Non-trad Canadian Citizen seeking advice to get into a US Med School

[stonkbroker]

Hey Everyone,

Before I begin, I would like to say please excuse my ignorance as I'm pretty early on in my med school admissions journey.

Background:
I am a recent graduate from the University of Toronto (UofT). I did my undergrad in Finance from Rotman (the business school) however around my second year I kinda realized this wasn't really something I had signed up for or was interested in long term. I wasn't really into the corporate culture and wanted to do something that was more rewarding than crunching numbers in Excel. Particularly, I wanted to do something that didn't involve managing money or technology and wanted a career that involved something much more important i.e. your health. To add to that, my own personal health during this time took a dive as I was diagnosed with hypertension which really made me get more into health and fitness. An immediate family member of mine is also a doctor in the US and I've seen them go through residency and fellowship and it is something that I am able to commit myself to.

The problem is my lack of interest/discipline really cost me in my first two years of undergrad. I was able to pull through and get better grades in my last two years but it wasn't enough to come up with a respectable number. I graduated with a 2.61 cGPA which, from what I've read so far on SDN, is a pretty bad GPA. I had some extracurriculars in undergrad but nothing medicine related. I haven't taken any of the prerequisites required for med school or the MCAT. I want to go to a DO school as I've heard they are easier for international students (I'm a Canadian Citizen) to get into compared to MD schools. I'm also considering Caribbean med schools given my bad stats but from the horror stories I've read online, I do want to keep this as a last option.

Questions:
1) I've heard one way to get over the GPA issue is to do a post-bacc, however, I do want to avoid doing a post-bacc mainly due to the cost. Is it absolutely necessary for me to do a post-bacc given my GPA situation?

2) If I don't end up doing a post-bacc, my plan is to take prerequisites for med school at a college as opposed to a university since that'll probably be cheaper and I think I'd be able to score better. I guess this is a very specific question, but has any Canadian here done this?/Is this allowed?

3) Another option is going back to UofT to take the individual prerequisites. The advantage of this option is that it'll give me the chance to improve my cGPA as it would add to the my current GPA at the university. The disadvantage is that many of the health science courses at UofT are notoriously difficult with some having course averages of C or C+. If I do poorly I risk lowering my cGPA even more. Should I take the prerequisites at a college or UofT?

4) Again, very Canadian specific but which colleges/universities would you recommend taking the prerequisites from?

5) Since I haven't taken the MCAT will it matter if I score high on the MCAT with this GPA?

6) What are some DO schools that might actually take me?

7) What are my chances of getting into a US MD program?

8) What should be my first step from here?

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[Dral]

I will let others chime in, but that GPA is likely too low to get any serious consideration from schools. There are ALWAYS exceptions, but I generally think around 3.0 and up to start striking at DO schools and 3.5 and up to start solidly thinking about MD. Those are just major generalizations of course. The whole overall app matters.

With that being said, a strong MCAT doesn't make up for a GPA typically. Especially with a GPA that low. Schools want to know you can excel in coursework (GPA) as well as in the numerous standardized exams that would be in your future (MCAT). Of course, applying the material in class to the overall standardized exam combines the two.

Again, I will see what others think, but my impression is that you may have to head in the post-bacc direction (maybe even the higher risk SMP route) at this point.

Not many around here will recommend the Caribbean route. I think of Caribbean schools as a twisted catch-22 to to speak. One has to be sharp to get through the meat grinder of those schools. If someone is that sharp, they usually have the GPA and MCAT to back it up and can thus typically get in to an MD or established DO school and shouldn't even be thinking Caribbean.

 

[Mr.Smile12]

First of all, when you are calculating GPA, is this from coursework you have taken in the US/Canada? I presume so if you had a degree from U of T. (The French degree won't be calculated in.)

Are you currently in the US or still in Canada? The standards are more weighted to GPA in Canada, and there aren't any DO schools as far as I know there. Have you talked with admissions teams in the DO schools you are interested in?

What courses are we talking about taking? The full prerequisite sequence plus upper-level biomeds?

 

[stonkbroker]

First of all, when you are calculating GPA, is this from coursework you have taken in the US/Canada? I presume so if you had a degree from U of T. (The French degree won't be calculated in.)

Are you currently in the US or still in Canada? The standards are more weighted to GPA in Canada, and there aren't any DO schools as far as I know there. Have you talked with admissions teams in the DO schools you are interested in?

What courses are we talking about taking? The full prerequisite sequence plus upper-level biomeds?

Hey, thank you for responding! The GPA I'm calculating is just from the courses I've taken at UofT. For more context, I attended a university in the US for a year and a half but transferred to UofT. My GPA at my American School was 3.2 and at UofT it is 2.61. My schooling at both universities where fully in English. When the admissions department calculates my GPA would they calculate the combination of the two GPAs or just the most recent?

Currently, I'm in Canada I'm actually working in the meantime in a financial company. I want to go to a US DO school as I don't think there are any DO schools in Canada. Since I posted this I have emailed a few schools and set up advising appointments with others but nothing concrete just yet.

Yes, I'm talking about the full pre-requisite sequence like biology, chem, org chem, plus the upper-level biomeds. I do have some prerequisites depending on the school like calculus or stats/social sciences from my current degree.

 

[gyngyn]

All grades from schools in Canada and the US will be used.
Here is how to do it:

https://students-residents.aamc.org/media/7761/download