Canadian applying to US

[daFendi]

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Hi mentors, I appreciate any and all feedback you can provide me.

I recently got an interview to a school in UK, but denied acceptance. So I've decided to apply to US schools. I'm currently attending the university of toronto, in my last year, double majoring in neuroscience and psychology.

So...my stats:
cGPA is about a 3.6
sGPA is also about 3.875

Concerning the MCAT, i took it last summer, and got lower than I suspected, mainly due to VR, which was a 7, but i still ended up with a 30P overall.
The reason why VR was disappointing is because on the AAMC practice test i consistently scored 10-11 on VR and had an overall of about 34-35.
So I am considering taking the MCAT again this summer, just not sure which month would be best considering application dates. But, I seriously believe I can break the 35 score.

My EC's, in no particular order
-a year as an RA at toronto general anesthesiology department
-a following summer by recommendation from toronto general supervisor at toronto western working in a block room to capture ultrasounds of local anesthesia procedures for educational program
-A mentee in the UofT mentorship program involving diabetes research at St. Michael's Hospital
-a semester at Cognitive Psychology lab at UofT as an RA
-I have held various jobs during my undergraduate career, including: a tutor of basic sciences (chem, physics, biology as well as some calculus), retail sales, and at a restaurant for living expenses
-I have consistently participated in intramural soccer teams in my years at UofT, with a lot of success on each team
-I have been a frosh leader for two years at my college
-In my first year at Uni, I decided to take up classical piano, and have progressed relatively quickly in 3 years; my piano teacher assesses my performance at about a grade 8 level
-I'm currently looking into shadowing a neurosurgeon at toronto western, who specializes in epilepsy; a field I've recently been immensely interested in because I had juvenile epilepsy
-I've become an executive member of a college trivia club
-I've partaken in a national program called Brain Day, in which we go to elementary school classrooms and teach children about the basics of the brain and how 'precious' it is and promoting head safety; helmets, etc.
-Other hobbies include moral philosophy, religious philosophy, classical literature, and recently developed an interest in sewing (infact, the tie I wore to my interviews in UK I made myself)

Anyway, that's somewhat of an exhaustive list. I hope that's enough for you to be able to assess my situation appropriately.

Please, recommend away anything of help; whether it's school recommendations based on their acceptance rate for international students, a strategy for mcat verbal reasoning, or anything I can do to improve my application.

Cheers!

 

[Aria A]

I'm sorry but your marks are just not going to cut it in the US esp as an international applicant. But what you should look into is doing a masters and then applying to U of T's med school becuase there is a much higher acceptance rate to grad applicants since they are put in a separate applicant pool. Doing a masters will also give you an opportunity to have a better GPA since U of T will consider your grad school GPA more heavily than your undergrad GPA.

Good luck!

 

[daFendi]

I'm sorry but your marks are just not going to cut it in the US esp as an international applicant. But what you should look into is doing a masters and then applying to U of T's med school becuase there is a much higher acceptance rate to grad applicants since they are put in a separate applicant pool. Doing a masters will also give you an opportunity to have a better GPA since U of T will consider your grad school GPA more heavily than your undergrad GPA.

Good luck!

I thought about that, but I honestly do not want to do a masters. I know that my heart wonnt bbe in it, and I don't think it's for me. I'm just really eager to start learning medicine. I've taken two graduate level courses in neuroscience, and the kind of work that grads have to dom..I just feel like it would be awfully forced, which is something I'm told supervisors do not want in a student.

Realistically, what kind of mcat score would make me competitive, based on my gpa, as an international student? Or as an in province ontario or canadian applicant? Furthermore, would it be better to take a couple more courses to boost my gpa?

Cheers

 

[mcloaf]

Out of curiosity why are you not applying to Canadian schools as well?

 

[daFendi]

Out of curiosity why are you not applying to Canadian schools as well?

I'm considering it. I'm just wary of where to apply because my friends who have almost perfect academic records have had trouble with uoft, mcgill, etc.

Any suggestions as to wheere to apply in canada?

Cheers

 

[mcloaf]

I'm considering it. I'm just wary of where to apply because my friends who have almost perfect academic records have had trouble with uoft, mcgill, etc.

Any suggestions as to wheere to apply in canada?

Cheers

Sorry, I'm afraid I can't be of much help. I'm just going through this process in the US myself and know even less about the situation in Canda--I was just wondering. Hopefully more knowledgeable posters will be able to help you out.

