Chances of obtaining interview/admission

[Guest bradfullmer44]

Hi there,

 

I was wondering if you guys could give me a sense of how competitive someone with my application would stand in the UofT medicine application process. I only ask because I need to plan out my next summer well in advance due to personal circumstances, and I may need to re-write the MCAT etc.

 

I am in my 3rd year of undergraduate at UofT, and I applied this year for UofT medicine. My OMSAS converted GPA for my first two years (not counting summer course) is 3.94. My MCAT results are 8V-11PS-13BS-Q. I have good to very good extracurriculars, with a good blend of research, clinical, artistic, and a little bit of student government and sports thrown in. I think I wrote a good essay.

 

How have others with a similar application fared in the past? If I fail to get in to Toronto this year, would you recommend that I re-write the MCAT next August in order to qualify for schools like Western and Queen's?

 

Thanks a bunch.

[Guest ThugJaan]

Hey,

 

Our current 0T5 class has quite a few 3-year grads (like yours truly). While your verbal score will kill your Queens/Western hopes, it won't make a lick of difference at UofT. Your GPA is just fine; most people I have met have at least a 3.90, although some did get in with even as low as 3.80.

 

As long as you wrote a competent essay and your sketch is reasonable, I see no reason why you will not be granted and interview.

[Guest Akane200]

There's no need to rewrite the mcats. You've made it to the "8" cut offs (which are the bare minimums). You may have wanted to be better, but there's nothing you can do about that now. Your omsas gpa are enough to get an interview (very good!). The rest of your profile seems fine. I will not try to judge the "competitiveness" aspect since I'm not sure how they are going to evaluate that. However, I had similar gpas when I applied.

 

Overall, it looks pretty good, and it was the best you could do anyways. There's no point in fretting over that now, rite? Just concentrate on maintaining that GPA of yours in third year just in case you don't get into any med school this year. U of T undergrad can still be brutal into third year depending on what courses you take.

 

I know ppl with scores that were not as good as yours who got in too. If you plan your summer, just plan it for yourself (unless you really really want to write that gruelling whole day test again for a chance at queens/western). There's no point in writing the MCAT again for U of T. I think that if you don't get in, it wouldn't be because of the MCATs.

[Guest YongQ]

3.94 is a high GPA. I don't know about the 3.80 ThugJaan was talking about, I tend not to talk to my classmates about their premed stats... your MCATs meet the cutoffs. I see no reason why you should risk taking another MCAT because of an 8 in VR, you are still good for a few schools in Canada. Take it easy, there are many other aspects of your application that are worth beefing up more than a less-than-perfect MCAT!

[Guest bradfullmer44]

Thank you for your advice, guys. You have definitely swayed me against retaking the MCAT next summer, although I would love a chance to qualify for Western and Queen's should my application for other schools fail this year.

 

YongQ, for some reason I never really thought of retaking the MCAT as a "risk"; but now that you mentioned it, I suppose it is. The writing sample is unpredictable, and spending a significant chunk of one's summer to the MCAT endeavour is a risk in itself.

[Guest k]

Is the average GPA of the first year entrants not around 3.84? If that is the case, there should be lots of people with GPA's in the 3.80-3.89 range, right? Maybe ThugJaan just happens to associate with all the smart people (those who get above 3.90).

 

I am applying to UT as well this year and I think that bradfullmer44's GPA is pretty good. I myself had had a similar GPA for my first 2 years but my third year courses lowered my GPA. It's only 3.89 now. Akane200 is right about the brutality of third year at UT, especially when you are enrolled in the MGB or Immunology program.

 

Best of luck to you, bradfullmer44 and everyone else who is applying!

[Guest ThugJaan]

Hey,

 

 

 

You are right, I believe that the average GPA (in undergrad) is a 3.84. However, there are some graduate students who can much lower but still get in b/c they have done very well in grad school and have a lot of life experience (marks are NOT everything!)

 

However, most people that get in after 3 years need to have pretty high GPA's b/c we have not shown the committment grad school requires nor have most of us had the same amount of experience, both research and life oriented.

[Guest phattie]

...what is the distribution of people who get interivews...is it in the same 3.80+ range...or does it happen that only people in that range get accepted

[Guest hair relaxer]

i see that a lot of people applying to u of t have super high gpas. i went to a top-ranked university in the states and my gpa is around 3.65-3.70. students at my school make it to the dean's list with a 3.25 gpa. my mcat is 35, pretty even distributed. do you think i'll have a chance at u of t med? oh, by the way, i'm a canadian citizen.

[Guest gpa]

the admissions office claims that the graduate applicant pool was just as competitive as the undergraduate pool for the last two years. this seems odd given that there are some postings in this forum, and others, that suggest a handful of grad applicants had considerably lower gpas than the average of the admitted class. go figure...

[Guest JD]

I believe that when evaluating grad students, the admissions committee puts much less weight on their undergrad GPA, and instead focuses on other areas such as supervisor's letters, publications, presentations, etc.

[Guest JD]

I went to an admissions seminar hosted by U of T's MD program, and they showed us the stats of the entering class this year. Here are some of them:

 

- Around 1800 applicants

- 271 offers were made to fill the 198 spots in the class

- Of the 198, 102 were female and 96 were male (so a very even gender split), 74 third years, 83 fourth years, 43 grad students.

- 55 were from U of T, 25 from Western, 18 from Queen's, 18 from Mac, 13 from York, 12 from the U.S., 9 from Waterloo, 7 from Guelph, 7 from Windsor, 7 from McGill, 6 from Ottawa, and 5 from UBC (and several other institutions have 1 or 2 students in the class).

- The average GPA was 3.83 for the people in the class, and the "overall" (I'm not sure if they meant the whole applicant pool, just the people they interviewed, etc.) average was 3.89 (!).

[Guest Ian Wong]

Hey JD,

 

Thanks for sharing that information. I think that actually warrants its own thread, and I've started it in this forum as well.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3