phd PhD, New Permanent Resident planning to pursue MD seeking expert opinions

[biomedikal]

Background

When I was in high school, I wanted to be nothing but a doctor, then after high school, I wasn't able to get into medical school in India. I decided to pursue Biomedical Engineering, enjoyed it wanted to do more. Did Masters in Biomedical Engineering, enjoyed research even more decided to do Ph.D. in Biomedical engineering, specializing in medical imaging. During Ph.D. moved to the US to pursue the remainder of my research towards the Ph.D. program. While working at a hospital in my research and final year of research, I felt an urge to pursue medicine instead of doing post-doc or industry job.

Right now I am in Boston, would be finishing my Ph.D. program by December 2019. Due to my visa restrictions, I have to leave the US for 2 years. I have got Permanent residence in Canada through express entry. I would be moving to Canada as soon as I finish my research work

Education

All are from India

Undergraduate: Biomedical Engineering- Equivalent GPA in Mcgill- 3.7

Masters: Biomedical Engineering- Equivalent GPA- 4.0

Ph.D - Biomedical Engineering - Equivalent GPA - 4.0

Experience

3 years of research experience at Boston Children's Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Distinguished Toastmaster- Public Speaking, Non-Profit for >6 years

Volunteer experience- 3 years in working for a Non Governmental organization

Research:

2 first author publications, 4 Posters and 1 conference publications

Questions

1. Do I stand a chance to get admission in a medical school in Canada?
2. Which Province I should choose strategically which will help me with admission? I can choose a province to stay in as a permanent resident
3. Can I get a Scholarship in Canada?
4. What should be my target M-Cat Score? What would be the minimum score which will help me in getting an admission
5. What's your opinion about taking up Medical school after PhD 

Thank you in advance for patiently reading and responding to my queries

 

[affyuser]

Hi there,

Hope it's going well. 

I saw your post with questions on premed 101. I had a broadly similar path: undergrad in bioengineering from India, Ph.D. in Biosciences from Canada, med school in Canada and now in residency. 

Will try to help with your questions; main caveat being it's been a few years since I applied so some of the specifics might have changed. So you would need to look at each school's admission site carefully. 

1. Do I stand a chance to get admission in a medical school in Canada?

The PhD will help but the first step is to get a certified equivalent Canadian GPA for your degrees, especially for the Undergraduate degree, the GPA from which is the most important part of your med school application in Canada. When I was applying, the med schools in Ontario needed this company called WES to certify your transcript and produce a converted GPA on a Canadian scale which you would then use to apply. Some of the med schools elsewhere in Canada did the conversion themselves so it varies on a case by case basis which you need to look into on each medical school's admissions website. 

The other thing to do would be to look at each med school's site about how they factor in PhD applicants in the application process. For some it's a significant bonus (e.g. UofT, UBC) while at others it might not make much difference at least in the formal application scoring but likely still helps a bit in terms of application strength, but only if the Undergraduate GPA is competitive. 

2. Which province I should choose strategically which will help me with admission?

If you are truly flexible about location, then the Prairie provinces (AB, SK, MB) likely have the best odds in terms of in province odds,  especially relative to ON and BC. This also takes into account the fact that 2 of the ON schools: UofT and Queen's don't have built in preferences for in-province applicants so your chances at those are just as good if you are applying from anywhere outside Ontario vs being in-province. 

The challenge will be to move somewhere new and then find a job related to your science/research background while simultaneously working on getting a strong med school app together i.e. MCAT and reference letters and some extra curricular (especially clinically related ones) 

3. Can I get a scholarship in Canada?

Med school entry scholarships are rare and aren't something that's easy to predict beforehand given how competitive the admissions process is. On the plus side the tuition costs here are significantly cheaper than the US and most people rely on special (low interest) lines of credit available only to med students, which are often relatively quickly repaid in a few years once working as staff physicians. So financially speaking, the whole process is very feasible. 

4. What should be my target MCAT score? 

This will vary from school to school, check each school site for their targets. In general exceeding a school specific cutoff score is all you need for most Canadian med schools  as opposed to the US where the higher the score, the better the chances. There are exceptions in Canada (e.g. SK and MB) but in general Canadian med schools prioritize undergrad GPA over the MCAT, which is more of an extra admissions hurdle to clear.

5. What's your opinion of med school after PhD?

It's a very long road and has it's ups and downs like any career path but in the end it comes down to personal priorities as to whether it's worth doing. It's been an incredible journey in so many ways and I would do this again 10/10. Trying to help people with real problems while also being able to do clinical research on the side is amazing.

Hope this helped, let me know if you have any other questions