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*Applying to the States


Guest Ian Wong

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Guest Ian Wong

Author:*jane doe

Date:***10/6/2000 5:49 pm*PST

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Has anyone looked into being admitted to US medschools or the off-shore (Caribbean) medschools?

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Guest Ian Wong

Author:*Ian Wong, MS2

Date:***10/7/2000 8:04 pm*PST

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I honestly don't know of any such people. However, I have a couple people in my Links page who deal in that. Check out John Po's site for Canadians getting into US Med Schools, and Asad Raza's site for Canadians going to the Caribbean.

 

If you are American, and are looking into US schools, then pretty much all the web-sites on my Links page are relevant.

 

One thing you will want to check out before doing so, is whether you see yourself practicing in Canada. If you go to the Caribbean, you will be relegated to the second round of the Canadian CaRMS Match, which means that you probably won't get into a specialty. If you go to a US school, you can apply into the NMRP, the US Match, but I don't know about getting into the first round of CaRMS. Check out that site at: http://www.carms.ca

 

Ian

Can, MS2

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Guest Ian Wong

Author:*M

Date:***2/18/2001 7:36 am*PST

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Hi,

I posted the new thread before seeing this one.

I applied to 4 American schools, have interviewed at one of them, and have an interview at a second one coming up.

I also applied to 5 Canadian schools, and have interviews at two of them so far.

I do not have American citizenship, nor permanent residence status, so I would be ineligible for their financial aid.

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I know 5 people who have be admitted.

 

the list of schools they were admitted to include: Mount Sinai, Einstein, Vanderbilt, Duke, Medical College of Wisconsin, Wash U in St. Louis, Case Western Reserve, Cornell, George Washington

 

The other schools they interviewed at: Columbia, UCLA, Upenn, Georgetown, U of Vermont, Harvard, Albany Medical College, NY Medical College, Northwestern, Boston Univ. etc.

 

Avoid UCSF basically!!

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If you (or other posters) want the specifics, e-mail me at cupholder_2000@yahoo.com

 

A more detailed response than before....

 

I know three friends who have gotten into TOP American med schools from Canadian undergrad. They all have 3.9+ AMCAS GPA (90+ average) and 36+ MCAT scores. I presonally feel that it is slightly harder to get into American med schools as an international. That's just personal feeling though, from looking at how my friends have done. I have asked many, many admissions offices and they ALL say that, "For international students, including Canadians, just as long as you have the money to pay, then it does not matter." Well, I totally agree with the money part; you need the MONEY for else they don't accept you. But I still feel that there is a slightly tougher standard for internationals to meet.

 

If you decide on coming to the US, Money, money and money should be at the forefront. I know FOR SURE that if you want to MATRICULATE at Cornell or Wash U (i.e. you finally got in and would like to begin your FIRST day of class), they want around $200,000 US upfront and be stored into a bank account at their designation. Yeah, that money will accrue interest and everything but the term will limit how much you can take out every year (i.e. enough to pay tuition and living expense). So before you even bother to apply, think about this. Some of my friends' parents have the saving to do so, others don't. Those who don't take out big-time loans at Canadian banks and are ready to pay them back and work as hard as they can later. If you are not willing then save your application money and interview expenses.

 

Then, the next stage....You definitely don't need the stats that my friends have to get into American schools. Those are very high stats + some research and extracurricular here and there. If you want to just get into an average American schools, then 3.6 and around 33 should do (just to be on the safe side; after all, everything is possible and 3.3 and 28 might get you in...who knows?). But then, you have to ask why in the world do you want to cross the border if you have cheaper option at home and that American school you plan to enrol in does not have a top brand name. One other friend also got in from Canadian undergrad and decided to stay home for precisely that reason.

 

Which schools....

