Do I have a shot (Transcripts Included)

[K.C.Nelson]

Hello all, 

I am SUPER nontraditional, with a degree in Drama. Yes...drama. Ha! I never thought I'd want to go back to school, so I lived by the mentality of "C's get degrees".No one else in my family has ever been  to university, and my dad is first gen and didn't even go to high school, so I no one mentioned that C's get Degrees might not be the best motto to live by. Jus being in university made my parents thrilled. Also, with almost no effort I got a 3.6 GPA my first year of school so I took it pretty easy after that. I was also diagnosed with JRA in highschool, so I was exhausted all the time and Biologics drugs weren't on the market yet so the disease was still pretty uncontrolled. Because of this, I took a "full" course load for someone with a medical condition (as far as the University of Alberta was concerned) but it was only 7-8 courses a year, not 10, so I'm under some of the med school definitions of 24 credits a term.

My undergrad was okay, not stellar, with GPAs between 3.0-3.6. 

After, I took a collage program in Marketing and have been working in marketing for the past 6 years. I'm generally unfullfilled and bored. I recently switched to non-profit marketing since I would actually like to HELP people, thinking that the fact that I now raise money and awareness for really worthy charities would make a big difference. It's better, but meh.

You can see my wavering in my career because I went back to take a Psych & Ling class a few years ago. I bombed them because about 2 weeks before the final I was laid off and I had no financial safety net. The stress was too much and I put all my time into resume prep and hustling for a new job, so I didn't study for the final (psych) or hand in the final assignment (ling). Sucks because my grads were basically perfect until that point. I had 90-95% on all the other coursework. I deeply regret the 2.0 GPA, but such is life.

I started considering a career in medicine about a year ago when my fiance was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer and we were spending all our time in hospitals. To that end, Irecently did another course (Social Psych) - better with a GPA of 3.7. It's not 4.0, but I did it while my partner was going through chemo, and I was only thinking about an after-degree in nursing, and not considering the uber competitive world of med school. 

Any thoughts? I am not really open to going back to school full time for an undergrad - I have grown-up bills now, and haven't even finished paying my student loans off from my BA. I *am* willing to take night and weekend classes at the U of A, of course. And to pay for any MCAT prep I need. And a tutor. Any anything else, except quitting my full time job.

Thank you for reading this freakin' novel. All my transcripts are attached if you want further info.

 

[Rahvin13]

Hey, I had a similar transcript as you in my first degree in terms of gpa (probably mine was worse) although I always had a full course load. I applied for and took a second degree in nursing with no intentions of applying to medicine, but through a couple friends who started med school in the last 2 years I became interested and started looking into admissions policies.

I’m not an admissions expert by any means but I’ve done a bit of research on different schools through their admissions  websites and speaking to their admissions. You probably won’t like what I have to say. Looking at your transcript and based on your gpa and course loads, you won’t be eligible or competitive to apply for most (any really) med schools in Canada. Your cumulative gpa is in the low 3s and your last 2  “full” year gpa is ~3.3 without a full course load in those years. Those numbers just aren’t high enough to be competitive/eligible which there is no shame in as there are plenty of people who did a degree and ended up with the same or worse, including myself. 

However, the only way to really fix that is to take additional, full-time years of undergrad in a new degree program. Just doing night classes one or two at a time isn’t going to help in your situation. Technically you’d be eligible to apply to McMaster but any chance at that would involve becoming an Ontario resident (live for 3 years in Ontario), get probably 130-132 on CARS, and get a top end Casper score. And even then it’s far from guaranteed.

Basically if you’re truly serious about being competitive you’re gonna have to do what you said you wouldn’t. That might be harsh but I think most others here would agree.

[goleafsgochris]

Yeah and if anything Rahvin13 is sugar coating it.  Because Mac takes into account all your grades even from your first undergrad, even if you got a 4.0 in a new 4 year undergrad it wouldn't be enough to make you competitive for Mac.

You need a second undergrad to make you competitive anywhere.

[Meridian]

Unfortunately undergrad GPA is king for Med school interviews. You do not have a GPA or opportunity for weighting that would allow you be successful at getting an interview.  You will need to start a new full time undergrad and achieve +3.85 GPA for 2 full years to start to open up interview chances.

 

[frenchpress]

In addition to Mac, Calgary would be a school for you to look at as a non-trad since it sounds like you’re living in alberta already and could apply as an in-province applicant. I agree with the others that you’ll probably need at least a couple years of a second undergrad to realistically stand a shot though - while anyone with a GPA over 3.2 can apply, the average entrance GPA is usually ~3.85.