Applying to med school and grad school at the same time

[Exfazel2]

Hi everyone, I hope you all are doing well and staying safe  I put this post in the general premed discussions but thought I would also put it here since its more specific to this forum. 

I have a question about applying to med school and grad school at the same time. I am applying to all the ontario medical schools and a couple of grad schools programs in Ontario as well. I'm applying to grad school as well because med is really competitive in Canada so I want back-up options in case med doesn't work out. Med school is my number 1 choice though. 

Here is my dilemna: Admission offers for one grad school come out in march and the courses for it start in late may. But admission offers for OMSAS comes out on May 10th. Hypothetically, If I accepted this grad school and didn't get into med school, then that's cool because I can do that graduate program. But, what if on May 10th, I miraculously (lol) get an acceptance from an ontario med school? Basically, if I withdraw from the grad school then there would be a notation on my transcript and academic record saying I withdrew from it, but would that cause issues with the med school I (hypothetically) accept?

A bit of other information: I am taking a gap year. When I applied for OMSAS, I had already finished all my undergrad courses. I submitted grad school months after OMSAS apps were due, so I didn't list anything about grad school on my OMSAS apps. 

I'm just really confused about this and if anyone has any insight on how I would handle this in the future, I would really appreciate it! I don't mean to be arrogant in this post at all haha, just thinking completely hypothetically and being neurotic about the future lol. Maybe it would be wise to contact the med schools I got an interview at and ask them if this is okay? 

Thanks for the help!!! 

[gremlin0822]

Does your grad program only have one intake/application date per year? I'm asking because I know that some programs (like mine) have multiple, so you can either start in the winter, summer, or fall. If there are multiple options, perhaps you could consider applying for the fall intake, because by then you'd know the decision  

[Exfazel2]

4 minutes ago, Exfazel2 said:

Hi everyone, I hope you all are doing well and staying safe  I put this post in the general premed discussions but thought I would also put it here since its more specific to this forum. 

I have a question about applying to med school and grad school at the same time. I am applying to all the ontario medical schools and a couple of grad schools programs in Ontario as well. I'm applying to grad school as well because med is really competitive in Canada so I want back-up options in case med doesn't work out. Med school is my number 1 choice though. 

Here is my dilemna: Admission offers for one grad school come out in march and the courses for it start in late may. But admission offers for OMSAS comes out on May 10th. Hypothetically, If I accepted this grad school and didn't get into med school, then that's cool because I can do that graduate program. But, what if on May 10th, I miraculously (lol) get an acceptance from an ontario med school? Basically, if I withdraw from the grad school then there would be a notation on my transcript and academic record saying I withdrew from it, but would that cause issues with the med school I (hypothetically) accept?

A bit of other information: I am taking a gap year. When I applied for OMSAS, I had already finished all my undergrad courses. I submitted grad school months after OMSAS apps were due, so I didn't list anything about grad school on my OMSAS apps. 

I'm just really confused about this and if anyone has any insight on how I would handle this in the future, I would really appreciate it! I don't mean to be arrogant in this post at all haha, just thinking completely hypothetically and being neurotic about the future lol. Maybe it would be wise to contact the med schools I got an interview at and ask them if this is okay? 

Thanks for the help!!! 

Oh also just an extra thing - It's a course based masters so i dont have to get any supervisor involved. We don't get any funding either. I am willing to accept the financial consequence of withdrawing from this masters if that happens. 

[Exfazel2]

2 minutes ago, gremlin0822 said:

Does your grad program only have one intake/application date per year? I'm asking because I know that some programs (like mine) have multiple, so you can either start in the winter, summer, or fall. If there are multiple options, perhaps you could consider applying for the fall intake, because by then you'd know the decision  

Thanks for your reply  Unfortunately no, everyone who gets admitted has to start courses in late May. Then, if I reapplied again to the masters, the next intake would be May of the following year. 

[Exfazel2]

5 minutes ago, gremlin0822 said:

Does your grad program only have one intake/application date per year? I'm asking because I know that some programs (like mine) have multiple, so you can either start in the winter, summer, or fall. If there are multiple options, perhaps you could consider applying for the fall intake, because by then you'd know the decision  

so yeahh, just one intake date per year sadly  

[lookingforluck]

Hi there! I am in the same position as you are currently. I have applied to medical school (and have one interview upcoming) and have also applied to a course based grad program starting in May. If accepted to the grad program, I similarly plan to enrol and withdraw if I am accepted to medical school. From my understanding, this would not affect our application or acceptance as we were not enrolled in the program at the time of applying to medical school. I might also email the medical school to confirm this would not be an issue. 

As a note, I was in the same position two years ago and declined my acceptance to the grad program in the hopes that I would get accepted to medical school but was not so I am hoping to not make the same mistake this time around! 

[Exfazel2]

20 minutes ago, lookingforluck said:

Hi there! I am in the same position as you are currently. I have applied to medical school (and have one interview upcoming) and have also applied to a course based grad program starting in May. If accepted to the grad program, I similarly plan to enrol and withdraw if I am accepted to medical school. From my understanding, this would not affect our application or acceptance as we were not enrolled in the program at the time of applying to medical school. I might also email the medical school to confirm this would not be an issue. 

As a note, I was in the same position two years ago and declined my acceptance to the grad program in the hopes that I would get accepted to medical school but was not so I am hoping to not make the same mistake this time around! 

Oh wow, really appreciate the response! Your situation right now sounds very similar to mine - i got one interview coming up as well for med. Sorry for what happened in the past too, im sure those weren't easy decisions to make at the time. Glad to know i'm in a similar position as someone else hehe  

And yeah that sounds like a good idea. I'll probably email the med school as well to confirm it's not an issue. Thanks again for the reply and best of luck this year!! 

 

[-D-]

Ya it's lame the courses start so early for your grad program. I was in this position but was a thesis based combined masters-PhD program. Emailed med admissions and they said it was fine to do this, and accepting the grad program would not affect my ability to enter the MD program. My supervisor knew I applied to medical school and was chill about it. I got into grad in March, med a few months later, withdrew from the grad program by sending an email, and someone on the waitlist got my spot for that. Win-win. 

[Exfazel2]

1 hour ago, -D- said:

Ya it's lame the courses start so early for your grad program. I was in this position but was a thesis based combined masters-PhD program. Emailed med admissions and they said it was fine to do this, and accepting the grad program would not affect my ability to enter the MD program. My supervisor knew I applied to medical school and was chill about it. I got into grad in March, med a few months later, withdrew from the grad program by sending an email, and someone on the waitlist got my spot for that. Win-win. 

Great to hear, that relieves a lot of my worries about this potential issue for the future. Thank you so much!!