Quick questions to any Canadians...

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alex_shimp

Application Cycle..... good luck all.
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I was wondering if there are any Canadians out there, specificly people from Ontario, who did not have the 3.9 / 32 MCAT to get into in-province school and decided to go into a private Amercian school. Just wondering what was your GPA/MCAT grade... i.e. how competitive does a Canaidan student have to be in order to go to an American school.


Thanks.
 
Most American schools, public or private, absolutely refuse to consider Canadians who do not have permanent residency in the US. Some schools that will take students on visas have a fun requirement that you must prove you can pay all four years of tuition in cash, since you will not be eligible for student loans.

However, if you establish residency in the US and get that green card, it's not so bad. Just make sure schools think that your goal is a US residency. They won't touch you if they think you'll ever go back to Canada. Getting a green card isn't that hard as long as you're English speaking and have a college degree.
 
t33sg1rl said:
Most American schools, public or private, absolutely refuse to consider Canadians who do not have permanent residency in the US. Some schools that will take students on visas have a fun requirement that you must prove you can pay all four years of tuition in cash, since you will not be eligible for student loans.

However, if you establish residency in the US and get that green card, it's not so bad. Just make sure schools think that your goal is a US residency. They won't touch you if they think you'll ever go back to Canada. Getting a green card isn't that hard as long as you're English speaking and have a college degree.

So what you are saying is its better to go to a carib school then do a U.S. res.?
 
There's also Ireland and Australia. It is a certainty that education in both countries is considered fully equivalent and their are fewer and fewer impediments to IMGs from those programs by the year. (Very little difficulty into the US and Canadian difficulty only if you want to specialize, whereupon you'll probably end up doing residency in the US anyway.) Carib schools are a good stream into the US but definitely not taken on par by Canada.
 
Just to qualify the above posts with my experiences in 2006, the US system is NOT extremely closed off to Canadians.

As a Canadian you are considered out-of-state for most private schools. There are several (I applied to ~14) schools that treat Canadians like any other out-of-state applicants. This means you are NOT discriminated against vs. US applicants, no matter where you want to go after med school. And none of these schools required a deposit of all four years of tuition in an escrow account etc.

Research yours schools! There are some excellent schools that Canadians are competative for e.g. Columbia, Northwestern etc.

Oh, and I have absolutely no status in the US i.e. no relatives etc. So, before you go to the Carib, have a good look at the States.

PM me if you'd like more info.
 
t33sg1rl said:
Most American schools, public or private, absolutely refuse to consider Canadians who do not have permanent residency in the US. Some schools that will take students on visas have a fun requirement that you must prove you can pay all four years of tuition in cash, since you will not be eligible for student loans.

However, if you establish residency in the US and get that green card, it's not so bad. Just make sure schools think that your goal is a US residency. They won't touch you if they think you'll ever go back to Canada. Getting a green card isn't that hard as long as you're English speaking and have a college degree.

Yea NO, Sorry to burst your bubble but you are dead wrong. As a Canadian in American school, without a green card, I can tell you that it is DOABLE, and wasn't extremely tough or anything. Now is it tougher than an American student--yea. Do you need stronger grades than Americans--yea. To prove all 4 years, hmmmm, maybe at some schools, not at my school. As far as student loans go, you can always do Teri.org, which gives you like 45, 000 US for your schooling, plus you can get OSAP and you can get loan from a Canadian bank. As far as grades go, to be competitive as an International you need like 29+ on MCAT, 30+ is preferrable and like 3.7+ avg. Now do realize that your avg by AMCAS is slightly higher coming from Canadian school, so say you had 3.5 at Canadian school on AMCAS you might have 3.6. Also if you did grad school, some schools will only look at your grad performance, if you have enough hours of basic sciences.

First thing you should do is go and check which schools are International friendly, some schools, do require proof of resident or immigrant status, but I'd say that's at most 50% of schools, maybe less, but the rest you can apply as an international no problem. Most schools reserve something like 10% of entering class for internationals and out of state, depending on the school, so comp will be stiffer, but still not as stiff like at some Canadian school. Also the writing sample don't matter as much for American Schools.

