Finished my degree, started working, now want to do medicine. How to proceed?

[KidDynamite7]

..........

[mm88]

Your GPA should be good enough to get into UofC since you are an Albertan resident. (I can't speak for UofA, never applied).

 

I did engineering in undergrad and ended up with less than stellar marks and was accepted to UofC last year. Dropping your lowest year with the new admission procedures should also help you out a bit. I would write the MCAT (aim for a high verbal score) and apply in province first before starting a 2nd UG. IMHO, you might not even need it.

 

As for ECs, I know some schools really value long term commitments. I'm sure trying to find some kind of research project to start on now could also be helpful.

 

2012/2013 marks won't come into play till the end of the application process when they ask you to send in final marks/transcripts around or before decision day (it's probably just to verify that you haven't stopped giving a **** after your interview and failed everything.).

 

Good luck!

[astrogirl]

Or maybe I just don't know what qualifies as ECs. I play tennis (club/outdoors), but not in a league. I've also trained Muay Thai in the past. I also have 1 year of work experience as an engineer.

 

Those things all count as ECs. There's a common misconception that the definition of ECs is very narrow and only includes things like hospital volunteering and being in clubs at school, but that's absolutely not true. Pretty much anything you do in your spare time besides study, sleep, and surf the internet is an EC. Do you have any other work experience? Because that all counts. The vast majority of my ECs were employment because I do not come from a wealthy family and I had to work 20 hours a week the whole time I was in school. Did you do any public outreach stuff when you were an engineer (presentations to school/community groups about engineering, that sort of thing)? That's an EC. Do you do any volunteering or activities with a community/religious/something else group outside of school? That's an EC.

 

And the master's/more undergrad debate is an endless one with no answer because it really depends on a lot of factors that are unique to your situation, but if you don't want to do a master's then that pretty much answers the question for you - don't do it. Grad school sucks even when you want to be there.

 

Courses you take in the fall won't be counted for the coming application cycle because they won't be done (at least not at any of the schools I know anything about), but don't wait a year to apply just because of that. The best advice I can probably give you is to apply early and apply often and apply to any school you're even remotely eligible for. Have a decent back-up plan (which it sounds like you do - engineering is a good career) and realize that it's hard to get in and nothing is a guarantee, but don't let that stop you from trying. If I had listen to all of the people who told me I would never get in or that I should wait and do more stuff to improve my application before I even tried, well, I wouldn't be in med school right now.

 

What I did when I decided I want to do this was I went to the websites of every med school in Canada and made 3 lists: schools I am eligible to apply to (there were only 3, and I only got an interview at one, but all it takes is one!), schools I can become eligible to apply to if I do ____, and schools that I have no chance of ever getting into. So I applied to the 3 schools on the first list and made a plan of attack for being able to the others later if I didn't get in. But then I got in. If you're interested, my background is basically that I was doing a PhD in astrophysics and decided I didn't want to spend my life in front of a computer making graphs, and I considered a lot of other careers and decided to try to get into med school, but I had a really crappy undergrad GPA and no pre-reqs. If you click my name, you can find all kinds of my past posts about it.

 

I don't know if anyone can ever say for sure that med school is a realistic goal for anyone, but all you can do is try, and if it doesn't work out, you haven't lost anything. I would say in the meantime start working on applications for the schools you can apply to now, and then in the fall start your plan of improving your GPA and doing ECs. Just find some ECs you're interested in and start getting involved. It won't make a huge difference for this application cycle, probably, but if you start now you'll have some good stuff for next year. And don't put your life on hold and do things because you think they'll get you into med school - I know too many people who have done that (mostly after listening to bad advice about really specific things to do from people who don't know what they're talking about) - and they didn't ever get in. Spending a year improving your grades isn't unreasonable, but I wouldn't spend more than a year on it. Just keep doing things that you are interested in and living your life and put that stuff on your application. And keep applying until you get in or until you decide you aren't interested or it's not worth it anymore. Some of the best med students I know applied 5+ times before they got in.

 

Good luck!

 

Wow, I kind of just wrote a book here and all I was really going to say was that your employment counts as an EC!! But I hope that was somewhat helpful/coherent.

[astrogirl]

I would write the MCAT (aim for a high verbal score) and apply in province first before starting a 2nd UG. IMHO, you might not even need it.

 

Yeah, this. I actually missed the part where you said you were an Alberta resident. Maybe just keep working and don't rush to start school again full-time in the fall (although you could take Athabasca classes part-time on the side if you're really eager to do something academic). And it's only March (even though my brain is telling me it's July for some reason) - you totally have time to take the MCAT and apply for next year. Just jump in and do it! Worst thing that can happen is you have to try again.

