USask vs UCalgary and UoA

[tebabeba 3]

Hello. I'm a grade 12 student in Ontario and to maximize my chances at getting into med school I want to study in either Alberta or Saskatchewan. From the statistics I've seen, Saskatchewan has a higher acceptance rate but Alberta has two med schools. Which province is better to get IP status?  

[fun 17]

No med school in Canada is "easy" to get into. I do not know about USask, but U of C and U of A are very competitive as they require extremely good extracurriculars. I think staying in Ontario would be nice, as you have multiple med schools to choose from, and I heard that Ontario schools usually care about grades only, and maybe a couple of ECs, with the exception of U of T, but still it is mostly grade based. The amount of diverse ECs you need to have a shot at U of C and U of A is a lot, as U of C looks at Top Ten experiences and U of A has 16 positions to fill out in the EC section. U of C also likes taking more mature applicants, who have years of experience and also very diverse ECs. I have a friend who left Alberta to go to Ontario because he thinks it is easier to get in because it is more heavily weighted on GPA, but who knows. Each school has its own unique requirements.

[gnatcatcher 8]

50 minutes ago, tryingtogetthrough said:

No med school in Canada is "easy" to get into. I do not know about USask, but U of C and U of A are very competitive as they require extremely good extracurriculars. I think staying in Ontario would be nice, as you have multiple med schools to choose from, and I heard that Ontario schools usually care about grades only, and maybe a couple of ECs, with the exception of U of T, but still it is mostly grade based. The amount of diverse ECs you need to have a shot at U of C and U of A is a lot, as U of C looks at Top Ten experiences and U of A has 16 positions to fill out in the EC section. U of C also likes taking more mature applicants, who have years of experience and also very diverse ECs. I have a friend who left Alberta to go to Ontario because he thinks it is easier to get in because it is more heavily weighted on GPA, but who knows. Each school has its own unique requirements.

OMSAS ABS has 32 items

[zxcccxz 125]

39 minutes ago, gnatcatcher said:

OMSAS ABS has 32 items

I think it’s ultimately a quality vs. quantity consideration. OMSAS gives you barely any space even to describe your activity, let alone discuss it. Many schools (i.e., Mac) couldn’t care less what your extracurriculars are like and focus on GPA/MCAT/CASPer.  Realistically, unless you’re a mature applicant with a PhD, no one has 32 meaningful experiences to include, and so people fill out those spaces with clubs they attended a single meeting for, a $500 scholarship that means nothing because everyone with a 3.5GPA got it, or intramural sports which half the students in university participate in.

If you notice, UofC and UofA have a fairly low matriculant GPA compared to Ontario schools, but looking at the histograms from UofC, it’s clear how many people with 4.0 GPAs and 130+ CARS scores are getting rejected every year in favour of students with 3.7 and 127s. For UofC specifically, there’s so much weight on the subjective extracurricular/character assessment portion (70% of the app) that it really comes down to the diversity and quality of your Top 10 experiences and how well you can reflect upon them in the ~200 words provided.

[Aetherus 262]

8 hours ago, tryingtogetthrough said:

No med school in Canada is "easy" to get into. I do not know about USask, but U of C and U of A are very competitive as they require extremely good extracurriculars. I think staying in Ontario would be nice, as you have multiple med schools to choose from, and I heard that Ontario schools usually care about grades only, and maybe a couple of ECs, with the exception of U of T, but still it is mostly grade based. The amount of diverse ECs you need to have a shot at U of C and U of A is a lot, as U of C looks at Top Ten experiences and U of A has 16 positions to fill out in the EC section. U of C also likes taking more mature applicants, who have years of experience and also very diverse ECs. I have a friend who left Alberta to go to Ontario because he thinks it is easier to get in because it is more heavily weighted on GPA, but who knows. Each school has its own unique requirements.

This is poor advice. Ontario is definitely the most competitive province to get into medical school. Most schools have no in-province application pool and all applicants are in the same pool. Historically, applicants have left Ontario yo gain in-province status somewhere else. 
 

To specify, Queen’s and Toronto have no in-province preference. Ottawa will have a different cutoff if you are from the Ottawa region or the french stream, but no reserved spots. Western has SWOMEN, which is based on high school of graduation amongst other things and NOSM want rural applicants regardless of province. McMaster is the only school who has a set amount of interviews for in-province applicants, but no reserved seats.

Any province is better than Ontario to gain medical school admission.

