Chances ?

[MDGOAT]

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[Anon-e-mous]

7 hours ago, MDGOAT said:

know u all probably have seen a lot of these posts but here we go...

 looking to only apply to 2/3 schools this year : UofT/Ottawa/Mac.

Ug 4th year 

ottawa wgpa: 3.97 

UofT wgpa: 4.00 

Mac cgpa: 3.945  

128/127/129/128 MCAT

ECs are average at best: shadowing a physician, attended a few autopsies (+going to be involved in clinical research with them this year), research grant from my school (focused on my own project, no pubs yet), 1 scholarship,  played on sports teams back in hs and coached soccer. Worked at the family business for 2 summers as the manager (basically worked 60 hour weeks for 2 summers). Other minor stuff like played piano for 5 years (RCM), execs on two clubs, heavily involved in tutoring on campus (teaming up with profs, organizations, received an award etc). 

ECs are a little on the lower side not by lack of effort but because a lot of personal stuff happened over my undergrad that hampered my ability to commit long term (bestfriend passed away, needing emergency surgery, family member had a heart attack). I'm going to be redoing my mcat at the end of the month, so theres that. 

Not trying to sound melodramatic and im by no means trolling, but is it even worth applying this year? I see some of the ECs others have, and theres no way I can even compete with them with what I have now...

Any advice, however brutally honest, is appreciated

cheers and good luck on your apps !

Definitely apply! Why not add Queen's too? If your second MCAT is up there add Western too. The ECs you see on here might not be reflective of the actual average applicant pool. Who knows, with online anonymous forums people might be embellishing also. What matters is how you word your activities. CANMEDs, what you learned/how you developed...  show your passion! goodluck

[buttercream]

I would suggest applying to all Ontario schools as well (except NOSM unless you are from a rural area or northern Ontario). Your 127 in CARS can be made up by a good CASPer exam for Mac and your GPA is great for all schools. If you do well enough on CASPer to receive an interview at Ottawa/Mac, your ECs sound like a good background for answering a lot of interview questions. There's definitely a chance for you.

Why is it that you're planning on re-writing the MCAT? I'm assuming it's due to your CARS score, but your score works for Toronto, the CARS could work for Mac, and Ottawa doesn't require any of it. With the changes for Western this upcoming year too, it's hard to know if/by how much the CARS cutoff may change. Even if your CARS score doesn't change much after a re-write (but fingers crossed of course!) I would still say you should apply this year.

[MDGOAT]

On 7/20/2018 at 11:41 PM, buttercream said:

I would suggest applying to all Ontario schools as well (except NOSM unless you are from a rural area or northern Ontario). Your 127 in CARS can be made up by a good CASPer exam for Mac and your GPA is great for all schools. If you do well enough on CASPer to receive an interview at Ottawa/Mac, your ECs sound like a good background for answering a lot of interview questions. There's definitely a chance for you.

Why is it that you're planning on re-writing the MCAT? I'm assuming it's due to your CARS score, but your score works for Toronto, the CARS could work for Mac, and Ottawa doesn't require any of it. With the changes for Western this upcoming year too, it's hard to know if/by how much the CARS cutoff may change. Even if your CARS score doesn't change much after a re-write (but fingers crossed of course!) I would still say you should apply this year.

Yeah, I was going to rewrite just for CARS. Not sure if my MCAT is high enough for Queens, so I figure I'd retake it. I also thought 127 in CARS was on the lower end for Mac?

[buttercream]

14 hours ago, MDGOAT said:

Yeah, I was going to rewrite just for CARS. Not sure if my MCAT is high enough for Queens, so I figure I'd retake it. I also thought 127 in CARS was on the lower end for Mac?

I can’t say for Queens as they’re such a black box for everything and I haven’t personally looked too much at their stats. But looking at the interview invite thread might give you some ideas.

It is a bit on the lower end for Mac, but pre-interview your score is based 1/3 GPA, 1/3 CASPer, and 1/3 CARS. So a lower CARS can be overcome through a higher GPA (which you have) and/or a high CASPer score. There are people each year that get in with CARS scores of 124-127. Post-interview at Mac you’re weighted 70% interview, 15% GPA and 15% CARS. So there’s always some wiggle room in each section.

As your MCAT is so soon and you’ve dedicated time to studying for it, I would still go for it. Whether your score changes by a lot or not, there’s still a chance for you!  

Good luck!