concerned about med school

[Guest main82]

Hi. I'm in my second year and I eventually hope to go to med school. But I'm a little concerned now, because I didn't do so good in my first year and my second year is not looking too good. I am stressing over this so much lately and I would appreciate some guidence. My current situation is as follows:

- first year GPA 2.5

- second year GPA (I'm hoping a 3.5, with my lowest mark dropped)

- my first year GPA with one of my lowest marks dropped is 2.66

I am planning to study 4 years before applying and I read that I could drop 4 of my lowest marks. Is it one course per year or can you drop 4 courses in the same year?

I calculated and if i can drop 3 of my first courses i'd have 2.9 avg. And IF with some miracle I can manage to get 3.5 2nd year, 4.0 3rd and 4th I would have a cumulative avg of 3.6. I know it would be real hard to get 4.0 avg but I just want to know if there's any hope left for me. My main problem is studying last minute and i'm working on it as much as I can but there's still room for improvement. So I would really appreciate it if someone can tell me if I still have a chance or I should just give up entirely. And if there is, how would it be possible? and how does UofT look at an application like mine?

[Guest Chieka]

I think your best shot would be at UWO. They only look at 2 years, each wiht 5 full-year courses. The cut-off for this cycle is 3.70. I believe Mac looks at all 4 years and requires an overall average of 3.00. I don't think you have much of a shot at Ottawa unless if you live there and are Francophone (maybe Ottawa meds could clarify this for me). The Queen's cut-off was 3.59 this year. I think that is overall average.

 

U of T is another story. The use a weighted average. I think they take off the lowest grade each year. They require a minimum of 3.6 this year I believe.

 

I think that with a lot of work, you could get into a good Ontario med school, most likely UWO. You could also consider American schools. They tend to accept lower averages, plus Canadian grades transfer pretty well there.

 

I know that it's really important to have GPAs of at least 3.00 to be in contention for ANY sort of med school. I also know that med schools understand how difficult first year can be and are thus more interested in upward trends in GPA over the four years of undergrad than in the first year GPA itself. So, keep working at it. Maybe you can go to your school's student development centre for studying tips, join study groups, etc.

 

Best,

 

C.

[Guest habra]

Hi main82,

If you manage to get 80's to 90's in third and fourth and then do a masters (usually 2 years) after your undergraduate studies you would have a pretty good shot. My friend got in exactly that way into UofT and is doing his residency in family medicine right now. As for getting in after your undergraduate studies your chances would be mostly with macmaster. But they are really weird as how they select their class. Work hard in the 3 and fourth year and then do a research masters preferably with a reputable physician at the University of Toronto. Another person that I know also got in after masters with a cumulative 3.15 in undergraduate studies. But this person worked with Duncan Stewart the chief of cardiology at St. Michaels hospital in Toronto and published a few research papers with him. These things really count.

Hope that helped.