MD2019_A Posted June 25, 2011 Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 hey guys. i'm entering my 4th year next fall. i'm fairly positive i wont get into medschool in the upcoming cycle. so i have this "plan" that i made to make sure i get admitted into med school. i dont mind the wait because i really want to do med school. id just like some feedback on it by some grad students/non-trad students because i realize its a bit non-trad and run it by you guys to see if its doable/correct: im planning to come back for a fifth year. my last year two years (4th and 5th) will be 90% electives with tons of easy courses that im pretty sure i can get a descent mark on. im banking on (and pretty positive about it too) the last two years to being anywhere from 3.9 - 4 gpa. this gives me a fairly good chance at western and queens because they wont look at summer and only those two years. next, i plan to do a masters (i want to stick to research side of medicine) at uofa (my dad lives there and our family is planning to move there as well. we're from ontario. so ill gain residency for alberta). when i applying for md school during the masters (this is another area im confused about; can you apply during a masters and finish only half of it? or do you have to complete it?) at uofa, they'll look at only 4/5 years because they'll drop my lowest year cuz i took a full course load during all my years (5.0 credits from uoft); that makes my gpa around to be 3.78-3.8 (not counting summer because uofa doesnt look at that, right? they'll only look at the weighted gpa of 3.78-3.81?) that puts me at a competitive spot for the IP pool so ill have a good chance there. also, my omsas gpa for uoft will be around 3.75~ (dropping lowest 5 course, and summer course) and with a grad degree and my EC ill have a decent chance at uoft, queens, and western. can you guys just confirm whether im on the right track and i dont have my facts mistaken please? thanks! appreciate any input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2019_A Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 sorry guys but should i post this in some other section? i just want a quick review of my idea please Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mavrik13 Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 I can only really fill in on one of your points... you normally can't leave a Master's degree unfinished and start med school... I think there are one or two schools in Canada that don't care, but most do. You could also consider working in Alberta for a year instead of doing a Master's (which is two years). Of course, there are many advantages of doing a Master's degree, both for med admissions and for future career prospects... but if you know med school is your goal, you should be able to find a research job for a year. You would get paid more than a grad student, and stand to be more productive than a grad student in that year with regards to research (because you won't have to take classes and write a thesis). That decision is up to you. Final point - Dal recently changed their IP residency status criteria such that you are no longer an IP student if you do a Master's or PhD in the maritimes. No one can say for sure whether this will happen to the Albertan medical schools, but this decision by Dal was swift and unexpected - there is a small possiblity you could end up OOP (but there is no way of predicting this). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2019_A Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 i didn't know about the residency issue. thanks for telling me about it! but i plan to live there anyway because my family is moving there too. any idea if they'll take that into account? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 i didn't know about the residency issue. thanks for telling me about it! but i plan to live there anyway because my family is moving there too. any idea if they'll take that into account? Sadly, probably not. You need to have lived a minimum I believe of 2 or 3 years....moving there doesn't mean that you're staying (no offense intended, of course). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2019_A Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 thanks for the replies still! I will contact the admissions office at the school and find out what they say and tell you guys there. other than that, are there any other things i can do to benefit my application? any small hints and tips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 ^should be on the right track, sounds like a plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2019_A Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 thanks guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 thanks for the replies still! I will contact the admissions office at the school and find out what they say and tell you guys there. other than that, are there any other things i can do to benefit my application? any small hints and tips? make sure you don't graduate at the 4 year mark so worst case you could do even a 6th year of school (that might give you ottawa as a possiblity) and Western's rules for a special year won't apply. Make sure you hit the 3/5 rule for Western in those last two years so they count and remember to apply under the conditional acceptance rules after the year 4 mark - you may not need to so that masters. Queens is in flux right now so I can't say we really know what their rules will be in the end. They do a holistic evaulation now so ECs will count - I suspect they are looking for the usual balanced solid applicant thing but the point is it is no longer just MCAT and GPA etc. So if you are counting on queens keep that in mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2019_A Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 rmorelan, what are those rules at western you're talking about? i am not aware of them.. can you elaborate on them please? or give me a website link? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 rmorelan, what are those rules at western you're talking about? i am not aware of them.. can you elaborate on them please? or give me a website link? Hey responded to your PM - but will just copy that here: You have to have 3.0 out of 5.0 credits at the right year for Western to count the year. So your 4th year must have 3.0 credits at the 3rd year or higher with respect to course level course level. Same with your fifth year. You cannot fill the year up with just easy first and second year courses as the year won't count. It is a trap people have fallen into before and in the end they find they have wasted 2 years. If you graduate at the end of year 4, which you possibly could do as degrees are usually 4 years long, then your 5th year under Western's rules become what is called a special year. You are allowed ONLY one of those, and it has extra restrictions - no first year courses, no second year courses that have no first year prereq. This really restricts and can get in the way of maximizing the GPA. The way around it is to not graduate at the 4th year mark and then your 5th year is just like any other year - then graduate Of course the 3.0/5.0 rule still applies. Take a look at Western`s admissions site for more details Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxcv Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 hey guys. i'm entering my 4th year next fall. i'm fairly positive i wont get into medschool in the upcoming cycle. so i have this "plan" that i made to make sure i get admitted into med school. i dont mind the wait because i really want to do med school. id just like some feedback on it by some grad students/non-trad students because i realize its a bit non-trad and run it by you guys to see if its doable/correct: im planning to come back for a fifth year. my last year two years (4th and 5th) will be 90% electives with tons of easy courses that im pretty sure i can get a descent mark on. im banking on (and pretty positive about it too) the last two years to being anywhere from 3.9 - 4 gpa. this gives me a fairly good chance at western and queens because they wont look at summer and only those two years. next, i plan to do a masters (i want to stick to research side of medicine) at uofa (my dad lives there and our family is planning to move there as well. we're from ontario. so ill gain residency for alberta). when i applying for md school during the masters (this is another area im confused about; can you apply during a masters and finish only half of it? or do you have to complete it?) at uofa, they'll look at only 4/5 years because they'll drop my lowest year cuz i took a full course load during all my years (5.0 credits from uoft); that makes my gpa around to be 3.78-3.8 (not counting summer because uofa doesnt look at that, right? they'll only look at the weighted gpa of 3.78-3.81?) that puts me at a competitive spot for the IP pool so ill have a good chance there. also, my omsas gpa for uoft will be around 3.75~ (dropping lowest 5 course, and summer course) and with a grad degree and my EC ill have a decent chance at uoft, queens, and western. Your plan for coming back sounds good. Make sure you don't graduate (so take one course less of the requirement). Also try do a minor in something easy, so you can add that to you application. Getting grades should be the priority and not the minor. As for your Western, Queens, and to a lesser degree UofA plan, these are all contigent upon a good MCAT score, especially the former two schools, and less UofA with the cGPA of 3.8ish. But for UofA with your GPA, depending on the MCAT you might need to pwn the application. Also, for UofC you might have a good chance. Master -- make sure you still do well in the courses, since this can impact UofC and possibly other schools. Yes, you can apply while in Master, but depends on the school. If you get in, you can apply for a deferral, and if granted you finish masters and then go to medicine. If you are not granted the deferral and accepted, then you lose that one year of work. Some schools, like queens i believe, won't let you apply prior to completion of masters. Best thing is to start a masters, apply and just see how things go... best case scenario, you get in and you have finished one year of masters and can possibly do that part-time wiht medical school. Also, for masters, Im biased, but I recommend doing something in epidemiology (this will help you a lot later on if you want to do research), as oppose to basic science research (which not a lot of physicians do), or health policy (if you are interested in having a public role). Moving to Alberta should make you competitive. However, if you are enrolling in university right from Ontario, you will not be able to get a government loan, and will need to depend on bank loan -- interests kicks on day one -- for med school financing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hockey_whiz Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 okay so i've read a couple posts saying make sure you don't graduate, what's the reason behind this? only reason i can think of is so you can keep doing additional years in your current degree to boost your overall cGPA without having to do a new degree??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxcv Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 okay so i've read a couple posts saying make sure you don't graduate, what's the reason behind this? only reason i can think of is so you can keep doing additional years in your current degree to boost your overall cGPA without having to do a new degree??? Some med schools don't look at it favourably if you're coming back to a year, just to take courses and boost a GPA; the loophole aroudn that is not to graduate and take that course in your final year.. Also, if you graduated, picking courses becomes harder, since you only get to pick courses once everyone has picked them. Hence you may not be able to get into those easy course. The price one pays is also higher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted June 29, 2011 Report Share Posted June 29, 2011 Some med schools don't look at it favourably if you're coming back to a year, just to take courses and boost a GPA; the loophole aroudn that is not to graduate and take that course in your final year.. Also, if you graduated, picking courses becomes harder, since you only get to pick courses once everyone has picked them. Hence you may not be able to get into those easy course. The price one pays is also higher. exactly and some just flat out have rules about it. Western is probably the main example - you just lose so much flexibility once you graduate in terms of what you can take. Zero first year courses for one, and that can be a pain GPA wise and it is simply hard to even find courses to take if you are completely blocked from taking any early prereqs (for instance at Waterloo if you don't have pych 101 you are blocked from about a dozen of solid GPA wise 2nd year pysch courses). You still have to obey the 