[Lmfaodot]

Why does UofC favour engineers? Just curious!

[bored]

Oh man why did you chicken out after 2 years? Your marks were so good.

I thunk they are alright still. Just do the mcat and kill it, and apply and see?

[tooty]

Why does UofC favour engineers? Just curious!

Do they? That'd be awesome if they did!

 

They do. Eng is hard, and they'll reward you for it. Obviously, eng isn't the only program they adjust for.

[bloh]

To be honest, you have no ECs at the moment other than your work and research experience. Your GPA is ok to get an interview but those will hold you back.

 

In any case, you should start doing things now in order to have a stellar application for the year after this one. You may or may not be given a chance this year, if your application has a bunch of stuff that says "since April 2012-current", but it's still worth a shot this year.

[simpy]

Ok thanks for the input. What's your opinion on doing post-bacc studies to increase my gpa? It'd need to be full-time to count, right?

 

No real point doing post-bacc studies. The difference extra years would make to your GPA is trivial (i.e. consider 2 extra years at 4.0, this is only going to boost your cGPA by 0.1, which isn't going to really make or break you). The one advantage I can think of is it would make you eligible for University of Ottawa. If anything, a master's would be a better option than a second undergrad for you.

 

That said, you need to write the MCAT. This is going to make or break you I think, if you got a great score on the MCAT you'd have a good chance of getting into meds in Canada. If you added a couple years of great EC's to the mix, it'd be even a better chance. With a poor MCAT score, you're going to have some difficulty. So in the short term, this needs to be your focus.

 

You also are going to need to improve your ECs. Even with a great MCAT score these will drag you down. Also, you probably won't be able to do enough by the fall to make much of an impact either way. However, it definitely won't hurt you to start, so you might as well. Just don't prioritize it - prioritize the MCAT.

 

For EC's, I would start thinking ahead. If you ever face a panel interview, it'd be great to have some experience in health-related fields to talk about in terms of going for a career change. So I would pick up a couple health-related volunteer experiences, maybe do a shift or two in the hospital every week in addition to a shift or two a week in community medicine (perhaps in a nursing home or something). Then I'd try to figure out a way to leverage your engineering degree into health in some way.

 

Anyway, you're not in bad shape. Your GPA could be better, but it's definitely competitive enough provided you do well in other areas of your application. So you need to work on those other areas (MCAT, ECs, and letters of reference). Good luck, and keep us updated!

[simpy]

That sounds awesome. Thanks a lot. I'll find some good ECs and get studying for the MCAT.

 

Just out of curiosity, is it easier for a Canadian to get into medicine in the states? Should I look into that as a possibility?

 

I wouldn't say it's easier. Most American schools don't take Canadian applicants, check the American Schools forum for more details.

 

That said, someone with your background would probably have a decent chance in the US. Again, it's going to hinge on your MCAT performance. If you do very well on the MCAT, with your GPA you would have quite a good shot of getting in somewhere. There seems to be somewhat less emphasis on extracurriculars so that's an option.

 

The downsides of pursuing medicine in the U.S. include cost (it's at least $100k more expensive over 4 years) and quality. Canadian schools are pretty uniformly good in terms of the quality of their education but this can vary in the U.S. Given you could develop a competitive Canadian education, I would be careful about where you apply in the States - only apply to schools with good reputations.

 

Anyway, I'd still write the MCAT this summer, and if you do well, apply this fall. I would apply to both Canada and to good US schools. Your chances probably aren't super this year given your ECs, but you still have a chance so you might as well take it.

[simpy]

Alright I will look into it. Thanks again! Your responses have been more encouraging than I expected. What would you consider a great MCAT score for me?

 

Ideally, the higher VR the better. If you got 10 or higher in each section with writing of Q or above you'd be in pretty good shape. Your chances start to drop pretty dramatically with much of a lower score than that. There's no right answer to your question (people with much better scores routinely get rejected, and people with lower scores are often accepted), but I would aim for straight 10's as kind of a minimum goal.

[Der Kaiser]

 

My biggest hobby is weightlifting... I'm pretty serious about it, but I probably can't put that. I meant to join the U of A weightlifting team in my last couple of years in school, but couldn't since I severely injured my shoulder.

 

I put weightlifting on my ABS for OMSAS (Ontario schools). It's something I've done consistently that I've been intently interested in for years, so I figure it counts. It sounds like you feel the same way about it. I don't know how Alberta schools would look at it though. The best advice I have heard re: ECs is that med schools just want to know who you are. Your ECs should reflect that and not be an indication of what you think they want you to be. For instance, I put down all the joe jobs I had (Tim Hortons, Metro, etc.) because working in customer service all the time has shaped my personality.

 

BTW, I did get an interview by following the "who you are" advice.