mattg

Hello, My girlfriend is about to start an accelerated 2 year nursing program. She recently applied for a LOC from TD Bank but was turned down, due to a couple of old resolved credit issues. Are the specific banks that are typically more lenient / forgiving when it comes to professional loans for nursing students? I know that back in the day when I was starting med school, National Bank was always willing to do the most for med students, I guess because they aren't as big as the other guys... is that the case for nursing re National Bank? Or otherwise, any insight into Scotia or RBC? Thanks, Matt

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your chances in Ontario are okay (other than Western, without an MCAT rewrite, and Ottawa depends on your year-by-year gpa breakdown)... you'd probably have a pretty decent shot at some American schools... overall, no offence, i'd say you're a very average applicant, so the best thing you can do in your year off is something to make you stand out from the thousands of other applicants with a similar gpa, mcat, and EC's to yours... what that is though, nobody can really tell you if you really want to go into medicine, i would definitely hold off on applying to dentistry... your stats are decent, and you could likely get into canada or the states within a year or two... as is (i.e. without changing anything), like i said, you have a shot at Queens, Mac, maybe Ottawa (depending), outside shot at UofT, and a decent shot at the states... also, if you enjoy research, i would consider doing a masters... your marks are good enough that having a masters would definitely give you a huge boost... plus, in the 2 years, you could work on your EC's... but only do this is you actually enjoy research anyways, your main problem seems to be EC's... they look pretty light... like i said, do something that is not average

not great at Mac because of your GPA, but I guess a very good mcat verbal (i.e. 12+) and solid CASper would give you a shot... not sure about Northern, but to the best of my knowledge, in general, unless you are from Northern Ontario, or an extremely rural town, chances are often quite low

assuming you apply with this mcat: zero chance at Western and Queens, pretty low chance at Mac, should be okay for UofT, decent for Ottawa (assuming your last-3yr weighted >3.85)... not sure about the other 2

not a great shot at canada... for UofT, no chance unless your wGPA is much higher... essentially no chance at Mac - you'd have to rewrite the MCAT and probably get VR of 12+... you would have to rewrite the MCAT to have a shot at Western and possibly Queens (but likely not Queens, unless they lower their recent-2-year-GPA cut-off to 3.8)... maybe you have a chance at Ottawa (?)... not sure how easy it is from Ottawa residents, but I believe their cut-off is usually 3.7..... probably not much chance OOP in canada, but i'm not sure with regards to the states, i don't know much, but i think you probably are too late in the cycle to apply and have a legit chance with those stats... could be wrong though i would rewrite that MCAT if i were you... other people aiming for Canada are rewriting scores like 13 10 13 Q

why are you even asking... edit: anyways... all i know about in Ontario schools - guaranteed interview at Queens and Western, extremely good chance at a Mac interview, unless you bomb CASper, and a decent shot at UofT (although your MCAT is useless there)... i'm pretty sure you could get interviews at top schools in the US as well if you applied

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yea .

- no chance (barring a semi-miracle) at UWO or Queens - decent chance at UofT (assuming your weighted GPA is higher... if not, still a chance, but somewhat slimmer)... your experiences seem to be pretty good for UofT - so write a good essay - pretty slim chance at Mac, but i guess you have an outside shot with an exceptional CASper (and MMI) - for Ottawa, depends if your marks are better in more recent years... if you wGPA for Ottawa >3.85, you have a shot - don't know much about Dalhousie, but i think your mcat meets their cutoffs

I don't believe the literature on that lol... maybe you can't prepare your communication style much (although I believe you can somewhat... the stats are probably confounded by the fact that poor communicators are somewhat more likely to prepare than confident communications), but there is no way preparing for ethical scenarios/current events/health care does nothing (significant)... again, those who are less confident/prepared probably prepared more, and there was no observable difference re preparation... i'm guessing they just compared 'prepared' vs. 'unprepared' performance (although this is obviously an oversimplification), and didn't consider the interviewees' baseline difference?

there is no book or anything that would really supplement as a book... there are some papers on the MMI, but i don't think they are very helpful to prepare - more so to evalute the interview process itself... with regards to Casper (it's live this year, in an allotted time period, right?), if you want to prepare, i guess prepare as so far as you did for the MCAT writing section... prepare answering questions about yourself (your experiences, feelings, values, successes, failures, etc.) in whatever the allotted time period is... for the MMI, i guess just read up on ethics, keep up on world events, health care, etc... and practice formulating 5+ minute answers to questions... but the questions themselves are extremely random, so there's not much you can do other than prepare broadly... no books for MMI and casper though... I'm guessing a lot of people are just going to wing it with casper... but i guess if you have time to practice, that's probably a good idea... a lot of people (myself included) find it hard to 'practice' writing... i think the more important thing is to try to go over any successes, failures, positive experiences, negative experiences, values, feelings, conflicts, etc. in your head, and have them all readily accessible edit: i just found out that casper is essentially an online MMI... so i guess if you have time, prepare for that in the same way you would the MMI - ethics, health care, reflect on yourself, etc... not sure exactly what the questions are like, as i didn't participate in the trial run - but replacing verbal communication skills with writing skills

you should get an interview at Queens and Western... no chance at UofT (unless first year was "extenuating circumstances" of some sort... maybe slight chance at Mac with amazing question answers... i don't think you have a chance at Ottawa (but I can't remember if they look at all 4 years, weighted, or recent 3, weighted)

two questions: 1) what is your MCAT writing score? 2) So you only had one year with 4.5 courses? Which year?

Accepted @ UofT 3.90 GPA unweighted (4.0 last two years) MCAT = 36S ECs=sports, coaching, TA'ing, started a small charity with friends research=an NSERC, some research at Sunnybrook, a thesis, no publications (one coming out later this summer though) a decent number of awards i think strong references (one from a high school teacher I coached with for 5 years, one from a summer NSERC prof, one from a doc i did summer research with i think my essay was strong - very concise, nothing flowery, no stories, just why i am a good candidate based on my experiences and qualities