You Americans have it easy
Started by chocolatecheese
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Haha, nice to see you off premed101 chocolate. Although we use a 4.0 scale as well, American grades aren't converted the same way. The first time I came here I thought the same thing, that it seemed really weird that all these low seeming GPAs were competitive, but it's just a nonequivalent scale. You'll notice that people with dominant MCATs still don't have the GPAs you see on premed101, that's what clued me into the fact that you just can't do a straight comparison.
Regardless, even if it was true, no need to troll SDN 😛
edit: Even though I doubt this thread will lead to any productive discussions, it IS true that we're unfortunate to have so few med schools. Because of that there aren't any "low-tier" schools, they're just all hard to get into. Which is why I'm on here, applying to US schools as well.
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I'm Canadian as well and I agree - gaining acceptance into a Canadian medical school is extremely difficult and a feat in of itself.
HOWEVER, let's not forget that these schools have a weighted calculations to re-compute our GPA to make us as competitive as possible. Many schools provide us with the privileged of dropping our freshman year from the wGPA, which I know has saved a lot of people's asses during the admission process. Others look only at your best two years, etc...
I would feel honoured to be accepted into a U.S. or Canadian M.D. school. Both admission processes have their ups and downs, but at the end of the day both nations tend to produce high-calibre physicians.
Such a fool.
Deal with it.
Do Canadian schools really drop the first year of your GPA? I'd be like 3.85 easily if that were the case.
population of Canada is also ~35M while population of USA is ~320M...
No, each school has its own policy. Ottawa looks at your last 3 years, UofT drops 1 course per semester if you took 5+ courses throughout your degree, McGill only looks at your most recent degree... the policies are pretty diverse. Some use cGPA.
AKA Ottawa drops your freshman year.
UofT drops X number of courses where X = number of full semesters you've taken in your undergrad, provided that you took a full semester your entire undergraduate career.
Western and Queens look at your best two years.
Not to mention that I think Canadian schools inflate their GPAs a **** ton. (With the exception of McGill and UofT - I did not attend either). This going off of how loosely GPA and MCAT correlates in Canada.
Also LOL at some of the responses in the thread. It's obvious he's trolling 😛.
Looks at my two best years? French is actually an asset? MCAT score is even more highly valued?
I should have applied in Canada! 😀
I should have applied in Canada! 😀
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GPA is more highly valued than MCAT.
But I think you had a pretty successful cycle - no need to waste $ applying up here 😉.
I wouldn't really call that inflated though, it's just different. The fact that they're both out of 4.0 is the misleading part. In both cases internationals are compared against internationals, domestics against domestics, so the number value doesn't matter at all. In Canada competitive students are almost all 3.85-4.0 and are compared to other Canadians, that doesn't make it harder or easier.
lol
Haha, if you speak french you'd have it made. I'm not sure what the exclusively french med schools are like (I assume less competitive), but UofO has a french stream that is way way easier to get into than anywhere else in the country.
Pretty sure the MCAT is actually less valued though. It's mostly used for cutoffs, although they're usually at least low 30s. Although some of the MCAT cutoffs for out of province students are nuts, I think I saw Manitoba had a 36+ just to look at your application one year.
Hmm - good point. Average international interviewed GPA at McGill this year was a 3.69.
I think there are a couple of Canadian schools that have reputations for having "easy" programs. I'm using correlation to MCAT scores to make that assertion. People enrolled in my alma mater's psychology program get those 4.0 GPAs but still struggle to break 32 on the MCAT. As long as you make our (albeit high) cut-offs with a solid GPA, you're good for the interview.
There you go, everyone is aware of the difference. The mode GPA of pre-interview rejected applicants in-province last year was a 4.0 , McGill is nuts.
Cheers to that
It can't be that hard in Canada. Isn't life basically one long episode of Trailer Park Boys?
Just because we get drunk and smoke dope all day e'ry day doesn't mean we don't take out academics seriously 😀
OP, if it makes you feel better, some of us are Asian males in America trying to get into at least mid tier programmes, so the criteria you described sort of apply to us (note: not exactly)
No, not even close.
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Oh I noticed - I was referring to Western Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.
Does this apply to Americans? I have a 4.0 in grad school...
Guys, I found the redneck!!
Sorry I worded that poorly, they look at your most recent undergrad degree. Because of all the rules about only looking at your most recent X years at certain Canadian schools, starting a 2nd undergrad degree is actually a common way that pre-meds boost their stats to be competitive. That's why that rule is significant.
Graduate school grades are also looked at very differently.... some don't consider that since there aren't enough credits to give an evaluation. Other schools take your entire graduate grades and make it weigh only one years worth (UofCalgary). Some schools will look at it like an undergrad if you did take enough classes (like a course-based masters, ex. UofAlberta). Because each school is different, it's best to look at their graduate school consideration on their websites.
Do note that most schools other than the ones in ON do not take international students.
On a different note what's up ChrisMack390? Hope you got that frustration out of your system since the last post about that MIT graduate =D. Take care.
Would you like to clarify?
Yeah I thought that was a very off-putting comment as well...
Dude don't even sweat it.... Charizard's neck is red/orange right? =P
Don't forget that many ontario medical schools will add .2 onto your uGPA after completion of a Canadian graduate degree.
Ah yes I did forget that..... also some schools will give your application extra points if you do a thesis-based masters or Ph.D. No love for the course-based/co-op ones like mine =(.
Okay now I feel bad for laughing at this.....
You don't recognize him by now? Report him; he'll be gone soon
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What are you talking about
3.95/35 is not mid-tier status
Oh don't worry, I recognize him, I'm just surprised that the "best" "insult" he could muster in that instance was redneck as well as confused as to how "redneck" corresponds to what I posted. I didn't even think it warranted a report. Oh well.
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Nananana boo boo, go stick your head in doo doo.
Check out the DO school threads-there's people getting in with 3.3's AND 25 MCATs
crazy stuff
just remind yourself how much more they pay for tuition though, helps lesson the pain a bit
crazy stuff
just remind yourself how much more they pay for tuition though, helps lesson the pain a bit
