I'm losing confidence...so hard for Canadians to get into US med schools =(

[Saiuko]

I'm a third year microbiology/immunology student planning to apply to Medical School in the coming summer. I took the MCAT in early Sept and got 35R (14PS 10V 11BS). My GPA was pretty bad in first year (since I applied to the a special Science One program at our university that only accepts about 70 students a year and is quite prestigious). After finishing the one year program my GPA went up in second year (about 3.8) because the course became a lot easier, and I hope to pull up my cGPA to 3.8-3.9 by the time I graduate. I volunteer at three hospitals and plans to get involved in some clinical research in the upcoming summer. Here are some of the problems that I am facing:

1. Should I retake the MCAT to make myself more competitive? I know people who scored 37S and 42S....the thing is, I'm pretty confident that my score will go up if I retake the test, but since I'm not very good at writing I am very satisfied with a R already. Which is more important, the score or the writing component? Retake or not retake, that is my question.....

2. There are only a few Canadian Medical schools that I am planning to apply to (UBC, UT, McGill, Queens, Alberta) and they are all VERY HARD to get in. However, if I try to apply in the US where there are a lot more selections, I face the problem that I will be an international student. Do any of you have good suggestions as to which US med schools I should apply to to maximize my chances of getting in? Of course I wanted to try the top ones, but I do realize that my status as an international student will have a negative impact on my average application, even if they ignore the fact that I have no money in the bank and need to get massive bank loans T_T

3. I have some decent volunteering experience, yet other aspects of my EC are quite weak, especially leadership. Is leadership well valued by the med school admission committees? What kind of leadership experience should I try to get involved in to make my application look better?

P.S. I took the princeton review MCAT prep course last summer and found it...somewhat helpful. The material and practice exams were more helpful than the lectures themselves. If anyone likes to discuss their MCAT studying experience, please feel free =)

thanks everyone for your kind replies~

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[bannie22]

1. if you feel confident that your score will go up, then of course retake it. the SCORE is important, the writing component means absolutely nothing unless you score what a J?

2. How dare you put Queens together with those big schools ! Jefferson and Wayne State are the two schools that consider Canadians very very favourably, I have also heard good things about SLU

try this website, it might be quite informative Applying to American Schools - Canadian Premed and Medical Schools

3. leadership is definitely valued by the adcoms, get involved with student council on your campus or get into a leadership position at those places where you have already been volunteering.

all the best, and it is VERY VERY silly to be losing confidence before you even apply. i am sure you will do quite well with your stats. (funny how I have never heard of the "special science one program" hahaha... must be vancouver stuff?

 

[Saiuko]

Thanks Bannie for your detailed reply! I will keep working hard and try to regain some confidence =)
Is the writing component really that useless? sigh....I was so worried about it and I almost jumped to the ceiling when I knew I got a R...But studying for the MCAT wasn't a fun experience at all, so I guess I will see how my summer plan goes and decide if I want to devote another three month to MCAT studying. I guess if I get full time research opportunity that will worth more than retaking the MCAT, right?

I will look into Jefferson and Wayne State more closely =)

P.S. yes Science One Program is a Vancouver thing~ I go to UBC ^^

 

[alibai3ah]

Thanks Bannie for your detailed reply! I will keep working hard and try to regain some confidence =)
Is the writing component really that useless? sigh....I was so worried about it and I almost jumped to the ceiling when I knew I got a R...But studying for the MCAT wasn't a fun experience at all, so I guess I will see how my summer plan goes and decide if I want to devote another three month to MCAT studying. I guess if I get full time research opportunity that will worth more than retaking the MCAT, right?

I will look into Jefferson and Wayne State more closely =)

P.S. yes Science One Program is a Vancouver thing~ I go to UBC ^^

Retaking with a 35 is not a good idea. Your gpa and mcat score are both perfectly fine. Lots of people have poor freshman year grades, but with a huge upward trend, they make up for it.

You should for sure take the research job and soup up your extracuriculars. They are very important. Also you need leadership as well! Work hard on EC's. It's what distinguishes you from other people.

I got an R also (which I believe is like 94 percentile), so I don't get why you are worried. Granted, the writing score doesn't count as much, but still a R is pretty good.

