Potentially Graduating This Year, Really Need Some Advice

[sashabr]

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[Meridian]

You don't say what province you are in.  That can make a significant difference.  Your current GPA won't do in Ontario,  but might be usable in-province in Maritimes or BC as example.

 

Adding a 2 year Masters won't do much to increase your chances at a med school interview as you are still relying on your undergrad GPA.   

 

A fifth year of undergrad and nailing a 4.0 to raise your 2-3 year cGPA might be a better way forward.

 

Your EC's up front look good, but in many application processes don't get looked at until you get to the interview stage.

 

Trying to explain your situation via letter submission is only available at some schools.   You can try.  I don't know if your story is all that remarkable though. To you, it is truly personal and important.  To admissions review staff, it is just another applicant trying to justify low marks.  It could have meaningful leverage later during interviews as part of your story.

 

You need to write the MCAT to see what score you can achieve.  Until that is done, you don't know what schools are available.

 

I would not assuming going USA route is viable.  Your GPA is not realistically high enough.   It also costs +$400K Canadian to go that way and your access to loans is not the same as in Canada.  Unless you have access to +$250K in cash it is probably a non-starter.   Caribbean -  do more reading on this forum. It both costs money and has dubious probability of success.

 

My personal opinion is do a fifth year of undergrad to boost GPA and write the MCAT.   See where you are after that.

[sashabr]

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[Intrepid86]

So I really need some advice at this point as I am nearing the end of my undergraduate career. Should I pursue a MPH? Is there no point and will it be a waste of money and a waste of 2 years? Should I take extra undergrad courses, or would it be a waste of time since my GPA is unsalvageable? Should I just go to the Caribbean or the US? Do I even have a shot at US schools? Would I be committing financial suicide if I decide go to the Caribbean or the US? Is it even worth it considering my family's financial situation? Will I ever be able to repay my student debt if I go? Will a stellar MCAT make up for some of the weaker parts of my application and give me a shot at Canada? Should I just graduate now and go hardcore MCAT study mode for a year to pull off a stellar MCAT? Will schools actually look at and seriously consider my personal explanations section? Should I look into doing something different from medicine all together? 

 

I don't recommend the IMG route until you definitively know that you're out of reach for Canadian schools. It should only be a last resort. Why? because there are significant financial, logistical, and academic hurdles to overcome, and that doesn't even include residency matching which is a monster in and of itself. Your MCAT is a big variable right now, and it's obviously your next step in order to determine how competitive a candidate you really are. The value of taking additional undergrad courses is very dependent on individual circumstances, but I think it's reasonable to say that it doesn't significantly help most people who do it. That being said, if you're confident that you can do very well and make a meaningful impact on your GPA, then go ahead.

 

Your story is somewhat unfortunate, and while I'm sure all schools read personal explanations for discrepancies in performance, don't assume it will amount to anything. A Masters degree is useful, however in my opinion it's most helpful to only a specific subset of applicants. Regardless, if you do decide to pursue an MPH, it should aid you in other areas besides the medical admissions process, which brings me to my final point. You need to consider at least a few alternative career paths. Even the best students should have a backup plan in case things don't work out as expected.  

 

Good luck

[Meridian]

Yes both Western and Queens do use best 3 or final 2 year marks - but the thresholds are quite high. You realistically need +3.85 to be competitive for an interview.   Do you by chance live in South Western Ontario ?  Western has a lower GPA threshold there.

 

Both schools also require MCAT and Western specifically has a high +128 CARS interview cut off.   Queens MCAT is assumed to be high - but undocumented.

 

Write the MCAT in early summer 2017 and see how you do.   From there decide if a 5th year undergrad could boost your GPA.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it. I am in Ontario. I hear school's like Queen's and Western will consider your best 3 years, if so, would I stand a chance at these schools? Or at any school that more heavily weighs your later years?

[Fresh fry]

I agree with everything the two previous posters have said, solid advice.

 

Will reinforce what has been said:

 

MPH is a terrible idea for you unless you want to do it for alternate career path. You need to improve your undergrad gpa by taking a fifth year or starting another degree.

 

ECs are middle of the road at best and will not carry you. They are sufficient and varied to the point that I wouldn't invest a bunch of time improving them especially at detriment to your grades.

 

Us/Caribbean is as been said not a realistic option for you. Unless your parents are independently wealthy you cannot afford a us school with the dollar where it is. The Carribean offers you a 1/4-1/10 chance of coming back so unless you are prepared to live and work elsewhere no one should go down that road. It is also prohibitively expensive for most people.

 

MCAT is a check in the box in Canada. Doesn't really matter how high you score it will not make up much difference for a low GPA. On the other hand if you can't score to make interview cutt offs it can effectively torpedo you. Most people take it earlier in their education so they can take multiple shots at it and are fresher wrt to basic science courses. I have not seen many people have great success trying to split their time studying for the MCAT and a masters, or even full time undergrad for that matter. It has been my experience that most people dedicate a summer or semester to pretty much focus on the exam alone. Times that by 10 if you are working and engaged in multiple ECs.

