Quebec student applying to US MD/DO schools

[habsfan101]

Hey everyone,

Has anyone here applied to US MD/DO schools after completing CEGEP and then undergrad in Quebec?

I'm struggling to get clear information about whether or not CEGEP science and English courses will fulfill prereqs for US MD/DO schools. Since CEGEP is mandatory for Quebec students to go on to university, all my basic sciences (1 year bio w lab, 1 year chem w lab, 1 year physics w lab, 1 semester organic chem w lab, 2 years English, 1 year calculus) were completed in CEGEP, although these courses aren't individually listed on my undergrad university transcript, and this seems to create confusion/issues for some US schools. I did complete several upper level sciences in uni, but not for all the subjects listed above.

I've contacted several schools, some say they will accept CEGEP courses, some say they will not, many seem confused, say they don't know, and that they will only be able to tell me after I go through the application process.

Any advice on this would be super helpful!

Cheers :)

[LongAgoPlacebo]

Hey,

I did CEGEP with the usual heath prereqs then did a non-life science undergrad in Quebec. I applied broadly to USMDs during the 2020-2021 cycle, got accepted to NYMC, Wayne State and Stony Brook, and had waitlist positions at SKMC, UMaryland, George Washington and SUNY Upstate. So those schools at least will (1) accept CEGEP coursework, (2) not care enough about prereqs to require them on a transcript (since you don't send your CEGEP transcript to AMCAS), and/or (3) see a strong MCAT as a proxy for prereq fulfillment.

Note that during my undergrad I did take a second semester of org chem w lab (Org II), an upper-level biochem class, an intro-level psych class, and a probability/stats class to satisfy the prereq list for all the USMDs I applied to. For English courses if I recall, doing your undergrad at a Canadian university was enough to exempt you from TOEFL and submitting those results. If you did your undergrad at a francophone university maybe the rules have changed and this is more relevant for you. I listed all my CEGEP courses in the AMCAS app, but AMCAS excluded them from verification so I don't know what weight they carried. I also contacted each school I applied to and got the mix of answers you describe, so it was essentially a useless effort.

I also listed CEGEP as a junior college on the app and explained it this way during all my interviews: ...in Quebec we do high school up to grade 11 then do 2 years of junior college and 3 years of undergrad to earn our bachelor's degree...yes Quebec just likes to be different...haha...

So for the other Canadian-friendly MDs that rejected me pre-interview, I will never know if it was a prereq issue or any of the other myriad reasons.

Contrast this with applying to Canadian MDs who require you list all post-secondary coursework, so will accept your CEGEP coursework and require you to send your CEGEP transcript.

Let me know if anything unclear or more details required.

 

[habsfan101]

Hey,

Thanks so much for all this info, this is really helpful!

Can I pm you?

[LongAgoPlacebo]

Sure, or you can continue the thread if you aren't discussing any personal details.

 

[habsfan101]

Awesome I’ll continue it here if it’s cool with you, hopefully this info can help others in the future!

I have to main things I’m still a bit confused about:

1. How to report cegep coursework in the AMCAS application. I’ve read the AMCAS application guide so many times, but I’m still confused lol. Cegep is listed as one of the situations where you can request a transcript exception. But I’m not sure if I should list my cegep courses individually in the app. I received a 30-credit block transfer from cegep on my university transcript, but the individual cegep courses aren’t listed on my university transcript (which I assume is the case at all universities in Quebec?) I just thought it would make more sense to list cegep courses in the AMCAS app anyways, since my science and English prereqs were done there, so I want to make sure the US MD/DO schools see that the prereqs were completed.

2. This brings me to my next question. Assuming I do list my cegep science/English courses individually in the app, but AMCAS says I don’t need to send my cegep transcript (I.e., there is a transcript exception), how will the US MD/DO schools verify / know about my prereqs done in cegep? From what I understand, it seems grades from cegep will not be included in the AMCAS gpa, but won’t schools want to see the grades for those courses on my official cegep transcript (or at least on the AMCAS app)?

I know these are long questions… I hope they make sense. Let me know if you need some clarification.

[LongAgoPlacebo]

Yes I know what university you are referring to. I listed all relevant CEGEP courses individually on the AMCAS app and the 30 credit transfer as Advanced Placement (AP) credits. Only the latter was verified by AMCAS because it appeared on my university transcript, the former received an "excluded from AMCAS calculation" symbol.

Not only are you exempted from providing your CEGEP transcript, it was my understanding AMCAS will not verify your app for CEGEP courses even if you provide it. Hence my initial answer for the three possible reasons why the schools I received interviews at would not care about unverified prereqs. It was also my understanding at the time that if schools had any lingering doubts after interview pending an acceptance offer, they would reach out to me for a certified copy of my CEGEP transcript.

I had many other small equally pressing concurrent issues with the AMCAS app, so I did my best with the prereqs, trusted the process, and moved on to other things.

Maybe some schools had a problem with it, maybe they didn't and they rejected me for other reasons - impossible to tell.

[habsfan101]

Ok I see what you mean. 

I was planning on doing what you suggest - I'll list the relevant courses individually, and just go from there depending on what AMCAS says. Hopefully this won't cause issues with schools (or at least, they'll be able to work with it).

I really appreciate all this info!! Thanks a lot