I just want to go to Med School!

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frenchmedicine

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Hello Friends!

Here are my not so lustrous stats

3.2 / 30O. (Obtained a 26M the year before) About 600 hrs of shadowing a Doctor this summer at a Children's Camp.
I'm originally from France, studying honors chem in Montreal (McGill). I applied to the
"low tier" schools.

What are my chances?!

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Well apart from the 600 Hrs with the Doc, not much.

Do schools look at applicants majors as a factor. For example, I could of easily taken all my pre-reqs (which I did very well) and taken an "easier" major, such as French for me. Some applicants never have to take 4th year chemistry classes than can be quite difficult. Also, there isn't a curve at Mcgill. I studied at University of Iowa for a year, left with a 3.66 GPA
 
Hello Friends!

Here are my not so lustrous stats

3.2 / 30O. (Obtained a 26M the year before) About 600 hrs of shadowing a Doctor this summer at a Children's Camp.
I'm originally from France, studying honors chem in Montreal (McGill). I applied to the
"low tier" schools.

What are my chances?!

Canadian with a 3.2/30 has approximately 0 chance at a US MD school.

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The fact that you went to McGill will help - I know that the highly competitive schools in the northeast see a decent number of McGill applicants and know that it is tough to get high grades compared to the big American schools. However, they won't cut you that much slack - just like engineering students, you'll still be expected to have the numbers at the top tier research schools. I don't know how well the smaller schools that you've applied to will know McGill. Maybe you could point out that 3.2 is still a respectable GPA coming from a school like McGill.

http://www.mcgill.ca/law-studies/information/grades

Look at the grade distribution on the charts at the bottom and you can see that the median is 3.1, 80th percentile is 3.3, 90th percentile is 3.4. As I understand it, that is severe grade deflation by American standards (I think even Princeton's median GPA is 3.3, and it's a school commonly described as grade deflated). I would guess your GPA is probably about the 70th percentile.

That 30 isn't helping you out very much though. If it was unusually low compared to your practice tests, maybe consider redoing it. If you can score 34+, it will REALLY help to show that your GPA may not be reflective of your abilities. Of course, do this only if you're VERY SURE you can score 33+. A lower score on the second attempt might sink your application altogether.
 
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Hello Friends!

Here are my not so lustrous stats

3.2 / 30O. (Obtained a 26M the year before) About 600 hrs of shadowing a Doctor this summer at a Children's Camp.
I'm originally from France, studying honors chem in Montreal (McGill). I applied to the
"low tier" schools.

What are my chances?!
Statistically, about 31% of All Applicants applying through AMCAS were successful in the last three years with a 3.2/30, which includes all those applying with special circumstances. If your ECs are as sparse as you suggest, your chances would be lower than that. If you are diverse in some way that med schools long to have represented in their class, or if you have a steep upward, consistent grade trend, it would help.

Hopefully, you also included some DO med schools on your application list, as they tend to be more academically forgiving.
 
The fact that you went to McGill will help - I know that the highly competitive schools in the northeast see a decent number of McGill applicants and know that it is tough to get high grades compared to the big American schools. However, they won't cut you that much slack - just like engineering students, you'll still be expected to have the numbers at the top tier research schools. I don't know how well the smaller schools that you've applied to will know McGill. Maybe you could point out that 3.2 is still a respectable GPA coming from a school like McGill.

http://www.mcgill.ca/law-studies/information/grades

Look at the grade distribution on the charts at the bottom and you can see that the median is 3.1, 80th percentile is 3.3, 90th percentile is 3.4. As I understand it, that is severe grade deflation by American standards (I think even Princeton's median GPA is 3.3, and it's a school commonly described as grade deflated). I would guess your GPA is probably about the 70th percentile.

That 30 isn't helping you out very much though. If it was unusually low compared to your practice tests, maybe consider redoing it. If you can score 34+, it will REALLY help to show that your GPA may not be reflective of your abilities. Of course, do this only if you're VERY SURE you can score 33+. A lower score on the second attempt might sink your application altogether.

Just about the only school I've seen being given slack is Johns Hopkins because they are notorious for grade deflation.
 
Just about the only school I've seen being given slack is Johns Hopkins because they are notorious for grade deflation.

Yeah, I agree that you probably won't get any slack, but it might be worth a try. Median 3.1 vs median 3.4 is a pretty huge difference in my opinion.
 
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