Third Time Re-applicant seeking advice/guidance (3.81/517)

[defeated]

.

Edited April 22, 2021 by defeated
removing personal info

[bearded frog]

Your GPA is ok. Any weird trends or red flags in your transcripts? Your non-clinical ECs are great but your clinical experiences are pretty low for US schools. Mission trips are not worth much these days. Don't worry too much about shadowing, US schools know Canadians can't easily get it it, but you should have more clinical experiences to get the same idea. Maybe the lack of first/second author pubs with 3y of grad school? You don't mention your LORs at all, what are they like?

Also your school list is frankly insane. Johns Hopkins? Columbia? UCLA? Harvard? Half your list is top 20 schools in the US, US citizens with 4.0s get rejected from these schools. I'm pretty sure the reason that you're having trouble is your expectations are way off. Also keep in mind that reapplicants have more stricter scrutiny and its harder the second time around in the US. It's your third time applying and frankly your application means you can't be choosy in the US or Canada so you should be applying to every school that accepts more than 1 Canadian a year and taking what you can get.  If you wanna apply to these reach schools go for it but American schools will love to accept your application fee prior to rejecting you. It's the nice schools that reject you pre-secondary.

[hopefulcanadian]

 

I would partly disagree with the above. I think your gpa is beyond OK. It is not a problem. Beyond that I agree with everything else.

I think here are somethings to consider. First, you mention your shadowing is lacking... That would be the first thing I would improve upon. Also your medical mission trips are not always seen as amazing as you think it seems. I know some schools in the US are aware about shadowing opportunities in Canada but the more you can get the better. 

I agree with the notion that you should ideally improve on your clinical exposure, and furthermore, you also seem to be lacking in the EC department.

Also and I mean this respectfully, coming out of a 2-3 year m.sc program you should have at least publication beyond a poster. Not a mark against you but yeah. I say that because your only pub seems to be from before the m.sc.

I think the other thing is that your personal statement is likely not the best because it should focus on why medicine and ideally tie in clinical/shadowing experiences where you can highlight on the impacts those experiences had on you or potentially vice versa. It isn't about making the doctor out to be a hero but why medicine.

I helped someone earlier this year with their PS and they completely revamped it and ended up getting an interview to UIC. (EXPENSIVE SCHOOL BUT STILL).

Lastly, your list is very....high end. How in-depth are you looking at the school list? Are you looking at their social media and mission statement to see what they value?

All things to think about. EC's and Personal statement are likely the biggest cultprits beyond school choice.