Applying to med next year

[poslkdf]

Hi,

I will be applying to med school next year. 

My sole med school I'll be applying to is Mac. My GPA is 3.76.

I plan on re-writing MCAT to achieve of score of 129+ on CARS.

I do not have much to offer for EC part.

Should I bother doing EC's or should I focus on the MCAT & CASPER practice?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[Persephone]

@poslkdf

McMaster doesn't look at your ECs at all. Their selection criteria is at the link below:

http://mdprogram.mcmaster.ca/md-program-admissions/how-we-select/selecting-our-students

If you want to up your chances of getting in, obviously the best way to do that is  to apply to more than one school, in which case ECs will be important. If you cannot do that, then yes focusing on MCAT and CASPer would be a good idea. 

[poslkdf]

@Persephone

I don't have pre-requisites for most schools which is the reason I am trying to apply only to Mac.

[random_dent]

I'm in a similar situation - no pre-reqs, only applying to Mac.  From what they have published and what the admissions folks have said they don't really look at anything outside of their statistical formulae until they are doing their final ranking, and even then they're more looking at things that would disqualify you - a poor recommendation, for instance (the idea being that if you can't get 3 people to say nice things about you then there's probably some pretty big issues with you as a candidate).  Focus on getting good CARS and CASPeR. 

For CASPeR, one of the best things you can do to prepare is actually get yourself into real-life situations.  So spend this year volunteering at places where you're interacting with people on a day-to-day basis, dealing with difficult situations etc.  

Mac does a *really* good job at drilling down into who you are as a person, so the only way to really prepare for CASPeR and the MMI is to be a well-rounded, empathetic person with excellent communication skills.  Note that a 129 on CARS and 3.76 GPA will put you slightly below average of an accepted student, so to get in you'll need to make up a little bit on the MMI, but not much.  Each point on the CARS is almost one standard deviation, so in terms of return on investment improving your CARS score is probably the best thing you can do to improve your chances.  

I just finished up my MMI last weekend, and got through to it with a GPA of 3.39 and CARS of 132.  

[varank]

On 2018-03-23 at 2:30 PM, random_dent said:

I'm in a similar situation - no pre-reqs, only applying to Mac.  From what they have published and what the admissions folks have said they don't really look at anything outside of their statistical formulae until they are doing their final ranking, and even then they're more looking at things that would disqualify you - a poor recommendation, for instance (the idea being that if you can't get 3 people to say nice things about you then there's probably some pretty big issues with you as a candidate).  Focus on getting good CARS and CASPeR. 

For CASPeR, one of the best things you can do to prepare is actually get yourself into real-life situations.  So spend this year volunteering at places where you're interacting with people on a day-to-day basis, dealing with difficult situations etc.  

Mac does a *really* good job at drilling down into who you are as a person, so the only way to really prepare for CASPeR and the MMI is to be a well-rounded, empathetic person with excellent communication skills.  Note that a 129 on CARS and 3.76 GPA will put you slightly below average of an accepted student, so to get in you'll need to make up a little bit on the MMI, but not much.  Each point on the CARS is almost one standard deviation, so in terms of return on investment improving your CARS score is probably the best thing you can do to improve your chances.  

I just finished up my MMI last weekend, and got through to it with a GPA of 3.39 and CARS of 132.  

Just to clarify, you got admitted into Mac w/ your GPA and CARS after your interview? 

I think the wording is messsing me up haha

[Distancea]

7 hours ago, varank said:

Just to clarify, you got admitted into Mac w/ your GPA and CARS after your interview? 

I think the wording is messsing me up haha

He had his interview last weekend. He hasn't gotten in yet. None of us have

[varank]

32 minutes ago, Distancea said:

He had his interview last weekend. He hasn't gotten in yet. None of us have

Oh i see , thanks for the heads up! And good luck! I hope you guys make it in! I’m gonna be applying in 2 years