Med School after Pharma

[JOLLY]

Hey everyone, hope you guys are doing well.

I am an international pharmacy graduate and currently registered as a Pharmacist in Canada. Now am planning to switch to med school in Ontario specifically. I have an issue actually, my grades are in the form of percentage as per my home country and is there any way to convert percentage into GPA

My stats are:

Graduation: 70%

MCAT: 518

Volunteered in sick kids hospital in every summer break from last 2 years and still working as a Pharmacist in Rexall

 

I am curious to ask for your suggestions about my chances of getting into a med school specifically Mcmaster, Queens and western. 

Thankyou

Have a great day 

 

[BernieMac]

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[JOLLY]

Hey @yeslcan55, Can you please tell why ? It will be highly appreciated

 

thankyou

[hero147]

8 minutes ago, JOLLY said:

Hey @yeslcan55, Can you please tell why ? It will be highly appreciated

 

thankyou

Becuase your grades are too low. Unless you have a super super super favourable GPA conversion scale. (emphasis on the super)

[JOLLY]

Thanks for the reply @hero147

But, as per Canadian Grade Equivalency if i convert my percentage to GPA it comes out to be 3.6 for Asian Countries. 
So is there any issue ?

 

please reply

thanks

 

[hero147]

1 minute ago, JOLLY said:

Thanks for the reply @hero147

But, as per Canadian Grade Equivalency if i convert my percentage to GPA it comes out to be 3.6 for Asian Countries. 
So is there any issue ?

 

please reply

thanks

 

You can try the States with that GPA. But with a 3.6, your chances are slim to get into a Canadian school. Depending on your breakdown, you may stand a good chance at universities that take your best 2 years (like Western) or last 2 years (like Queens). But admittedly, there are very few people that get into medical school with that kind of GPA. Maybe like 2-3 a year to places like McMaster and University of Toronto.

Must also admit, I haven't looked at admission criteria for schools in almost 6 years when I applied. The information I provide may be outdated.

[JOLLY]

But my thing is i’ve seen a friend of mine who got 3.5 GPA in 2016 and got acceptance from Western. Secondly, his MCAT was also low (501) but apart from that his EC’s were outstanding with 3 years of work experience in a hospital setting.

[JohnGrisham]

Something to take into account is, that most Canadian and US medical schools will not even consider your Foreign(you mention Asian) university grades. 

You will very likely need to do at least 2 years of full-time undergraduate studies here in Canada to get North American grades.

While your MCAT is commendable, GPA is often the limiting barrier to get you through the door as well.   It is too bad you took the MCAT first before looking into how your courses would even (or in this case, likely not) be considered. Now the clock is ticking for your MCAT to expire.

Provide us with more information and clarity about your grades, and where you took courses, etc, and we can try to help.

 

[takasugi]

11 minutes ago, JOLLY said:

But my thing is i’ve seen a friend of mine who got 3.5 GPA in 2016 and got acceptance from Western. Secondly, his MCAT was also low (501) but apart from that his EC’s were outstanding with 3 years of work experience in a hospital setting.

Your friend was probably in a special category eg. Indigenous or ACCESS pathway.

Westerns GPA cutoff is 3.7 for 2 years.... their MCAT cutoffs are something like 126/127/127. SWOMEN is 125/125/125.

[JOLLY]

Ok so here is my overall profile

Graduation: B.pharmacy (3.6)

MCAT: 518

Previous Experience: Worked as a Marketing Associate in Dermatological pharmaceutical company. Along with that, I was working voluntarily for Animal Shelter ( Non profit organization). In 2017 I came to Canada and enrolled myself in Pharma Regulatory affairs (1 Year Program), GPA 3.7. Later I applied for registration as a pharmacist and got my license a year ago. From last 2 years am working with the hospital for sick kids during the summer break. If grades are the hurdle in my career then I’d rather pursue pharmD program for foreign graduates and then I’ll apply again into a med school.

 

please advice if anything i should change or add  into my profile. 
 

thankyou

 

[Zacky]

Just a heads up, many schools in Ontario consider 70 to 74% as 3.0, 75-79 as 3.3, 80-84 as 3.7, 85-89 as 3.9, and 90+ as 4.0.

Also in Canada, the MCAT CARS score is most important for determining competitiveness

[JOLLY]

Just now, Zacky said:

Just a heads up, many schools in Ontario consider 70 to 74% as 3.0, 75-79 as 3.3, 80-84 as 3.7, 85-89 as 3.9, and 90+ as 4.0.

Also in Canada, the MCAT CARS score is most important for determining competitiveness

So is there any chance or should I go for Masters in Pharmacology before applying to med school ?

