Accepted/Rejected/Waitlisted??? (for current applicants)

[terrypk1]

ACCEPTED

SLU: mlbn (I:09/20,A:10/16), madskillz99 (I: 10/11, A: 10/28)

Wayne State: mlbn (I:10/13, A:10/20)

Dartmouth: RickyJamesMD (I:09/30, A:10/22)

SUNY Upstate: thirty6ix (I: 10/19, A: 10/28)

MSU: terrypk1 (I: 10/25, A: by phone call 11/2)

 

 

WAITLIST

GWU: concernedp(I: 09/17,WL: 10/18)

 

Finally, yeah, I don't have jump off a building next year now.

 

I hope other canadians interivewed on the same day as me hear good news soon.

[mlbn]

ACCEPTED

SLU: mlbn (I:09/20,A:10/16), madskillz99 (I: 10/11, A: 10/28)

Wayne State: mlbn (I:10/13, A:10/20)

Dartmouth: RickyJamesMD (I:09/30, A:10/22)

SUNY Upstate: thirty6ix (I: 10/19, A: 10/28)

MSU: terrypk1 (I: 10/25, A: 11/2)

 

 

WAITLIST

GWU: concernedp(I: 09/17,WL: 10/18), mlbn (I:09/20, WL:11/3)

 

Congrats on MSU Terry! well desrved

[crystelle_007]

ACCEPTED

SLU: mlbn (I:09/20,A:10/16), madskillz99 (I: 10/11, A: 10/28), crystelle_007 (I:10/26, A: 11/11)

Wayne State: mlbn (I:10/13, A:10/20)

Dartmouth: RickyJamesMD (I:09/30, A:10/22)

SUNY Upstate: thirty6ix (I: 10/19, A: 10/28)

MSU: terrypk1 (I: 10/25, A: 11/2)

 

 

WAITLIST

GWU: concernedp(I: 09/17,WL: 10/18), mlbn (I:09/20, WL:11/3)

 

wow they told me it'll be 4 weeks but so much for that! what a great surprise!

[mlbn]

Congratssss!!! you're gonna be a doc!

[thirty6ix]

Booyah!

 

(10 char)

[Moderate]

Congrats on SLU.

 

As a side note, I wonder if there is a reporting bias on these forums.

 

I mean, I would definitely be more embarrassed of posting a rejection than an acceptance.

[The Law]

WOOHOO!! Congrats!

[champ]

congrats!

 

what were ur stats for the states?

 

 

 

ACCEPTED

SLU: mlbn (I:09/20,A:10/16), madskillz99 (I: 10/11, A: 10/28), crystelle_007 (I:10/26, A: 11/11)

Wayne State: mlbn (I:10/13, A:10/20)

Dartmouth: RickyJamesMD (I:09/30, A:10/22)

SUNY Upstate: thirty6ix (I: 10/19, A: 10/28)

MSU: terrypk1 (I: 10/25, A: 11/2)

 

 

WAITLIST

GWU: concernedp(I: 09/17,WL: 10/18), mlbn (I:09/20, WL:11/3)

 

wow they told me it'll be 4 weeks but so much for that! what a great surprise!

[crystelle_007]

congrats!

 

what were ur stats for the states?

 

thanks guys! it's such a relieve to know i have somewhere to be next year lol. my stats are: 12/9/13 Q (p/v/b) and 3.96 cGPA and 3.99 sciGPA. very average ECs, no pubs but did 4 summers of research (i'm completing forth year right now).

anyone know whether accepting SLU would cause some confusion with OMSAS or other AMCAS schools?

[smartalleck2]

thanks guys! it's such a relieve to know i have somewhere to be next year lol. my stats are: 12/9/13 Q (p/v/b) and 3.96 cGPA and 3.99 sciGPA. very average ECs, no pubs but did 4 summers of research (i'm completing forth year right now).

anyone know whether accepting SLU would cause some confusion with OMSAS or other AMCAS schools?

