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[Rosiglitazone]

 

 

[pyridoxal-phosphate]

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[Neurophiliac]

2 minutes ago, premedubc said:

I'm a 3rd year UG that is still debating on whether to apply for the MED 2024 cycle, however I'm in a bit of a dilemma because I still feel that my NAQ portion of the application is not enough to meet interview cutoffs.

My stats are the following

cGPA: 90.5%

Extracurriculars:

• Founder and President of a Community Non-Profit (Public Health Related) (1 year so far)
• Employed Pharmacy Assistant at a Local Pharmacy (8 hours every week since January 2017)
• Summer Research Student at the Centre for Blood Research at UBC (Winner of a $5000 scholarship)
• Research Student and Assistant at BC Children's Hospital
• Executive at two Clubs 
• Volunteer Auxiliary at a Hospital 
• 1-on-1 peer and FAMILY volunteer with patients at a Children's Hospice
• Co-caregiver of a Family member suffering from paralysis 
• 2x Deans Honours List/Science Scholar Designation 
• Scholarships (Mostly from Highschool, some from university) and a bunch of awards from Science fairs

I know this question is pretty annoying, but do you think I realistically have a chance in getting an invite with my current ECs and GPA (provided my application is strategically and properly written)?

I am also in the process of getting published next year so do you think I should wait until that happens before I apply?

 

Whether or not they have a good shot, I always recommend those that are passionate about pursuing medicine to apply and see what happens as soon as they're eligible to apply.  If that results to an interview invite, great!  If not, at least they have an idea of where they lie and can better plan for the next cycle.  Also, medical school applications are quite unique.  Besides knowing where you lie, you also get to experience submitting an application – experiencing how to plan and organize your entries, investing an ample amount of time writing and reviewing it, etc.

Having said all that though, I think you actually have a good shot .  You will have a relatively high AQ.  With careful application planning, writing and reviewing, you can also receive a relatively good NAQ (but this really depends on the cohort, etc.).

And as I mentioned earlier, don't wait – if you are eligible to apply, definitely go for it.  The experience of submitting an application is worth it on its own, regardless of the result (but hopefully, the result is a good one!).

[Rosiglitazone]

On 6/3/2019 at 7:43 PM, Neurophiliac said:

Whether or not they have a good shot, I always recommend those that are passionate about pursuing medicine to apply and see what happens as soon as they're eligible to apply.  If that results to an interview invite, great!  If not, at least they have an idea of where they lie and can better plan for the next cycle.  Also, medical school applications are quite unique.  Besides knowing where you lie, you also get to experience submitting an application – experiencing how to plan and organize your entries, investing an ample amount of time writing and reviewing it, etc.

Having said all that though, I think you actually have a good shot .  You will have a relatively high AQ.  With careful application planning, writing and reviewing, you can also receive a relatively good NAQ (but this really depends on the cohort, etc.).

And as I mentioned earlier, don't wait – if you are eligible to apply, definitely go for it.  The experience of submitting an application is worth it on its own, regardless of the result (but hopefully, the result is a good one!).

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[Neurophiliac]

4 minutes ago, premedubc said:

Thank you so much for your input. Pursuing medicine has been my dream for as long as I can remember, and I will for sure be applying this cycle just to see where I am at. Although I have been working hard to be competitive, its just the thought of not getting an interview after putting in a lot of work in that's making me hesitant to apply, but with your advice I'll probably give it a shot.

That is great to hear!  Even with the worst case scenario, all the efforts you invest in your application will not be wasted; if you don't receive an interview, you'll be much better prepared for the next application cycle (you'll have a great application template to work with, an organized list of entries, where each activity should belong in terms of the category, and much more).

I echo @pyridoxal-phosphate with being mindful of your schedule since you don't want to have too much on your plate.  However, the application deadline is in mid-September (ignore the early one lol) and the 2019-2020 cycle begins in ~2 weeks from now (mid-June) – in other words, you will have lots of time to work on it.  Working on it a little bit each day hopefully won't cramp up your schedule later on.

All the best!

[struggling2getin]

7 hours ago, premedubc said:

I'm a 3rd year UG that is still debating on whether to apply for the MED 2024 cycle, however I'm in a bit of a dilemma because I still feel that my NAQ portion of the application is not enough to meet interview cutoffs.

My stats are the following

cGPA: 90.5%

Extracurriculars:

• Founder and President of a Community Non-Profit (Public Health Related) (1 year so far)
• Employed Pharmacy Assistant at a Local Pharmacy (8 hours every week since January 2017)
• Summer Research Student at the Centre for Blood Research at UBC (Winner of a $5000 scholarship)
• Research Student and Assistant at BC Children's Hospital
• Executive at two Clubs 
• Volunteer Auxiliary at a Hospital 
• 1-on-1 peer and FAMILY volunteer with patients at a Children's Hospice
• Co-caregiver of a Family member suffering from paralysis 
• 2x Deans Honours List/Science Scholar Designation 
• Scholarships (Mostly from Highschool, some from university) and a bunch of awards from Science fairs

I know this question is pretty annoying, but do you think I realistically have a chance in getting an invite with my current ECs and GPA (provided my application is strategically and properly written)?