[Compton 18]

Consider USask since its far less competitive based on the stats. I think your second choice should be UManitoba rather than Alberta schools since its more of a numbers game than ECs 

[DR@YCC 0]

Do you think USask will start look at ECs in the next 6 year or so?

[needguidanceee 2]

12 hours ago, tebabeba said:

Hello. I'm a grade 12 student in Ontario and to maximize my chances at getting into med school I want to study in either Alberta or Saskatchewan. From the statistics I've seen, Saskatchewan has a higher acceptance rate but Alberta has two med schools. Which province is better to get IP status?  

Go to sask: I did undergrad in ON, I am going to do second undergrad is Sask; it looks like its the best for IP right now. 

[Edict 711]

Make sure you want to go to Sask as well, this is going to be 4 years of your life. These admissions rules are very fickle and can change as well. Make sure you won't be devastated if you lose IP status. Choose wisely, we may focus on the differences but don't forget the majority of people who get into medical school in sask would've gotten into alberta. More likely than not, your choice won't be the reason you got or didn't get into medical school, but what is guaranteed is where you spend the next 4 years of your life, the friends you will make and this can all influence what alternative careers you embark on. 

[BernieMac 526]

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[gnatcatcher 8]

14 hours ago, tryingtogetthrough said:

No med school in Canada is "easy" to get into

OP never even said that btw

[tebabeba 3]

17 hours ago, needguidanceee said:

Go to sask: I did undergrad in ON, I am going to do second undergrad is Sask; it looks like its the best for IP right now. 

What year are you applying to? I'm looking to do USask's Phys/Pharm program in fall 2020 as it seems like the best program in the province imo. 

[fun 17]

On 10/25/2019 at 5:50 PM, Aetherus said:

This is poor advice. Ontario is definitely the most competitive province to get into medical school. Most schools have no in-province application pool and all applicants are in the same pool. Historically, applicants have left Ontario yo gain in-province status somewhere else. 
 

To specify, Queen’s and Toronto have no in-province preference. Ottawa will have a different cutoff if you are from the Ottawa region or the french stream, but no reserved spots. Western has SWOMEN, which is based on high school of graduation amongst other things and NOSM want rural applicants regardless of province. McMaster is the only school who has a set amount of interviews for in-province applicants, but no reserved seats.

Any province is better than Ontario to gain medical school admission.

As another person have also commented above me, UAlberta, U of C, and UBC are most likely the most competitive EC wise. UBC is probably the most competitive as its applicants require a very high GPA, and they also give out low NAQ scores even if you practically have been participating in multiple high quality ECs for years. I barely hear about ECs regarding some of the schools in Ontario as they put such a high emphasis on grades, such as McMaster, Western, etc. It could be easier or harder to get into depending on what someone thinks is harder to achieve. I personally think it is hard to achieve various, remarkable, long time leadership ECs that U of C, U of A, and UBC want, but some may think it is grades.

Also, UBC is the only med school in BC and U of A and U of C are the only med schools in Alberta, so it is pretty hard to get in as in-province applicants here, compared to the numerous schools available in Ontario. Even if it is competitive, at least Ontario has more options and more seats for students than UBC or U of A and U of C have for all of the students in those provinces who would like to get into med school.  

[tebabeba 3]

1 minute ago, tryingtogetthrough said:

As another person have also commented above me, UAlberta, U of C, and UBC are most likely the most competitive EC wise. UBC is probably the most competitive as its applicants require a very high GPA, and they also give out low NAQ scores even if you practically have been participating in multiple high quality ECs for years. I barely hear about ECs regarding some of the schools in Ontario as they put such a high emphasis on grades, such as McMaster, Western, etc. It could be easier or harder to get into depending on what someone thinks is harder to achieve. I personally think it is hard to achieve various, remarkable, long time leadership ECs that U of C, U of A, and UBC want, but some may think it is grades.

Also, UBC is the only med school in BC and U of A and U of C are the only med schools in Alberta, so it is pretty hard to get in as in-province applicants here, compared to the numerous schools available in Ontario. Even if it is competitive, at least Ontario has more options and more seats for students than UBC or U of A and U of C have for all of the students in those provinces who would like to get into med school.  

And yet the acceptance rates in Ontario are the lowest in Canada... Would you recommend trying out Sask? At least I have a decent shot of getting into USask vs UC and UoA from what I've read in this thread. 

