How am I doing so far?

[Albino Dino]

Hey guys,

First poster here. To give you a little bit of background, I am a Canadian student who is planning to apply to one of the few American medical schools who don't consider Canadians to be international. I have wanted to be a doctor my whole life and was wondering if you could give me some feedback!

1st year:

Marks:
If the semester ended now I would have a 4.0 cGPA

ECs:
Started a rugby club at my school, and organized games in the B division league. Acted as player-coach
Campus police - bounced all of the campus parties and due partrols and vehicle ticketing one night a week
Just today got hired in a biology lab for 8 hours per week (since rugby is ending I'm not worried about time management)

Thanks for the input

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[Osteoth]

Doing well, continue to excel in your coursework and start doing some clinical volunteering. Does not have to be much, just a couple of hours a week so you can make an arguement that you know what healthcare is about.

After about a year of that start shadowing, so you can argue that you know what it's like to be a doctor versus just be a member of the healthcare team. You need to make the argument eventually of why not an RN/PA/NP, especially considering in many places the lines between what an MD/DO can do and what these "midlevels" can do is being more and more blurred.

Good luck and great start.

 

[NoDakDok]

Good start. You have a long way to go. Keep your marks up and continue your extracurricular involvement while doing so. It wouldn't hurt to plan out all four years of college for yourself one day, including courses needed to graduate, when, and for what major you are going to go. Most importantly, enjoy your time in college, it's far too short.

To you and a note to the medical student, I'm pretty sure there is some restriction on shadowing in Canada. If there is, work around what you can do. I believe the restrictions are understood and won't negatively impact you if you can't get extensive shadowing as long as you have other medical involvements like volunteering and can justify your understanding in interviews.

Good luck!

 

[ProudMD]

Like the others have said, start building your clinical experiences through volunteering, shadowing, and/or paid employment. The more substantial the clinical experiences, the better! You'll also need to take (and excel on) the new MCAT. You have a long way to go, but you are off to an excellent start!

Best wishes!

 

[Fedekz]

Are you a campus police officer or security officer? Campus police usually don't "bounce" parties and write parking tickets, at least willingly?

Did you go through a full police academy? For example, my police academy was 4 months full time (50 hrs a week), followed by 4 months of FTO (again, 40 hrs a week). The Vancouver police academy is 35 weeks long, and the Canadian ones are usually 5 months+

Not trying to be petty, but are you a full fledged police officer having graduated from an actual police academy, or did you take something shorter and work as a security guard?

Just don't want you to get caught up in a situation where you are representing yourself as a police officer when you are really not, because at least in my state its a felony and may ruin your chances at med school should you be charged, not to mention missing a year of your UG serving your sentence.

 

[Albino Dino]

@Fedekz
I wear a uniform on duty that says "campus police" on the breast and back.

 

[PlaqueBuster]

You are in your first year. Relax and stop worrying about medical schools until junior year. Right now, focus on your grades and maintain a 3.5+ sGpa. Try to continue with your activities and add hospital volunteering and physician shadowing experiences. When you start junior year, then create a post about how you are doing again.

 

[Make Or Break]

@Fedekz
I wear a uniform on duty that says "campus police" on the breast and back.

I think he is trying to ask if you are an actual commissioned police officer who went through academy.

 

[Albino Dino]

I understand that. However I also think that I won't ever get in trouble for calling the position "campus police" because that's the actual name of the position.

 

[moop]

Jesus have a drink buddy

 

[Make Or Break]

I understand that. However I also think that I won't ever get in trouble for calling the position "campus police" because that's the actual name of the position.

So you worked for the campus police. You were not a campus police officer like you stated in your post. Big difference.

 

[Albino Dino]

Edited. Thanks