Is it too late for a Canadian to submit their primary?

[PeculiarPanda]

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Hey yall.

So i planned to submit my primary back in late June. However, I rewrote my MCAT mid June and walked away feeling really crappy about it. I used this as an excuse to wait/procrastinate till I got my mark back last week. Luckily I got a 517. My GPA went from 3.0--> 3.95-->3.93-->3.8 over the 4 years. I have tons of extracurricular experience, not cookie cutter.

Do you think I should give it a shot still if I can finish my PS and submit before the end of July? I have 4 letters lined up as well.

Cheers

 

[MCATISEZ]

No

How much does he/she being Canadian play into that answer? Would you recommend the same of a US applicant?

Edit: I just realized your answer was probably to the main question. As in - it is not too late.


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[TaroMilkT]

Probably best to wait for @gonnif 's confirmation on this one, but if I am not misunderstanding, I think he meant "No", as in OP should not throw in an application this cycle.

From reading this forum (and looking up data for international applicants), there is already too much risk for Canadian applicants applying to American MD schools. It would be much safer to do everything you can to make sure that your app is the strongest that it can be and to avoid being a reapplicant. PS and EC descriptions can take much longer that you might anticipate, and rushing is not a good idea.

At this point, if OP were to submit by July 31st, it would take at least one month to be verified (probably close to 6 full weeks). OP, if you were to jump the gun and take the risk of applying this cycle, you would absolutely need to make sure that you pre-write all secondaries so that they are ready to go right after verification. You don't want to be submitting secondaries in mid-late Sept/Oct as a Canadian applicant.

Can't turn back the time now, but for future applicants in a similar position (waiting on an MCAT score), it is probably best to submit the primary to only one "throwaway" school so that the primary can get verified as soon as possible. Then, when you get your score back, you can decide whether to add more schools (if your score is where you want it to be), or retake and apply next cycle.

 

[Catalystik]

OP, are you asking about US or Canadian med school application?

 

[PeculiarPanda]

OP, are you asking about US or Canadian med school application?

Us med

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[Catalystik]

So i planned to submit my primary back in late June. However, I rewrote my MCAT mid June and walked away feeling really crappy about it. I used this as an excuse to wait/procrastinate till I got my mark back last week. Luckily I got a 517. My GPA went from 3.0--> 3.95-->3.93-->3.8 over the 4 years. I have tons of extracurricular experience, not cookie cutter.

Do you think I should give it a shot still if I can finish my PS and submit before the end of July? I have 4 letters lined up as well.

Yes, I think you should give US schools a shot. What have you been doing in this last week since getting your score back? Send in your transcripts, get that PS done, polish up the Activities section, and submit to one school to get the verification process started. Then you can fine-tune the rest of your target school list and add more later. And follow the advice of @TaroMilkT to pre-write your Secondary essays so they're ready to go as soon as Secondary invitations roll in.

 

[PeculiarPanda]

Yes, I think you should give US schools a shot. What have you been doing in this last week since getting your score back? Send in your transcripts, get that PS done, polish up the Activities section, and submit to one school to get the verification process started. Then you can fine-tune the rest of your target school list and add more later. And follow the advice of @TaroMilkT to pre-write your Secondary essays so they're ready to go as soon as Secondary invitations roll in.

Thank you for your advice. Yes I'm close to finishing up. I'll submit my primary in the next 2-3 days after polishing it up.

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[Catalystik]

I have tons of extracurricular experience, not cookie cutter.

You've been around SDN long enough that I'm assuming you have a good idea of the required and unwritten Activities expectations, and that you have sufficient active clinical experience, volunteering, and possibly (though less expected of Canadians) physician shadowing, and research?

 

[PeculiarPanda]

You've been around SDN long enough that I'm assuming you have a good idea of the required and unwritten Activities expectations, and that you have sufficient active clinical experience, volunteering, and possibly (though less expected of Canadians) physician shadowing, and research?

In terms of activies expectations, do you just mean how to write them effectively and to focus more on the actual description rather than what you learned?

And yes. I have everything other than physician shadowing.

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[Catalystik]

In terms of activies expectations, do you just mean how to write them effectively and to focus more on the actual description rather than what you learned?

And yes. I have everything other than physician shadowing.

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I meant that I wouldn't have advised you to proceed with an application if you had two months of patient experience, and 10 hours of nonmedical volunteering. (I am grossly understating minimum expectations here, but I've seen applicants expect to succeed despite similar numbers.)