 

[bannie22]

Yes, doing full time research will definitely be a much better idea than retaking the MCAT.

a R is good enough for all schools around the world (only North America uses MCAT anyway...)
Cutoffs for Ontario schools are usually Q, and sometimes R.

All the best, UBC is a very good school, I am sure you will get into a very good medical school! Let us know how it goes when you apply!

 

[Saiuko]

To alibai3ah:
I am very happy that I got a R on the writing and this is part of the reason why I didn't want to retake my MCAT (since I suck at writing...T_T) I think by the time I apply to medical schools in the summer I should have close to 300 volunteering hours at hospitals (ER, senior acute care centre and cardiac centre). Is that considered a lot, or just average? apart from that my ECs are pretty bad. I want to get some leadership skills, but I don't really know where to start...I'm not a very outspoken person so I never went for exec positions at school clubs. I will start summer research by the end of April next year so by the time I apply I should have about 1 or 2 month of research experience. I wish I had started earlier but last summer I was focusing on preparing for the MCAT.

To Bannie:
thx~ I like UBC, it's a very beautiful school (except that I usually stay in the library rather than going to the beach or the gardens). I decided to gave up on retaking MCAT and just focus on full time research, since that seems to be more beneficial to add onto my ECs =) Do Canadian schools look at shadowing experience? I have never heard of anyone doing that...or maybe I just know too few people that got into med school. If chances permit I think I will try to find some shadowing in the summer as well =)

P.S. I love conan <3

 

[bannie22]

To alibai3ah:
I am very happy that I got a R on the writing and this is part of the reason why I didn't want to retake my MCAT (since I suck at writing...T_T) I think by the time I apply to medical schools in the summer I should have close to 300 volunteering hours at hospitals (ER, senior acute care centre and cardiac centre). Is that considered a lot, or just average? apart from that my ECs are pretty bad. I want to get some leadership skills, but I don't really know where to start...I'm not a very outspoken person so I never went for exec positions at school clubs. I will start summer research by the end of April next year so by the time I apply I should have about 1 or 2 month of research experience. I wish I had started earlier but last summer I was focusing on preparing for the MCAT.

To Bannie:
thx~ I like UBC, it's a very beautiful school (except that I usually stay in the library rather than going to the beach or the gardens). I decided to gave up on retaking MCAT and just focus on full time research, since that seems to be more beneficial to add onto my ECs =) Do Canadian schools look at shadowing experience? I have never heard of anyone doing that...or maybe I just know too few people that got into med school. If chances permit I think I will try to find some shadowing in the summer as well =)

P.S. I love conan <3

woahaha


I like you already! LOL

No, dont worry about shadowing experiences because its illegal (generally) to shadow in Canada. Focus on leadership experiences, specifically those related clinically or to community service.

You might need some for American schools though, although once again, I received interview invites prior to updating medical schools of my shadowing experiences in teh summer.

I had a feeling Saiuko had a japanese tone to it...

 

[bannie22]

300 hours is more than sufficient.

 

[bannie22]

Also, why dont u bring your books to the beach to study? would be a good change of environment. As a neuroscience specialist, changing the environment helps learning.

 

[Saiuko]

I'm a big fan of Japanese anime ^^
yay~ I thought I really missed out on the shadowing experience... hmm....leadership in clinical settings/community....like, for example, holding fundrising events? I did that in high school for the Canadian Cancer Society, but not after I got into university...
I find it very hard to balance school and ECs. Too much ECs and my marks started to decline...I guess I'm just not smart enough to handle all that T_T
Do Canada have DO schools? I'm not very aware of it...I learned that term from SDN and is still a little confused with the difference between MD and DO. why are DO schools easier to get in? Are there things that MD can do but DO's cant?

Again, thanks Bannie for your fast replies ^^

 

[bannie22]

I'm a big fan of Japanese anime ^^
yay~ I thought I really missed out on the shadowing experience... hmm....leadership in clinical settings/community....like, for example, holding fundrising events? I did that in high school for the Canadian Cancer Society, but not after I got into university...
I find it very hard to balance school and ECs. Too much ECs and my marks started to decline...I guess I'm just not smart enough to handle all that T_T
Do Canada have DO schools? I'm not very aware of it...I learned that term from SDN and is still a little confused with the difference between MD and DO. why are DO schools easier to get in? Are there things that MD can do but DO's cant?

