What are my chances

[kefu]

what are my chances for UofT medical school

 

wGPA: 3.77 (upward trend, last 2 years in 3.9s)

MCAT: 9V, 9PS, 10BS

Graduate applicant: 2 year thesis based MSc (in medical biophysics or biomedical engineering)

EC: volunteering hospital, teaching assistant, volunteer abroad: medical services, Volunteer retirement home, sports (competitive awhile ago)

 

What would enhance my application more, having a masters degree in medical biophysics or biomedical engineering?

[Little.Wing]

what are my chances for UofT medical school

 

wGPA: 3.77

MCAT: 9V, 9PS, 10BS

Graduate applicant: Completing MSc

EC: volunteering hospital, teaching assistant, volunteer abroad: medical services, Volunteer retirement home, sports (competitive awhile ago)

 

First off, your wGPA is not very strong so your going to have to have other redeeming aspects for your application to make up for this. How are you doing in your MSc? Are there any courses in your MSc that you've taken? Is it research based? If so, how is your research productivity? If you've done pretty well in your masters compared to UG, this should boost your academic score.

 

For ECs its hard to judge them. I would say you have average ECs, and obviously it counts how you word them in the mini essays. But judging based on your wGPA and EC's I would say it's a fighting chance to make the interview. This might be a different story once you tell us how your doing in your MSc etc....

[KennethToronto]

what are my chances for UofT medical school

 

wGPA: 3.77

MCAT: 9V, 9PS, 10BS

Graduate applicant: Completing MSc

EC: volunteering hospital, teaching assistant, volunteer abroad: medical services, Volunteer retirement home, sports (competitive awhile ago)

 

Approximately 2.345% +/- 0.25%

[10wattbulb]

Chances as a grad applicant may be descent; it depends on how well you're doing in your Master's - research productivity, etc. Your wGPA is on the low side, but I've seen quite a few grad applicants get in @ U of T Med with lower stats than yours.

 

I would advise that you give the MCAT another try, esp to improve your Verbal Reasoning score and give you a fighting chance in other med schools as well (McMaster, Western if you make their MCAT cutoffs, maybe also Queen's). I'm a bit worried that for those other schools, your cGPA and the GPA of your last 2 years is on the low side.

 

Your ECs are OK but not stellar. Keep working on those.

 

Bottom line: your chances are so-so, but it's still worth it to apply, in my humble opinion. There's still room for improvement.

[10wattbulb]

Approximately 2.345% +/- 0.25%

 

Where did you get that number? You just made it up, didn't you? Are you trolling or being sarcastic? What's your purpose?

 

According to U of T Meds:

"For 2013 entry, we received 12.17 applications for every seat in the class."

 

Now, there's 259 seats, so there were ~3152 students that applied. The OP has a wGPA that is below average, but he/she's in the grad applicant pool. Avg wGPA for grad pool is probably around 3.80 ("For 2012 entry, the average accepted GPA [grad + undergrad] was 3.89". From what I've heard, 2/3+ of the class are undergrads and their avg wGPA is around 3.94, so they skew up the avg wGPA of accepted applicants).

 

Hence, the OP may not be too far below the average GPA of the grad applicant pool, so his/her chances are reasonable - probably around 8-10% or higher because I suspect that of the 3152 or so that apply to U of T med school, less than 1/4 are grad applicants (thus, U of T probably prefers grad applicants over undergrad applicants).

 

The OP's chances of getting an interview are probably double their chances of getting in; therefore interview chance ~20% or better (remember: this is the grad pool).

 

In reality, it's totally impossible to calculate a % because we don't have all the stats for the grad applicant pool (i.e., # of grad applicants that apply to U of T, # of grads that are accepted, etc).

[KennethToronto]

Where did you get that number? You just made it up, didn't you? Are you trolling or being sarcastic? What's your purpose?

 

whoosh, that's the sound of sarcasm flying by

[kefu]

Its a thesis based masters in medical biophysics. I will start it in September so I cant comment on my productivity/publications yet.

I finished undergraduate with low gpa's my first 2 years. My final 2 years are both in the 3.9's. Every year my GPA went up, so I have an upward trend.

What are some things I can do enhance my application to get me a better chance? It was already mentioned rewrite the MCAT but that will take away from my research productivity and other things I can put my time to that may benefit my application. I guess I have no choice but to rewrite it anyways to increase my chances for the other schools.

[dw88]

Kefu,

 

if you are very fixed on medical school doing a masters in medical biophysics is a very good place to be judging by the types of students in our year at UofT.

 

Your GPA isn't amazing, but UofT looks closely at applicants (especially interesting ones). Your MCAT is not great, you could get in with it if you are lucky, I don't recall the exact cutoffs and what not - but rewriting it will very clearly increase the strength of your application, recall that the MCAT is the standardized test not your GPA (which I'm assuming might be under representing you if you are in medical biophysics).

 

And to the person who said your ECs are so-so, mine were much weaker and I got in.

