Taking courses at Athabasca to strengthen GPA for McMaster.. Thoughts?

[NeurologyLover]

Hi - So I realized a bit too late in my academic career that I'd like to pursue med. I have a masters degree and I'm working as a researcher doing psychological assessments on patients and I have 4 first-author publications. My plan was clinical psych or phD, which I was competitive for. I also have over 10 academic awards and scholarships and funding

My gpa is so low though. Its a 2.71  (my masters GPA is a 4.0 though). I calculated I'd need 15 courses with a 4.0 to raise my undergrad GPA to a 3.0 which is McMasters cut off. Is it even worth it? Are there any schools that would disregard a low GPA with high research experience, patient experience, a MSc, publications and good MCAT, reference letters, etc?

[NeuroD]

That's a tough spot to be in. I personally don't know anyone who made it with 3.0, despite the "EC" level being pretty high in my class.

[frenchpress]

How long ago was your undergrad?  Any chance the GPA certain years was a lot better than others?

There are a couple of schools that are more accommodating to people with really bad undergrads. Queen's will use your last two years and are a bit more accommodating on GPA if you have a master's. Calgary will drop anything older than 10 years old, but you'll still need at least two years of courses to evaluate. So in both cases, you might need a couple more years of full time undergrad to meet their cut offs - and going back for that can be really tough when you're already in the position to be working and moving towards doing a PhD. 

[DNM]

If you have such low undergrad gpa McMaster should be the last school to looking at, esp since they don't look at ECs/publications and only give a 4% bonus for PhD. 

Your best bet is second undergrad and you should aim for schools that don't look at cumulative GPA. 

[Canadian123]

Thanks! I know Queens considers 3 courses as full time. I don’t think I will achieve a 3.9+ taking 5 and can’t really quit my job but I know 3 is doable. Is Queens the only one on that list that considers 3 courses?