Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

Worth it to apply OOP?


Recommended Posts

Hello, I was just wondering if it would be worth it to apply as an OOP applicant to dal. Since winter term 2020 is not being used and I just graduated, I believe they are using my last 60 credits from fall 2019, winter 2019, fall 2018, and winter 2018. Since dal uses the OMSAS scale, I believe this puts me at exactly a 3.85 which rounds up to a 3.9 I think? I also have a 512 MCAT. My ECs are fairly diverse and broad I have been told, but I am not sure if dal even assesses those pre-interview given how fast invites come out. Any thoughts as to whether it is worth it?  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would say go for it!

For OOP applicants, in past years, the interview offers are based on GPA, MCAT, and maritime connection essay. Your GPA and MCAT are competitive for OOP, you just need to write a strong maritime connection essay.

The admissions committee will be looking at why you are interested in Dalhousie. I would recommend looking at their website and seeing what Dalhousie Medicine has to offer. They have a focus on exposing students to rural medicine, with lots of opportunities like a Family Medicine Trips (where you visit rural Nova Scotia and learn clinical skills early) and Rural Week (where you go out into rural Nova Scotia for a week to shadow a doctor at the end of 1st year). They also have early clinical exposure -- you shadow a doctor in clinic/hospital on the first day of medical school and have the opportunity to do clinical electives and deliver babies in your first year.  Dal also has a strong research component to their curriculum -- every student does a research project and will present/publish their results. If any of those things interest you, I would mention that. The maritimes are a great place to go to school -- Halifax is beautiful and affordable, and the people are really nice. If you have family connections or are interesting in saying in Halifax longer term, definitely mention that in your essay.

Interviews typically take place in late November, with notification of success in mid-March (or April if there's a global pandemic). 

Best of luck.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, avocado_toast said:

I would say go for it!

For OOP applicants, in past years, the interview offers are based on GPA, MCAT, and maritime connection essay. Your GPA and MCAT are competitive for OOP, you just need to write a strong maritime connection essay.

The admissions committee will be looking at why you are interested in Dalhousie. I would recommend looking at their website and seeing what Dalhousie Medicine has to offer. They have a focus on exposing students to rural medicine, with lots of opportunities like a Family Medicine Trips (where you visit rural Nova Scotia and learn clinical skills early) and Rural Week (where you go out into rural Nova Scotia for a week to shadow a doctor at the end of 1st year). They also have early clinical exposure -- you shadow a doctor in clinic/hospital on the first day of medical school and have the opportunity to do clinical electives and deliver babies in your first year.  Dal also has a strong research component to their curriculum -- every student does a research project and will present/publish their results. If any of those things interest you, I would mention that. The maritimes are a great place to go to school -- Halifax is beautiful and affordable, and the people are really nice. If you have family connections or are interesting in saying in Halifax longer term, definitely mention that in your essay.

Interviews typically take place in late November, with notification of success in mid-March (or April if there's a global pandemic). 

Best of luck.

So ECs would only be assessed post-interview in that case? That definitely wouldn't be super helpful :/ Any advice on how to structure a strong maritime connection essay? This seems pretty difficult as I have not spent any time there myself, and my only real connection would be discussing how it was significant to my family when they initially immigrated to Canada generations ago. 

When you say admissions will be looking at why I am interested in Dalhousie, is this in the essay itself or during the MMI? I will be sure to keep those points (focus/early exposure to rural medicine, early clinical exposure, research focus) in mind! Early clinical exposure and the research focus definitely interests me. I am not particularly knowledgeable about the Maritimes as it stands- what are some good reasons to want to stay in Halifax long term or ways where I could learn more about that? Halifax definitely seems appealing with the limited knowledge I have, such as being a good place to work (not overly competitive/saturated) and to raise a family (costs aren't too high compared to an extremely big city like Toronto or Vancouver).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As you haven’t spent a lot of time in the maritimes, I definitely agree that avocado’s post is a great guide to follow! What I’ve heard from admissions is that after you hit the cutoffs, the pre-interview score is based pretty much solely on the connections essay, so it’s important to make it as strong as possible. That said, you definitely don’t need a strong physical or family connection to actually score the interview. As an example I have a friend who’s never set foot in the province and knew nothing about it before she started writing, but did her research and wrote her essay largely on the topics in the above-mentioned post, and did receive an interview this past cycle. So it’s definitely possible, don’t give up on Dal!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey again, 

I'll try my best to respond based on what I know. On their website, it says: "Interview selection for Non-Maritime applicants is determined by GPA, MCAT, CASPer and supplemental information regarding applicant's compelling reasons for choosing Dalhousie Medicine." I took this to mean that your GPA, MCAT, and your 250 word maritime essay were given a score and assessed competitively. For the CASPer, if you meet the cut off, you're good to go, they don't assess it competitively beyond that. These elements combined get you an interview. From there, if you are invited to an interview, your entire file is reviewed with the following weighting:

Application Component Score
GPA 15 points
MCAT 10 points
Supplemental and Essay 30 points
Interview 40 points
Discretionary 5 points
Total 100 points
11 hours ago, garceyues said:

When you say admissions will be looking at why I am interested in Dalhousie, is this in the essay itself or during the MMI? 

