What are my options?

[pparker]

Hello,

I am a first time poster and need advice regarding what schools I can apply to across Canada/US. I've completed two degrees and my profile is as follows (see below). I am currently an Ontario resident but also qualify as a Quebec Resident.

No MCAT score (yet). I did receive an interview to McGill Dentistry but rejected post interview. 

Any thoughts?

Thanks!!!

Year	GPA	# of Credits
Year I	1.5375	8
Year II	1.672727273	11
Year III	2.7	9
Year IV	2.825	8
Year V	3.7	6
GPA AVG	2.487045455
Year VI	3.827272727	11
Year VII	3.672727273	11
Year VIII	3.628571429	7
GPA AVG	3.70952381
CEGEP	3.62	5

 

[MedicineLCS]

How many credits is a full (5 courses winter/fall) semester at your school?

Also, do your years meet the course progression requirements for Western?

[pparker]

1 hour ago, MedicineLCS said:

How many credits is a full (5 courses winter/fall) semester at your school?

Also, do your years meet the course progression requirements for Western?

Thanks for the reply. Yes, 5 courses/semester is full time and I believe I would qualify for Western...Would you happen to know what their course progression requirements are?

[IloveMemes]

1 hour ago, pparker said:

Thanks for the reply. Yes, 5 courses/semester is full time and I believe I would qualify for Western...Would you happen to know what their course progression requirements are?

If you mean repeat courses, they aren't counted towards the full course load. Your 5th year and 6th year are the only ones that can be used for Western, if none of the courses were repeat and 3/5 of the load was at your year or above 

[pparker]

11 minutes ago, IloveMemes said:

If you mean repeat courses, they aren't counted towards the full course load. Your 5th year and 6th year are the only ones that can be used for Western, if none of the courses were repeat and 3/5 of the load was at your year or above 

Thanks for the info! Yes, years 5 and 6 meet Westerns GPA 2BY criteria. How does it work when you take course overloads (greater than 5 courses..do they take the 5 best or . . . )

[MaeveMmp]

Amazing how you've improved your cGPA. May I ask what you took during 5th and 6th year? Did you redo courses you did bad in or take new premed courses? You also have a chance of getting in. Good luck!

[pparker]

2 hours ago, MaeveMmp said:

Amazing how you've improved your cGPA. May I ask what you took during 5th and 6th year? Did you redo courses you did bad in or take new premed courses? You also have a chance of getting in. Good luck!

Thanks for that!! My 5th year was under my first degree and I took a combination of 300/400 courses (not repeats). My 6th year was under my second degree at another institution. Hope that helps.

[BernieMac]

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[pparker]

2 minutes ago, YesIcan55 said:

Western needs 2 years where you took 10+ courses and achieved 3.7+ in both years each, so don't even worry about the course levels requirement because you only have 1 year where you took 10+ courses and had 3.7+. 

You don't dictate what I need to worry about, so I would hold off on such language!

[BernieMac]

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[MedicineLCS]

He/she/them/it was hardly being mean to you. If you want help be nice to people volunteering their time to point out things you may or may not know. Also, as someone who's administered forums before (and still does) reporting a post does nothing... It's the mod/admin who actually decides what to do. 

Honestly, your odds are not great. Typically a 2nd degree is for Queens/Western and you need to get above a 3.7, meeting Western's rules, for it to be useful. 

Ottawa is out (3.85 MINIMUM), Toronto is likely out (even if they drop your first degree based on an explanations essay 3.71 is too low without amazing ECs/grad degrees), Western is out (as noted), which leaves you with Queens and Mac. Queens uses your last two years GPA (using full time=defined as a minimum of three courses per semester). This leaves you with a 3.6X GPA and an unknown MCAT. Even if you really do well on your MCAT, your GPA drags you down everywhere. Queens uses a selection method that could very well cut you out for the competition:

Quote

Step 1

Each year the Admissions Committee establishes the minimum acceptable GPA score for the admissions cycle.

Now, this leaves Mac. I really doubt you'll do well with Mac because they use your cGPA (which is dragged down heavily by your first degree). If you have some trump card you didn't mention (Indigenous, Northern, etc...) it may give you a flicker of hope somewhere. 

That leaves out of province schools. You MAY be competitive in a smaller province, with time, ECs, and a great MCAT, but you'd need to look at this option very carefully since it would involve a significant time and money investment (you would need to move, you are not competitive as an OOP applicant). 

I won't comment on Quebec schools. 

Hopefully that helps. 

[BernieMac]

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[IloveMemes]

If your 2 best years are from different degrees, western will not consider them, based on their website. It seems like they will only take ur second degree 

"GPA consideration will be based on the two best years of the second or most recent degree, as long as it is equivalent to a four-year undergraduate degree."

[pparker]

8 hours ago, IloveMemes said:

If your 2 best years are from different degrees, western will not consider them, based on their website. It seems like they will only take ur second degree 

"GPA consideration will be based on the two best years of the second or most recent degree, as long as it is equivalent to a four-year undergraduate degree."

Thanks for the info!

[rmorelan]

this system is being odd here - not sure if it is letting me clean this up correctly. 

and of course again groan ha. 

reports flying all over the place here - but the advice given is correct and I don't see anything wrong with it - the only thing I will add is that if you take more than 10 credits per year then Western will consider historically your best 10. So your GPA may be higher than you think, and you may actually have two years that work. However you will also have to be very careful with Westerns best 2 years rules with new degrees - their 3/5 course rule policies are a bit strange and I would 100% check with them (you cannot just take first year course in the your first year of the new degree and expect that to work). Bottom line is people are actually trying to be helpful here. 

Edited May 10, 2020 by rmorelan

[pparker]

5 hours ago, rmorelan said:

this system is being odd here - not sure if it is letting me clean this up correctly. 

and of course again groan ha. 

reports flying all over the place here - but the advice given is correct and I don't see anything wrong with it - the only thing I will add is that if you take more than 10 credits per year then Western will consider historically your best 10. So your GPA may be higher than you think, and you may actually have two years that work. However you will also have to be very careful with Westerns best 2 years rules with new degrees - their 3/5 course rule policies are a bit strange and I would 100% check with them (you cannot just take first year course in the your first year of the new degree and expect that to work). Bottom line is people are actually trying to be helpful here. 

Thanks for this! My first (and second) year of my second degree include a combination of 200/300/400 level courses as the program is accelerated. Should Western take the top 10 then my gpa would be as follows:

Year VI - 3.83

Year VII - 3.84

Thanks again!

[rmorelan]

9 minutes ago, pparker said:

Thanks for this! My first (and second) year of my second degree include a combination of 200/300/400 level courses as the program is accelerated. Should Western take the top 10 then my gpa would be as follows:

Year VI - 3.83

Year VII - 3.84

Thanks again!

ok sounds fair - again check with them it is pretty important to know how they process things. if that works your focus of course would be the MCAT. May take awhile to get a hold of them of course but the more unusual the route you take the more important you have it looked over as soon as possible.