Good luck.

p.s. Take a look at Ostepathic schools if worse comes to worse, even that is better than Carib schools
 
tupac_don said:
Yea NO, Sorry to burst your bubble but you are dead wrong. As a Canadian in American school, without a green card, I can tell you that it is DOABLE, and wasn't extremely tough or anything. Now is it tougher than an American student--yea. Do you need stronger grades than Americans--yea. To prove all 4 years, hmmmm, maybe at some schools, not at my school. As far as student loans go, you can always do Teri.org, which gives you like 45, 000 US for your schooling, plus you can get OSAP and you can get loan from a Canadian bank. As far as grades go, to be competitive as an International you need like 29+ on MCAT, 30+ is preferrable and like 3.7+ avg. Now do realize that your avg by AMCAS is slightly higher coming from Canadian school, so say you had 3.5 at Canadian school on AMCAS you might have 3.6. Also if you did grad school, some schools will only look at your grad performance, if you have enough hours of basic sciences.

First thing you should do is go and check which schools are International friendly, some schools, do require proof of resident or immigrant status, but I'd say that's at most 50% of schools, maybe less, but the rest you can apply as an international no problem. Most schools reserve something like 10% of entering class for internationals and out of state, depending on the school, so comp will be stiffer, but still not as stiff like at some Canadian school. Also the writing sample don't matter as much for American Schools.

Good luck.

p.s. Take a look at Ostepathic schools if worse comes to worse, even that is better than Carib schools




CUrrently I did the MCAT 2 years ago and got a 27. My GPA is 3.67 (Canadian Convertion) I have research exp, and some pharmac. industrial exp. (not sure if that helps)...

I still have one more year to go (or rather just half a semester..) I am redoing the MCAT now, so I will look more at my options then, I just do not see my verbal going above a 10 (which is pretty much the cut off for every Ontario school... maybe not McMaster but those guys are weird at who they accept.)
 
alex_shimp said:
CUrrently I did the MCAT 2 years ago and got a 27. My GPA is 3.67 (Canadian Convertion) I have research exp, and some pharmac. industrial exp. (not sure if that helps)...

I still have one more year to go (or rather just half a semester..) I am redoing the MCAT now, so I will look more at my options then, I just do not see my verbal going above a 10 (which is pretty much the cut off for every Ontario school... maybe not McMaster but those guys are weird at who they accept.)

Try doing VR 101 Passages by examkrackers (if you already haven't done so). They are excellent practice for the MCAT and very close in difficulty, if you can score 10 on this one, you can probably hit at least 10, even 11 on the real thing. Focus on what you did worse on, note that some schools will even look at your best scores. So say you got 9 on BS and 11 on PS and say 7 on VR, if you can bring up say VR to 11 and score 10 on BS,some schools will take your best overall score. SOmething to keep in mind. ALso focus on your worst section, and try to bring that up. Your avg is pretty good though, 10 is pretty good for VR, have you considered U of Western in London?

You are in great shape actually, you just need to bring that MCAT up and you are a shoe in, particularly for an American School, you don't even need to think Carribean, just bring that MCAT to a 30+ and you are looking solid.
 
I'm a canadian citizen applying to american schools this year. Graduating from University of Toronto at Mississauga this summer.

GPA 3.72
VR 10, PS 13, BS 13, WS O

There are a number of private schools that will give additional consideration to canadians compared to other international students, but overall we are at a competitive disadvantage compared to domestic students (some schools state this explicitly, e.g., Tufts, Albany). This didn't stop me from getting 3 interviews... although I'm still waiting for the results.

BTW, student visas are easy to get. The wait to apply is only a couple days.
 
eikenhein said:
I'm a canadian citizen applying to american schools this year. Graduating from University of Toronto at Mississauga this summer.

GPA 3.72
VR 10, PS 13, BS 13, WS O

There are a number of private schools that will give additional consideration to canadians compared to other international students, but overall we are at a competitive disadvantage compared to domestic students (some schools state this explicitly, e.g., Tufts, Albany). This didn't stop me from getting 3 interviews... although I'm still waiting for the results.

