CEGEP and US Med Schools?

[White-Tiger]

First of all, a little information about myself.

I am from quebec and completed a DEC in Sciences de la Nature with a rather poor (im med terms) of 31.074. I can't really make up any excuses, but let's just say I didn't intend on entering med school when I first started, so getting 36 wasn't really my first priority.

Anyway, that being considered, I now decided to enter McGill's undergraduate program in Microbiology and Immunology. I'm a very smart fellow when I put myself to it and do plan on graduating with honours, which includes a full-year of research work...a great help to a med school application

Now, I know most canadian universities don't really "look" at CEGEP grades all that much. But, what about US Med Schools? Assuming I got a skyhigh GPA (3.8-4.0) and a rock solid MCAT, would I really be penalized all that much because of CEGEP?

Btw, these are some of my grades from CEGEP:
Biology 1 : 85
Biology 2 : 91
Chem 1 : 86
Chem 2 : 89
Org Chem 1 : 87
...and this is where it starts hurting
Calculus 1 : 82
Calculus 2 : 69 (ouch ouch ouch, I really didnt pay attention that semester, kill me now)
Physics 1 : 75
Physics 2 : 68
Physics 3 : 82

PS : These are the marks I got with semesters full of beer, chicken wings, hockey and lots lots of partying. I am assuming I could get a pretty damn decent GPA at university if I actually tried

PPS : If US Med Schools do infact look at CEGEP grades, would it help if during my B.Sc I took advanced calculus and some type of advanced physics and got very good grades on them, just to proove I can actually do good in these subjects?

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[docbill]

I don't believe US schools look at CEGEP nor do they look at Grade 13 in Ontario. You will have to make sure you get a good GPA in university and meet all the course requirements at a University level. Also unlike McGill you must have an MCAT score to be considered.

 

[White-Tiger]

Hmm.
Meeting all the requirements at the university level?
Do these "pre-req" courses need to be "intro" courses or can they be more advanced, seeing as to how I took the intro courses in CEGEP it's basically impossible for me to redo them in university, for credits anyway.

Now, in my program (microbio&immunology) I already got 2 required biology and 2 required chem courses. So all I would need to take to meet the requirements are basically math and physics courses, again though... I can't take intro level courses. I need to take higher level courses if I want credits for them. And a few english and humanities credits wouldn't hurt either as some US Med schools require them?

Am I missing anything here?

 

[jbish]

Hmm.
Meeting all the requirements at the university level?
Do these "pre-req" courses need to be "intro" courses or can they be more advanced, seeing as to how I took the intro courses in CEGEP it's basically impossible for me to redo them in university, for credits anyway.

Now, in my program (microbio&immunology) I already got 2 required biology and 2 required chem courses. So all I would need to take to meet the requirements are basically math and physics courses, again though... I can't take intro level courses. I need to take higher level courses if I want credits for them. And a few english and humanities credits wouldn't hurt either as some US Med schools require them?

Am I missing anything here?

I have never heard of a school not accepting higher-level courses in place of intro classes. As for math and physics, you'll probably need to either take a higher-level course to show that you've covered intro material previously or send your CeGep transcript. For example, schools I applied to had a one year calculus requirement. I took calc I in high school. Instead of taking it again, I just took Calc II in university. These med schools did not require my sending a high school transcript to prove I had passed calc I because that is already assumed if you are placed into calc II. If you don't want to send them your math and physics grades from Cegep, be prepared to take upper level courses to "prove" to med schools that you have covered the material previously. Yes, you'll want to take at least a year's worth of English classes, as well.

 

[White-Tiger]

What type of english classes are we looking at here?
English Litterature, Intro to Shakespeare, American Litt. ??
Or would any type of english course work?

EDIT : Also, won't the fact that my university record only contain 90 credits be a problem for US Universities? Since people who have attended CEGEP only need 90 credits for a B.Sc?

 

[zhengpingzhu]

hi wt!