Chances for a Canadian submitting primaries this week..

[xeffect]

GPA = 3.92
MCAT 32P (12 PS, 9 VR, 11 BS)

- a little clinical/medical volunteering, a lot of non-medical volunteering (but related to healthcare)
- research at 2 different places.... 2 posters, 1 publication
- work at a pharmacy
- founder and president of a student club
- writer for school newspaper
- played guitar in an independent band
- scholarships, honor roll
- 10-day overseas educational tour

I just sent in my transcript about 1.5 weeks ago, so I'm not sure it's received yet. Which of these schools should I take off my list, bearing in mind I'm from Canada?

- Duke
- Einstein
- Boston U
- Penn State
- SUNY Upstate
- Eastern Virginia
- Jefferson
- Albany
- Wayne State
- Dartmouth
- Rosalind Franklin

cheers

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[JC2]

- school list is fine
- are you so intent on applying this year? cuz i wanna point out two things:
1 - you submit your primary NOW and you aren't going to be verified for at least a month, other people will have interviews by then. in other words, you aren't early, at the very best you aren't late. at the very best.
2 - one might not be such a problem but you state you have only a little bit of clinical volunteering. u.s. schools LOVE clinical volunteering. your application would be infinitely stronger (and you could arguably apply to some more reach schools) if you'd take the year to really boost up your clinical experiences and reapply as early as possible next year.

then again, your call. your schools list is fine as is. (though as i'm working on duke's secondary at the moment, you may want to check it out in the secondary applications thread and see if you actually have the desire to fill it out )

 

[Panda eyes]

Hey I'm canadian as well and new to this forum - I'm totally undecided on whether I should apply to US schools this year or just stick with Canadian ones.
I know I'm quite disadvantaged at this point in the game since I still haven't started the primary (I'm the worst procrastinator ever). I know most people tend to submit in June/July. US med schools are also very big on having clincal/shadowing experience which is much less common in canada - I'm totally lacking in this department.

Anyways here are my stats
GPA 3.90
36T (PS 14 VR 10 BS 12)

- governor general's award, university scholarship
- NSERC summer research project (and a less serious one last summer)
- exec on pre-med club (we actually tried to address the lack of shadowing opportunities at our university and established a shadowing program in collaboration with affiliated hospital)
- exec on club about international development & volunteering overseas
- volunteer at career centre
- (starting sept) mcat instructor & TA for course

I know my ECs are pretty weak so I'm not really confident about getting in (especially after seeing some pretty amazing stats from ppl here) but I can't imagine taking a year off - I don't know if I'll have the discipline to continue doing medically-related activities/ECs while out of school :S

So should I whip up an application asap and hope that maybe I'm lucky enough that some school will overlook my mediocre ECs and forgive my dismally late application or should I just stick with the canadian schools...

 

[cleothecat]

What hurts many Canadians is too few job shadowing hours.

With your stats (both of you), it is still worth it to apply, but get those job shadowing and volunteer hours so you can send in updates with them if needed, or use them to shine on your interviews.

 

[Stratego]

I completely agree with Cleothecat. If you are set on applying to US schools this year, then live the application year as if you will be reapplying next year, beefing up your applications where they are weak, giving yourself good material to use in update letters that may sway adcomms positively, and if you end up reapplying, giving yourself a much stronger application to submit next year.