Canadian seeking advice on post bacc

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DrinkMoreWater

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Hi all,

I'm new to this forum so please forgive any errors in formatting/etiquette!

I am a recent graduate of a Canadian institution, I received a Bachelor's of Management and my cGPA was 3.25 (not great, I know). I have long been interested in medical school but for personal reasons that I won't get into I cast it aside as an unrealistic goal. I am now exploring my options to make my way into medical school and was looking for some advice.

I understand that there are formal post-baccalaureate programs, as well as the option to simply set one up for yourself. Canada, as far as I can tell, doesn't offer any formal post bacc programs, though I have seen a handful of "pre-professional programs" offered at schools like UofA. Are these pre-professional programs worth doing? I have taken virtually no science classes so I'm a fairly blank slate in that sense. Would it be better for me to stay in Canada and DIY a post bacc, or do the formal post bacc programs in the USA offer something more intangible that I'm missing. The cost makes me somewhat fearful of the formal program - even though it would be a drop in the bucket compared to the cost of medical school, the risk of that goal not materializing creates some hesitation.

Additionally, if I were to go the route of DIY, would taking equivalent courses at a college be preferable to a university? College courses seem to be easier, which would help with achieving the necessary GPA, though I'm worried that a college course would look less desirable to admissions councils than an equivalent course from a university.

Any advice on this stuff would be greatly appreciated, and if there are other options that I haven't mentioned I would love to hear about those as well!

Thanks!

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For Canadian DIY: take a full-time course load at a university. Don't overload yourself with science courses as you're aiming for 3.9+. Don't take part-time or college studies as they may not count towards your admissions GPA (different med schools have different rules about what counts towards your GPA; email admissions if unsure about anything.) If it has "university" in the name it's a university (i.e. prestige doesn't matter.)

No benefit to "pre-professional" programs.
 
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