I am also in the process of getting published next year so do you think I should wait until that happens before I apply?

 

I think you definitely have a chance at landing an interview. Assuming the numbers stay the same as this cycle, your AQ will be in the ballpark of 30, and the minimum needed to get an interview was a total score of 51. Now, getting to 21 points in the NAQ is somewhat tricky if all you were to list was what you've written here. Perhaps look through the number of total entries you'll have to make and try to gauge how many you fill also. Its not necessarily all about the number of activities, but having more activities to write about can help to convince adcoms that you've demonstrated a greater variety of skills. There was once a very helpful post about how to write one's NAQ written back in like 2015 or 2016 December if I recall correctly that you could also use as reference. Naturally, you'd want to score as high as possible in NAQ otherwise you might be forced to rely on the post interview criteria (interviews, references, MCAT- arguably, a bigger black box) to get admitted. In any case, you should definitely give it a shot. 
 

[Rosiglitazone]

@Neurophiliac I know that UBC Med specifically looks at the commitment level for each entry, but is a one-year commitment considered too little in the eyes of the adcom? Although I do have long term commitments, some of my experiences were in duration for only a year. Is this a detriment to my application?

[Neurophiliac]

2 hours ago, premedubc said:

@Neurophiliac I know that UBC Med specifically looks at the commitment level for each entry, but is a one-year commitment considered too little in the eyes of the adcom? Although I do have long term commitments, some of my experiences were in duration for only a year. Is this a detriment to my application?

I think it makes sense to assume that the longer the commitment, the better.  But there are many other factors that go into NAQ evaluations, such as the quality of your work, the responsibilities you have within your activity, the people you work closely with, and more.  I know some applicants that have been accepted with their average duration and hours being less than something you’d expect, but their application’s quality far outweighs the quantity.  I think the most important thing is being balanced throughout your application.

A year of commitment for an activity, I suppose, translates to about 125-200 total hours, which is good in my opinion.  But realistically, you can’t really change that fact for this cycle.  You also never know where you stand until you apply.  But just keep in mind that everything is relative to the pool of applicants.

[chiynadoll]

 

 

1

17 hours ago, premedubc said:

I'm a 3rd year UG that is still debating on whether to apply for the MED 2024 cycle, however I'm in a bit of a dilemma because I still feel that my NAQ portion of the application is not enough to meet interview cutoffs.

 

Honestly, it doesn't hurt you to apply (other than having to pay a little bit, notify verifiers, and spending time on the app. You don't need references until the interview stage). They don't care about a number of previous applications (or even MCAT attempts LOL, I'm 5 cycles in, 4 MCAT attempts). 

I regret not applying the first year I was eligible, 2 of my best friends who had very similar, if not slightly lower stats got into med school and are now PGY1 and 2... and I'm pre-MSI1 so yeah... It took many more years than I expected to get in. 

If you just finished 2nd year and are going into 3rd, worst case is that you go back to school to finish your 4th year. If you're 3rd going into 4th, worst case, you take a gap year. Waiting to apply just to have a better app later really imo is letting time pass you by. You are guaranteeing yourself to not get in the next year and to have to spend another year applying. 

However, if you don't get in this cycle, you can see where you're able to improve vs going in blindly next cycle. Also, as I've been pretty much preaching on the forums, the writing style is HUGE for getting you NAQ points. I've done less than you have in non-paid exp for sure, and probably put in less total time as well. Never made it past pre-interview cutoffs until this year and my entries didn't change, just the way I wrote them. If you have the time right now, and friends who are willing to proofread, focus on making sure that the writing accurately reflects what you did, but also sells you. 

[mike0421]

On 6/3/2019 at 8:46 PM, struggling2getin said:

I think you definitely have a chance at landing an interview. Assuming the numbers stay the same as this cycle, your AQ will be in the ballpark of 30, and the minimum needed to get an interview was a total score of 51. Now, getting to 21 points in the NAQ is somewhat tricky if all you were to list was what you've written here. Perhaps look through the number of total entries you'll have to make and try to gauge how many you fill also. Its not necessarily all about the number of activities, but having more activities to write about can help to convince adcoms that you've demonstrated a greater variety of skills. There was once a very helpful post about how to write one's NAQ written back in like 2015 or 2016 December if I recall correctly that you could also use as reference. Naturally, you'd want to score as high as possible in NAQ otherwise you might be forced to rely on the post interview criteria (interviews, references, MCAT- arguably, a bigger black box) to get admitted. In any case, you should definitely give it a shot. 
 

Will try to look for that post.

 

Thanks!