If you have questions about writing up the activities: *~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2017-2018*~*~*~*

 

[PeculiarPanda]

I meant that I wouldn't have advised you to proceed with an application if you had two months of patient experience, and 10 hours of nonmedical volunteering. (I am grossly understating minimum expectations here, but I've seen applicants expect to succeed despite similar numbers.)

If you have questions about writing up the activities: *~*~*~*Official AMCAS Work/Activities Tips Thread 2017-2018*~*~*~*

I've volunteered in various roles in different hospitals for the past 4 years, putting in about 700 hours.

Although that seems great, I feel like my non medical volunteering is my bread and butter. My experiences are fairly diverse and I truly feel like these experiences are the ones which have prepared me for medicine.

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[summergirl]

Honestly it's pretty late. If you submit now, you won't get verified until late August, and if you factor in the time you need to do your secondaries, you won't be complete in most schools until September/October, which is very late for a Canadian applicant with a 3.67 GPA. This is also assuming everything works out smoothly, like your LORs are in on time, you have no other obligations in the next 2 months, and that you don't get massively burnt out writing your secondaries.

You need to realize that applying to Canadian medical schools is a very different process than applying to US medical schools. If I remembered correctly, you don't even need a PS to apply to Canadian schools, no secondaries either, only activity descriptions. That is very very very different from US schools. When applying to medical schools in the USA, there are many opportunities for applicants to present aspects of themselves (i.e. PS, activity descriptions, secondaries, application timing etc.) that their stats could not reveal. Many would argue how you present yourself on your application is just as important as your actual stats. So far, your stats are average at best for a Canadian applicant (cGPA=3.67 & 517), so you'll need to put your best foot forward with regards to the other aspects of your application. Do you feel you are able to do that with your current circumstances?

There is a very good post written by a successful Canadian applicant in the re-applicant sub-forum that has some very useful information. I recommend you read it: 4 Time Reapplicant (Canadian) Finally Accepted to M.D. School

 

[PeculiarPanda]

Just wanted to update everyone.

Thanks to all your feedback, I decided to not apply this year with a rushed app and risk becoming a reapp. Furthermore, after some thinking, I realized I wanted to try at least 2 more cycles to try to get into Canada, so no point applying this year if I wasnt even sure I would take an acceptance (If i even got one).

But yeah, thanks for steering me in the right direction. I will make sure I have my app ready to rock come next June.

 

[PeculiarPanda]

Hey guys. Quick update. I rewrote my MCAT for the 3rd time and scored a 517 (95%). My GPA for the 1-4 years is as follows: 3.1, 3.97,3.93, 3.8. If I spend a couple months perfecting my app before it even opens and nail my PS, do you guys think I have a solid change next cycle as a Canadian? What about high tier schools? Cheers!

 

[ciestar]

Wait...you retook a 517 ? Why?
And got another 517?

That...looks bad.

 

[PeculiarPanda]

No, sorry if I was unclear. I went from a 507--> 512-->517. I did this mainly for Canadian medical schools as they look at CARS. My cars jumped from 124-->127-->129 respectively.

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[PreMedMissteps]

Hey yall.

So i planned to submit my primary back in late June. However, I rewrote my MCAT mid June and walked away feeling really crappy about it. I used this as an excuse to wait/procrastinate till I got my mark back last week. Luckily I got a 517. My GPA went from 3.0--> 3.95-->3.93-->3.8 over the 4 years. I have tons of extracurricular experience, not cookie cutter.

Do you think I should give it a shot still if I can finish my PS and submit before the end of July? I have 4 letters lined up as well.

Cheers

Hey guys. Quick update. I rewrote my MCAT for the 3rd time and scored a 517 (95%). My GPA for the 1-4 years is as follows: 3.1, 3.97,3.93, 3.8. If I spend a couple months perfecting my app before it even opens and nail my PS, do you guys think I have a solid change next cycle as a Canadian? What about high tier schools? Cheers!

No, sorry if I was unclear. I went from a 507--> 512-->517. I did this mainly for Canadian medical schools as they look at CARS. My cars jumped from 124-->127-->129 respectively.

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How was your 2nd above-listed quote an update? You posted back in July that you got a 217. Why update now with the same 217? When did you get the 212? Something sounds "off".

Stop taking the MCAT.

 

[PeculiarPanda]

Oh my bad! I didn't realize I updated SDN before. My apologies. Kind of reposted by mistake without seeing I had submitted a similar message earlier.

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