Where did you go for your undergrad? (US applicants)

[DreamDoc]

I'm a high school student about to enter my final year and am planning to study medicine in the US after university. I wanted some advice/input from people who are planning to or are currently studying in the US. Right now I am very confused on which university to attend. My choices are:

 

University of Toronto

 

University of Western Ontario

 

Queen's University

 

Univeristy of Waterloo

 

I want to attend a university where I can achieve a high GPA and from I keep hearing it is almost impossible to have a high GPA at Toronto and Queen's. That is why I am leaning more towards Western.

 

I was wondering is US schools look at the reputation of the school (undergrad) when you apply. For example, would they choose a Toronto student over a Western student?

 

It would also be helpful if people would share which university they attended and why and what their GPA was. This would be very helpful.

[THX]

The only schools with any sort of reputation in states would be Mcgill and UofT - with Mcgill being much better known (I don't know why exactly). Will the reputation help you? Only marginally, if at all.

 

 

My suggestion? Check the campus and meet the students, go to a school you feel comfortable attending. As a current Western student I can tell you that getting a high grade isn't any easier here, the class average is still 66-68% like most universities. The only advantage is that most classes do not have a strict bell curve, that apparently is present at UofT.

 

If I had to do it all over again I would have attended a really small school like Mount Allison or whatnot. The grades are higher and you actually interact with professors so you end up stellar letters of recommendation.

[Alastriss]

The only schools with any sort of reputation in known to med school adcomms are McGill and UofT

 

other US faculties go NUTS over students from queen's and western who are doing business - Just throwing the other Canadian schools the love they deserve.

 

The fact of the matter is, where you come from in Canada means so little when compared to all the other factors that matter.

 

You would rather have a high GPA and come from an ok school than a low GPA but have that reputation to back you. It can be considered no more than a 0.1 boost to your gpa. SDN is filled with tons of applicants from top tier schools that have scraped a gpa of less than 3.4 and sitting around hoping that their school reputation gives them the acceptance they so badly look for.

 

For what its worth, From my school (Queen's) I personally know of people that got into the following:

Wash U at St. Louis

Dartmouth

Yale

Columbia

Harvard

 

They probably had ~ 3.9, maybe more, and pretty darn good applications. So you can decide for yourself whether reputation is such a big deal that you put it as a top reason for attending an institution

[Retsage]

I know a guy from York who is just now starting at Hopkins.

[KennethToronto]

Your undergrad school is meaningless in your US applications, unless you go to McGill, which for no good reason is well known in the US north east (the farther you move away from the north east area, the less well known it becomes).

 

As for Queen's being difficult to do well: absolutely false. You put in the effort, you get the result. It's the same theme at every school, including UofT. UofT just happens to have a MUCH LARGER class, so it's the same percent as other schools where students do poorly, there's just more of them, and thus more voices b1tching that they've got it rough.

[Alastriss]

Your undergrad school is meaningless in your US applications, unless you go to McGill, which for no good reason is well known in the US north east (the farther you move away from the north east area, the less well known it becomes).

 

As for Queen's being difficult to do well: absolutely false. You put in the effort, you get the result. It's the same theme at every school, including UofT. UofT just happens to have a MUCH LARGER class, so it's the same percent as other schools where students do poorly, there's just more of them, and thus more voices b1tching that they've got it rough.

 

I second that. Secondly, Queen's for one has a cutoff for life sci, which weeds out a lot of those that b1tch, just like what Kenneth said.

 

And yes, if u don't study hard for queen's, you won't do well. They have a lot of tests that are easy if u study hard, but hard if you don't.

 

Bottom line: What you reap is what you sow.