Mount Sinai, Einstein, Vandy, Wash U., Case Western, Duke, Georgetown, George Washington, Medical College of Wisconsin, U of Hawaii (don't ask me why but apparently, they actually have interviewed quite a few Canadians and accepted one), U of Vermont (again, interview but I don't know any Canadian actually accepted there), Boston Univ., Albany, NY Medical College, Cornell, Columbia, Creighton, Northwestern, Harvard, Hopkins, Upenn, Chicago Medical (Finch), UCLA (know Canadians interviewed there but not accepted), Baylor (although private, but has 85% in-state student body requirement so difficult), Stanford.

 

Emory, U of Chicago, USC, Loma Linda, Dartmouth, Tufts, Jefferson, Penn State, Temple, Rochester, St. Louis, etc. should accept Canadians but ask because I have not heard any friends interviewed there before.

 

MCP, although private, does not accept Canadians, period. I designated them on my AMCAS and got burnt.

 

hope this helps.

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Guest Ian Wong

Hello there HI,

 

Thanks for writing a great post above! :) By the way, is there any chance that I know who you are? One of my friends from UBC was accepted into the Medical College of Wisconsin this year, and there just can't be that many Canadians out there that applied to attend there.

 

I just wanted to reinforce the notion that money is a huge factor in attending a US school. I received an info packet from Washington University of St. Louis, and my tuition would have been somewhere in the ballpark of $30,000 US per year. :o Geez almighty! That didn't include anything else like housing, food, transportation, travel to and from Canada, books...

 

That was enough to write off going down to the States. Also, I plan to, at some point in my life, settle down to practice in Canada, and as far as I'm aware, Canadian citizens who graduate from US medical schools are not eligible to Match in the first round of CaRMS.

 

Essentially, this means that getting a good residency in Canada is nearly impossible if you graduate from a US med school. See the following links for more details:

 

www.carms.ca/procedure/us_students.htm

www.carms.ca/policies/policy_index.htm#Eligibility

 

Naturally, you can match into the US match, also known as the NRMP. However, going through CaRMS, and getting a Canadian residency will no doubt, through the sheer number of contacts and networks that you will form throughout residency, make it much easier to find a job in Canada afterwards.

 

If you really want to work in Canada, consider that carefully before applying down South.

 

Of course, there are many advantages to working in the States, with a couple big ones being newer and more plentiful equipment, and significantly higher salaries and lower taxes. Yes, medicine shouldn't be about money, but studying for so long and so hard while being in debt really sucks. Particularly if you end up at a school like WashU (Ouch!).

 

Ian

UBC, MS2

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Hi Ian,

No, I did not go to UBC. Immediately after secondary school, I went down to the states for college. However, I do know many people who go to UBC undergrad and among my highschool friends, 5 are at UBC med now (first and second years) and 5 more elsewhere.

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  • 4 months later...
Guest Ian Wong

Thanks KM,

 

Do you know how many Canadians they might accept in a typical year, or how many Canadian applicants there are?

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

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  • 1 month later...

hey

i was just wondering if you knew any info about prerequisites for medschools in the states. Most i have looked at require physics and i don't have that. If you have any thoughts or knew of a place where i could get that info it would be great.

thanx

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Guest Ian Wong

Med school pre-reqs will vary with each medical school, Canadian or American.

 

Here's a good place to start:

 

www.aamc.org/students/applying/about/start.htm

 

If you didn't want to purchase the MSAR, you could simply visit the web-sites of each medical school you are interesting in applying to, and check out their requirements:

 

www.aamc.org/meded/medschls/admissions.htm

 

Finally, I'd advise you to very seriously consider taking first year Physics (and doing well in it!). Not only will it open up more medical schools to which you can apply, but it will also help you significantly when you write the MCAT in the Physical Sciences section. I'm assuming from your post that you haven't yet written this exam.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

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After getting burned last year w/ only applying to several schools (and yes, I did interview), I decided to apply to US meds.

 

What I did was phoned up all the schools and asked them specifically what they needed and then checked them off on my list. No point in applying to schools, wasting your money, etc.

 

I found that some schools accepted Canadian applicants, but only under certain specific conditions. You may want to check.

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