Guest thesaug Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 Hey Premed, First, sorry to tell you, but I have dual citizenship for the U.S. and Canada. Many of the schools I have applied to fit my profile of my MCAT, (yeah i took the MCAT) and my GPA. My MCAT was a bit on the low side, but good enough that I don't have to write again (knock on wood). I only applied to one or two of the top schools (like Duke and Case Western). The rest were: Finch Michigan State SUNY Buffalo SUNY Syracuse University of Maryland Rush Boston University I can't remember the rest. I'll pull out my complete list a bit later and post those if you want. Most of the schools were private schools, so the question of residency is not a big concern. If you check some of the other posts on this forum, not in this topic but other topics, people have given a list of schools in the U.S. that commonly interview Canadian students. Many of the schools I have chosen are from that list. I hope this helps you out and good luck with the rest of your application! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chieka Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 I just submitted my AMCAS application and was wondering if anyone knew how long is it until AMCAS will send it off to the schools I selected? It seems that the schools are notified immediately that you have chosen to apply to them. I say this because some schools contacted me (re: secondary apps) within days after I submitted my AMCAS. This was before AMCAS had verified my app. So, while AMCAS will tell schools that you intend to apply to them, it takes several weeks to actually send your entire app to the schools. The schools that contacted me re: secondary apps were the schools that did not screen applicant's primary apps before sending out secondaries. I had to wait till my AMCAS app was forwarded before hearing back from schools such as Michigan State and Wayne State which screen the AMCAS app. This discrepancy in the different med schools can be a little confusing, but at least it helps spread things out for you, so that you won't be swamped with a bunch of secondaries in one week. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 Hi there Chieka, Thanks for your note; that's a really interesting tidbit of info. Those sneaky AMCAS folks! Another quick question for you, or anyone else who may know: on the AMCAS site, once you've submitted your application, they update the screen when your transcripts arrive and are, presumably, processed. Do AMCAS generally send your complete application off to the schools of your choice once they have updated the web site that all your transcripts have been received? Else, is there some other sort of process that goes on behind the scenes before they reach the point of sending the package out to the schools? Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mala2003 Posted July 1, 2003 Report Share Posted July 1, 2003 Okay - I managed to fill out the course work section but I wanted to verify with those who have already filled this section that I'm doing this correctly. 1) What did most people put for course type? "Honors" - if course is already complete? "Future"? (if planning on taking course this coming year?) 2) Does U of T have "semester hours"? Under: Identify the credit hours that appear on the transcript from this institution – did you pick semester hours? If so, what do you put under that section? My box automatically came as N/A. I just left it as such. (??) 3) I picked Freshman, Junior Senior etc based on whether I took those courses in 1st, 3rd, 4th year etc - is that correct? 4) I wrote 3 hours of credit for half course with NO lab and 4 hours for half courses with labs. I also put 6 hours for full year courses with NO lab and 8 hours for full year courses with labs. Is this correct? 5) My GPA doesn't appear under that section! I noticed that someone else had this problem too. What did you do? Wait? Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chieka Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 Kirsteen, as far as I know (and based on my experience from the 2003 app cycle), AMCAS forwards your apps to the school after verifying your grades, and MCAT score(s) of course! This is a lengthy process, but it should be smooth sailing after it. What did you have in mind that could pose and additional delay? Mala2003, in answer to your 3rd question, yes, you are doing it right. In regard to your concern about grades not showing up, I had the same problem last year. I'd enter my grades, but they wouldn't be displayed on the screen. After talking to AMCAS, I submitted my app as it was. The grades showed up when AMCAS got my transcript and verified the info I'd entered. I have no explanation for why it was this way. I'd say just proceed with you app anyway. If you are really worried about it, I suggest you talk to AMCAS. Best! C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moo Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 remember to call AMCAS re: your transcripts to make sure they have received it. They are extremely disorganized (at least two years ago when i applied). I believe SDN has a list of US schools that accept Canadians. (You can do a search) Don't be discouraged by what they say. There are lots of lower end US