[BernieMac]

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[JohnGrisham]

16 minutes ago, JOLLY said:

Ok so here is my overall profile

Graduation: B.pharmacy (3.6)

MCAT: 518

Previous Experience: Worked as a Marketing Associate in Dermatological pharmaceutical company. Along with that, I was working voluntarily for Animal Shelter ( Non profit organization). In 2017 I came to Canada and enrolled myself in Pharma Regulatory affairs (1 Year Program), GPA 3.7. Later I applied for registration as a pharmacist and got my license a year ago. From last 2 years am working with the hospital for sick kids during the summer break. If grades are the hurdle in my career then I’d rather pursue pharmD program for foreign graduates and then I’ll apply again into a med school.

 

please advice if anything i should change or add  into my profile. 
 

thankyou

 

Your 3.6 GPA is unclear, and needs to be evaluated and broken down  year by year, not just overall average.

A masters will not necessarily help you, if your GPA is the issue.  As i mentioned above, your undergraduate pharmacy bachelors may not even be considered for Medical school admissions in Canada/US, as it is a foreign degree. 

Western DOES consider international undergraduate degrees for MD admission, but you need to get it evaluated by WES. Have you already done this?

Why would you do a PharmD for foreign graduates? My understanding is that you will not likely get a pay increase at your work anyways, as you are already a licensed Pharmacist. PharmdD would be an expensive step, and again, not necessarily help you at all if you want to apply to medical school.
 

[JohnGrisham]

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[JOLLY]

Yes i

1 minute ago, JohnGrisham said:

Your 3.6 GPA is unclear, and needs to be evaluated and broken down  year by year, not just overall average.

A masters will not necessarily help you, if your GPA is the issue.  As i mentioned above, your undergraduate pharmacy bachelors may not even be considered for Medical school admissions in Canada/US, as it is a foreign degree. 

Western DOES consider international undergraduate degrees for MD admission, but you need to get it evaluated by WES. Have you already done this?

Why would you do a PharmD for foreign graduates? My understanding is that you will not likely get a pay increase at your work anyways, as you are already a licensed Pharmacist. PharmdD would be an expensive step, and again, not necessarily help you at all if you want to apply to medical school.
 

Sorry, forgot to mention before but yea i already evaluated my degree through WES a year ago. Does that help ? If it does then please tell how ?

[JohnGrisham]

Just now, JOLLY said:

Yes i

Sorry, forgot to mention before but yea i already evaluated my degree through WES a year ago. Does that help ? If it does then please tell how ?

Well, what does your WES show then?  

What is the year by year GPA breakdown? 

[Zacky]

5 minutes ago, JOLLY said:

So is there any chance or should I go for Masters in Pharmacology before applying to med school ?

To my knowledge most schools on their admission website explicitly state that they look at undergraduate grades for admission (eg. Mcmaster, Ottawa, Western). If you are doing a two year research-based masters or a 1-year course based masters U of T will look at those grades. But the assumption is that you completed your undergrad here prior to starting the masters.

[JOLLY]

First year: 3.3

Second year: 3.3

Third Year : 3.8

Fourth: 3.8

[JOLLY]

3 minutes ago, JohnGrisham said:

Well, what does your WES show then?  

What is the year by year GPA breakdown? 

First year: 3.3

Second year: 3.3

Third Year : 3.8

Fourth: 3.8

[JohnGrisham]

1 minute ago, JOLLY said:

First year: 3.3

Second year: 3.3

Third Year : 3.8

Fourth: 3.8

What about course load per each year, and if they are all graded courses? and none that are credit or pass/fail. 

 

[JOLLY]

So there were 9 courses in each year and all of them were graded course based on marks with the passing marks of 60%

[JOLLY]

3 minutes ago, JohnGrisham said:

What about course load per each year, and if they are all graded courses? and none that are credit or pass/fail. 

 

So there were 9 courses in each year and all of them were graded course based on marks with the passing marks of 60%

[JohnGrisham]

Just now, JOLLY said:

So there were 9 courses in each year and all of them were graded course based on marks with the passing marks of 60%

What about the number of credits per year? Western MD requires a full-course load of 10 courses per year equivalent for the best two years, so the only way your year 3 and 4 will be considered is if those 9 courses are weighted actually more.. so it gets tricky.  Some universities often have 1 course being weighted as 0.5unit or 3 credits, so a full course load of 10 courses would be 5 units  or 30 credits (these are just examples), but sometimes can have an individual course being worth 0.75 unit, or 4credits...so in theory you could have a full-course load still if you had < 10 courses per year.   If this is NOT the case for you, then you are out of luck, and your GPA will NOT be considered for Western MD.

[JohnGrisham]

Also, you have not provided us with your MCAT breakdown by section, and when you wrote it(administration date). That would be helpful.