3.0/5.0 senior course load rules but you are at least have more flexibility. Also things like bursaries and funding in generally work differently if you are a returning student. Want a TA or research position? What if they only give those out to science students and guess what - now that you are a graduated student in a non-degree program you are technically not in science any more. Want access to high level courses? Well those are preferentially given to senior students in the corresponding program at many schools and again you aren't a student in that program any more. You can solve this by starting a new degree perhaps but then Western will make you finish it before you can get in. It also just flat looks obvious that you are returning to boost your GPA but if you do a 5th year it may not. Of course not all of this is applicable to every single school/program but these are some of the sorts of things to think about. Basically there isn't a lot of advantages, if any, to actually graduating but there are potential downsides and some of those may not be particularly obvious Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2019_A Posted June 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 30, 2011 okay good because my plan was not to graduate and just extend my degree to 5 years and take easy electives but still maintain a full course load with 60% of the 3rd and 4th year courses. that makes sense. thanks guys also, in terms of ECs i have got a couple long term (3 and 2 years) commitments and im on my way to start up a non-profit organization targeted at youth and stuff. other than that i have a small number of short term commitments at rehab centers and a summer job. what else should i work at since i have ~3 years (is this a safe bet?) until med school Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zxcv Posted June 30, 2011 Report Share Posted June 30, 2011 okay good because my plan was not to graduate and just extend my degree to 5 years and take easy electives but still maintain a full course load with 60% of the 3rd and 4th year courses. that makes sense. thanks guys also, in terms of ECs i have got a couple long term (3 and 2 years) commitments and im on my way to start up a non-profit organization targeted at youth and stuff. other than that i have a small number of short term commitments at rehab centers and a summer job. what else should i work at since i have ~3 years (is this a safe bet?) until med school Do activities that you really want to do, and make them diverse. Everyone does the same hospital, volunteering at the elderly home... do things you want to do... for example, someone is passionate about the environment. join a group and write about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaitagsd Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 Hey responded to your PM - but will just copy that here: You have to have 3.0 out of 5.0 credits at the right year for Western to count the year. So your 4th year must have 3.0 credits at the 3rd year or higher with respect to course level course level. Same with your fifth year. You cannot fill the year up with just easy first and second year courses as the year won't count. It is a trap people have fallen into before and in the end they find they have wasted 2 years. If you graduate at the end of year 4, which you possibly could do as degrees are usually 4 years long, then your 5th year under Western's rules become what is called a special year. You are allowed ONLY one of those, and it has extra restrictions - no first year courses, no second year courses that have no first year prereq. This really restricts and can get in the way of maximizing the GPA. The way around it is to not graduate at the 4th year mark and then your 5th year is just like any other year - then graduate Of course the 3.0/5.0 rule still applies. Take a look at Western`s admissions site for more details I am still a little confused, correct me if I'm wrong: So say I'm in 3rd year, then 60% (3/5) of the courses I take in 3rd year must be a 3XX or a 4XX course? (I go to UBC). And of course, you have to always take minimum courseload, which is what, 5 courses per semester, meaning 30 credits total for fall+spring? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MD2019_A Posted July 2, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 @kaitagsd in your 3rd year, you only need 3/5 courses to be 3rd year courses (3XX courses), but 3rd or 4th year courses will be fine. and yes, 5 credits per year to keep a full course load Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaitagsd Posted July 2, 2011 Report Share Posted July 2, 2011 Oh I understand now, for us one course is usually 3 credits; I am assuming thats equivalent to a half-credit for the UWO system then. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SheriffLobo Posted July 4, 2011 Report Share Posted July 4, 2011 Hey guys, Just a quick query since I just enrolled. Going back to do a second degree, and am basically starting at the 2nd year level (UofT shaves off the first five credits). So, I have about 4.0 credits at the 2nd year level and 1.0 credit is reserved for the Intro Antrhopology courses (so I don't botch the requirements for senior level courses). I should be fine right? I'm just double checking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted July 4, 2011 Report Share Posted July 4, 2011 Hey guys, Just a quick query since I just enrolled. Going back to do a second degree, and am basically starting at the 2nd year level (UofT shaves off the first five credits). So, I have about 4.0 credits at the 2nd year level and 1.0 credit is reserved for the Intro Antrhopology courses (so I don't botch the requirements for senior level courses). I should be fine right? I'm just double checking. Would seem to be on track to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slashsev01 Posted July 8, 2011 Report Share Posted July 8, 2011 ps..if your doing all easy courses you get a beautiful * beside those courses during admission... theres alote of applicats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.o Posted August 13, 2011 Report Share Posted August 13, 2011 I happen to know a chap who was accepted at U Sask Med after completing only one year of his Masters. Other than that, I've heard its quite tricky. Additionally, McMaster only gives you the 1% bonus if you are apply after completing a graduate degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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