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Hi, I'm not sure if I'm posting in the right place, but I can't find much for Canadian Students. I know there are the monthly threads, but there's barely any responses there. Thus I'm posting here, please let me know if I should post elsewhere!
Anyway, I'm in my 4th year now of a Science Undergrad and I have been beating myself over for a low GPA in Canada. (I live in Ontario)
GPA
Currently, my cGPA is 3.53. However, some notes...
* I took Orgo I and II in 2nd year summer, I got a B and C-
* I took Clinical Biochem last semester and got a D+
* The rest of my transcript is mostly As, with minimum B+. Mostly Science Courses.
* For my first two years my GPA is 3.7, BUT the recent 3 semesters my GPA is 3.3 (full-third year + one semester of 4th year). So it's a downward sort of trend, lots of reasons for that, but we know no one cares about the reasons.
MCAT
Overwhelmed with result of underperforming the 2 most recent years, I was absolutely super-focused on the MCAT. These are my scores:
C/P: 128 (87 percentile)
CARS:130 (97-98 percentile)
B/B: 130 (97th)
PCB: 130 (97th)
Total: 518 (97th percentile)
ECs
My ECs are average, only have one academic reference and 2 professional...
- Worked full-time in Health Canada as a Scientific Chemical Research Evaluator for 4 months (600 hours) *(professional reference)*
- Worked full-time in a Cancer Lab in UHN (a Toronto research Institute affiliated with UofT) for 3 months (450 hours), had a research/poster presentation at the end *(academic reference letter)*
- Academic, Co-op & Careers Student Mentor at the University's Office (full-time for 4 months, 600 hours) *(professional reference)*,
- Another Mentor experience for 4 months of a part time international mentorship program with a couple of international students. (40 hours)
- "Research Methodologies and Topics in the Life Sciences" Teaching Assistant for a 30 student 2nd year class at McMaster University for 4 months (65 hours)
- Director of 2 clubs for 2 years, one is a cultural club and another is an educational club. Lots of events, fundraising and stuff...
- Volunteered at a old age home for 4 months on weekends (50 hours)
Question/Options
What are my chances for anything in Canada? Note: I'm in Ontario. I feel my GPA holds me back hard, people with 3.8 GPAs with 510+ MCATS get rejected. *Where does a person with a 3.5 GPA who's done horrible in prime courses (orgo/clinical biochem), those ECs above, with a stellar MCAT fall in place?*
So far, I have only thought of McMaster and Western Uni.
I know there are some(maybe 1 or 2) that got in with as low as 3.3 GPA in McMaster, but it feels extremely rare and that I need a gold medal in Olympics or something to get that. As for Western, if you take my best 2 years, which are my first two... first (3.74 gpa) and second year (3.66 gpa), you get minimum 3.70 GPA. I can perhaps apply but they'll see that downward trend and again it's still the bare minimum...
Anyway, I'm in my 4th year now of a Science Undergrad and I have been beating myself over for a low GPA in Canada. (I live in Ontario)
GPA
Currently, my cGPA is 3.53. However, some notes...
* I took Orgo I and II in 2nd year summer, I got a B and C-
* I took Clinical Biochem last semester and got a D+
* The rest of my transcript is mostly As, with minimum B+. Mostly Science Courses.
* For my first two years my GPA is 3.7, BUT the recent 3 semesters my GPA is 3.3 (full-third year + one semester of 4th year). So it's a downward sort of trend, lots of reasons for that, but we know no one cares about the reasons.
MCAT
Overwhelmed with result of underperforming the 2 most recent years, I was absolutely super-focused on the MCAT. These are my scores:
C/P: 128 (87 percentile)
CARS:130 (97-98 percentile)
B/B: 130 (97th)
PCB: 130 (97th)
Total: 518 (97th percentile)
ECs
My ECs are average, only have one academic reference and 2 professional...
- Worked full-time in Health Canada as a Scientific Chemical Research Evaluator for 4 months (600 hours) *(professional reference)*
- Worked full-time in a Cancer Lab in UHN (a Toronto research Institute affiliated with UofT) for 3 months (450 hours), had a research/poster presentation at the end *(academic reference letter)*
- Academic, Co-op & Careers Student Mentor at the University's Office (full-time for 4 months, 600 hours) *(professional reference)*,
- Another Mentor experience for 4 months of a part time international mentorship program with a couple of international students. (40 hours)
- "Research Methodologies and Topics in the Life Sciences" Teaching Assistant for a 30 student 2nd year class at McMaster University for 4 months (65 hours)
- Director of 2 clubs for 2 years, one is a cultural club and another is an educational club. Lots of events, fundraising and stuff...
- Volunteered at a old age home for 4 months on weekends (50 hours)
Question/Options
What are my chances for anything in Canada? Note: I'm in Ontario. I feel my GPA holds me back hard, people with 3.8 GPAs with 510+ MCATS get rejected. *Where does a person with a 3.5 GPA who's done horrible in prime courses (orgo/clinical biochem), those ECs above, with a stellar MCAT fall in place?*
So far, I have only thought of McMaster and Western Uni.
I know there are some(maybe 1 or 2) that got in with as low as 3.3 GPA in McMaster, but it feels extremely rare and that I need a gold medal in Olympics or something to get that. As for Western, if you take my best 2 years, which are my first two... first (3.74 gpa) and second year (3.66 gpa), you get minimum 3.70 GPA. I can perhaps apply but they'll see that downward trend and again it's still the bare minimum...