[Aetherus 262]

22 minutes ago, tryingtogetthrough said:

As another person have also commented above me, UAlberta, U of C, and UBC are most likely the most competitive EC wise. UBC is probably the most competitive as its applicants require a very high GPA, and they also give out low NAQ scores even if you practically have been participating in multiple high quality ECs for years. I barely hear about ECs regarding some of the schools in Ontario as they put such a high emphasis on grades, such as McMaster, Western, etc. It could be easier or harder to get into depending on what someone thinks is harder to achieve. I personally think it is hard to achieve various, remarkable, long time leadership ECs that U of C, U of A, and UBC want, but some may think it is grades.

Also, UBC is the only med school in BC and U of A and U of C are the only med schools in Alberta, so it is pretty hard to get in as in-province applicants here, compared to the numerous schools available in Ontario. Even if it is competitive, at least Ontario has more options and more seats for students than UBC or U of A and U of C have for all of the students in those provinces who would like to get into med school.  

It is difficult to establish which schools are most competitive EC wise, however both Queen’s and University of Toronto place a large emphasis on EC. I have done file review for Queen’s and the level expected of EC is quite high. 

I think the thing most people are forgetting when comparing Ontario vs other provinces, is that, for the most part, there is no In-Province status for Ontario. This means that the amount of applications are much higher than in any other province and everyone applying is on a level playing field. If you look at the stats, Queen’s and Mac have close to 5000 applications per yer, which is much higher than any other province. This explains why the acceptance rate in Ontario is the lowest in Canada. I would say that In-province status in any province is better than living in Ontario. Afterwards, the difference between provinces is minimal, although I do think Sask may be the least competitive.

[MedicineLCS 399]

23 minutes ago, tryingtogetthrough said:

Even if it is competitive, at least Ontario has more options and more seats for students than UBC or U of A and U of C have for all of the students in those provinces who would like to get into med school.  

There's nothing stopping a BCer or Albertan from applying to Ontario schools, they don't need to meet any special cutoffs, and they are competitive provided their GPA and MCAT are high enough. On the other hand, an Ontarian needs higher grades/GPA to apply to these schools in the first place and competes in the smaller OOP pools (5-15% IIRC). I'm not sure how significant McMaster's limit on OOP interviews is considering they already get 5,000 applications, and SWOMEN is a very specific form of IP bias. 

The pools are also substantially smaller in both provinces. UBC gets 1471 IP applications for 266 seats. The UofA received 1516 (some OOP) applications, and sent out 161 acceptances, Calgary received 1203 IP applications for a class of what, 150? There's overlap in those 2 applicant pools as well.

 The competition is nowhere near as fierce. The average accepted MCAT  for a BCer (probably at UBC) was a 513.45, an unsuccessful BCer, 506.26, an 8 point gap. In Alberta it's even worse, there's an almost 10 point average MCAT score  gap for successful Albertans (511.71) and unsuccessful (502.72). What these numbers mean is that a substantial number of applicants in BC and Alberta have lower stats from the start, so the actual competitive pool is even smaller. For reference, the average rejected Ontarian has a 507.72 with a successful MCAT of 514.36 (minus a lot of scores admittedly, n=~250). 

[fun 17]

It must be the grade pool. A lot of people have good grades and due to that, they take people with abnormally high grades like 96% up average. If you can get a 3.95+ you have a good shot there. Yes, I heard USask is a bit easier to get in than Alberta med schools, but it might not be depending on what they want and what you can offer. I would not recommend U of C or U of A, as I’m from Alberta and almost no one gets into U of C unless you are a mature applicant who have years of experience and multiple different extracurriculars. Good luck though, I hope you can get in somewhere.

[Monkey D. Luffy 62]

26 minutes ago, tryingtogetthrough said:

It must be the grade pool. A lot of people have good grades and due to that, they take people with abnormally high grades like 96% up average. If you can get a 3.95+ you have a good shot there. Yes, USask is much easier to get in. I would not recommend U of C or U of A, as I’m from Alberta and almost no one gets into U of C unless you are a mature applicant who have years of experience and multiple different extracurriculars. Good luck though, I hope you can get in somewhere.

lol what

most people at U of C are from undergrad directly

[fun 17]

Lol not from what I heard at all, and I live in Calgary. I heard it was mostly masters or PhD, and people who have been out of undergrad, or just someone with unbelievable long term quality ECs.

[fun 17]

 

On 10/26/2019 at 7:06 PM, Aetherus said:

It is difficult to establish which schools are most competitive EC wise, however both Queen’s and University of Toronto place a large emphasis on EC. I have done file review for Queen’s and the level expected of EC is quite high. 

