Just another "what are my chances" thread...

[kylamonkey]

Yep, this is another "what are my chances"-type thread, I'm just hoping the collective wisdom can help me out here. I am a BC resident.

 

OK- started university in 1997. Did ok-ish for the 1st yr, but got an OMSAS GPA of 0.87 in the second year. No, that is not a typo. It was 1999 that I was required to withdraw.

 

I took a few courses here and there from then until 2004 (12 courses total) at a community college, just for fun and because I like school. I was travelling and working in the meantime. I learned a lot about life and I gained the maturity I was lacking.

 

I returned to school in 2007 with the intention of med school. Good work ethic, good grades, but not quite good enough, so it would seem. I took an average of 7.2 courses per term for 7 terms straight, and have a 3.6-3.7 GPA from it. It now seems that is not quite high enough. Ack. I was trying to take lots of courses to "water down" my bad marks from before, but I should have taken fewer and really aced them. I thought I was doing well, and I was, I got the highest mark in many of my hard classes. I had to take some upper-level physics, calculus, chem for my degrees, and it really shows in my GPA.

 

Still, I feel dumb for not seriously looking into exactly what grades you need to get in.

 

MCAT is a solid 10/10/13/R with the 13 in PS. I took it once before that (kind of on a whim) and got an S and 12 in VR, so I know I can do better if I retake the MCAT, I also have serious chem, orgo, physics, biol under my belt now and would do better in the other sections too were I to rewrite. I kind of want to rewrite anyways just so I can reach my goal of 35. I like exams, can you tell?

 

Last 2 FT years are 3.68 and 3.61. Not quite good enough for Queens even though my MCAT is (probably) good enough.

 

Oh- also note that many of the courses I took to get above the 5courses per-term threshold were through Athabasca and TRU, and so they don't count towards my courseload (I think they almost always overlapped terms).

 

With UBCs 10-yr-rule and my residency, I have a decent shot there. With my NAQs I figure I have a 50-50 shot at an interview this year, and it's the only place I am planning on applying this year. My grades are on the low-ish side of the average I think, but I rewrote my NAQs this year and with my age I think that I'll do OK.

 

I will be taking 5 courses this term through correspondence and in-class, and 3 next term through correspondence, so this year will also be a FT year (as far as Queen's goes) for me. I'll be pretty much just taking GPA-boosters. If I can get a 3.9 (and I can) that will give me a 3.76 which will be (maybe) good enough.

 

So... with all the collective wisdom on this board, is there anywhere else that I have a shot at? Has anyone heard of people having luck with the "special consideration" process for any schools? I doubt my grades are even really high enough to warrant special consideration.

 

Are there any other schools that I have a shot at? This time next year, I will be moving. It doesn't matter where to. Gaining residency in another province is a possibility for me. I can tailor my other stuff to any other school's criteria if need be.

 

I'm asking here because there is a lot of knowledge about all the different schools. Basically, I ask myself when looking at a school, "If I really wanted to go here, what would I have to do to get in?", and then I fgure it out from there. Any ideas? Is it worth moving to AB, and then asking for special consideration to remove my old bad marks?

[placenta]

I say you might have a shot at McMaster. If you NAIL Casper (and their 5 questions in case casper fails), you might have a shot at McMaster.

 

By the way, what is UBC's 10-year rule?

[bloh]

I'd say that if you are dead-set on medicine, then moving to AB and working for a year is your best course of action. I think you can probably get your previous life removed from the record; you didn't even finish the degree. With that gone, and if your GPA for your most recent degree is ~3.7 you have an excellent shot at both UofC and UofA. Your GPA is a tad low for UofA, but if its in the aforementioned ballpark, you have a fighting chance (mine was in the same range). Also, what would it look like with 1 year removed? UofA has that policy.

 

Unfortunately, I have no idea what your UBC chances are so hopefully someone else chimes in.

 

And as placenta (really?) mentioned, if you manage to get a high VS score and do well on Casper, you can get an interview and then your GPA is of little concern.