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Do You Have To Be Superman/woman To Get Into Med School?


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So I feel like everyone who has been getting into Med school is either the president of a volunteer program they created, publisher of 5 research papers, perfect GPA, etc. 

 

I am a hard working student who has been volunteering every summer, playing soccer (although not competitively) throughout undergrad, and I have a competitive GPA. 

I feel like even though I have been working so hard, I can not compete with the people who have been getting in. Their resumes seem way too stacked and it's just so frustrating. 

 

So my question is.. Do people who have competitive GPAs and people who kept busy during undergrad get in or was I supposed to have some spectacular achievement that everyone who seems to get in have?? 

 

 

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Lol, no. This site creates a bad impression because the majority of us users are keeners. My friend is the laziest man alive, had a decent gpa, next to no ECs, an MCAT score of 26 and got into UBC a few years back as a third year. Keep a decently strong GPA (Unless you are from Ontario ;) ) and past that just enjoy life seems to work

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There are nearly 2500 people getting into medical school in this country every year.  That's a lot of young people - and when one considers lots of other smart young kids choose different paths - a lot of those 2500 people getting in are pretty average in the grand scheme of things.  I know so many clueless people that got into Ontario medical schools it truly boggles the mind.  I'm talking the types of people that only like talking about justin bieber and think Africa is a country.  TWO real people currently finishing first year this year (one at Toronto and one at MAC in case people are wondering).  But they took easy courses for a good gap, one got the bare MCAT requirement for Toronto and the other a 10 for MAC (science scores for her were both below 7!), and had decent ECs that were heavily edited (on one of their essays for toronto) by smart friends.

 

Oh well...

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It is true I know lots of average joes that get in, they don't spend their time on premed message boards though. They go out and do stuff regular humans do. I know of another girl that got into UBC but got rejected by an out of province pharmacy program (U of A?). Just something to think about.

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So I feel like everyone who has been getting into Med school is either the president of a volunteer program they created, publisher of 5 research papers, perfect GPA, etc. 

 

I am a hard working student who has been volunteering every summer, playing soccer (although not competitively) throughout undergrad, and I have a competitive GPA. 

 

I feel like even though I have been working so hard, I can not compete with the people who have been getting in. Their resumes seem way too stacked and it's just so frustrating. 

 

So my question is.. Do people who have competitive GPAs and people who kept busy during undergrad get in or was I supposed to have some spectacular achievement that everyone who seems to get in have?? 

 

Lol this thread is jokes and yet strangely reassuring :) 

 

Out of curiosity, what sort of achievements do the people around you have that make you so frustrated?

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Stop looking at other people's acheivements in order to judge your own. I find that usually what you lack in comparison to other people (like say a high GPA) you can make up for by say being a better people person or having more life experiences that will help you become a better physician. I think everyone knows someone with a near perfect GPA that spends all their time studying and therefore isnt a very interesting person. Try to balance GPA, ECs, social life and so one. Jack of all trades, master of none

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I thought you had to be, to the point that I'd given up on the idea until summer after 3rd year when I found this site. I started browsing the Accepted/Rejected threads and saw people with similar/lower stats than me getting offers, and realized I was wrong!

 

The standards are high, but not impossibly so.

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At USask you don't even need volunteering or EC's of any kind. They literally don't look at them. I did volunteer for other reasons in my undergrad since I didn't decide until after convocation that I was going to give applying to med a shot this year (because I like it, and it's helped me get scholarships which is a fun bonus). No clinical volunteering whatsoever other than one time I shadowed a vet and I noped out of there pretty hard when they started squeezing butt glands (not that you don't do similarly "gross" things in human medicine, but at least you don't charge the patient 150$ for it). So I volunteered, worked, and maintained a 4.0 gpa in biochem and I don't know why - just for me, I guess, and because I could. I didn't have set in stone plans for applying to any professional schools, and it's not like I needed all that to apply to grad studies or anything. I wouldn't consider myself superhuman at all, it all just came very naturally to me so I guess I'm pretty lucky! But I know lots of people on here have AMAZING EC's that make mine look pretty half-assed, and even better GPAs, MCAT scores, etc etc. There will always be people better than you. I consider myself a regular joe since I didn't have the "pre-med" track in mind at all in undergrad, and I'm pretty relaxed about everything in general. Definitely not superhuman, but also waiting til Friday to hear back from admissions, so maybe I won't get in and I will conclude you must be superhuman :P. I wouldn't stress so much - many of the schools have the interview very highly weighted... so if you can do awesome on the interview, that makes up for other gaps in your application! That's how the regular joes get in, I think. They wow interviewers because they're socially gifted which is why they're not in the library 24/7 getting 99% averages ;)

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So I feel like everyone who has been getting into Med school is either the president of a volunteer program they created, publisher of 5 research papers, perfect GPA, etc. 

 

I am a hard working student who has been volunteering every summer, playing soccer (although not competitively) throughout undergrad, and I have a competitive GPA. 

 

I feel like even though I have been working so hard, I can not compete with the people who have been getting in. Their resumes seem way too stacked and it's just so frustrating. 

 

So my question is.. Do people who have competitive GPAs and people who kept busy during undergrad get in or was I supposed to have some spectacular achievement that everyone who seems to get in have?? 

 

I also noticed that many individuals who seem like "perfect" candidates with many publications, volunteering etc. (on this forum and ones I know personally) do get rejected each year as well (pre- and post-interview).

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Touche. There is no Super Woman, only Super Girl. And that's infantalizing!

 

I vote for a change to "Superman/Wonder Woman".

 

Law school would be the more obvious choice though for anyone who had a golden lasso of truth :P.

 

I'm going with "SuperPerson", but that may be too inclusive with regards to views on non-humans being granted personhood.

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I'm going with "SuperPerson", but that may be too inclusive with regards to views on non-humans being granted personhood.

 

To avoid offending those with non-human phobia, I've decided just to go with "super-being"... But then again that may be too inclusive with regards to polarizing views on the existence of omnipresent and omniscient deities. 

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Lol this thread is jokes and yet strangely reassuring :) 

 

Out of curiosity, what sort of achievements do the people around you have that make you so frustrated?

 

People I know have began amazing volunteer organizations, which are not set just at one university, but my entire city probably has heard of it. I know people who have gotten in for athletics, after playing on a national team. I even know some people who have had their research published. It's pretty discouraging, when I am not even close to achieving any of these accomplishments.. 

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People I know have began amazing volunteer organizations, which are not set just at one university, but my entire city probably has heard of it. I know people who have gotten in for athletics, after playing on a national team. I even know some people who have had their research published. It's pretty discouraging, when I am not even close to achieving any of these accomplishments.. 

 

There's also plenty of people who get in without any of those things. Don't let them intimidate you.

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