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You have a zero chance if you dont apply BUT a near zero chance if you apply with an exclusively urban-centric application. People spend more money on lottery tickets with lower odds though.

 

I met a guy from the GTA at this year's NOSM interviews though I dont know anything about the rest of his application besides his dad is an MD, applied and interviewed previously at NOSM. He very well could have grown up in the North for all I know.

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Hi Everyone,

 

I'm not from the North but rather from Toronto and I was just wondering if anyone who's from an urban area got accepted to NOSM? Should I even bother wasting money and applying here?

it was the only Ontario school i didn't apply to, but as real beef said, if you think you have even an outside chance then why not just apply for the hell of it.

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Apply!!! There's usually a person or two from southern ontarion/non-rural who get in (ie. ottawa, GTA..or person who lived 6 months in NO and has been living in a large urban centre ever since) I don't know why their stats don't reflect the outliers. If you get an invitation, that means you have a chance of getting in if you do really really well at the interview. You'll never get in if you don't apply!!!

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Hi Everyone,

 

I'm not from the North but rather from Toronto and I was just wondering if anyone who's from an urban area got accepted to NOSM? Should I even bother wasting money and applying here?

 

If you check out NOSM's class profile stats (here), it would seem that there was one person without any Northern or rural/remote living experience who was admitted to NOSM in 2008. However, every other year -- with the exception of 2005 & 2006 -- the number of students in the class from Northern Ontario + rural and remote areas always equals the total number of places in the class. The stats for 2005 & 2006 don't provide sufficient information to deduce the existence or non-existence of non-Northern and non-rural / remote students within the class for those years.

 

I do not disagree with the notion that there's usually a person or two from southern ontarion/non-rural who get in, but I am inclined to believe that these people lived in Northern Ontario or a rural / remote area for a brief period (e.g. 6 months -1 year), at the very least. This begs the question, how is "from Northern Ontario" defined on NOSM's Class Profile list. In particular, how long must a student have lived in Northern Ontario and/or rural/remote area to be counted in their respective category of the class profile? Is there a particular period of the students life (e.g. elementary school and/or secondary school) when they had to be living in Northern Ontario to be considered under the Northern Ontario classification?

 

Even though you would be at a substantial disadvantage -- if you are applying with exclusive ubran-centric application -- there is always a chance of getting accepted if you apply. Further, if you have a strong GPA (>3.9) and a stellar extracurricular record (according to these criteria ) your chances would improve significantly. Being Francophone and/or Aboriginal would also give you an advantage. Whether or not those factors would boost your pre-interview score above the 80th percentile (i.e. the approximate percentile required to get an interview) would depend entirely upon the applicant pool for the upcoming year.

 

Best of luck with your upcoming applications and feel free to ask any more questions you may have.

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You ask how long someone has to live in the north to be considered "from Northern Ontario", Reelbeef will comment on this but I remember him saying that a NOSM admissions person told him to live in the North for at least 5 years to improve his context score.

 

I also remember Beef mentioning that 5 years may be the required time to live in Northern Ontario to be classified as "from Northern Ontario". I asked one of NOSM's admissions officers about this 5 year period required to classify as "from Northern Ontario", but the they dodged the question and started talking about something else. I felt bad pressing the issue so I dropped it at that point.

 

Interestingly, NOSM's Admissions Selection Procedure section in the OMSAS 2013 Instruction Booklet (page 22) states, "Context is primarily based on an applicant’s Canadian place(s) of residence of one year or more." This leads me to believe that even one year of residence in a rural / remote and / or Northern Ontario community may lead to an increase in your context score. However, the amount by which the score would increase is highly questionable. Even still, whether NOSM increases an applicants context score for a year of Northern and / or rural / remote residency does not necessarily indicate that is how they define "from Northern Ontario".

 

Jojoluvsu2 - Are you still planning to write the MCAT this summer?

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No, unfortunately. I got really busy between the courses I was doing and working full time so I completey burned out. I would have to take a course and study really hard if I were to do well on the MCATs (I haven't had any chemistry/orgo/most biology in about 5 years) and I know I don't have the energy/motivation to do it. I was considering signing up and just doing the VR for McMaster (and maybe Calgary) but I think that would be counter productive at this point (I have a 10 which is ok...)

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NOSM sticks to their mandate of recruiting students who will likely practice in northern ontario. I think the stats hover around 10% of the class being "non-northerners", but these people likely either grew up in a rural area or have shown serious interest in practicing rural/northern medicine. You have to ask yourself if you would be a good fit for NOSM and if they are a good fit for you. Do you have any rural experience? Have you done ECs/have life experiences that specifically relate to Northern/aboriginal/remote health? Would you seriously consider setting up a practice in NO? If you can honestly answer these questions and convince the adcoms of this, sure you have a chance. Still less likely than a northerner I'd say, but a chance nonetheless. If you were born and raised in Toronto and have never traveled north of Barrie, well you get my drift. If you can spare the money, I'd go ahead and apply, you never know. I grew up in rural southeastern ontario and had never been to northern ontario, but made it to the interview stage. I didn't meet anyone people on interview day that was not from the north, or didn't have ties to it in some form. Small sample size but gives you an idea

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