PreMed Advice Needed

[dumbling]

I’ve been a longtime lurker of this forum and I thought I’d take a chance and get some honesty that I can think about. 

Just some background on me: I’m in a coop program but because of the pandemic I’m taking a semester of courses in the Winter. I failed 1st year biology and organic chemistry I, so I’m re-taking those courses this Winter. I’m in a program that has a requires a lot of humanities courses.

 

GPA

(2019) 1st year Fall: 2.92

(2020) 1st year Winter: 3.00 

(2020) 1st year Summer: 2.98

(2020) 2nd Year Fall: 2.94

 

Why am I getting such low grades? To be honest, I haven’t figured out how to study in university (online or in person). What works for some classes don’t for others, so it’s been a journey. I know that my GPA doesn’t paint a full picture of me. I still need to write the MCAT and I haven’t listed out my extra-curricular activities. But having a high GPA (or at least above 3.7) is pretty essential to an application.

What I want to ask is what should I do to make myself a stronger medical school applicant (aside from raise my GPA)? If you were an admissions officer, what does my GPA say to you about me? Considering I failed biology and organic chemistry, should I reconsider medical school?

 

Honesty and constructive feedback is highly appreciated! (However, please remember that I’m human too!!)

[naptime98]

I'm sorry if this is blunt but at this point I think your only chance of getting in in Canada (without beginning a whole new undergraduate degree, which in this situation would only help for a couple of more schools) is Western or Queens. You would need your last two years to be above 3.7 (preferably 3.8+ for queens). Additionally, both of those schools have fairly high and strict MCAT cutoffs and really value diverse and long term ECs. Look through the forums to determine your exact MCAT cutoffs for these schools, study hard and if you haven't already began getting meaningful experiences start now.  If courses like bio and orgo are difficult for you, make sure to give yourself a lot of time (even 6 months+ if this content is really difficult for you and you aren't retaking the courses )to study for the MCAT as these topics encompass the majority of 2 out of the 4 sections. 

 

You may want to look into other resources to figure out how you study most effectively. Maybe you need a tutor? At the end of the day, with your current marks its going to be an uphill battle, but it isn't impossible. If this is really something you want then you'll have to commit thousands of hours over the next couple of years to getting there. If I was you I would also consider looking into other healthcare professions as a back up plan if you aren't able to achieve a high enough GPA to get into medicine. 

 

To answer your question about the admission's officer impression of you based off of your GPA: Medicine is one of the, if not the, most difficult professional program in terms of volume of information needed to memorize and understand. Having a lowish first year is understandable due to the highschool to university transition but you have to show that you grew from that. Admissions needs to know that you are capable of handling the information, and GPA is the primary way they measure that. You will be competing against some applicants who never had a year under 3.9, so you will definitely have to improve your GPA and then improve the other aspects of your application even more if this is something you want. 

[dumbling]

Thank you for your honesty! I was afraid that Western and Queens would be my only options, but that's on me unfortunately. Do you have any advice on how I can make myself a stronger candidate for schools other than Western and Queens as well? Or, as you said, my only other option is to complete a second undergrad. A 5th year perhaps? Also, thank you for replying so quickly, I really appreciate your response!

[gangliocytoma]

20 minutes ago, dumbling said:

Thank you for your honesty! I was afraid that Western and Queens would be my only options, but that's on me unfortunately. Do you have any advice on how I can make myself a stronger candidate for schools other than Western and Queens as well? Or, as you said, my only other option is to complete a second undergrad. A 5th year perhaps? Also, thank you for replying so quickly, I really appreciate your response!

The 4.0 scale makes it really hard to repair a damaged GPA. You get really punished for every grade below an A- or 3.7. Your best bet is to see what your GPA would be at each school with the best case scenario after 4 years (straight 4.0 from this point on) to see if there is any chance to salvage things. I think you need to take some time and think about why you're getting the grades that you are and where you can improve to get those marks up. Unfortunately in your case, in Canada GPA is king for med admissions.

[naptime98]

For schools other than western: Mac and UofT are out unless you take like 10 undergraduate years. Ottawa looks at last 3 years so a fifth year may give you a shot there but the average of your last three years would need to be 3.85+ if you’re in province for Ontario or 3.87+ if you’re out of province. If you’re from a rural region, 5 years plus a masters degree might get you in range for NOSM. Dalhousie looks at just last two years, however, if you’re OOP you need to have a connection to the maritimes with them only interviewing ~8% of out of province applicants. Memorial looks at cGPA and your first two years will essentially disqualify you. Manitoba has an excellent wGPA formula which could potentially help but even then the but the average MCAT score for out of province applicants we get interviewed is a 523 and average GPA is a 4.4/4.5. Sask requires 85%+ cumulatively. Alberta and Calgary each drop one year but Alberta requires a 3.5+ for OOP with the average accepted being 3.9+, and Calgary requires a 3.8 minimum. I’m not sure about the minimums for UBC but I believe out of province is generally 90%+, however they do drop a year.

 

I don’t know about French schools so if you’re bilingual you could look into those. Some schools may drop your first degree if you get a second undergrad, you could look into which schools those are. As I said I think Ottawa is the only other option with a 5th year.

