How's your French?
Seriously, the applicant pool for the French medical schools is much smaller than for the English ones, and as such their entry requirements are not as high -- although I'm not sure about a 3.3/3.0. But if you can make it, they're wonderful schools. I think I remember reading that University of Montreal students have scored the highest in Canada on the board exams for the past... seven?... years or so. But of course, you must speak French
😉
QC schools are impossible to get in as an OOP.
If that's not a viable option, McMaster certainly is more prone to looking at non-academic accomplishments. But because of this, their applicant pool is huge (over 4000 applicants, more than any school in Canada), which despite their policy results in an exceptionally high matriculant academic average. So it's still a long shot.
Yeah, I have a 3.5 and I'm not even applying there. Their average is 3.9
+. Only 2 out of 100+ people in the class last year had GPAs between 3.5 and 3.59, and no one below.
I'm not as familiar with the Western med schools, I'm afraid.
I don't think it makes sense to apply out of province with those grades. While schools like UBC or Calgary are not TOO grade-focused when it comes to their IP applicants (both are heavy into ECs/life experience), they get so many OOP applicants that they can pick and choose the most competitive ones. I recall someone who applied to UBC as an OOP and despite having a great app otherwise, was told that it was his 3.7 that killed him - too low for OOP.
Calgary has a weighting formula for OOPs that involves your best 2 years' GPA, MCAT VR, and BS scores. So if you only have 2 bad years, but the other 2 are good, and you score 12 or more on both BS and VR, you can be competitive (best 2 years' GPA cut-off for OOPs is 3.6, and I'd say you're gonna need to get 15s on the MCAT to meet the overall cut-off with a 3.6 GPA; 12s are more for 3.8 GPA).
I'm not sure how Alberta works in regards to OOPs, but I do hear that they are more into numbers than U of C. I'm an IP with a 3.5 cumulative/3.76 for best 2 years/32T MCAT and I couldn't decide whether to even bother submitting the app for like 3 months this summer, because I really don't think I stand a chance with my stats. But I dunno what (if any) their OOP cut-offs are, so I'd peruse their website for information.
Sask is cut-throat in terms of grades, I think a 93% average is the cut-off for OOPs (A+).
If you don't have 2 really strong years, but do REALLY well on the MCAT, you could try for Manitoba. They take 50% MCAT and only 10% grades, plus their GPAs are weighted (you can drop so many bad grades per total # of credits - the exact numbers are on their website). So if you ace the MCAT, you can probably get an interview there.
Bottom line: your only chance in Canada is if you blow your MCAT through the roof (we're talking 38+ here). Otherwise, I'd look into doing a second degree. If you don't have time for that, the warm tropical islands are always an option.