 

This is a hard thing to talk about so please know I am coming from a good place. Your mental health situation is a very difficult thing to navigate re applications. As someone mentioned only some schools will allow you to explain low marks and that is only after you have made it past the hard cutt offs for GPA and MCAT. If I am reading your explanation correctly as a reviewer I have difficulty understanding why your parents job loss affected your mental health. I can understand why having to take on additional employment might lower your GPA but what I am getting at is you have to be extremely careful about what you say and how you say it. The whole thing about medicine is they are looking for people who can tolerate massive amounts of adversity and stress. You might not be portraying the best version of yourself if you say some of the things you included in your post on an application. Again, just trying to prevent you from shooting yourself in the foot.

 

If I was in your shoes I would write the MCAT as soon as you can to get an idea of what kind of timelines you are looking at. If you do well in the spring I would do a 5th year and rock it hard. Likely you are 2-3 years away from your first real application. If that is the case may as well start plugging away on 2nd undergrad.

 

GL

[sashabr]

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[ralk]

Yes both Western and Queens do use best 3 or final 2 year marks - but the thresholds are quite high. You realistically need +3.85 to be competitive for an interview.   Do you by chance live in South Western Ontario ?  Western has a lower GPA threshold there.

 

Both schools also require MCAT and Western specifically has a high +128 CARS interview cut off.   Queens MCAT is assumed to be high - but undocumented.

 

Write the MCAT in early summer 2017 and see how you do.   From there decide if a 5th year undergrad could boost your GPA.

 

This needs to be corrected - Western does not require a 3.85+ GPA for an interview. It requires a 3.70 or above in each of the best two years of the most recent degree, provided those years meet certain requirements (check the website for those details). Being from Southwestern Ontario does not help for the GPA cutoff in the slightest, the advantage for being from the area here is on the MCAT cutoff.

 

OP, with all the schools under consideration, please go to the source and read through their admissions sites directly, in as much depth as you need to to understand their exact considerations. Misinformation is too easy to come by, even on this site.

 

Thank you all so much for the feedback! I really appreciate it. It seems to like my best bet is doing another year of undergrad and rock the MCAT then see where that takes me. If I'm still not competitive enough for Canada I'm also thinking about pursuing a DO in the U.S. as a backup option due to the risky nature of the Caribbean and considering their more holistic approach to admissions. Would that be a good backup? I'm really not too keen on doing another undergraduate degree. Also, when it comes to the Caribbean, is the most significant risk in terms of coming back to Canada just with regards to residency? I don't mind completing all of my training in the U.S. even if it means staying there for upwards of 7 years. I'm just concerned with coming back to practice in Canada after all training is said an done. Do Caribbean grads also face significant hurdles in that respect after their training is completed? Thanks again!

 

The concern with Caribbean is from many directions. Some schools flunk out students at a high rate, meaning you don't graduate at all. The match rate back to Canada directly for Caribbean grads is quite low and looks to only get lower in the near future. Matching to the US remains a possibility, but your options will quite likely be limited to less competitive specialties and training sites. It's possible to match to more competitive programs, but you'd need to be a truly exceptional candidate at that point - not something to bank on. Visa issues could complicate the IMG --> US residency pathway as well. Completing residency in the US often provides a pathway back to Canada, but that's not necessarily a simple step either and some specialties have unique hurdles which make that process more complicated than it might seem at first glance.

[JohnGrisham]

1. Take a 5th with year with full-course load and get near 4.0

2. Attempt MCAT after the above is completed- contrary to believe, a higher score can most definitely help for some schools (Saskatchewan for example puts big emphasis on the MCAT) - so try to get as high as possible.
3. Look at options once you've done the above, if still does not seem feasible consider alternate careers (i.e. do a shorter professional program and work for a while before re-attempting medicine..or consider alternate medical routes)

[hard08]

Hey, 

 

I'm doing a MPH. It could help your GPA if it's course-based but how schools incorporate graduate courses in your GPA calculation I'm not really sure. You should look into specific schools and how they consider graduate courses.

 

The good thing about a MPH is that it provides you with a good career if medicine doesn't work or if you want to find work while you improve your application further. It also lets you do a practicum which is a pretty good experience.

 

I think your ECs are actually pretty good. Just keep them up.

 

Write the MCAT because Ontario schools have cut-offs and what you get will affect where you should apply. For example Western requires high CARS. If you do really well, you could apply to OOP schools like Manitoba which really like a high MCAT (but OOP schools I believe have high GPA requirements so look into that).

 

You should look at how each Ontario school calculates GPA. 

McMaster takes all courses into account

Western, your two best years >3.7 

Ottawa does a weighting formula where later years are worth more (but they have a really high GPA requirement)

Toronto drops courses if you've have full course-load all 4 years

Queens IDK

 

If you can get a high CARS, I think Western would be good for you and you could do a fifth undergrad year so that you have 2 years >3.7.

Queens may also be worth looking into.

McMaster maybe OK but they do cGPA so you would have to do well on CARS and CASPER.

Toronto and Ottawa GPA averages are really high so they may be out of reach