Help a redoer

[dazzle]

Hello all, I am what they call a "redoer".

 

I'm from Quebec, did my cegep and first BSc with poor effort (I will list my cegep grades in a second). My Bachelor's in Chemistry from McGill is totally to scrap grade-wise. I am now doing a BA in philosophy at Concordia and will use it to apply to medical schools.

 

 

A couple of points to consider:

 

 

1. a) From what I understand, only a handful of medical schools will actually ignore a first of two bachelors degrees. This pretty much hands to me the list of schools I should apply to. If you know of schools that don't mention ignoring previous degrees, but do in some circumstances, please let me know.

I am not rejecting the possibility of going to Francophone schools. Without having read too extensively into them, I have not heard of them ignoring degrees.

 

 

2. My grades for the following pre-req science subjects are the following:

 

Org Chem 1: A (McGill)

 

Intro Chem 1: 90% (cegep)

Intro Chem 2: A+ (Concordia, in progress)

 

Bio 1: A+ (Concordia, in progress)

Bio 2: 77% (cegep, class avg 74) <-- the nail in my foot

 

physics 1: 84% (cegep, class avg 67)

physics 2: 87% (cegep, avg 82)

physics 3: 80% (cegep, avg 67)

 

So here is one of my biggest worries. I am an A student. Some of the above courses are not at my level but still somewhat OK. An advisor at Concordia has told me that I should be fine with those 80s in physics. I emailed the McGill admissions office and they told me the science GPA should be equal or higher than my Bachelor (philosophy) GPA. The latter is above A- (knock on wood, knock on wood, knock on wood) so my science grades are not really equal to that. I also have no idea how the medical school will take into account my percentage grades from Cegep compared to GPA values.

 

My two possibilities are a) redoing even more intro science courses, which is the last thing I want to do, or doing the MCAT next summer, and using that to show I am good in sciences.

 

Assuming a very good MCAT, I still don't know if the universities will think it completely making up for my 80s in physics, and 77 in bio 2.

 

I could redo the bio 2 at least, but am having a very difficult time to find a place to do it . It is not available in the summer at McGill and Concordia's alternative is a ridiculous 3-course package that I won't have time to do.

 

 

3. Time. So I just saw that McGill has moved its deadline of applications to the Fall. By the end of Spring 2012, I will have 45 credits towards by bachelor (minimum for application), so that is fine. I will have the summer to do the MCAT, and if that is something that could weigh heavily in my application compared to my CEGEP scores, I will be in business. However, I know that being in business and 2000 applicants for 150 spots don't go well together.

 

That cutting short of one season is also extra stress for me to get some volunteer and research done. (Research? hahahaha... wow. Difficult for philosophy student.)

 

Thank you guys, sorry for the long read. If any of you can draw from experience or experiences of others close to you, that would be great too.

[future_doc]

You dont need research although McGill is the only one in QC that wants you to be an active citizen. Having a degree already, I would expect that your Cegep grades are irrelevant.

[k111]

I may have answers to some of your questions, as i have completed two bachelors before getting in med at mcgill. However don't consider this as being absolute, as my experience might be particular (mcgill does do case-by-case evaluations)

 

My first degree was science-based (chem, bio, physics classes) and i got a 3,5 (which is at the lower end of the gpa range mcgill will look at). I did quite better in my second degree.

 

All considered, unless mcgill used the grades of my first degree as pre-reqs, they obviously have not looked at the grades i had in cegep, as they were in the 70s (low to mid). I had a 3,9 on the degree that got me in at mcgill. Either way, it's surprising to me that mcgill told you that your pre-reqs/science and last degree GPAs had to be equivalent as it's obviously not the case for me. Based on my experience, your pre-reqs/science grades (from cegep or your first degree) are in fact irrelevant.

 

Also, none of the francophone schools will ignore your first degree (i know, it's kind of - or totally - stupid).

 

I hope i was of any help.

[dazzle]

k111:

 

Thank you very much. I appreciate your first hand experience input here. Can I ask you when you were admitted (MCAT necessary or not at that time?), and was your second degree a science one also (maybe this is why your Cegep science grades were ignored)?

 

 

future_doc:

 

research is not needed? I've heard it's at least suggested and I know most applicants probably have this kind of experience.

 

active citizen = social, volunteering, hobbies, sports, etc?

[k111]

I didn't write the mcat and i did PT as a second degree (so no basic science).

 

Keep it up, you'll get there sooner or later.

[Robin Hood]

I'm planning to redo my prereqs at UdeM, but do someone know of a UdeM course that is equivalent to BIOL 111, because BIO1954 seem to not be?

Also, Dansereau told me that advanced courses don't replace cegep ones.

[future_doc]

 

future_doc:

 

research is not needed? I've heard it's at least suggested and I know most applicants probably have this kind of experience.

 

active citizen = social, volunteering, hobbies, sports, etc?

 

I only now came across this post.

 

Correct - research is not needed. Active citizenship is far more important. These would be activities where you demonstrates those traits sought. Accomplishment and achievements where you have developed recognized expertise through perseverance are important, so it may be sports, music, ballet, whatever but not just a hobby per se where you spend a lot of time but no achievements. Volunteering is also important.

[Hieu]

I'm planning to redo my prereqs at UdeM, but do someone know of a UdeM course that is equivalent to BIOL 111, because BIO1954 seem to not be?

Also, Dansereau told me that advanced courses don't replace cegep ones.

 

For University of Montreal, BIO1953 and BIO1954 are OK to apply to health sciences programs at University of Montreal.

 

http://www.progcours.umontreal.ca/programme/index_fiche_prog/195015_struc.html

[Robin Hood]

For University of Montreal, BIO1953 and BIO1954 are OK to apply to health sciences programs at University of Montreal.

 

http://www.progcours.umontreal.ca/programme/index_fiche_prog/195015_struc.html

 

I was asking for McGill, but I got my answer from adcoms (McGill acccepts it, but if I was taking Bio 2 for the first time, they would have required a lab course).