Hi!! I'm a Canadian re-applicant, and would love to know any school recommendations and general advice; I spoke to a couple of admissions officers but found it challenging to know the numbers/acceptance rates for Canadian students. Thank you in advance!
- cGPA — 3.79 (upward trend)
- sGPA — 3.70 (upward trend)
- MCAT — 505 (126/124/125/130) (2022) —> 505 (126/125/126/128) (2023) —> 517 (129/132/128/128) (2025)
- Canadian citizen, no connections to any particular state :/
- 22F, ORM, Southeast Asian
- Undergrad— University of Toronto, Physiology + Psychology
- 350 hours as support staff in triage of pediatric emergency department, anticipated +660 hours
- 320 hours as a childlife volunteer in pediatric emergency department
- Research experience
- 600 hours conducting systematic reviews and writing manuscripts
- No publications in the end, but this was personally a meaningful learning experience
- 600 hours conducting systematic reviews and writing manuscripts
- Shadowing experience
- Not too much since its less common in Canada
- 40 hours in pediatrics
- 10 hours in burns plastic surgery
- Non-clinical volunteering
- 560 hours as marketing director of a nonprofit, focused on women’s health, fundraising and donating menstrual/hygiene products to local shelters
- 300 hours as assistant instructor, teaching vietnamese to kindergarten children
- Other extracurricular activities
- 450 paid hours as lab instructor teaching 100 high school students in a medicine youth summer program
- 300 paid hours working at a daycare as childhood assistant
- 700 hours as chapter leader for a student club, fundraising and delivering craft kits to local pediatric patients
- 600 paid hours as marketing coordinator of a long term care non profit
- 700 hours as co-director of nonprofit, providing free tutoring and networking opportunities to 100 high schoolers
- 300 hours as exec member of student club, welcoming incoming refugee students and supporting transition to campus life
- Relevant awards
- National chapter leader award for non-profit organization (awarded to 2 leaders among 24 across Canada)
- University student leadership award (awarded to 6 students among graduating class of 500)
- Additional notes
- Aiming for around 10-12 schools, since applications are expensive 🙁
- Particularly interesting in serving marginalized communities, children/youth (perhaps community-based schools over research-heavy)
- Reapplicant, applied once to six schools the summer before my 4th year of undergrad
- Letters of Recommendation
- 3 science professors (anatomy, physiology, psychology — anatomy LOR is strongest)
- 3 strong LOR from supervisors (oversaw my work as a lab instructor, chapter leader of pediatric student club, staff in pediatric ED)
- School List— I chose these schools based on filtering for those that: (1) accept Canadian students, (2) average GPA and MCAT aligns with my own stats, (3) requires proof of payment of 1-2 years of tuition for international students (rather than all 4 years).
- U of Colorado
- Howard University
- Tulane University
- UMass Chan
- U of Maryland
- Wayne State
- U of North Carolina Chapel Hill
- Geisel Dartmouth
- Rutgers New Jersey
- Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson
- SUNY Upstate
- Sidney Kimmel Thomas JeffersonU
- Virginia Commonwealth
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