Got IN! What a relief!
I will probably be one of the older guys in the Class 2T0. I am 25 this year. Got my bachelor in chemistry at UBC in 2013, then came to UofT and got my masters in analytical chemistry in 2015. Since then, I have been working full time at a very prominent biotech company in South San Francisco, doing research on small molecule DMPK and making decent bucks
. Retail/hospital pharmacy actually doesn't interest me at all. My main focus will always be industry and research. I am planning on returning to states after PharmD, and very possibly go after a PhD in either translational research, or pharmaceutical science & pharmacogenomics from UCSF preferably.
FYI, I am a Canadian citizen and a US green card holder. Does any of the upper year people plan to apply for residencies, fellowships or maybe practice in US down the road? I know UofT is not a ACPE accredited school, so would that significantly hurt the chances of landing residencies/fellowships in US? Anybody have successfully made the transition to US? Any suggestions?
Some stats about me:
GPA: ~82-83%
PCAT:
VA: 87% PR
RC: 87% PR
BIO: 99% PR
QA: 99% PR
CHEM: 99% PR
Composite: 99% PR
Interview: I thought I did really well on 9/10 stations. Maybe I was still a bit nervous on the first station, but after that it was all great. My recommendation for future applicants to crack the MMI is practice, practice and more practice. To be honest, I didn't even practice once going into the UofT MMI
. In terms of topic-specific preparation, I spent about 4 hours reading medical ethics on the plane, and that's about it. However, I did have more than 10 rounds of really tough technical one-on-one/panel job interviews in the past year alone. I think going through this many job interviews really made me relax on the interview day, and I was able to interpret interviewers' true intention behind each question almost immediately, therefore, essentially seizing every opportunity to advertise myself. Treat the whole interview process as a marketing session to sell yourself!
The key is to be extremely confident in yourself, and you have to truly believe you will make the cut because if you don't believe in yourself, who else will? Never talk tentatively, since the interviewers can easily sense that and cast doubt on your motivation. Speak firmly and look directly into each interviewer's eyes while smiling the whole time. Before you walk into the interview room, you have to convince yourself that you are ALREADY a PharmD inside your mind, and act accordingly. The trick is, you feel you are ALREADY a PharmD, NOT just want to be a PharmD. When you are in the right mindset, your confidence will show naturally throughout your engagement with interviewers. Unless you say something obviously offensive or flat out wrong, you should have performed at your peak at that point.
For people who have been rejected, don't give up, don't give in, and keep grinding forward! Last year, I was rejected post-interview at one California and one New York state MD schools. I was depressed, angry and almost lost hope in myself. At one point, it became so traumatic that I even refused to talk to anyone, locking myself up inside my room for days. But what doesn't kill you will make you stronger, and trust me, this isn't a cliche. I have personally been through all that, and I really feel I became much more motivated than ever to show the world my true potential. No matter what, never believe a prediction that doesn't empower you! Failure is not a step backward. It is a step towards the right direction, and you will have less anxiety when you do it again! Do you still think failure is a setback? It's a step forward in every sense of the word!
Believe in yourself, believe in your vision, hard work pays off, and you will get what you truly deserve.
