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Undergrad GPAs and Courseload for US Schools


Guest thatuvicguy

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Guest thatuvicguy

Thinking ahead to the potential scenario of not being accepted into a Canadian school first shot (upcoming application cycle), I'm trying to get a bit more informed about US MD schools. I have a few questions at this point:

 

1)How important is undergraduate courseload for US schools? In Canada, since I didn't decide to become a doctor in highschool and chose to work through university (ie. less-than-full courseload) I am ineligible to most schools (yep, that was a bit of bitterness coming through :) ). Will this also be the case in the US?

 

2)How important is the prereq science GPA for US schools? I'm referring here to the 1 year bio, 1 year physics, 1 year orgo etc. I know the requirements and evaluation criteria must vary from school to school (just as they do in Canada) but in general do US schools put more emphasis on these grades than Canadian schools do?

 

3)How do US schools calculate your GPA? Do they use differing weighting formulas just like Canadian schools (eg. UofT versus Mac)? Do they focus on cumulative GPA? most recent work?

 

I'm sure that it is important to look at each school individually, but I'm curious about general impressions/trends. I've heard for example that the MCAT is generally more important in the US than up here - that kinda thing.

 

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

thatuvicguy

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1)How important is undergraduate courseload for US schools? In Canada, since I didn't decide to become a doctor in highschool and chose to work through university (ie. less-than-full courseload) I am ineligible to most schools (yep, that was a bit of bitterness coming through ). Will this also be the case in the US?

 

In short, unless you took like one course a semester for the past few years, then you should be ok. (And even then, if you demonstrated that you were under hardship and had to work, most are very forgiving.) American schools don't really care about summer courses, or courseload, everything is included in your GPA and nothing is left out.

 

2)How important is the prereq science GPA for US schools? I'm referring here to the 1 year bio, 1 year physics, 1 year orgo etc. I know the requirements and evaluation criteria must vary from school to school (just as they do in Canada) but in general do US schools put more emphasis on these grades than Canadian schools do?

 

Science GPA is defined in the US as all courses under biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. So all courses you ever took under these headings, even if they were upper division, will count toward your science GPA. This is the most important of the GPA subcategories.

 

3)How do US schools calculate your GPA? Do they use differing weighting formulas just like Canadian schools (eg. UofT versus Mac)? Do they focus on cumulative GPA? most recent work?

 

I'm not familiar with what the eastern Canadian schools do, but most schools will take a subjective approach (esp. the DO schools). No school that I know of will throw out your worst year or do anything like that but they will take everything into consideration. It is highly unlikely that one bad grade in organic chem will automatically disqualify you (unless you are shooting for Harvard or Wash U but even then with a stellar record you could be lucky and score an interview).

 

In general, the MCAT is very important in US admissions policies. However, with that said they are very forgiving if you have, say a 6 in VR and clearly are a recent immigrant or something like that. I know of someone (Canadian) who got into Vanderbilt, a top 15 school with a 6 in VR but awesome grades and did extremely well on the other sections. There are no magic "cut-offs" or anything like that. US schools tend to be a bit less extreme than Canadian schools in that they will evaluate the whole applicant instead of focusing on one flaw on your application.

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Guest thatuvicguy

Much obliged moo. Your reply has really changed my previous, albeit ignorant, perspective on US medical schools. Bring on the applications!

 

Cheers,

thatuvicguy

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