adam17 Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Does anybody know someone who got into a canadian medical school with a 3.0 GPA (increasing trend for gpa throughout undergrad), which is the minimum for some schools. If so, do you know how they improved the other aspects of their application? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedDream Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 I think that there were 2 people who got in with a 3.0 at McMaster (where that is their minimum). They have all their stats posted on their website Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattg Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 I think that there were 2 people who got in with a 3.0 at McMaster (where that is their minimum). They have all their stats posted on their website they were probably olympians or very well-published phd's or something Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osteon Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 they were probably olympians or very well-published phd's or something Or they were just normal applicants with a good reason why their cGPA is low. 1.0 first year, 3.8 years 2, 3 and 4 = 3.1 cGPA. Not very representative of the applicant's capabilities don't you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corie Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Agreed. In any case, you don't want to be applying with a 3.0! Work hard. 0.1 higher is still better! Or they were just normal applicants with a good reason why their cGPA is low. 1.0 first year, 3.8 years 2, 3 and 4 = 3.1 cGPA. Not very representative of the applicant's capabilities don't you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattg Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Or they were just normal applicants with a good reason why their cGPA is low. 1.0 first year, 3.8 years 2, 3 and 4 = 3.1 cGPA. Not very representative of the applicant's capabilities don't you think? yea but you'd probably have to have a good reason why your year 1 gpa was so low, aside from "i wasn't trying" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MedDream Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Yeah I thought the same thing when i saw those numbers I think you would have to have a pretty significant reason behind it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam17 Posted March 7, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 The problem is that my gpa is 3.0 right now and I've already graduated. Do you think I still have hope to get into a canadian medical school? If not, that just really sucks because I didn't know I wanted to be a doctor until 3rd year which is why i started working harder and got my gpa up to a 3.0. Any suggestions on what I should do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Perhaps consider a second undergrad? Or....go international? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattg Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 yea you really have zero chance in canada or the states with a 3.0... you are going to have to do a second degree and apply to the schools that don't look at cGPA, or go to the caribbean/australia/europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
osteon Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 The problem is that my gpa is 3.0 right now and I've already graduated. Do you think I still have hope to get into a canadian medical school? If not, that just really sucks because I didn't know I wanted to be a doctor until 3rd year which is why i started working harder and got my gpa up to a 3.0. Any suggestions on what I should do? Would you mind sharing your GPA breakdown over the four years? A high GPA in your later years can still get you in to quite a few med schools in Canada since some only look at your most recent 2 years and some apply weighting formulas. Also, inlcude what provinces you are considered IP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpy Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 yea you really have zero chance in canada or the states with a 3.0... you are going to have to do a second degree and apply to the schools that don't look at cGPA, or go to the caribbean/australia/europe It's definitely possible to get in with a GPA that's 3.0 or even below. I'm aware of several successful applicants who got in with significantly lower. As mattg says, the first thing you will absolutely need to do is a second undergrad degree. You will need to do really well in this degree, a year with a GPA much below 3.8 or so really will hurt you (it will kill your chances at Queen's/Ottawa which are two of the schools you would have the best chance at). But one factor that virtually all successful applicants with low cGPAs had was time off from school. I guess it's not necessary, but for me at least the few years I took off gave me boatloads more maturity and drive to succeed. Adcoms probably see this favorably as well if you are able to do something meaningful outside of school. You will also probably need to do really well on the MCAT. If you can't hit cutoffs you won't have a chance at Queen's or Western, and if you can't do well in verbal your chance at Mac will drop precipitously. Without these three schools your options are very limited in Canada. The real issue is, you will need to convince a school to take you over another student who hasn't had a few bad years. Why would they do this? I think you need to have something unique to bring to the table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick_P Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 It's definitely possible to get in with a GPA that's 3.0 or even below. I'm aware of several successful applicants who got in with significantly lower. As mattg says, the first thing you will absolutely need to do is a second undergrad degree. You will need to do really well in this degree, a year with a GPA much below 3.8 or so really will hurt you (it will kill your chances at Queen's/Ottawa which are two of the schools you would have the best chance at). But one factor that virtually all successful applicants with low cGPAs had was time off from school. I guess it's not necessary, but for me at least the few years I took off gave me boatloads more maturity and drive to succeed. Adcoms probably see this favorably as well if you are able to do something meaningful outside of school. You will also probably need to do really well on the MCAT. If you can't hit cutoffs you won't have a chance at Queen's or Western, and if you can't do well in verbal your chance at Mac will drop precipitously. Without these three schools your options are very limited in Canada. The real issue is, you will need to convince a school to take you over another student who hasn't had a few bad years. Why would they do this? I think you need to have something unique to bring to the table. Sorry to bug in, I am a bit lost. Does that mean even with a 2nd B.Sc, a bad year in the 1st B.Sc still hurt the chance of acceptance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattg Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Sorry to bug in, I am a bit lost. Does that mean even with a 2nd B.Sc, a bad year in the 1st B.Sc still hurt the chance of acceptance? not at the schools that look at 2 years (i.e. Western, Queens, Dal, Calgary, Ottawa(3), etc.)... at the schools that look at all of your marks it pretty unlikely for you, but there's plenty that don't Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
questforstarfish Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 What province are you in? Dalhousie, if you're a maritime resident, will take a 3.3 GPA minimum in the last two years of study. If I'm not mistaken, several universities (and remember, the GPA requirements tend to be lower if you're applying at a school in your home province) only take your last or best two years average GPA, although you'd have to sift through all the university websites to find out who does. Dalhousie takes your last two years of study, that's all I know. There absolutely may be hope! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpy Posted March 7, 2011 Report Share Posted March 7, 2011 Sorry to bug in, I am a bit lost. Does that mean even with a 2nd B.Sc, a bad year in the 1st B.Sc still hurt the chance of acceptance? Depends on the school, as mattg posted above (I'm just expanding on his answer). But in Canada (except for NOSM or McGill), your cGPA includes all undergraduate work. If you have one bad year, perhaps the other five or six years of undergrad you've done will still allow you to be competitive (i.e. 1 year of 2.0 and 6 years of 4.0 = 3.71 cGPA which is good). However if you have multiple bad years (i.e. like me, a 2.1 GPA in four years of my first degree and a 3.85 in three years of my second) then your options are seriously limited. For instance, I am ineligible at over half of the English universities in Canada. I like to envision medical school GPA in Canada as a slippery slope. There are several paths off of this slope and into medical school. But every year you get a bad GPA you slide down a little further and start losing some options. Luckily there are a small number of schools that only look at more recent performance. Generally these schools also have high MCAT cutoffs (NOSM, Ottawa and McGill are exceptions, but you really need to be either rural (NOSM) or have a very high GPA in your second undergrad (Ottawa and McGill) to be considered). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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