solarwinggx Posted August 1, 2020 Report Share Posted August 1, 2020 Hey guys I'm a non traditional Canadian citizen who currently lives in the US. I applied to UBC last year and got a decent NAQ score, but didnt get an interview because I was OOP. I'm considering moving back to Vancouver and reapplying next year but don't know what I should do to maintain/improve my NAQ score. If you guys could give me some ideas, I would greatly appreciate it. Also do you guys know if there's a resource that students can go to for professional counseling on these matters? Here's my info:I'm a nontraditional applicant who applied in 2016-2017 and didn't get into any schoolscGPA: 3.69; sGPA: 3.85 (CC classes i took in high school weighed me down + Junior semester didnt go so smoothly for me after transferring to UC Berkeley, but I brought GPA back up senior year)MCAT: 515 (130/126/131/128)Previous MCAT scores: 504 (127/122/128/127), 30 (10/9/11)State of residence: California, Green Card holder (Canadian Citizen)Race: Asian - TaiwaneseUndergraduate institution: UC BerkeleyClinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer):~570 hours (2 years) in Kaiser ED prepping rooms, serving patients food and providing general assistance to nurses~120 hours (1 year) doing medical outreach for under-served communities in Merced and Modesto+500 hours (1yr 4mo) as a part time EMT-BLS (this is my job currently)Research experience and productivity:~500 hours (1 year) in evolutionary biology lab with PI (studying beetles) w/ paper published in 2017~1500 hours(1.5 years) in a cancer biology lab with Post-doc (did my honors thesis in this lab).~2000 hours (1 years) as a full time lab manager/research associate for a lab~700+ hours (9 months) as a full time Research associate for a Biotech company based at NASA - I was making transgenic mice and ratsShadowing experience and specialties represented:100+ hours (2 years) in Kaiser ED shadowing (I could follow any doctors and nurses whenever it was appropriate, but there wasn't 1 doctor i followed consistently, it was whomever was available during my shift)Non-clinical volunteering:+300 hours (2 years) Volunteer for San Quentin State Prison as a Math/Science Tutor for college credit transferable classes+300 hours (3 years) Science education outreach for schools with low to zero science programs + Mentoring Middle School students to help them design their own science experiments.~100 hours (1 year) doing science education outreach for minorities (SACNAS)Other extracurricular activities:~240 hours (1 year)working as a math tutor in community college~700 hours (1 year) as a cashier while going to school to support myselfLoR - I got a letter from...PI from beetle publicationPI from cancer biology labtwo science letters from professors whom I did really well in their classes consecutively.two letters from Prison volunteeringone letter from outreach volunteeringone letter from EMT job.Relevant honors or awards:Graduated with HonorsLizzyM - 71WARS - 73 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Excel-erate Your Breath Posted August 4, 2020 Report Share Posted August 4, 2020 I'm sure the 150 people who have seen this post already have all gone through the following sequence of events - click on post - skim NAQs - click off because they're so good and you have nothing to worry about The proof is given to you directly by UBC! Your present NAQs already land you in the 75th to 100th percentile. As an IP, you are all but guaranteed an interview with your stats. My only advice as a fellow applicant is just make sure you really write your entries really well (although this will only be a few tweaks, if any, compared to your previous application) and if you have space to have a couple entries highlighting some hobbies/other things you do on the side that are unique. For example, are you big on painting? Working on fixing cars? Etc. Although with all that you've done in your life so far, I'd be surprised if you even had time to take a 10 second break. Well done and good luck! I'm sure it will go well Sadly idk of any professional counseling, though I'm sure if it did exist it would be booked up months in advance full of hopeful premeds. Perhaps speaking to successful applicants would be a resource to explore (i.e. just through these forums). Of course you would need to get a large enough "sample size" but it's an idea that's worth a shotEdit just after I posted make sure you go through the UBC Application Help Guide too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solarwinggx Posted August 4, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2020 Thank you Shubey for your kind response. I certainly don't want to be that person that makes people "click off" so ill put this post into context for you and other members of this forum. I've recently (3 days ago) failed to get admitted to medical school twice now. I've graduated in 2015 and have been trying to get into medical school ever since then. The wall of text you see before you has not help progress my career into medicine much and it makes me feel broken and desperate. Hopefully you can understand why moving back home to Vancouver based off of a single result on their application page can be a bit, uhh... all in? I want to make sure I have something to do IF i decide to move back there, and have it be as close to a guarantee [to maintain/raise the score] as possible. This is why I'm asking people for advice on what to do to maintain my NAQ score Excel-erate Your Breath 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frenchpress Posted August 4, 2020 Report Share Posted August 4, 2020 7 hours ago, solarwinggx said: Thank you Shubey for your kind response. I certainly don't want to be that person that makes people "click off" so ill put this post into context for you and other members of this forum. I've recently (3 days ago) failed to get admitted to medical school twice now. I've graduated in 2015 and have been trying to get into medical school ever since then. The wall of text you see before you has not help progress my career into medicine much and it makes me feel broken and desperate. Hopefully you can understand why moving back home to Vancouver based off of a single result on their application page can be a bit, uhh... all in? I want to make sure I have something to do IF i decide to move back there, and have it be as close to a guarantee [to maintain/raise the score] as possible. This is why I'm asking people for advice on what to do to maintain my NAQ score OP - thing most difficult thing about maintaining your NAQ, is that your score is determined relative to the applicants the year that you’re applying. This is why UBC has moved away from specific scores to percentile ranges, because the numbered score was misleading. The best way to maintain your NAQ is to make the best application you can, every time. I’m not trying to brush off your question, just being realistic. If next year’s applicant pool is stronger than the past year’s, your score could go down even if you do what seems like all the right things. If you need a guarantee that your NAQ won’t go down to make it worth your while to move back to Vancouver and apply as IP, then it may not be wise to move. Anyone who guarantees to you that steps ‘x y z’ will maintain your NAQ is lying, because no one can predict ahead of time what other people’s applications could look like. The best we can do is encourage you and give general advice about how to get a good score. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Excel-erate Your Breath Posted August 4, 2020 Report Share Posted August 4, 2020 36 minutes ago, frenchpress said: OP - thing most difficult thing about maintaining your NAQ, is that your score is determined relative to the applicants the year that you’re applying. This is why UBC has moved away from specific scores to percentile ranges, because the numbered score was misleading. The best way to maintain your NAQ is to make the best application you can, every time. I’m not trying to brush off your question, just being realistic. If next year’s applicant pool is stronger than the past year’s, your score could go down even if you do what seems like all the right things. If you need a guarantee that your NAQ won’t go down to make it worth your while to move back to Vancouver and apply as IP, then it may not be wise to move. Anyone who guarantees to you that steps ‘x y z’ will maintain your NAQ is lying, because no one can predict ahead of time what other people’s applications could look like. The best we can do is encourage you and give general advice about how to get a good score. Agree wholeheartedly with Frenchie De Jong (jk but if you get that reference then you're a legend). Although in theory the next two application cycles might have some lesser-calibre-NAQ levels from younger applicants due to their inability to participate in some more meaningful activities due to COVID, but then again that's just a thought and not confirmed. I was careful to use the term "all but guaranteed" an interview if you were IP because you do truly never know. Throwing in some hobbies if you have the space will certainly not hurt. Even things such as being part of a religion can speak to the type of person you are Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solarwinggx Posted August 4, 2020 Author Report Share Posted August 4, 2020 What you guys are saying makes a lot of sense. I understand that the "guarantee" part of what I want isn't something I should expect and that aiming high is the best way to go about it. frenchpress and Excel-erate Your Breath 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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