 

[candav]

Depending on your GPA breakdown by year, you may be competitive at Ontario schools. Western looks only at the best two years, and Queen's looks at the most recent two years. U of T calculates a weighted GPA that excludes your lowest four FCEs, but only if you took a full course load (five FCEs/year) every single year of undergrad. McMaster does not weigh GPA heavily in deciding who to invite to interview; performance on the CASPer accounts for ~60% of the pre-interview score, if I remember correctly. You are also conferred an advantage if you are applying to Western as a Southwestern Ontario resident, or to UOttawa as an Ottawa region resident, or to NOSM as a northern Ontario resident.

Overall, your chances in Ontario are not too poor based on your GPA, but you will not get any interviews anywhere with a verbal score of 7.

(I'm not very familiar with med school admissions outside of Ontario.)

You might want to check out premed101.com/forums, the Canadian equivalent to SDN.

 

[daFendi]

Depending on your GPA breakdown by year, you may be competitive at Ontario schools. Western looks only at the best two years, and Queen's looks at the most recent two years. U of T calculates a weighted GPA that excludes your lowest four FCEs, but only if you took a full course load (five FCEs/year) every single year of undergrad. McMaster does not weigh GPA heavily in deciding who to invite to interview; performance on the CASPer accounts for ~60% of the pre-interview score, if I remember correctly. You are also conferred an advantage if you are applying to Western as a Southwestern Ontario resident, or to UOttawa as an Ottawa region resident, or to NOSM as a northern Ontario resident.

Overall, your chances in Ontario are not too poor based on your GPA, but you will not get any interviews anywhere with a verbal score of 7.

(I'm not very familiar with med school admissions outside of Ontario.)

You might want to check out premed101.com/forums, the Canadian equivalent to SDN.

I see. I was having this discussion with some friends recently, actually.
As for the verbal, most places in canada look for a minimum of 10, which I'm not too worried about. I'm still dumbfounded as to how I got a 7 the first time round. I must've done around 8 practice test, where I 10-11, so, who knows, maybe it was first-time jitters or something. I'm going to retake it and am fairly confident I will get 10+.

As for state-side, which schools would you say I have a best shot at, as a canadian, in combination with a realistic MCAT score; say around 35Q.

Cheers

 

[daFendi]

I just discovered that the calculations for sGPA is different for my grades and it seems my science GPA is 3.875; i Edited the post. Please re-evaluate 🙂

 

[Aria A]

I still think that a 35 will be on the low side as sad as that is to say. At least 37-38 which is a really high MCAT score. You have a lot to make up in terms of your GPA even with your higher sGPA. Its mainly becuase you are applying as an international student. International students have to have awesome stats to even be considered in the states. In Canada most schools do not accept international students the same is true in the states and for the schools that do accept internationals it obviously very competitive. But what you can do is look at your specific mark breakdown in term of years and hope that one of the 2 year GPA calculations at Queens or UWO will work in your favour. But there is no harm in applying and hoping for the best. I think a school that you should look at is Wayne State becuase they are very Canadian friendly and I dont think that they require super high stats becuase they are a lower tiered school.

 

[docnotsopc]

I'm sorry but your marks are just not going to cut it in the US esp as an international applicant. But what you should look into is doing a masters and then applying to U of T's med school becuase there is a much higher acceptance rate to grad applicants since they are put in a separate applicant pool. Doing a masters will also give you an opportunity to have a better GPA since U of T will consider your grad school GPA more heavily than your undergrad GPA.

Good luck!

Hey Im a Canadian currently at a US medical school. I have a fair amount of knowledge about Canadians in the US for med, since I personally know about 10 here at various schools.

Dont listen to Aria A. Your sGPA of 3.8 is very competitive in the US. Aria is right that not many schools take Canadians, but believe me more schools take Canadians than we think. There just isn't a nice list on here being spoon fed to people.

It will all come down to your MCAT retake. If you get able to get a more balanced score (even a 30 again), you should be able to draw some attention.

Reality: US medical schools are significantly easier to get into than Canadian schools, even as a Canadian. Many schools have 3.5-3.6 GPA averages with 30-32 MCAT averages. You fall smack in the middle of that if not slightly higher due to your sGPA. You stand little chance at most public schools, but look into private schools

 

[CanadianPremed]

,.,.,.,.,.,.,.

 

[daFendi]

Thanks for the slight boost in confidence fellas.
This is much along the lines I was thinking of, and I'm just glad to see I'm not deluded.
docnotsopc: PM'd!
🙂 Cheers everyone