (i.e. Dartmouth, Oakland, Michigan State U, Wayne State, AECOM, Rosalind Franklin, Case Western, Emory, Boston U, Loma Linda, Jefferson, Medical College of Wisconsin, Mayo Medical School, NYMC, NYU, Penn State, Uhawaii, Cornell, Creighton U, Saint Louis, SUNY Upstate). I think the problem with applying to "international friendly" schools is that they end up attracting other international students with great (better) stats... I'll try submitting my application early next time and hope for the best.

 

[loungebunny]

Submitting your primary in August was pretty late, that means you were probably doing secondaries in sept/oct. Too late as an Canadian. You should have applied earlier and would've gotten better results.

RFU, Wayne, NYU, Albert Einstein, Wisconsin, Virginia commonwealth, Kentucky, meharry are some of them. There are more.

Thanks, I'll add on Virginia commonwealth, Kentucky, and meharry next time around.

 

[Harpsx]

I think all the schools that I've applied to were quite Canadian-friendly (i.e. Dartmouth, Oakland, Michigan State U, Wayne State, AECOM, Rosalind Franklin, Case Western, Emory, Boston U, Loma Linda, Jefferson, Medical College of Wisconsin, Mayo Medical School, NYMC, NYU, Penn State, Uhawaii, Cornell, Creighton U, Saint Louis, SUNY Upstate). I think the problem with applying to "international friendly" schools is that they end up attracting other international students with great (better) stats... I'll try submitting my application early next time and hope for the best.

That looks like a pretty good list of schools. I wouldn't include Loma Linda though unless you're willing to abide by their lifestyle rules. As for your stats, they are pretty good. I believe I read somewhere here that the average stats of admitted Canadians is about 3.7/33, which is right around your average. Definitely apply much earlier.

 

[Admissions to Medicine]

There is no doubt about it! As a Canadian, getting into a US med school is pretty rough even with the best stats. Of the 60 or so schools that accept Canadian students, all have special criteria. Some want you to prepay, some want you to have at least 3 credits taken at a us school, some want you to have a US based co-signer and a a zillion other qualifying factors. The best thing you can do is to find out EXACTLY what each of these programs required from international students to ensure that when you submit your application early, you can cover the elements that these schools deem important for international students. -Admissions to Medicine