Need some advice

[really confused]

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Hello,

I hope everyone is doing well. I am new to the site and haven't had much time to investigate if someone similar to my situation posted anything. With that being said, please forgive me if this is a repeat.

I am currently working as a senior health economist for a health service provider in Canada.

I am a non-traditional wanting to get into medicine. Here are my stats:

-B.A (honors) in Economics from a mid-size Canadian University.
cGPA at graduation: 3.34

-M.A in Economics--course based (took courses in health economics). Mainly A- and As but 2 Bs

Extra-curricular activities:

-Board member at a local religious organization for 3 years
-Duties ranged from designing courses for kids, fundraising, teaching math after Sunday school

-Volunteer with an NGO in Afghanistan for 1.5 years after M.A program
-Mainly provided research to local health authorities on where to locate clinics/hospitals and what specialties to put limited resources on
-Also educated villagers on sanitation and proper hygiene
-Helped foreign ER doctors treat villagers who just got shot or maimed

That is it for my education and extra-curricular activities. The only science course I took was "biology for social sciences" and I got a "C" in it. I have math taken math courses and I am good in that field.

It was during my year in Afghanistan that I became fascinated with pursuing medicine. I don't care about the money that comes with it or the prestige. And I don't care that I'll be giving up a very good salary to go back to school after 2 years.

So with everything said, what are challenges/opportunities? What do I have to do to get into a medical school in Canada or US. I want to enroll at UBC for a second degree in sciences and give it a shot. I don't care where I go to medical school, as long as I become a trauma surgeon in the end.

What do you good people have to say? If you want more info just let me know.

 

[Scottish Chap]

Hello,

I hope everyone is doing well. I am new to the site and haven't had much time to investigate if someone similar to my situation posted anything. With that being said, please forgive me if this is a repeat.

I am currently working as a senior health economist for a health service provider in Canada.

I am a non-traditional wanting to get into medicine. Here are my stats:

-B.A (honors) in Economics from a mid-size Canadian University.
cGPA at graduation: 3.34

-M.A in Economics--course based (took courses in health economics). Mainly A- and As but 2 Bs

Extra-curricular activities:

-Board member at a local religious organization for 3 years
-Duties ranged from designing courses for kids, fundraising, teaching math after Sunday school

-Volunteer with an NGO in Afghanistan for 1.5 years after M.A program
-Mainly provided research to local health authorities on where to locate clinics/hospitals and what specialties to put limited resources on
-Also educated villagers on sanitation and proper hygiene
-Helped foreign ER doctors treat villagers who just got shot or maimed

That is it for my education and extra-curricular activities. The only science course I took was "biology for social sciences" and I got a "C" in it. I have math taken math courses and I am good in that field.

It was during my year in Afghanistan that I became fascinated with pursuing medicine. I don't care about the money that comes with it or the prestige. And I don't care that I'll be giving up a very good salary to go back to school after 2 years.

So with everything said, what are challenges/opportunities? What do I have to do to get into a medical school in Canada or US. I want to enroll at UBC for a second degree in sciences and give it a shot. I don't care where I go to medical school, as long as I become a trauma surgeon in the end.

What do you good people have to say? If you want more info just let me know.

Welcome!

Your experience is amazing. Well done!

As you know, the MCAT score and GPA mean more than anything to medical schools and so you need presentable numbers. Amazing extracurricular activities won't make them look past this basic requirement. As you stand today you'd need a pretty impressive MCAT score to win an interview in the U.S. at allopathic medical schools. Even more so in Canada.

That said, the university of Toronto has a special application pool for people with graduate degrees, and they have been known to 'relax' their GPA requirement a little if the MCAT score is there. You should look into that. The average GPA and MCAT score at the U of T is something like 3.8 and 35, respectively; at least, it was when I applied several years ago. I won an interview there with a GPA and MCAT score a fair bit lower than that, so I'm living proof it's possible.

Good luck!

 

[lsu hopeful]

Your journey ahead is looking a bit like mine. What you'll need to do is make A's in your pre-req courses going forward, continue volunteering, and find a clinical experience (shadowing, EMT, etc.). Since you have a masters, you probably wouldn't shy away from doing some more medically oriented research, so that's an option as well. The main thing we both need to focus on are the A's and an incredible MCAT score. I'm personally going to shoot for the 36-40 MCAT range, which isn't incredibly out of the question for people in our situation who already have degrees and only need to bulldoze through the science pre-reqs. We both have graduate-level research experience, so the verbal section should get us some serious points, and we both should come out with a good writing score.

Plan on a 13-14 verbal, 11-13 physical, 11-13 biological. Study the hell out of it for two months when you get to that point and own it. We can do it!

 

[ChE04]

Plan on a 13-14 verbal, 11-13 physical, 11-13 biological. Study the hell out of it for two months when you get to that point and own it. We can do it!

Don't want to rain on your parade here, but you realize that 13-14 verbal is 99th-100th percentile [AAMC 2009 data] in verbal, right? You might not want to *plan* on getting that until you've actually taken a timed practice. Just don't want you to see your dreams dashed after taking that first practice... 🙂 Your BS/PS expectations are doable though.

 

[nkb115]

The first thing you need to do is take your pre reqs (bio, gen chem, organic and physics). After that you need to prepare for the mcat. While you're doing all this you need to be shadowing doctors and get clinical exposure, volunteer and do medically related things to make you an attractive medical school candidate. After all this apply and wait to get interviews and than wait to get accepted. Hope this helps!

Hello,

I hope everyone is doing well. I am new to the site and haven't had much time to investigate if someone similar to my situation posted anything. With that being said, please forgive me if this is a repeat.

I am currently working as a senior health economist for a health service provider in Canada.

I am a non-traditional wanting to get into medicine. Here are my stats:

-B.A (honors) in Economics from a mid-size Canadian University.
cGPA at graduation: 3.34

-M.A in Economics--course based (took courses in health economics). Mainly A- and As but 2 Bs

Extra-curricular activities:

-Board member at a local religious organization for 3 years
-Duties ranged from designing courses for kids, fundraising, teaching math after Sunday school

-Volunteer with an NGO in Afghanistan for 1.5 years after M.A program
-Mainly provided research to local health authorities on where to locate clinics/hospitals and what specialties to put limited resources on
-Also educated villagers on sanitation and proper hygiene
-Helped foreign ER doctors treat villagers who just got shot or maimed

That is it for my education and extra-curricular activities. The only science course I took was "biology for social sciences" and I got a "C" in it. I have math taken math courses and I am good in that field.

It was during my year in Afghanistan that I became fascinated with pursuing medicine. I don't care about the money that comes with it or the prestige. And I don't care that I'll be giving up a very good salary to go back to school after 2 years.

So with everything said, what are challenges/opportunities? What do I have to do to get into a medical school in Canada or US. I want to enroll at UBC for a second degree in sciences and give it a shot. I don't care where I go to medical school, as long as I become a trauma surgeon in the end.

What do you good people have to say? If you want more info just let me know.

 

[hopefuldoc97239]

We both have graduate-level research experience, so the verbal section should get us some serious points,

I'm sure you'll do well on the verbal section, but don't let yourself become overconfident.

Your research background will only get you so far in the verbal section. Past questions have spanned all manner of topics. If you wander through a large library, consider that virtually any of the topics in any of the books could be in an MCAT verbal question.

A lot of science people underestimate the difficulty of the verbal section because they are used to analyzing written documents a certain (scientific) way.