MD & DO Canadian for US MD or DO. Picking schools! (3.45cGPA/3.53sGPA/29Q)

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toastedbread

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Hello SDN! This is both a "what are my chances" and a "what schools" question. I'm interested in schools where I'd have a chance as a Canadian applicant.

I made it as comprehensive as I could while keeping it succinct. Feel free to skim if you're lazy 🙂.

I graduated from Simon Fraser University in April of 2013 with a B.Sc in Health Sciences, Life Sciences stream (a mix of epidemiology and molecular biology), along with a Certificate in German Studies.
cGPA: 3.45 (strong upward trend - my last 2 years were a 3.7, last 5 semesters on the deans list)
sGPA: 3.53
MCAT: 29Q (10/9/10, only attempt)

Clinical Volunteering:
Children's Hospital: Child Life Volunteer - 6 hours weekly, 130+ total (current)
Residential Care Homes: Recreational and Musical Therapy Volunteer - 2 weekly, 100+ (current)
Trauma Hospital: Emergency Triage Volunteer - 3, 165
Shadowed nurses and non-physician healthcare staff abroad: 70

Physician shadowing:
MD, Family medicine, shadowed in a private clinic. (current, began in May 2014) - 12
MD senior resident, shadowed in the ER - 4
MBBS, shadowed in ER, ICU, and OR abroad in a developing country. - 100

Research: none 🙁

Nonclinical volunteer activities:
Canadian Cancer Society - Relay for Life Musical Performer and Fundraiser: involved annually since 2009 - 60
Soccer Coaching - I've lumped this in with playing soccer in my application since I regularly organize and coach the teams I play on. I would play on ~3 teams per year since 2008. Other than that I volunteered as a coach for a U14 boys team for a single season.
Halloween for Hunger Volunteer Collector - 16 hours since 07 (an annual event.. not even sure if this is worth mentioning)

Activities (in order of importance):
Soccer, competitive but non-collegiate: captaining and managing teams.
Music: I have played guitar and sangfor about 10 years - I regularly participate in open mics and have played at a few weddings, and I keep an online portfolio of my work.
Biking: Street and mountain.
Roller hockey, snowboarding: casual.
Martial arts: involved from a young age up until college.
Personal travel.

Employment:
Residence Advisor 😉 - This was a live-in position, and I was technically always at work. 2009-2011
nothing else worthy of note.

Current list of schools I will apply to (DO only as I haven't formulated an MD list yet):
MSU
LMUCOM
KCUMB
UNECOM
NOVA
CCOM
WesternU / COMP
AZCOM
TouroCOM-NY

Thank you for your feedback!
 
No chance at MD unless you raise your GPA or retake the MCAT and score much higher.

Don't list the Halloween for hunger, that looks like your filling space.

Activities are nice, but don't take up more than 1 entry listing that - everyone has activities they do outside of ECs and volunteering.
 
Did you actually volunteer 3000 hours in triage? That was really unnecessary...maybe cut back on that and get research experience or something more useful.
 
Did you actually volunteer 3000 hours in triage? That was really unnecessary...maybe cut back on that and get research experience or something more useful.
Haha, no. The comma was just poor formatting. I meant to say 3 hours weekly with a total of 165 hours.

And with regard to listing activities, I'm more accustomed to the UBC system where there is a "diversity of experiences" section that seems to ask for that kind of info. Are we not expected to list important activities? For me that would leave soccer and music, both of which I personally feel would warrant their own entries.

Thanks for your feedback!
 
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