I would think that it would be important to be consistent and sincere (so both, really), although you may not get a station during the MMI that allows you to express how you feel about Dalhousie as clearly as you would in your 250 word essay. 

If you are interested in research, I would look into the Research In Medicine (https://medicine.dal.ca/research-dal-med/Faculty-staff.html) part of the curriculum and perhaps even think about what type of research you would be interested in exploring through that program. If you're interested in the elective component, I would think about what areas of medicine you might be interested in exploring in first year, either through shadowing or the 1st year elective (https://medicine.dal.ca/departments/department-sites/medicine/for-current-learners/undergraduate.html). 

As for information about the maritimes, Halifax **DELETED** maybe? There is also a Facebook Group called "Ask A Med Student - Dalhousie, Class of 2025" and there are current students who answer questions that you can message and chat to about the program.

I would also recommend to anyone who is thinking of applying -- keep an eye on the deadlines. There are multiple steps to the application process. You have to finish section 1 by July 31st, and section 2 by Sept. 2nd. I wouldn't leave it to the last day! :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/15/2020 at 10:56 AM, avocado_toast said:

Hey again, 

I'll try my best to respond based on what I know. On their website, it says: "Interview selection for Non-Maritime applicants is determined by GPA, MCAT, CASPer and supplemental information regarding applicant's compelling reasons for choosing Dalhousie Medicine." I took this to mean that your GPA, MCAT, and your 250 word maritime essay were given a score and assessed competitively. For the CASPer, if you meet the cut off, you're good to go, they don't assess it competitively beyond that. These elements combined get you an interview. From there, if you are invited to an interview, your entire file is reviewed with the following weighting:

Application Component Score
GPA 15 points
MCAT 10 points
Supplemental and Essay 30 points
Interview 40 points
Discretionary 5 points
Total 100 points

I would think that it would be important to be consistent and sincere (so both, really), although you may not get a station during the MMI that allows you to express how you feel about Dalhousie as clearly as you would in your 250 word essay. 

If you are interested in research, I would look into the Research In Medicine (https://medicine.dal.ca/research-dal-med/Faculty-staff.html) part of the curriculum and perhaps even think about what type of research you would be interested in exploring through that program. If you're interested in the elective component, I would think about what areas of medicine you might be interested in exploring in first year, either through shadowing or the 1st year elective (https://medicine.dal.ca/departments/department-sites/medicine/for-current-learners/undergraduate.html). 

As for information about the maritimes, Halifax **DELETED** maybe? There is also a Facebook Group called "Ask A Med Student - Dalhousie, Class of 2025" and there are current students who answer questions that you can message and chat to about the program.

I would also recommend to anyone who is thinking of applying -- keep an eye on the deadlines. There are multiple steps to the application process. You have to finish section 1 by July 31st, and section 2 by Sept. 2nd. I wouldn't leave it to the last day! :)

Thank you so much for the extensive help as well as to everyone else in this thread :)

Do you think it could also be appropriate to talk about wanting to work with Indigenous populations and combining that with my interest in research/academia for the essay? I have a fair amount of experience working with Indigenous/rural communities both experientially and academically, and I think given some of the important points you have mentioned regarding dal this would be something I would like to expand upon  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, garceyues said:

Do you think it could also be appropriate to talk about wanting to work with Indigenous populations and combing that with my interest in research/academia for the essay? I have a fair amount of experience working with Indigenous/rural communities both experientially and academically, and I think given some of the important points you have mentioned regarding dal this would be something I would like to expand upon  :)

I mean, I'm not an expert on what you should include, but if that is something that is really important to you, I'm sure your interest and passion`would come across in your essay if you wrote about it. I know that cultural safety in healthcare for Indigenous people is an important topic explored in the curriculum in first year. There is also an Indigenous Health Interest Group at Dalhousie University (https://www.dalihig.com). It also might be helpful to reach out to the admissions committee over email for clarification on what the essay should focus on, or perhaps post in the Facebook group with specific questions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/16/2020 at 4:46 AM, garceyues said:

Thank you so much for the extensive help as well as to everyone else in this thread :)

Do you think it could also be appropriate to talk about wanting to work with Indigenous populations and combining that with my interest in research/academia for the essay? I have a fair amount of experience working with Indigenous/rural communities both experientially and academically, and I think given some of the important points you have mentioned regarding dal this would be something I would like to expand upon  :)

https://novascotia.ca/abor/aboriginal-people/demographics/
 

That may be another unique approach to touch upon. Back in the day, years ago, I reviewed the work product of applicants for this essay. I would be happy to do this for you, provided you send to me the  requirements for the Essay together with your work product. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 hours ago, Bambi said:

https://novascotia.ca/abor/aboriginal-people/demographics/
 

That may be another unique approach to touch upon. Back in the day, years ago, I reviewed the work product of applicants for this essay. I would be happy to do this for you, provided you send to me the  requirements forvthecEssay together with your work product. 

I would appreciate that a ton :) I will PM once that portion of the application opens and I have a working copy going

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Hello! I am an OOP candidate who has decided to apply to dal - I was wondering if a successful OOP candidate might be open to answering a few questions I have about the application (I know it's due next week lol - almost done but I still have a couple things I'm wondering about)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...