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Hello everybody,
I am in a dilemma between choosing options to best work towards med and so I thought I'd seek your input. Here is a bit of my background:
Undergraduate in Kinesiology, graduated with a 79.8% overall, after dropping worst year, my percentage moves closer to 81%. My MCAT score on the new MCAT is 517, which is in the 95th percentile.
Volunteering/ECs: I have shadowed a family doctor while volunteering as an interpreter for almost 1 year, I have volunteered at a rehabilitation/research center for those with spinal cord injuries, with my role mostly consisting of greeting members, helping them with gym equipment for just over a year, a coordinator for an elementary neuroscience program for 3 years, with other extracurriculars consisting of music classes, student leadership roles at my uni, minor involvement in research, with a presentation at a university-level conference
Work: worked as a student advisor at my university and academic coach in my faculty, been an MCAT instructor with a prep course, and more recently in a more kinesiology related role focused on gait analysis and lower limb support.
I have applied to Canadian and American schools last year and received no interviews, concurrently I also applied to Ireland and Australia and got into those schools. I decided to take the Australian route and went all the way there but realized how long-term it is with most people there focused on settling in Australia than going back (either because they like the place or they can't go back; anecdotal about someone scoring in the top 3% of USMLE exams but still not getting any interviews in the US).....so I have decided to back out of this option and consider trying Canada again, with a particular focus on the University of Alberta and Calgary, I was pretty competitive there for in-province cut-offs, my cGPA at UofA was 3.89. I have lived in the province previously for 6 years but unfortunately not in the time frame that is required to be considered "in-province", so I was thinking maybe I can go back to school for a post-baccalaureate diploma or masters (ideally the former) and work part-time and then apply to those schools. If I get in great, if not, then I may re-consider Australia or the Carribean route, especially the SGU program that does 1 year in the UK.
I understand this is a lot of information, but I would really appreciate your opinion/feedback on my plan and if there are any other options I should look into given my stats and background. Also, any people who had similar stories and are in any of the programs I mentioned, your relevant insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for reading this and I hope to read your comments soon.
I am in a dilemma between choosing options to best work towards med and so I thought I'd seek your input. Here is a bit of my background:
Undergraduate in Kinesiology, graduated with a 79.8% overall, after dropping worst year, my percentage moves closer to 81%. My MCAT score on the new MCAT is 517, which is in the 95th percentile.
Volunteering/ECs: I have shadowed a family doctor while volunteering as an interpreter for almost 1 year, I have volunteered at a rehabilitation/research center for those with spinal cord injuries, with my role mostly consisting of greeting members, helping them with gym equipment for just over a year, a coordinator for an elementary neuroscience program for 3 years, with other extracurriculars consisting of music classes, student leadership roles at my uni, minor involvement in research, with a presentation at a university-level conference
Work: worked as a student advisor at my university and academic coach in my faculty, been an MCAT instructor with a prep course, and more recently in a more kinesiology related role focused on gait analysis and lower limb support.
I have applied to Canadian and American schools last year and received no interviews, concurrently I also applied to Ireland and Australia and got into those schools. I decided to take the Australian route and went all the way there but realized how long-term it is with most people there focused on settling in Australia than going back (either because they like the place or they can't go back; anecdotal about someone scoring in the top 3% of USMLE exams but still not getting any interviews in the US).....so I have decided to back out of this option and consider trying Canada again, with a particular focus on the University of Alberta and Calgary, I was pretty competitive there for in-province cut-offs, my cGPA at UofA was 3.89. I have lived in the province previously for 6 years but unfortunately not in the time frame that is required to be considered "in-province", so I was thinking maybe I can go back to school for a post-baccalaureate diploma or masters (ideally the former) and work part-time and then apply to those schools. If I get in great, if not, then I may re-consider Australia or the Carribean route, especially the SGU program that does 1 year in the UK.
I understand this is a lot of information, but I would really appreciate your opinion/feedback on my plan and if there are any other options I should look into given my stats and background. Also, any people who had similar stories and are in any of the programs I mentioned, your relevant insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for reading this and I hope to read your comments soon.