BTW, student visas are easy to get. The wait to apply is only a couple days.

Hey you are competitive for Canadian Schools, why didn't you go?

p.s. I see your Written score, damn canadian schools
 
tupac_don said:
Hey you are competitive for Canadian Schools, why didn't you go?

p.s. I see your Written score, damn canadian schools

Yeh I did the EK101s. I got 10s on those pretty much but when I did AAMC practice was getting 9s...

Well I will see and I guess over the summer I will decide, thanks for the input.
 
I find that Canadian schools are more interested in academic qualifications than extracurriculars or personal qualities. And from the stats, its easy to see that American schools are easier to get into even as foreign students.
 
alex_shimp said:
I was wondering if there are any Canadians out there, specificly people from Ontario, who did not have the 3.9 / 32 MCAT to get into in-province school and decided to go into a private Amercian school. Just wondering what was your GPA/MCAT grade... i.e. how competitive does a Canaidan student have to be in order to go to an American school.


Thanks.

Please note that Ontario is only this bad because of the double cohort from the old grade 13... it will be getting easier every year starting next one.

I really feel for Ontario people this year.
 
eikenhein said:
I'm a canadian citizen applying to american schools this year. Graduating from University of Toronto at Mississauga this summer.

GPA 3.72
VR 10, PS 13, BS 13, WS O

There are a number of private schools that will give additional consideration to canadians compared to other international students, but overall we are at a competitive disadvantage compared to domestic students (some schools state this explicitly, e.g., Tufts, Albany). This didn't stop me from getting 3 interviews... although I'm still waiting for the results.

BTW, student visas are easy to get. The wait to apply is only a couple days.

Hey Guys,

I'm a Canadian student in my 2nd year in a US med school in Illinois.

If you guys have any questions feel free to PM me. We've started a Canadian club at our school and there is ALOT of support for Canadians here!!! I got into several US med schools and NO Canadian ones when I applied!! There are a few Canadians in my class (around 8) and around 6 in the M1 year, many are from U of Toronto (which is where I'm from) and a few are from UBC/McMaster.

ANYHOW, both of your stats are pretty competitive for US schools and I would DEFINETLY apply! you can match in the first itiration in Ontario and most other provinces from a US med school.

PM me for more questions...

Ocean11
 
Add Wayne State to your list! There are a number of Canadians here and we are less than 2 miles from Ontario! You don't have to give up the CBC or Tim Horton's! :laugh:
 
Soleil9 said:
Add Wayne State to your list! There are a number of Canadians here and we are less than 2 miles from Ontario! You don't have to give up the CBC or Tim Horton's! :laugh:

that's awsome, but tell me... isn't your tuition crazzzzzzzzzy? I heard its like $45,000 ... what loan system are you on?
 
ocean11 said:
that's awsome, but tell me... isn't your tuition crazzzzzzzzzy? I heard its like $45,000 ... what loan system are you on?
Oops... Sorry. I'm not canadian myself. I know out of state tuition is expensive here... but give our financial aid office a call and talk to them. They are extremely helpful/friendly and even as a prospective applicant, they should be able to give you an idea about aid for Canadians. Good Luck!
 
Soleil9 said:
Add Wayne State to your list! There are a number of Canadians here and we are less than 2 miles from Ontario! You don't have to give up the CBC or Tim Horton's! :laugh:

You are an honorary Canadian for knowing about Tim Horton's.

I did look into Wayne State when I applied to med school, I don't think they give a lot of consideration for Canadians...?
 
Soleil9 said:
Oops... Sorry. I'm not canadian myself. I know out of state tuition is expensive here... but give our financial aid office a call and talk to them. They are extremely helpful/friendly and even as a prospective applicant, they should be able to give you an idea about aid for Canadians. Good Luck!


uhmmmmmmmmmmm thanks but I'm a second year med student in another US med school, I'm just curious as to what the tuition was for out of staters in wayne state thats all.......

But thanks anyhow 😉
 
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