You know, I did read on and read your later messages about apologizing and how you were just stressed..but, I can't help but reply to this mainly because you are a bit exaggerating your adversity and you make it seem like U.S. Appicants have it much easier than Canadian students..So, I did a little research based on previous years within a reasonable time period (2013-2014 Applicants vs. Matriculation rates based on location and percentage ratings). So, here is what I found and I believe it to be accurate seeing as how I got the data from the official medical school source websites.
Canada has ~17 Medical Schools (not sure if it has changed over the past few years), one can automatically assume the competition will be much higher given the U.S. has 131 M.D. programs in addition to 31 D.O. programs across the states. However, the average acceptance ratings do not seems to prove much of a difference if you take into account that you can easily assume there is a reasonable amount of foreign students who have/are currently in a medical program in the U.S. Canadian schools average somewhere around ~20% Matriculation rating VS ~36% U.S. Applicant Matriculation ratings. For how many medical schools the U.S. has I can say I personally feel the United States is a VERY competitive place for medical programs across the nation. In many schools here in the U.S. we have what is known as a quota for international student matriculation each year. I know of a few around my residential area that require 10% to be international; I have heard, though maybe just speculation, that governments pay some sort of gratuity to schools who matriculate international students.
I just think what you have said is very misleading and very unfair to U.S. applicants as if we have it so much easier than Canadians. Don't spit out claims such as this without evidence and data to back it up ESPECIALLY since you just joined a month ago. No need for this nonsense. And yes, I might be reacting a little to harshly for this, but come on we are all adults here...
Uh...can I put things in perspective? I am from Ontario. There are 6 medical schools in my province and there are people with the same stats as me who fail to gain admission every single year. Let me break it down by school:
1.) University of Toronto: This year the mean acceptance average was 3.96 - that is a weighted GPA but still very high. Minimum MCAT requirement is 27 with balanced score but it's used as a cut off with all other things like reference letters, essays, extracurriculars, research prowess factoring in - and guess what? They don't have in province or out of province limitations - they treat their own residents the same as anyone else.
2.) University of Ottawa - Doesn't require MCAT - but hey guess what? Average GPA acceptance was also >3.9, if you don't have a 3.85+ don't even both applying, and they only give points to those who grew up in the City of Ottawa, nothing else.
3.) Northern Ontario School of Medicine - don't require MCAT, but if you were raised in the city or a place lower than the Northern Area of Ontario - you will flat out be refused.
4.) University of Western Ontario - You need around a 3.8 or higher to get into this school which isn't so bad...except for their MCAT cut off of PS/VR/BS - 9/11/(12-13) last year, being below any of these instant failure of your application - and they do give some bonus points and lower MCAT requirements - only if you were born near their area of the University (which is <10% of the Population of Ontario)
5.) Queens University - well this place is probably the strangest of them all - no MCAT cut offs (but most people think its a 32 minimum with nothing lower than a 10) and GPA probably around 3.8 or high - but they look at all carefully at your application at 40+ things you can write down as part of an Autobiographical Sketch of yourself - and plenty of people with 3.9's and 4.0 gets rejected pre-interview for no reason specified - oh and they don't care where you apply from in Canada
6.) McMaster University - only school that favours ALL of ontario - only looks at the Verbal score - need at least a 10 to be competitive ideally 11 and GPA >3,83 since the average was 3.83 with a mean VR of 11 for Class of 2017 ..they use 2 sets of Interviews to weed out people and while chances hear are great if your verbal score is high - but if it's not..ha jokes on you.
Then there are all the other provinces out of Ontario - and they take at most 10-15 people per class (and that's only the ones that take a LOT of applicants, most just take like 5-10 people) - with various schools using MCAT of 35-36 and high GPA's as cut offs or just use verbal minimum 11 as a cut off with GPA again hovering around 3.8+. In Canada, a GPA of 3.8 is not even considered that competitive anymore unless you were born in a province that favours in province applicants - and right now it seems thats only maritime (eastern Canada) provinces.
I've browsed these forums for a while now, and seeing people apply to MD programs and gain acceptance easily with my stats (3.83, previous MCAT of 35 (but a VR 9 which easily disqualifies me from almost every ontario school and other schools) even though its in the 92nd percentile...yea I do think it is significantly easier to gain acceptance to a US medical school if you are a US applicant vs. Canadian applicant from Ontario trying to gain acceptance to an Ontario school. Why?
Because most of your schools actually give a **** about you being FROM that state and you probably have more than just 1 school with such a policy, and the GPA admission and MCAT requirements haven't shot up through the roof. You say we have 17 medical school...factor in that 3 are Quebec schools that are french speaking and you are left with 14. Most other provinces try their best to limit their out of province applicants to a fraction of accepted applicants to the point that GPA >3,9 MCAT >34 is something of a necessity to just garner an Interview.
I won't claim to know much about the US process but is it this competitive? That getting an interview requires GPA >3,85 and verbal scores of at least 10-11 with balanced 32 or higher?