 

No it should not. if you receive other acceptances from u.s. schools you can hold on to them until mid May 2011 at which point you have to decide on one school. If you still have waitlist offers by this point you can keep them along your sole acceptance throughout the summer. As for OMSAS, they don't know anything about your US med school acceptance status. However, there is very small time gap between choosing US over Canada. You first find out if you got into an OMSAS school two or three days before the deadline to decide on one US school. So I'd recommend you make up your mind before this occurs.

[Moderate]

thanks guys! it's such a relieve to know i have somewhere to be next year lol. my stats are: 12/9/13 Q (p/v/b) and 3.96 cGPA and 3.99 sciGPA. very average ECs, no pubs but did 4 summers of research (i'm completing forth year right now).

anyone know whether accepting SLU would cause some confusion with OMSAS or other AMCAS schools?

 

Why are you even applying to the states with a killer GPA like that?

[crystelle_007]

lol cuz i got no love from canada last year (9 verbal?) and i really really really want to do medicine =D

 

so...i know that we get notified may 13-15ish for Canadian schools, so you are saying that i'll have to decide on whether to go to the states or canada a few days after? i.e if i get waitlisted in canada in may i can just hold on to one US school while waiting to be cleared from the waitlist?

[smartalleck2]

you could do that... however you can only have a waitlist offer for a week anyways in Ontario. Last cycle, I believe OMSAS gave a two week deadline to decide on one school. The caveat to this was that by choosing one school, OMSAS automatically removed you from any other waitlists. This is bad if you get one unwanted acceptance vs waitlist to fav school but it's good if you are just waitlisted b/c you will know quickly what happens with the waitlist (since everyone has to decide so soon). As for the US school, you can always withdraw in the event you get in off the waitlist.

[mlbn]

ACCEPTED

SLU: mlbn (I:09/20,A:10/16), madskillz99 (I: 10/11, A: 10/28), crystelle_007 (I:10/26, A: 11/11)

Wayne State: mlbn (I:10/13, A:10/20)

Dartmouth: RickyJamesMD (I:09/30, A:10/22)

Kentucky: mlbn (I: 11/06, A:11/11)

SUNY Upstate: thirty6ix (I: 10/19, A: 10/28)

MSU: terrypk1 (I: 10/25, A: 11/2)

 

 

WAITLIST

GWU: concernedp(I: 09/17,WL: 10/18), mlbn (I:09/20, WL:11/3)

[The Law]

Cleaning up mlbn!

[crystelle_007]

ACCEPTED

SLU: mlbn (I:09/20,A:10/16), madskillz99 (I: 10/11, A: 10/28), crystelle_007 (I:10/26, A: 11/11)

Wayne State: mlbn (I:10/13, A:10/20)

Dartmouth: RickyJamesMD (I:09/30, A:10/22)

Kentucky: mlbn (I: 11/06, A:11/11)

SUNY Upstate: thirty6ix (I: 10/19, A: 10/28)

MSU: terrypk1 (I: 10/25, A: 11/2)

 

 

WAITLIST

GWU: concernedp(I: 09/17,WL: 10/18), mlbn (I:09/20, WL:11/3)

 

nice! are you going to accept?!

[keith_015]

Congrats to all of you who have already been accepted! I advise all of you to start looking at how you are going to finance medical school in the US NOW! Especially if you are considering going to SLU with its escrow requirement. Getting into the US is one battle, but securing financing is another. You don't want to go into the summer worrying about not having the money to go and having to withdraw your acceptance. You can always cancel any arrangements you make if you get into Canada and withdraw from the US.

 

As a help from my research last year, for US options: http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39381 and for CDN options: http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40870

 

The big reason I bring this up is that for either CDN or US banking options, you WILL REQUIRE A COSIGNER FROM THE RESPECTIVE COUNTRY. This could take time and CDN banks may not be "with it" when it comes to generating an LOC aside from ones offered to students studying in Canada.

