Re: Canadian Applicants at Interviews

[canadanon]

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What do American schools look for in a Canadian applicant ?

How does a Canadian citizen explain applying to American School?

Should a Canadian applicant focus on certain concepts during the interview? Like talking about being open to practice in the US or wanting to practice in Canada?

Is it better to state applying to American schools as wanting to go to a good medical school or explain the actual situation?


I am a Canadian applicant applying to American schools only this application cycle. I live in Ontario and will likely not get into a Canadian Medical school.
I have a 3.84 (AMCAS) with a 36M ( 2nd MCAT, 1st was a 34M).
My OMSAS GPA is like 3.75.
The M on my MCAT combined with an average GPA makes it really difficult to get an interview even in Canada.

Any advice / suggestion is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,

 

[Don15]

lol damn I never realized canadian schools have such high averages and that they care about the writing score

 

[JohnMathews]

I am from Ontario as well, and those seem like great scores and i think you have a great chance of getting into any Ontario medical school. The average for most Ontario med schools are around 3.6 GPA and 31+ MCAT score which you have exceeded.

 

[Don15]

I am from Ontario as well, and those seem like great scores and i think you have a great chance of getting into any Ontario medical school. The average for most Ontario med schools are around 3.6 GPA and 31+ MCAT score which you have exceeded.

If these averages are true, then canadanon what led you to believe that your stats are not competive?

 

[Scherbatsky]

I am from Ontario as well, and those seem like great scores and i think you have a great chance of getting into any Ontario medical school. The average for most Ontario med schools are around 3.6 GPA and 31+ MCAT score which you have exceeded.

Not sure where you got this from, but you really need at least a 3.7 GPA in Ontario to be competitive.

Anyhow, OP, you should still apply to Canadian schools with those stats. Don't apply to Queen's though with that writing score and if your VR is below 11 don't apply to Western (11 has been their cut-off the past couple years). Also, apply U of T's GPA weighting formula to your GPA and if you have around a 3.85 or higher, apply!



(p.s. I'm a Canadian reapplicant)

That being said, I've also been wondering those questions about interviewing at American schools.

 

[JohnMathews]

I just realized those are the bare minimum marks needed that i stated before, sorry about that. I don't think you will be able to get into UofT as their minimum score is a N on the writing sample.

http://www.md.utoronto.ca/admissions/information/requirements/Undergraduate.htm

 

[canadanon]

I understand my stats are alright but my combination of an average GPA and a M on the writing section is deadly.
There are only 5 medical schools in Ontario ( excluding Northern School of Medicine which has its own objective ).

My GPA ensures I wont be interview at UfT, Ottawa.
M on writing section ensures Western and Queens will not consider my application.
McMaster is weird with their Casper experiments, bonuses to grads and Phds and a focus on GPA / Verbal score on MCAT.


I could apply OOP in Canada but being from Ontario its really difficult getting into UBC, McGill or even Dalhousie since such school favor students in their province. Besides, the OOP pool is pretty competitive.

 

[lkthlttr]

It is unfortunate but true that with your distribution of scores your best bet will be to apply broadly to American schools that are relatively friendly to international applicants. My advice would be to not dwell on the fact that you are Canadian. That is certainly not the reason you were invited to interview. Rather it is your potential as a physician that makes you an attractive candidate, so it is better to focus on that. You should be prepared to discuss your reasoning for going into medicine and why you want to attend a given medical school, but the fact that it is an American school is more or less irrelevant.

 

[Scherbatsky]

It is unfortunate but true that with your distribution of scores your best bet will be to apply broadly to American schools that are relatively friendly to international applicants. My advice would be to not dwell on the fact that you are Canadian. That is certainly not the reason you were invited to interview. Rather it is your potential as a physician that makes you an attractive candidate, so it is better to focus on that. You should be prepared to discuss your reasoning for going into medicine and why you want to attend a given medical school, but the fact that it is an American school is more or less irrelevant.

Although it shouldn't matter if we are Canadian, I think it's fair-game for an interviewer to ask "Why here, why not Canada?" or "Are you planning to go back to Canada to practice?" To which the response would be...?

 

[blizzah]

I'm in almost the same boat as you OP. Good luck this cycle. My suggestion to why America is to build a list of the positives and cons to American Med vs Canadian and go from there.

 

[Mithril]

If an interviewer asks you why you want to go to the States, obviously don't say it's because you couldn't get into a Canadian med school. Just say something like you've always wanted to go to that particular school because of the way its curriculum is set up, its professors, its clinical experience opportunities, its inspiring alumni, its technology and standard of education, etc. Some sort of semi-BS.

 

[centrigeugle]

I might subtly ass-kiss the country, too.

"Well, although I acknowledge that there are some definite issues with the American health system, the fact remains that it trains and produces the best physicians in the world. I have nothing against my local schools, or my country's health policies in the least, but I want to be able to provide my patients with the BEST (maybe karate chop your palm softly while you say this)care that I can offer. And I think I will learn that at <Your school here.>" 👍

 

[CodeBlu]

I might subtly ass-kiss the country, too.

"Well, although I acknowledge that there are some definite issues with the American health system, the fact remains that it trains and produces the best physicians in the world. I have nothing against my local schools, or my country's health policies in the least, but I want to be able to provide my patients with the BEST (maybe karate chop your palm softly while you say this)care that I can offer. And I think I will learn that at <Your school here.>" 👍

If I was an adcom... I'd eye eff the ish out you for this comment and want you to go to my school. Even if you were lying to me ahahaha.

 

[LizzyM]

Schools don't care why you don't want to stay close to home... they want to hear why you are there interviewing because in the end they want to know how likely to will be to accept an offer of admission or are they just wasting their time making you an offer. Now, you don't want to tell them that you are there because you have no chance "back home" -- you want to make a case why you think that the school and its location are a good fit with your personality, learning style, etc.