Advice on Applying to Medical School

[youknownothing95]

Ok so a little back story. I am going into my 5th year at Western. I did horribly in my first 2 years (2.3-2.4 GPA) -- I just didn't know how to study and I beat myself up over how bad I did but apparently this is just gonna follow me. 

I did my 3rd year and got a 3.73 GPA. Then in my 4th year I got a 3.89 GPA BUT I dont have a full course load (had to drop a course) so I can't use it for UWO (im not sure about other schools) 

Im hoping to get above a 3.7 in my 5th year and retake the MCAT next summer (I only got a 510) -- I am however still going to apply for UWO this year just in case I somehow meet the cutoffs. 

My question is what should I do next. Do you think I even have a chance at med? I have non traditional volunteer experience (with international students-this took up a lot of time), ive done one observership of a kidney transplant but am trying to do more. I have no research but Im looking for opportunities now and I also work part time. 

Do you think I should go for a masters to try to increase my chances of going into medical school? 

Or should I go into something else like OT or accelerated nursing. I really am not sure what I should do at this point. Does western even take on people with minimum GPA's? Im kind of having a crisis about my future honestly. Any help would be awesome. 

[ExercMed]

I believe you still have a chance however, you will have to be selective when applying to schools. Look into all of the GPA weighting schemes for all the schools (there are many threads on here with the most recent ones) and make a spreadsheet with all your grades and how they will be processed by each school. Off the top of my head I can't recall a lot of the weighting schemes but i'm sure someone else on here will be able to speak to that. 
Prioritize. Try not to get too hung up on the far future. Take things one step at a time and remember, "its a marathon, not a sprint." Focus on getting 3.9+ in your 5th year and keep up your ECs. There are non-trad success stories on here were people have come back from far worse. 
In your situation i'm not sure an MSc would greatly increase your chances. Some schools do take MSc GPA as a full year of undergrad GPA, but your other years are still going to pull you down. Graduate studies tends to be good when you are right on the edge/already fairly competitive. 
Doing more undergrad courses is probably your best bet. Depending on other factors in your life you could also plan to move to another province to gain IP status, making your stats slightly more competitive. 

[Bambi]

I don't believe a Masters is going to help you for medical school. However, you do need to have a Plan B if you not get into med, you need to look into other health care careers, and what you need to get there. This could include PA, OT, PT, nursing. At the moment, you do not appear to be competitive for med. Your ECs, volunteering are not impressive in total, with or without research. It is conceivable you may need a 2nd bachelor degree. You need to seriously explore a Plan B in your own best interests. Alternatively, for med, you will need time, perseverance and money, with the hope that you will achieve this goal 

[youknownothing95]

51 minutes ago, Bambi said:

I don't believe a Masters is going to help you for medical school. However, you do need to have a Plan B if you not get into med, you need to look into other health care careers, and what you need to get there. This could include PA, OT, PT, nursing. At the moment, you do not appear to be competitive for med. Your ECs, volunteering are not impressive in total, with or without research. It is conceivable you may need a 2nd bachelor degree. You need to seriously explore a Plan B in your own best interests. Alternatively, for med, you will need time, perseverance and money, with the hope that you will achieve this goal 

Ok so what if I did my 5th year to raise my gpa to about 3.8 and got involved in more things. I was thinking research, clinical, observerships, and honestly, as much as I can handle. I also work part time so I have to give time to that so I have money unfortunately. I want to finish my 5th year off with above the western cutoff and then take a year off to gain even more experience and hopefully find a job more related to medicine while still keeping my other volunteering options available. I am also going to take the MCAT again and I think I can do better this time than my 510 (in all honesty I did pretty well in all sections except bio which is usually my best so if I can bump my bio up to a 128 while still maintaining my other sections score i would have a total 513). Do you think that then I could possibly get in at Western with their 2 year GPA. I am IP SWOMEN so that does give me an advantage when it comes to MCAT cutoffs. 

Do you still think id have no chance? 

[Bambi]

Being SWOMEN does help. I am not an expert on Western and hopefully others will chime in with more knowledge. I think your situation may be better than I portrayed it.

[Meridian]

10 hours ago, youknownothing95 said:

I did my 3rd year and got a 3.73 GPA. Then in my 4th year I got a 3.89 GPA BUT I dont have a full course load (had to drop a course) so I can't use it for UWO (im not sure about other schools) 

Im hoping to get above a 3.7 in my 5th year and retake the MCAT next summer (I only got a 510) -- I am however still going to apply for UWO this year just in case I somehow meet the cutoffs. 

3.7 won't cut it - aim for a 4.0 in 5th year (seriously).  Its better to do that now than already plan to take further undergrad years to boost your GPA.  Your weighted wGPA may then also be sufficient for Queens or Ottawa.  UofT wGPA is out due to full course load. MAC is unfortunately cumulative cGPA.  SWOMEN helps with your individual MCAT thresholds but you still need to hit 383.  Reaching the bare-minimum cut-offs is usually not enough to get an interview.  There is also no point in applying this fall to UWO if you have not met the 3.7 GPA (2 best full years) cutoffs. It is not flexible. 

 

[TARS]

No experience applying on the Eastern side, but in general, focus on your GPA first, think about the ECs later and don't let ECs pull down your GPA - you need as much of a boost as you can. Regarding your ECs, I feel like you're over-focused on medicine-related activities. It's good to have some but diversify with other service ethics and leadership initiatives, as medicine-related activities don't give you bonus points, and looks rather unidimensional if your app is stacked with it. Observerships are hard to come by, usually short in duration, and the nature of it doesn't show many attributes that admissions looks for except an interest in medicine.