 

EDIT: be prepared for covering financing for the ESTIMATED COST OF ATTENDANCE, which means tuition + living expenses + supplies as estimated by your school. US immigration will need you to prove on a year to year basis that you have that amount available to you at entry before you will be allowed F1 status.

[AnxiousBoy]

Regarding financing, I will save you guy some time and say not to bother with US banks. Aside from requiring a US-based credible co-signer, their idea of interest rates are different from that of Canada. While Canadian prime rate is established as 2% above the Bank of Canada overnight benchmark rate, the US prime is somewhere in the order of 4% above the US Fed rate.

 

Regarding Canadian banks, they are pretty much the same regarding terms and conditions. There are small minute differences but you've got more important things to occupy your time than this. After the recent recession, ALL banks will require co-signers so better starting thinking of someone now. Regarding the amount, while there are posted caps it is very subjective. My experience have been that the upper cap is unlimited but within reason to your tuition. They'll ask you to bring your tuition bill/statement, then you can argue about special circumstances where you need the money not listed on your tuition/living expense forms and then they'll go make a phone call and voila! I haven't had any problem yet. If someone gives you a hard time, then go to another branch and talk to someone else. You can even go to another branch of the same bank and you'll get a different response.

 

Regarding the Immigrations issue about your capacity to pay your tuition, it is not year over year check. You do it once in the beginning where you show proof that you can pay for it (I just gave my school the letter from the bank that said I have a credit limit of X), they fill out your I-20, the border guy asks you a question or 2 about it, then you're done for 4 years. No more checks after that. In fact, I only had enough for tuition and nothing for living expenses but it still wasn't a hassle. To think of it, this was my second F-1 visa (previous one from undergrad), and both times it hasn't been a problem at all.

[crystelle_007]

ok that's interesting to know. where are you currently attending AnxiousBoy?

[AnxiousBoy]

ok that's interesting to know. where are you currently attending AnxiousBoy?

 

I'm at SUNY upstate.

[crystelle_007]

I'm at SUNY upstate.

 

while i was at SLU, this girl told me that it is super difficult to get a residency spot in the US if you are an international student (i.e. she was from china but did her undergrad sci degree at wisconsin madison so she is internation). is that true? and how difficult is it to match back to canada? and how difficult is it to repay all the loans after graduation assuming i decide to specialize?

[AnxiousBoy]

while i was at SLU, this girl told me that it is super difficult to get a residency spot in the US if you are an international student (i.e. she was from china but did her undergrad sci degree at wisconsin madison so she is internation). is that true? and how difficult is it to match back to canada? and how difficult is it to repay all the loans after graduation assuming i decide to specialize?

 

1. If you graduate from a US med school, your ability to match in US is on par with other graduates. You receive the same scores, the same deans letter, the same rec letters, so the residency programs don't care what your background is (ie being canadian). That was already filtered by the medical schools themselves. Either that chinese girl is referring to IMG's or she's a shaddy girl who wants you to drop out for one less competition.

 

2. Matching back to canada? I have no idea. I'll tell you after i go through with it. Officially, they say that you have no disadvantage. Personal opinion is that without the similarity in Dean's letter and the rec letters (ie: not from someone within the Canadian medical community) I think there's a slight disadvantage. If you wanna do Family, you'll be pretty competitive anywhere you go. I don't know about other specialties though. However, if you don't mind going anywhere, i guess you'll match somewhere. Stats are available on the Carms website. The US applicants have significantly higher rate of not matching than the Canadian counterpart, but some may argue the disparity as being, "I will only come to canada for this program or else I'll just stay in the states" phenomenon. Me, I think that's more anecdotal than anything else, so i'm a bit weary.

