Please Help Me Out

[alex23]

Hello everyone, this is my first thread

I am planning to apply to medical school in Canada (or US) and I would like to hear some opinions if I really have a chance to get accepted for an interview (at least).

Here it goes...

- I am 23, Canadian citizen.

- bachelor degree in Immunology with a 2.8 overall GPA (I have an F in one science course)

- currently doing my 2nd bachelor degree in Biology with a current GPA of 3.3 (I managed to fail one course again...).
The course failed is a 200 level Chemistry (but I have A's in 400 level Chemistry courses). In fact all the "important" courses are A's.

- I still have 2 more years in which I am planning to maintain a 4.0 GPA, which will bring my 2nd bachelor GPA to ~3.7

- volunteer work (up to now) is: 1 year hospital, 3 yrs. with seniors

- other extras: tutoring, student council prez, school B.O.G., charity etc.


Ok here's some questions:
1. Will those two F grades ruin my chances, even if I could meet the cutoff ?
2. Would an honours degree help ? How about taking graduate level courses ?
3. If I get perfect MCAT score, and not meet the GPA cutoff by a little bit, will they consider it ?


Sorry for the long post, I'm just really eager to hear an opinion from someone that knows about this

Thanks very much

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[sunnyjohn]

Ok here's some questions:

1. Will those two F grades ruin my chances, even if I could meet the cutoff ?

NO. two F's won't kill your chances. Search for posts in the pos-bacc and pre-allo forum by Singing Devil and liverotcod to name a few. There are lots of folks on SDN with worse grades.

2. Would an honours degree help ? How about taking graduate level courses ?

I would only do an honours degree if you were certain you could pull off the 3.7 you are shooting for. I would take the extra time to enjoy my free time and work on my EC's and LOR's

3. If I get perfect MCAT score, and not meet the GPA cutoff by a little bit, will they consider it ?

A perfect MCAT score is a 45. Out of thousands people who have taken the MCAT in the last 3-5 years this has happened less than 10 times. With a 3.7 anything over 27 would be good. 30+ would make you golden.


As an international student you will have a bit of a fight on your hands when you apply to US schools. Study hard to improve that GPA. You should do very well.

 

[mshheaddoc]

We can all tell you what we think but we aren't ADCOMs and everyone is different.


I personally think you have a fighting chance. I'm doing the same thing you did. Question I have is how far removed are you from your first degree. The longer the better I think with a 30+ MCAT you are a very strong candidate. I have a D in a 2000 level chem (i'm not going ot retake it was 7 years ago) and a F in a econ class ( I was failed on attendance my spring semester of SENIOR YEAR!!!!!!!) Mistakes happen. As long as you know why you didn't do well and you have learned, moved on, and excel now you'll be fine!