mr.minion Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 Hey everyone...I'm a recent member who has found this site to be very helpful I wish I had found it soonner. Long story short my first degree was a B.A. which I just finished with a 3.3 cgpa over four years all full-time. This fall I will be entering my second degree in a B.sc. I have IP status for Alberta and yet to write the MCAT. I am familiar with some schools like Dal and Ottaw that use last two/ last three ectr.. My question is do I have a shot at Alberta or Calgary? Even with a second degree will me gpa cut me from the AB schools completely? any advice would be great. again thanks to the people on this site who offer helpful comments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpy Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 Hey everyone...I'm a recent member who has found this site to be very helpful I wish I had found it soonner. Long story short my first degree was a B.A. which I just finished with a 3.3 cgpa over four years all full-time. This fall I will be entering my second degree in a B.sc. I have IP status for Alberta and yet to write the MCAT. I am familiar with some schools like Dal and Ottaw that use last two/ last three ectr.. My question is do I have a shot at Alberta or Calgary? Even with a second degree will me gpa cut me from the AB schools completely? any advice would be great. again thanks to the people on this site who offer helpful comments. Was it full-time? And what's the GPA breakdown by year? U of Alberta will be a bit of a low probability shot unless you had one bad year and will benefit substantially from their weighting formula. U of Calgary might be a little higher... In either case it's going to depend fairly heavily on your MCAT and EC's. With a very strong MCAT and great ECs you'd probably be competitive for both schools. With average MCAT/ECs it's a long shot. Out of curiosity, mind sharing why your GPA was a 3.3? What has changed to ensure that you will do much better in your second degree? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.minion Posted April 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 full time all years...breakdown is 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.6 reason for lower GPA, worked full time to pay for school...I won't be working during my second degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 Probably still a bit low unless you have astounding ECs or MCAT; will probably need to pursue a second degree since UofA and UofC meds use your GPA post interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simpy Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 full time all years...breakdown is 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, 3.6reason for lower GPA, worked full time to pay for school...I won't be working during my second degree. You may have a shot at both schools. A lot will depend on your performance in your second degree and on the MCAT. You will probably need to do quite well on both to get in. Definitely possible, however. Do make sure you're working on your ECs also. Both schools place fairly substantial emphasis on both and you will need to have good ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrogirl Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 My undergrad GPA was lower than that, and I got an interview at Calgary this year (IP). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.minion Posted April 26, 2011 Author Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 thats great to hear..could you tell me a little more.. what type of mcat did you have? any grad work? what type of ec's and the breakdown of your undergrad marks?...i understand if you do not want to share and good luck on may 13(thats the day you find out if your in right?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astrogirl Posted April 26, 2011 Report Share Posted April 26, 2011 Oh, I am more than happy to share if you want to hear about it. Let's see... 35N on the MCAT (13 PS, 11 VR, 11 BS). Breakdown of my undergrad GPA by year according to how Calgary calculated it: 2.5, 3.1, 2.8, 2.8, 3.4. I had summer classes too, and yes it took me 5 years. I worked 20 hours a week pretty much the whole time and I was focused on trying to get into grad school and not even thinking about med school at that point, so I focused my efforts on research rather than trying to get As. My undergrad was in physics and astronomy. Then I did a master's in physics (technically in physics, but my research was astronomy) with about a 3.7 GPA. Then a PhD in astronomy that I just finished this month and I think my gpa for that is also about a 3.7. For ECs I have a wide variety of things. I spent two summers working as a careworker in a home for developmentally disabled adults, I have a lot of TA work, I was an RA the last year that I lived in res, lots of research (with a few conference presentations and publications), I worked in the planetarium at the school where I did my undergrad and masters, I volunteered with a small skin cancer education non-profit organization (and co-hosted a radio show that the organization was doing for a while), I wrote for my school newspaper for a while, I was a model for art classes, I was president of the astronomical society and vice president of the society of physics students, and some science outreach/women in science stuff with high school kids. Oh, and some volunteer stuff and Sunday school teaching at my church. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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