Guest azadehtaheri Posted April 22, 2001 Report Share Posted April 22, 2001 Hi guys First of all let me warn all out there with short attention spans, not to read any further, because my autobiography is both long and complicated, and I doubt you'll be able to help me anyway. But I've decided to give this truly awesome site a go just the same. I'll understand, really. Addressed to those who are still with me, this is the story of my life: I'm 21 years old, and am currently residing in Iran. I finished highschool in one of Tehran's ( that's the capital ) best schools with an average of 19.44 out of 20 ( I know it's a weird system for grading but antway it's equivalent to 97.2% ), then I attended one year, at again one of Tehran's best colleges ( that's one year of pre university studies ) in the field which would best prepare me for the study of medicine. In this year I passed courses in a very comprehensive range of subjects including biology ( 2semesters ), physics ( 2semesters ), organic and inorganic chemistry ( 1semester each ), maths ( 2 semesters ) and biology ( 2 semesters ) and loads of humanities. I really don't know how I survived, but survive I did. Actually I graduated with a score of 19.30 out of 20 ( 96.5% ), then I participated in the university entrance exam and got accepted in medicine and in computer engineering. Just to give you an idea of how tough competition is over here swallow these statistics, 1,500,000 ( be sure to count the zeroes carefully ) students participate for medicine and a little less than 1000 gain admission in all existing med schools throughout Iran. That's one in every one thousand five hundred applicants!! Considering I could only choose to continue one of the mentioned fields I started my study in medicine. But coinciding with the beginning of my university study my parents decided to apply for immigration to Canada and these past 2 years they have been preparing for this very big step in their lives. Now because of my love for medicine I again intend to try my very best to start the study of medicine in a Canadian med school. I haven't been totally idle, I've proven to everyone that the shy girl they knew, who couldn't be seperated from her books, has a different side to her. I've shocked my parents, disappointed my lecturers, got devastating grades, partied real hard, rocked the whole of Iran and have really enjoyed myself. To be more clear, I studied two semesters of medicine, in which I did subjects like biochemistry ( 66.25%), histology which happens to be a total waste of time and effort ( 60% ), nutrition (successfully aced), biophysics (luckily aced), 10 credits of English (all aced), ethics (predictably aced), last but not least 20 credits of torturous, gruesome anatomy ( all miraculously aced ) and other less relevant and significant subjects, mostly humanities. The nightmares which haunt me day and night, and have robbed me of peace ( I exaggerate ) are my grades in biochem and histology. Will I be forgiven on account of being a 1st year student? Is there any hope? I'll be brave I promise, if I've killed all my chances, tell me so. We actually thought that we'd move to Canada in september, so I took leave off university, but things didn't work out afterall and the one-way trip has been postponed till this summer. This semester, because I wasn't sure whether my one year study at pre-university level in the basic sciences ( namely physics, maths, biology org and inorg chemistry ) would be accepted as my prerequisites or not and to revise for the MCAT concurrently, I decided to take them up again, this time at university level. But because in Iran the universities which specialize in the field of medicine do not include the above mentioned subjects in their curriculum, I've had to give up on my medicine for a second semester and have registered in computer engineering. I'm really determined to make up for messing up last year with outstanding aces this semester ( fingers crossed ). I wanted to know whether you think I've taken the right course of action? Would you have taken up these subjects at higher level or would you have continued medicine? I've done 30 credits in my one year pre-university, 34 credits in my first year at med school, 16 this semister, that's 80 till now. After I write my MCAT in August, I think I'll have time to do an extra 20 at least, most probably directly related to the rest of my medical studies. When the Canadian med schools evaluate my academic record, do you think they'll consider these hundred credits an equivalent to a bachelor degree? What's the difference between an average and a GPA? Any particular tips for the MCAT? Am I missing anything do you think? To be absolutely frank with you, I feel lost, and very doubtful. I'm not walking on very solid ground am I? I know that you have no obligation whatsoever to answer my questions or help me, but you can't imagine how much I would appreciate it. I will be indebted to you forever. yours truely, a wanna be doctor, who's not very optimistic right now. P.S I just wanted to say that I deeply respect everybody out there, who has had the guts to consider medicine seriously ( myself included ), because the road both, to and through, medicine has always been long and bumpy. 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Guest Ian Wong Posted April 22, 2001 Report Share Posted April 22, 2001 Hi there, First, you may want to check out this topic: pub44.ezboard.com/fpremed...ID=4.topic I think your major problem will be whether or not you have Canadian citizenship. Most, if not all, Canadian medical schools accept only Canadian citizens, with a few accepting some international students. Off-hand, I believe that U of Calgary has some international seats (although this may be for a specific Malaysia-Canada student exchange program). Also, McGill University might be an option, and also look into Memorial University. Can anyone else help out with Canadian med schools that accept international students? Or help me confirm/deny the above med schools that I mentioned? What you should also do, is go into my main web-site. In there, go to the Med Schools link, and inside there, you will find links to all the English-speaking Canadian med school web-sites. You should visit each web-site and find out whether or not you can apply there. Once that task is complete, you can worry about grades, but since each medical school looks at marks slightly differently, it's very important to find out first which (if any) Canadian med schools accept international students. Best of luck in that journey! Ian UBC, MS2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest anon Posted April 22, 2001 Report Share Posted April 22, 2001 McMaster accepts up to 10 international students each year as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted April 22, 2001 Report Share Posted April 22, 2001 Hi, I'm posting this for "aaa", as his/her message gimped up the message window. Your screen name was too long, and reset the screen length, so I've deleted your original message, dated Apr. 22, and posted it under my name: aaa wrote: AS a foriegn student, there is very very little or no hope in canada to gain admission in medicine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted April 27, 2001 Report Share Posted April 27, 2001 I just moved this to the "Coming to Canada for Medicine" forum. I think this perhaps is the more appropriate location for this thread. Ian UBC, MS2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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