Canadian resident, 3.7 cGPA, 2.5 sGPA, massive upward trend

[NSxortho]

Hello all, my first post here

I've posted in premed101 and didn't really get a clear response so I would like to get some input here. It's dearly appreciated.



My first year GPA which is 2.94 (AMCAS) is almost entirely made up of science courses, also mostly prerequisites. I think my sGPA is 3.0. Now the upward trend:

My 2nd year GPA is 4.0 (AMCAS) and 3rd year is looking to be a 4.0 as well.
At this rate, if I apply at the end of 3rd year I would have a ~3.65 AMCAS GPA and at the end of 4th year I would have a ~3.75 GPA. My sGPA will not be that different however, since I am a non-science undergrad.

Haven't done the MCAT yet but I will be spending the entire summer + late spring prepping, so I'm hoping for at least a 33 on it.

Should I not even bother for American Schools? I don't really mind since I prefer living in Canada, but if I have a chance it would be great to at least know.

My EC's are decent. no research yet (I will be doing some in the upcoming winter), but I have managerial experience (HR/etc) in non-profit fields (I managed an entire project of community festivals in 10 different cities, recruited employees/volunteers/participants, etc) and I have leadership qualities represented in a lot of my EC's (president of clubs, exec, manager at job, hospital volunteering, nursing home volunteering, 400+ hours of volunteering for a non profit youth organization, shelter home volunteer, centre for addiction volunteer, etc)

I'm looking to apply to Canadian Friendly med schools obviously. I would be so thankful if I could know if I have a chance and if yes, which med schools should I go for.

Thank you

P.S I believe I would qualify for URM as well

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[Goro]

You're going nowhere with a sGPA like that. Have you gotten an A in any science course?

 

[NSxortho]

You're going nowhere with a sGPA like that. Have you gotten an A in any science course?

I have only taken 6 half semester science courses and unfortunately ended up with 4 B's and 2 C+. I still have to complete some science prerequisites so I could bring it up but my first year was just a disaster, I was dealing with death AND injury in the family that crippled my mood for the whole year

Is Psychology considered science? I have taken a lot of psyc courses and never got below A

 

[Catalystik]

I have only taken 4 half semester science courses and unfortunately ended up with 2 B's and 2 C+. I still have to complete some science prerequisites so I could bring it up but my first year was just a disaster, I was dealing with death AND injury in the family that crippled my mood for the whole year

Is Psychology considered science? I have taken a lot of psyc courses and never got below A

Only rarely does AMCAS qualify a Psych course as "science". The class would need to be >50% hard science or math (like psych statistics) to fall under that category.

I agree with Goro, that your current science GPA would be deadly at US med schools. Fortunately you have taken so few science classes that you have a chance of raising it to a competitive level if you earn As from now on in the prerequisites and take take additional upper-level Bio, Biochem, and math classes to boost it further. Even if this means taking postbac coursework after graduation.

 

[NSxortho]

Only rarely does AMCAS qualify a Psych course as "science". The class would need to be >50% hard science or math (like psych statistics) to fall under that category.

I agree with Goro, that your current science GPA would be deadly at US med schools. Fortunately you have taken so few science classes that you have a chance of raising it to a competitive level if you earn As from now on in the prerequisites and take take additional upper-level Bio, Biochem, and math classes to boost it further. Even if this means taking postbac coursework after graduation.

I have taken 2 half semesters of statistics in psychology so I guess that would count since the entire course was mathematics and statistics. I got an A+ in both.

Seems like I should take some more science courses to bring up my sGPA.

 

[NSxortho]

Alright, I have recalculated my sGPA by including my 2 statistics courses and it is currently exactly 3.0

 

[Goro]

You're going to need to do better than that for MD schools. You're OK for some of the DO schools. You really need to demonstrate that you can survive medical school, which so far, you haven't.

Alright, I have recalculated my sGPA by including my 2 statistics courses and it is currently exactly 3.0

 

[NSxortho]

You're going to need to do better than that for MD schools. You're OK for some of the DO schools. You really need to demonstrate that you can survive medical school, which so far, you haven't.

Thanks for the input. Seems like my sGPA is a huge downside so I should either bring it up to 3.5+ or forget about it.

I hope your latter statement is a generalized impression of how a low sGPA is perceived and not my actual personal circumstance. I don't think you can claim that I am not prepared to survive medical school just because I got a few low science grades in my first year of undergrad.

 

[Goro]

You have yet to show that, and we have a surplus of candidates who can. Don't take it personally. Medical school is a lot harder than UG.


I don't think you can claim that I am not prepared to survive medical school just because I got a few low science grades in my first year of undergrad.

 

[candbgirl]

I hope your latter statement is a generalized impression of how a low sGPA is perceived and not my actual personal circumstance. I don't think you can claim that I am not prepared to survive medical school just because I got a few low science grades in my first year of undergrad.

You might be able to handle the rigors of med school but you haven't proven it yet and there are literally thousands of applicants that have. Just a FYI goro and catalystick are med school faculty and on their respective ADCOMs so they know exactly what they are talking about. Listen to them!