[Hockeynut]

Kefu,

 

if you are very fixed on medical school doing a masters in medical biophysics is a very good place to be judging by the types of students in our year at UofT.

 

Your GPA isn't amazing, but UofT looks closely at applicants (especially interesting ones). Your MCAT is not great, you could get in with it if you are lucky, I don't recall the exact cutoffs and what not - but rewriting it will very clearly increase the strength of your application, recall that the MCAT is the standardized test not your GPA (which I'm assuming might be under representing you if you are in medical biophysics).

 

And to the person who said your ECs are so-so, mine were much weaker and I got in.

 

cut offs are 9's in each section so he wouldnt be flagged.

[dw88]

Kefu,

 

if you are very fixed on medical school doing a masters in medical biophysics is a very good place to be judging by the types of students in our year at UofT.

 

Your GPA isn't amazing, but UofT looks closely at applicants (especially interesting ones). Your MCAT is not great, you could get in with it if you are lucky, I don't recall the exact cutoffs and what not - but rewriting it will very clearly increase the strength of your application, recall that the MCAT is the standardized test not your GPA (which I'm assuming might be under representing you if you are in medical biophysics).

 

And to the person who said your ECs are so-so, mine were much weaker and I got in.

 

I'm sorry this sounded a lot more negative than I meant it to. The fact is you could strengthen your app with a new MCAT (whether that helps at Toronto or not I don't honestly know but overall it would help) and our class has a number of people who got in with not amazing marks and/or not amazing mcat - especially if they came from unique backgrounds. I would assume it would help your case A LOT to have a reference who can say your marks in your program are reflective of a very good student (which is probably the case)

[Guest Fresh_Underwear]

One nice thing about U of T admission is that your file will be looked over by an actual person, instead of being filtered through with MCAT and GPA cut offs. With that said, you need to consider your own application and see how much it distinguishes yourself from others. I don't know your entire application, but what you've listed seems very typical of a M.Sc graduate applicant. That's not a good thing, since you want to avoid a cookie cutter application. What you want to do is to think hard about what makes your application unique, or better yet, what makes you a unique individual. Something that you've done which others associate you with.

[kefu]

Would having a Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering enhance my application instead of having one in medical biophysics?

[anxious_101]

what are my chances for UofT medical school

 

wGPA: 3.77 (upward trend, last 2 years in 3.9s)

MCAT: 9V, 9PS, 10BS

Graduate applicant: 2 year thesis based MSc (in medical biophysics or biomedical engineering)

EC: volunteering hospital, teaching assistant, volunteer abroad: medical services, Volunteer retirement home, sports (competitive awhile ago)

 

What would enhance my application more, having a masters degree in medical biophysics or biomedical engineering?

 

As a grad applicant, your 3.77 with last 2 years in the 3.9s is solid. MCAT meets cutoffs so that's solid too. The rest of your app is highly subjective and is up to you to convince the adcom why you'd make a great doctor. And your reference letters carry significant weight so make sure your referees write you strong letters - if they can't, find another referee.

 

Good luck!

[Hockeynut]

Anyone fathom a guess at the breakdown of what they use to determine interviews/acceptances?

[jordan19]

Anyone fathom a guess at the breakdown of what they use to determine interviews/acceptances?

 

The number out there historically has been 60% academics/scholarly activities, and 20% for ABS/essays/etc, and 20% interview. It's purely speculation, but interviews supposedly aren't weighed THAT heavily for final acceptance.

[anxious_101]

The number out there historically has been 60% academics/scholarly activities, and 20% for ABS/essays/etc, and 20% interview. It's purely speculation, but interviews supposedly aren't weighed THAT heavily for final acceptance.

 

Interviews are worth next to nothing. It serves only as a flag.

[ArchEnemy]

Interviews are worth next to nothing. It serves only as a flag.

 

What makes you say this? If this is really the case, are you then saying that the committee already knows who they want BEFORE the interview (the interview roots out the select few who set off red flags)?

[penguin92]

Would having a Masters degree in Biomedical Engineering enhance my application instead of having one in medical biophysics?

 

I don;t think the type of masters degree matters as long as you have good research output. The only time masters degrees differ are when you compare research based ones to course based (research one being better)

[anxious_101]

What makes you say this? If this is really the case, are you then saying that the committee already knows who they want BEFORE the interview (the interview roots out the select few who set off red flags)?

 

I interviewed your 1T7 class this year. That doesn't mean they tell us what the formula is or anything. But I do know how I ranked the people I interviewed. And they tell me, as the interviewer, which of the people I interviewed ultimately got accepted. I'll just leave it at that.

[ArchEnemy]

I interviewed your 1T7 class this year. That doesn't mean they tell us what the formula is or anything. But I do know how I ranked the people I interviewed. And they tell me, as the interviewer, which of the people I interviewed ultimately got accepted. I'll just leave it at that.

 

Interesting!