MedLife2018

I had spelling and grammatical errors that did not seem to impact my application at all. no need to worry.

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In my experience there is no such thing as an "easy degree". Every program is difficult in its own way and how difficult you find it depends on how much you enjoy the material and your own strengths. I would suggest that instead of approaching this as what program you think med admissions would like best, you consider what you are most interested in. You will likely do better and work harder if it is something you genuinely want to learn. Admission policy and committees change and will likely be different 4 years out when you complete your undergrad. So instead of trying to game the system, fi

All of those concerns are legitimate and its great that you are proactively thinking ahead. How far are you into your med school education? Have you considered talking to your UME and taking a year off from med school to focus on your health and to get a good grasp on managing your BPD before jumping into CARMS? That may help with your ability to cope even within a competitive and difficult speciality like optho.

GOOD Goats Ogle Outrageous Dinosaurs.

Take a look at each schools policy. As far as I know, U of A and U of C don't count your summer courses in your GPA. This can be an advantage if you want to get some harder courses out of the way.

I see many premeds falling into the trap of trying to strategically improve their application. With admissions being a bit of black box its difficult to predict what you "need" to improve. Its more important to think about pursuing things that you are interested in and excited to see personal growth in. Choose the route thats right for you, rather than trying to fit it in the context of admissions.

I had a W in my 3rd year and applied at U of A. They did not ask me about it and it did not seem to affect my application.

It's not impossible to get in with those stats. I had similar MCAT and GPA and managed to get in. I would focus on your EC, and I absolutely think its great to focus on non medically oriented volunteering and interests as well to be more diverse. For reference, heres my GPA/MCAT: Year 1: 3.61 Year 2: 3.75 Year 3: 3.53 Year 4: 3.96 MCAT: 513