privates like Finch and NYMC that are easy to get into. And of course there are your higher end schools that are really hard to get into like Harvard, Hopkins, UCSF (and pretty much all the UCs), and Duke. But I truly believe that medical education in the US is of very high quality no matter what school you choose, except for perhaps Meharry and Howard (which were cited in a recent study of bad medical schools). Also, osteopathic schools are good to look into if you are into that kind of holistic thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest premed81 Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 Hi moo, First of all, that's an interesting username. Secondly, I'm still kinda new to this forum, but I read your post and I wanted to know if you are now in medical school having applied through AMCAS two years ago. Also, you had said that some lower end US private med schools are pretty easy to get into. I was very happy to hear that, but then reality sunk in. What kinds of GPA cutoffs do they have (if you happen to know)? I really really really would like to get accepted to a US med school. Of course, it would be ideal to go to a Canadian school (I'm from Ontario, going to UTM), but with my GPA being good, but not supergenius fantastic, I'm realistic about my chances. Anyhow, hope to hear a response. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peachy Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 If you just take a look through mdapplicants.com/ you can search by GPA and see what schools people with a GPA similar to yours were accepted to. US schools supposedly pay less attention to GPA than to MCAT scores, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BrainDrain Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 I applied 2 years ago so here are some thoughts about AMCAS: I think that once you submit AMCAS, all the schools that you list are notified and depending on which achools, they will use the information differently. Some schools will immediately start processing your application (i.e. start screening and sending you secondaries) even w/o verification. Others wait for AMCAS verification before proceeding. Mala2003, 1. Every course you enter is assumed to be complete unless you specify "current/future". If it is "honors", you indicate that too. 2. I did my undergrad at UofT and my Semester hours was N/A...i did however fill out the credit hours. 3. correct 4. Half-courses get 3 hrs and full-courses get 6 hrs irrespective of labs. This ensures that the weighted GPA works out. As I said in an earlier post, some schools on their secondaries may want you to specify labs and then you would indicate 8 hrs. 5. Chieka answered this. There are many schools that accept Canadians. I would say if you like the school, then apply. The process is very holistic and you never know what schools are looking for so apply to a broad range of schools. Here's the link to the list of schools: pub125.ezboard.com/fpreme...D=93.topic From what I have gathered from my application and those of people I know, there is no "cut-offs". US schools look at EVERYTHING and excellent extracurriculars can make up for average stats. That being said, I think a 3.6/30 can get you into an average school, 3.8/34+ can get you into an excellent school and 3.3/27 can get you somewhere. Again, these are ballpark. Lastly, here is a useful link from SDN for US school rankings and GPA/MCAT avgs. (not cutoffs) mysite.verizon.net/res21aye/sdn/ BrainDrain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moo Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 hi premed81, Yes, I am now a second year at Northwestern come August. As for schools like Finch and NYMC, I think a 3.5 GPA and a 30 MCAT will almost ensure an interview, of course there are exceptions. US schools tend to look for more of the whole package as braindrain said above. There are not really any rigorous cut-offs and you won't be rejected for having a single deficiency in, say VR section of the mcat. For instance, I know of someone with a 6 in VR and he is in a top 15 med school... he does have a sky high GPA and kick ass EC's though. THe point is, don't be afraid if you are deficient in one or two areas. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ian Wong Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 Hi everyone, One of the moderators pointed me out to this thread; glad to see how big it's grown. I just wanted to mention that it's a great idea to start a new thread if there's a certain question or tangent you want to approach. By splitting up this main thread, and asking a question on a separate thread, you'll make it more likely that other people will see the Subject: heading you are trying to get them to view, and later on, should you need to find this information again, you won't need to page through 30-40 replies to find your answer. Just a thought. If there's a specific question you want answered, don't be afraid to start a new thread on it. It can only help you get your answer. Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest premed81 Posted July 2, 2003 Report Share Posted July 2, 2003 Thanks for that web site. It was actually very helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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