[dumbling]

1 hour ago, naptime98 said:

For schools other than western: Mac and UofT are out unless you take like 10 undergraduate years. Ottawa looks at last 3 years so a fifth year may give you a shot there but the average of your last three years would need to be 3.85+ if you’re in province for Ontario or 3.87+ if you’re out of province. If you’re from a rural region, 5 years plus a masters degree might get you in range for NOSM. Dalhousie looks at just last two years, however, if you’re OOP you need to have a connection to the maritimes with them only interviewing ~8% of out of province applicants. Memorial looks at cGPA and your first two years will essentially disqualify you. Manitoba has an excellent wGPA formula which could potentially help but even then the but the average MCAT score for out of province applicants we get interviewed is a 523 and average GPA is a 4.4/4.5. Sask requires 85%+ cumulatively. Alberta and Calgary each drop one year but Alberta requires a 3.5+ for OOP with the average accepted being 3.9+, and Calgary requires a 3.8 minimum. I’m not sure about the minimums for UBC but I believe out of province is generally 90%+, however they do drop a year.

 

I don’t know about French schools so if you’re bilingual you could look into those. Some schools may drop your first degree if you get a second undergrad, you could look into which schools those are. As I said I think Ottawa is the only other option with a 5th year.

Thank you for the detailed reply! I didn't know that UBC drops a year, that might be helpful in my case. It's unfortunate that my chances for Mac and UofT are out, but again that's on me. Do you think it would be worthwhile for me to get a Masters to improve my chances for Mac or UofT? Or should I disread them and just focus on trying to get admitted to other schools? Thank you again!

[naptime98]

55 minutes ago, dumbling said:

Thank you for the detailed reply! I didn't know that UBC drops a year, that might be helpful in my case. It's unfortunate that my chances for Mac and UofT are out, but again that's on me. Do you think it would be worthwhile for me to get a Masters to improve my chances for Mac or UofT? Or should I disread them and just focus on trying to get admitted to other schools? Thank you again!

I really don’t think it’s worth it. It gives you a bonus 1% at Mac, which given your cGPA right now isn’t enough unfortunately. Maaaaybe with a 132 CARS and a 99% CASPer but I’m not sure that’s worth doing a whole masters for. UofT just cares so much about GPA that I don’t see it happening without a whole second undergrad and even that might not be enough. Accepted average for UofT has been 3.95+ the last couple of years.

[shikimate]

Let's say theoretically you get in, you'll find your class material is heavier, exams are all MCQ (just like most undergrad bio/chem), and you'll have less time to adjust and figure out how to study before you hit a wall.

There is no bias towards applicants with humanities background that examines someone using essays, projects etc. However, you should note MCAT, your licensing exams (MCCQE, USMLE, even a lot of Royal College specialties, ABMS exams) use MCQ. If you struggle with a MCQ exam in undergrad with 30 questions, can you handle USMLE Step 1 or Internal Medicine board exam with a few hundred MCQs spanning over an entire day? Also a lot of other healthcare programs like dentistry also rely on MCQ heavily. If you decide to go to a foreign school because your GPA is too weak for Canada, it is even worse, because you'll be studying for USMLE step 1 non stop. It exacerbates your problem of not having a good study strategy, it won't alleviate it. It is brutal but it is what it is.

I think right now you should figure out where your strength is. If your strength is in humanities courses that emphasizes essays, then take more of those courses, or even do a second degree if needed, to boost your GPA. Having said that, eventually you'll have to figure out how to tackle MCQ and science exams.

I don't know if there is a magic bullet that can teach someone how to succeed in science courses, but your best bet is to talk to as many people who're doing well, and try as many strategies as you can before you find the one that works for you. If you study alone, find others who are successful to study with, be thirsty and take in as much as you can in terms how they study, how they tackle MCQs, how they figure out what topic is high yield, what is not etc.

[Psych]

On 12/16/2020 at 7:21 PM, dumbling said:

Thank you for the detailed reply! I didn't know that UBC drops a year, that might be helpful in my case. It's unfortunate that my chances for Mac and UofT are out, but again that's on me. Do you think it would be worthwhile for me to get a Masters to improve my chances for Mac or UofT? Or should I disread them and just focus on trying to get admitted to other schools? Thank you again!

I just wanted to chime in here- if med is your goal then I would definitely NOT do a masters, it will not help you at all in your situation unfortunately since the majority of all (if not all) schools do not look at grad school grades and any other benefit a masters would give you is unfortunately quite small. I would recommend that you do as well as you can in the rest of your current degree, and if you can get yourself to a 3.8+ in 4-5 years then hopefully you'll be able to get in somewhere (especially at the schools people have mentioned)! If not, I really recommend looking into doing a second undergrad- in your case it would have much more benefit than a masters. Many programs can be streamlined in a shorter amount of time so you could likely do this degree in 2-3 years instead of a full four. I know someone who did a full honours degree in only 2 years.

It's also important for you to realize that it's unlikely your grades will change overnight- you might consider giving some serious thought to why you aren't getting the grades you're hoping for, if your program is right for you (you could consider switching programs/schools), etc. If you really want med, continuing down your current path with no changes is unfortunately probably only going to waste your time.

Many things are important to get into med school, but without a high GPA you can't even get your foot in the door. It's a sad reality but for most schools you need at least a 3.8 (some higher) to even get your application looked at. As people have mentioned, the way schools calculate this GPA varies so definitely look into that- but right now your GPA is not high enough for any Canadian school. Med is still possible though, it just may take a few extra years! I wish you the best of luck