Please help me.. I honestly do not know where to turn anymore for answers

[myst]

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I wish I had an advisor, or anyone I could talk to to help me understand where I stand and what my options are for university.

My GPA is low, 3.1ish. Im at the University of Alberta (Canada), will be graduating with a degree in Cell Biotech (BSc) in May. My volunteer experience is not that great, Ive done some work at the Kidney foundation (35ish hours), Old folks home (100 hours), food bank (20 hours) and thats about it. This year (while in school) I am going to be volunteering at a university, and maybe shadowing a doctor. My MCAT is ~32-34 (thats what Ive been scoring in all the practice tests, and the MCAT itself was about the same difficulty). Im 20 years old. I dont have any research experience (but I have taken many labs in university).

Where do I stand? Can I get into a school in Ireland or the UK? Will I have to do the 6 year program or could I get into the 5 year one? How about the Carribbean or a school in the States? Where would I get references from? The only person I know that could write a good reference letter is from the old folks home, the others dont really know me well. Please help me.. where do I stand and what are my options? I realize its a pain to help me out and it takes a bit of your time, but I am really getting desperate. Ive visited dozens of websites, but I am not getting any answers. There are no clear requirements posted on any university application sites, no data on what kind of people get accepted, and which get rejected. It seems all universities just want you to apply, lose your $65 (and huge amounts of time for the application process) only to reject you.

I am begging anyone to help clear things up for me. I will even pay someone $20 paypal if they can help me out.. [email protected]

Thanks

 

[leorl]

Hi, you possibly could get in somewhere, but you should realize that we don't really know - there is no absolute set criteria or threshold level for scores. If you did come to UK/Ireland, you would be doing the 5 year program. The thing is, they seem to like people who have done some interesting things in their lives, not just the typical premed activities. They also like to see research. But there is no harm trying, your scores would be decent enough, only it depends what the applicant pool of your year looks like.

The GPA is low-ish, but you have this next year to bring it up. I don't think you should be turning to international options so quickly, if you intend to practice in Canada/US. Would you consider doing a masters or something like that to boost your GPA? Or re-taking some of the classes you didn't do so well in to get a higher grade?

 

[nena]

first off, don't pay anyone for advice, especially not here.. 😛 we're not experts by noooo means..what i suggest for you to do, is go to a school there in Canada that you may or may not be interested in. call first, i would actually suggest for you to call the diversity office if they have one (even if you don't consider yourself URM, they won't turn you down, trust me). go there and give them your stats, talk to them, they will help. they will tell you what you need to do to get into their school, or any med school really. it may take a few tries to set an appointment, but the info they will give, will prove to be invaluable to you. if you don't want to do that, go to your premed advisor. even if you've never gone to him or her before. they might give you the same advice the med school counselors give you.

right now, i think you're just prematurely freaking out. breathe, relax, and work on getting your gpa up. look at post bacc programs b/c you might need one, maybe a master's program will be of some interest to you as well. the research is not so important, its nice to have, but not necessary. grades and mcat are key. sure you need extras like volunteering but it sounds like you have some. the LORs are important especially since they need to be from science professors or a premed committee. i didnt have great grades in undergrad so no way i could get science teachers to write me a LOR. nonetheless the premed committee. so im in a master's program. im hoping i'll do well, and then these profs, who sit on the med school committee at my school can write me letters. but don't worry about LORs right now. GPA is the only thing I'd focus on right now.

also, MOSt importantly, think of where you want to go to med school. do you want to go intl? carib? canada? states? when you decide where you are willing to go and what you are willing to do to get there, then start planning what you need to do. sometimes jumping into the carib may not be the best decision for you. you have to think about all of this. and write all your thoughts down. that alwaysss helps. and dont pay tooooo much attention to these forums. they can get you depressed if you do. remember everyone is unique. some people with <3.0 make into med school while some with >3.5 don't. do i make any kind of sense? but don't freak out. remember this is not a race and you will get to where you need to be. key is planning and not loosing sight of the goal. sorrry if too long..anything else i can help with, pm me...

 

[myst]

first off, don't pay anyone for advice, especially not here.. 😛 we're not experts by noooo means..what i suggest for you to do, is go to a school there in Canada that you may or may not be interested in. call first, i would actually suggest for you to call the diversity office if they have one (even if you don't consider yourself URM, they won't turn you down, trust me). go there and give them your stats, talk to them, they will help. they will tell you what you need to do to get into their school, or any med school really. it may take a few tries to set an appointment, but the info they will give, will prove to be invaluable to you. if you don't want to do that, go to your premed advisor. even if you've never gone to him or her before. they might give you the same advice the med school counselors give you.

right now, i think you're just prematurely freaking out. breathe, relax, and work on getting your gpa up. look at post bacc programs b/c you might need one, maybe a master's program will be of some interest to you as well. the research is not so important, its nice to have, but not necessary. grades and mcat are key. sure you need extras like volunteering but it sounds like you have some. the LORs are important especially since they need to be from science professors or a premed committee. i didnt have great grades in undergrad so no way i could get science teachers to write me a LOR. nonetheless the premed committee. so im in a master's program. im hoping i'll do well, and then these profs, who sit on the med school committee at my school can write me letters. but don't worry about LORs right now. GPA is the only thing I'd focus on right now.

also, MOSt importantly, think of where you want to go to med school. do you want to go intl? carib? canada? states? when you decide where you are willing to go and what you are willing to do to get there, then start planning what you need to do. sometimes jumping into the carib may not be the best decision for you. you have to think about all of this. and write all your thoughts down. that alwaysss helps. and dont pay tooooo much attention to these forums. they can get you depressed if you do. remember everyone is unique. some people with <3.0 make into med school while some with >3.5 don't. do i make any kind of sense? but don't freak out. remember this is not a race and you will get to where you need to be. key is planning and not loosing sight of the goal. sorrry if too long..anything else i can help with, pm me...

the problem is applications are due very very soon
i dnot want to waste a year of my life doing nothing..
i just would like to know where i could get in, where i could not
right now, i have no chance for canada or us

 

[McGillGrad]

You're only 20 years young so don't get too worried about rushing things. You are better off taking this time to get some worldy experience before trying for medical school. A master's or a few graduate courses would not be a bad idea.

Working for free for professors would be a good way to get research experience. You will need one letter of reference from a professor so get to those office hours and get to talking.