 

3. Loans are what they are. How much value do you put on money? Do you have to become filthy rich to be happy? I have a little bit of economic background so I have a bit of a grasp regarding "money" per se. But you'll find many in medicine who have absolutely no monetary sense. Smart people, just not business-minded. So anyways, yes I'll graduate with over 300K in loans. Yes I've heard it all regarding how long it would take a lifetime to pay it back, blah blah blah. Whatever. While there are many things I can go into, let me just say that one important thing to remember that most people don't think about is inflation. Inflation ALWAYS goes up in the long term. The whole idea of deflation in the economic world is a BIG no-no. Whatever you borrow now will remain static (+interest of course) but your income potential explodes with inflation. Think of it this way. 10 years ago a US grad would probably have 100-150K in loans. With incomes in the range of 150K-500K today, how difficult do you think it is to pay that off? I would surmise that with the income value of a physician 30 years from now, you can pay off a 300K loan today in just a single year. This gets me to another point. I don't think it's a bad thing to borrow a little more during school to spend a little for yourself instead of being that super frugal student like the undergraduate years. Yes your loan would be a little more, but it would be insignificant to what you make later on. What you "buy" in this case is time, the time to spend some of that money and to enjoy life. I have a friend who says, "when I get paid during residency, the first thing i'll do is take away 5K from the paycheck and squirrel it away in an investment fund because that's what my financial adviser told me to do". I can only shake my head in disbelief/pity.

[crystelle_007]

I have another question. so my parents are really pushing me to get into somewhere in Canada not only because it will be a lot cheaper but they somehow thinks that it is a lot more difficult to get a good job in the states after you finish residency. since a lot of the hospitals in the states are private and depend heavily on insurance, there is a lot of competition between doctors to get into a good hospital. so since we are international students, will we be at a disadvantage when applying for jobs after residency? also how long would you have to stay in the states before you can become a PR or citizen?

[smartalleck2]

I'm not exactly sure how getting a job post residency works as a Canadian in the States. I can't imagine it being that difficult considering your US residency. Most likely by this time you would be at least a US PR. I'm not sure how long it takes to become a PR, but I imagine it must be around 3-5 years. For citizenship, it another 3-5 years on top of that. Although I attend a US med school, I am a dual citizen. As a result, I'm not really the best person to comment on this scenario.

[moo]

First of all, as a Canadian, it will be more difficult to get a residency in the US, even if you graduate from a US school, simply because of the visa issues. You want the H1b, which will allow you to get PR after, but this visa is hard to come by. Not many programs will sponsor you for it, and the ones that do are either uber competitive or really crappy. Almost all other programs will sponsor the J1 but this visa forces you to return to Canada for at least two years before you can come back to the US for a job. It's ok if you do a residency where you can practice in Canada after (EM, FM, radiology are some that come to mind).

 

Second of all, it's not that difficult to match to Canada in specialties other than FM. Many US grads have done it... I've commented on this in the past.

 

Third, whether it's better to work in Canada or the US depends on your specialty. As a pediatrician, for instance, I would never work in the US--reimbursement rates are just too low. If I were in a procedural-based specialty, it's probably better in the US. Thus, I always tell you guys to really think long and hard about where you want to live in the future, and also what you want to do and try to find the specialty where you can get the best of both worlds (financial compensation and lifestyle). Research salaries and job opportunities. If you are too specialized, finding a job in the center of your choice in Canada (and even in the US) may be very difficult. For example, one of my best friends in med school is now a pediatric nephrology fellow at UCSF. He tells me that there are no jobs in California because that's where everyone wants to be and he is thinking about immigrating to Canada (if there are jobs; he's American) or finding a job in some random place in the US (which he will not be happy about). That plus reimbursement in California is extremely low (around 110K starting per year at UCSF, provided there is a job in the first place). People always tell you to do what you love but to be quite honest, it's very stressful looking for a job toward the end of your specialty... always stay somewhat general. Doing fellowships are good but ensure that you can still be somewhat of a generalist, because otherwise job hunting may prove difficult.