Again, thanks Bannie for your fast replies ^^

That makes two of us!
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Holding fundraising events could be a possible method, if you do not feel comfortable with an executive position in a council.

Unfortunately, high school achievements are not taken into serious consideration. Look into the AMCAS application. You need to have 15 activities and you get the opportunity to describe each activity in around 800 characters (I forgot the exact number).

I am sure you are smart enough, you got into the special program at UBC. top program. top school.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osteopathy#Canada

They are easier to get into. The consensus on SDN is that you get to do mostly the same thing just that you get a DO compared to an MD behind your name.

I personally feel that there must be probably a greater underlying reason for the disparity. But statistically, MDs match better than DOs at residency. So MD is always the option, especially for your stats.

 

[bannie22]

Oh, and I actually like your attitude quite abit.

The reasoning that you gave for your improvement in GPA was that the course load was easier.

That is either HONESTY, or MODESTY.

I really hope you get into the medical school of your choice.

*Note I still strongly recommend council experience because it is very valuable, not only to your application, but working with capable people is an amazing opportunity that you should take advantage of!

 

[Saiuko]

&#38750;&#24120;&#12395;&#23569;&#12394;&#12356;&#12290;&#31169;&#12399;&#12450;&#12491;&#12513;&#12363;&#12425;&#23398;&#12406;&#12290;^^
I think I should look into joining student council, since I do live on campus and thus have a little more time to commit to the works.
thank you very much for the encourangement~ I really really wanted to go to Med school, and I certainly hope that I will be accepted by one of the schools that I will be applying to. This is the first time in my life that I've face so many uncertainties, but I think it will also be a memorable experience if I look back a few years from now....I think as long as I tried my best, then its all worth it ^^

I'm not being modest about my second year course load...I think the reason is that in second year we are in classes with 400 people so the profs cannot intentionally make exams so hard as to more than half of the class fail (technically they can, but they end up scaling it anyways XD)
and getting into Science One was mainly because I did really well in high school...but after first year of university my self esteem went underneath the ground T_T
which school are you from?

 

[bannie22]

Remember, that it does not necessarily have to be the BIG student council on campus, but perhaps you can look to being on a leadership position in one of the student groups.... perhaps the anime group? (and if you hold activities, deal with finances, recruit new students... all these demonstrates leadership, and as a leader, you can also suggest fundraising activities for whatnot!!!)



You are right. As long as you try your best, there are no regrets. Well, I think you should believe in yourself, you have the right attitude (honesty at your achievements), and you have a very good GPA (3.8+), you are in a very good position. Keep up the good work!


I'm from University of Toronto, 4th year student.

 

[ezsanche]

Why do you want to go to school in the States? Why not just stay in Canada.

 

[TheMightySmiter]

Why do you want to go to school in the States? Why not just stay in Canada.

From what I know, Canadian schools are even harder to get into than US schools.

 

[bannie22]

From what I know, Canadian schools are even harder to get into than US schools.

You are right to a certain degree.

Generally, you would look at a Canadian like you look at an American state school or perhaps the schools in California (UCs generally)

Very competitive in general, and even more protective of their instate residents.

Also, GPA is much more highly regarded while the MCAT is usually used for "cut-off" purposes (ie ~30R)
A good MCAT gives you insignificant benefits, and consideration of the overall application is sometimes "complained" to be too GPA-heavy.

 

[ezsanche]

^^ I think that how it should be for USA schools

 

[bannie22]

^^ I think that how it should be for USA schools

I don't have a world class GPA so I will disagree with you.


But perhaps it would have stayed world class had I not gotten lazy after looking at my MCAT score. But perhaps not, since I suck at Psychology anyway.

 

[ezsanche]

World class GPA? I remember looking you at your MD PROFILE and you had a 4.0 or something near that. Who are you trying to fool, buddy .

 

[bannie22]

World class GPA? I remember looking you at your MD PROFILE and you had a 4.0 or something near that. Who are you trying to fool, buddy .

haha ez=P
i dont...