I think the thing most people are forgetting when comparing Ontario vs other provinces, is that, for the most part, there is no In-Province status for Ontario. This means that the amount of applications are much higher than in any other province and everyone applying is on a level playing field. If you look at the stats, Queen’s and Mac have close to 5000 applications per yer, which is much higher than any other province. This explains why the acceptance rate in Ontario is the lowest in Canada. I would say that In-province status in any province is better than living in Ontario. Afterwards, the difference between provinces is minimal, although I do think Sask may be the least competitive.

I heard Queens put a high emphasis on grades but you are most likely right. I did mention, not including U of T in my post, if you missed it. U of T would be hard to get in, depending on all criteria.

[fun 17]

6 hours ago, MedicineLCS said:

There's nothing stopping a BCer or Albertan from applying to Ontario schools, they don't need to meet any special cutoffs, and they are competitive provided their GPA and MCAT are high enough. On the other hand, an Ontarian needs higher grades/GPA to apply to these schools in the first place and competes in the smaller OOP pools (5-15% IIRC). I'm not sure how significant McMaster's limit on OOP interviews is considering they already get 5,000 applications, and SWOMEN is a very specific form of IP bias. 

The pools are also substantially smaller in both provinces. UBC gets 1471 IP applications for 266 seats. The UofA received 1516 (some OOP) applications, and sent out 161 acceptances, Calgary received 1203 IP applications for a class of what, 150? There's overlap in those 2 applicant pools as well.

 The competition is nowhere near as fierce. The average accepted MCAT  for a BCer (probably at UBC) was a 513.45, an unsuccessful BCer, 506.26, an 8 point gap. In Alberta it's even worse, there's an almost 10 point average MCAT score  gap for successful Albertans (511.71) and unsuccessful (502.72). What these numbers mean is that a substantial number of applicants in BC and Alberta have lower stats from the start, so the actual competitive pool is even smaller. For reference, the average rejected Ontarian has a 507.72 with a successful MCAT of 514.36 (minus a lot of scores admittedly, n=~250). 

That just further proves my point of how Ontario schools care mostly about grades. I know from experience that getting just good grades is much easier than maintaining a 90 average and having an unreal amount of unique, diverse, and long term ECs. This is most likely why people with 4.0s and high MCAT scores constantly get rejected at these schools. They seem to underestimate ECs. These schools care about ECs to a point where after a while, it is basically impossible to manage while maintaining good grades. I do not know the details about the actual competitive pool being smaller, because after a while most people with 4.0s just do not apply to these schools as they think Ontario is much easier to get into considering it is highly grade based. UBC, U of A, and U of C also require somewhat high grades, as every med schools do, but it's like 90 average and a substantial amount of long term, unique ECs, versus 94-96 average and okay ECs. I personally think the first is harder, but everyone has differing opinions on this.

[BernieMac 526]

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[BernieMac 526]

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[MedicineLCS 399]

I'd have to respectfully disagree. For one, 2/5 of the "main" Ontario schools use a cutoff approach. Queens cuts the top 40%, hardly an aggressive cutoff, and Westerns 3.7 isn't bad. Yes, 2 schools use it competitively, but that's only 2/5. McMaster is a bit of a strange case with no drops, but it's only worth 33%. In contrast, your NAQ is 50% of your pre interview score at UBC. 

Leta also not lose sight of the fact that in Alberta A+/A=4, which isn't the case in Ontario. My OMSAS cGPA is lower than my Alberta GPA, and I have a bunch of A+s to minimize the gap. If all those A+s were As I'd have a substantial gap (>0.05 GPA points). Also, a 3.85/3.81 with a dropped year isn't comparable to a cGPA of 3.87 at McMaster. 

[tebabeba 3]

1 hour ago, YesIcan55 said:

I completely agree with you. Plus, last year the average entrance GPA to UofC was 3.85, and 3.81 for UofA which is not significantly lower than most Ontario schools...people overhype how hard it is to get into Ontario schools while underrating how hard it is to get into Alberta schools....put some respect on Alberta! Do not lump us with USask...we can all agree how much easier it is to get in there than anywhere else in Canada BY FAR.. 

Why are you acting like you're so much better than Saskatchewan? So what if it's easier to get into? That doesn't make it worse, if anything people going to Saskatchewan are smarter than those who don't.