Do I have a chance at NOSM?

[Canadian123]

Hello. I know NOSM looks for people from rural backgrounds specifically rural ontario. I'm from Newfoundland and both my parents are from extremely small towns (pop 500) in Newfoundland. I mentioned my experience visiting these towns and having family there. Also Newfoundland is obviously not considered rural but its not a huge metropolitan province either. Further, I have a masters researching addiction treatment and I mentioned in my application that NOSMs mission is to help vulnerable populations so I'm hoping that will help me too. Should I completely give up on the hope of this school if I'm not from rural Ontario though?

[Psych]

21 hours ago, Canadian123 said:

Hello. I know NOSM looks for people from rural backgrounds specifically rural ontario. I'm from Newfoundland and both my parents are from extremely small towns (pop 500) in Newfoundland. I mentioned my experience visiting these towns and having family there. Also Newfoundland is obviously not considered rural but its not a huge metropolitan province either. Further, I have a masters researching addiction treatment and I mentioned in my application that NOSMs mission is to help vulnerable populations so I'm hoping that will help me too. Should I completely give up on the hope of this school if I'm not from rural Ontario though?

I'm not super familiar with NOSM so take my advice with a grain of salt. First of all, you mentioned that NOSM favours rural Ontario but that isn't really true- they value way more living in a Northern town, even if it's not that rural (for example, living in Sudbury, with 160 000 people, is better than living in a 1000 person southern Ontario town). From what I've read on this forum, ~90% of people accepted are from Northern cities and 10% from non-Northern rural cities.

I'm less familiar with how it works for OOP, but Newfoundland is more Northern than basically all of Ontario so potentially that will help? Your rural connections won't hurt either. Overall, I can't say with any confidence what your chances are but I would not completely give up hope, I do think you have a shot (but more knowledgeable people can probably answer this better)

[GH0ST]

I can help you connect with some of the residents here to help answer your question if you want to pm me your contact information.

- G

[PirouetteCacahuete]

On 10/22/2020 at 8:47 AM, Canadian123 said:

Hello. I know NOSM looks for people from rural backgrounds specifically rural ontario. I'm from Newfoundland and both my parents are from extremely small towns (pop 500) in Newfoundland. I mentioned my experience visiting these towns and having family there. Also Newfoundland is obviously not considered rural but its not a huge metropolitan province either. Further, I have a masters researching addiction treatment and I mentioned in my application that NOSMs mission is to help vulnerable populations so I'm hoping that will help me too. Should I completely give up on the hope of this school if I'm not from rural Ontario though?

Were you successful in getting an II? I just got one; I am not from rural Ontario, and I only spent a summer working there. I was brought up in a semi-rural area of QC, lived in northern BC for a couple years, and rural Alaska for 8 years. I was worried they wouldn’t count Alaska, but my context score was apparently sufficient to get me an invite. I am francophone which helps. Oh, and in one of my essays, I was able to articulate why Northern Ontario would be an ideal location for my family to live. 

So - in short, no, you don’t have to be from rural Ontario. You sound like a good candidate for NOSM provided the other boxes are checked - decent academics, solid essays, interesting ECs.

This may not be helpful to OP anymore, but I figured it could be useful to someone else wondering in the future. You don’t have to fit a predetermined mold to a T. It’s also still a bit of a crap shoot with the amount of qualified (both academically and geographically) applicants for so few seats.