daleader Posted January 28, 2013 Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 THANK YOU a MILLION TIMES if you take time and read my case and leave feedback, I really appreciate it! I have some good parts to my application, and some really bad parts - please leave your advice: ________________________________________________________________ Cumulative GPA: ~3.97/4.00 (OMSAS) ________________________________________________________________ Extracurricular Activities 1. 6-7 months of research in a lab as a volunteer 2. Almost 2 years of research in another lab which lead to 1 publication and a few abstracts and poster presentations 3. 1 Summer full-time research position (project was basic lab science and animal based) - lead to a a few local presentations + 1 national conference poster presentation 4. Hospital volunteering (will be ~140 hours) 5. Leadership position - similar to what a TA does (hold study sessions etc) (15 hours/week) along with bunch of leadership certificates 6. Founder of a university club + Vice president in another club + Exec in another club 7. Shadowed a specialist in clinic (MD/PHD) for 1 year (4-5 hours / week) ________________________________________________________________ DISADVANTAGE: I have not taken full-course load during my undergraduate years (3-4 courses/term) and I know its going to affect my application big time. As a result, I will be staying 1-2 extra years to finish up. I also haven't written MCAT as of yet. I really appreciate if you have any suggestions/feedbacks/advice regarding my situation. Should I work on improving my EC? Taking into consideration that I didn't take full-course load, do you think I have ANY CHANCE at all? What about US schools? Thanks a lot in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiverCityJill Posted January 28, 2013 Report Share Posted January 28, 2013 THANK YOU a MILLION TIMES if you take time and read my case and leave feedback, I really appreciate it! I have some good parts to my application, and some really bad parts - please leave your advice: ________________________________________________________________ Cumulative GPA: ~3.97/4.00 (OMSAS) ________________________________________________________________ Extracurricular Activities 1. 6-7 months of research in a lab as a volunteer 2. Almost 2 years of research in another lab which lead to 1 publication and a few abstracts and poster presentations 3. 1 Summer full-time research position (project was basic lab science and animal based) - lead to a a few local presentations + 1 national conference poster presentation 4. Hospital volunteering (will be ~140 hours) 5. Leadership position - similar to what a TA does (hold study sessions etc) (15 hours/week) along with bunch of leadership certificates 6. Founder of a university club + Vice president in another club + Exec in another club 7. Shadowed a specialist in clinic (MD/PHD) for 1 year (4-5 hours / week) ________________________________________________________________ DISADVANTAGE: I have not taken full-course load during my undergraduate years (3-4 courses/term) and I know its going to affect my application big time. As a result, I will be staying 1-2 extra years to finish up. I also haven't written MCAT as of yet. I really appreciate if you have any suggestions/feedbacks/advice regarding my situation. Should I work on improving my EC? Taking into consideration that I didn't take full-course load, do you think I have ANY CHANCE at all? What about US schools? Thanks a lot in advance. Your course load has absolutely no bearing on your chances at Mac. To determine if you get an interview they look only at your cGPA, your MCAT VR score, and your CASPer score with (currently) equal weighting between the 3 (there is also an additional 1% or 4% for Masters or PhD respectively). If you get an interview, they weight your interview score 70% and 15% each for cGPA and VR. This formula decides who gets a full file review which is the only time in the process that ECs and LORs are considered. The weight these carry is unclear with some speculation that these factors are more of a checking for red flags than a real factor of comparison between applicants. An easy way to look at all of this type of info for all the Ontario med schools is to check out the OMSAS application guide. http://www.ouac.on.ca/docs/omsas/b_omsas_e.pdf The Mac website also has more detailed info. As for your chances, your GPA is definitely good but without your VR score all i can really say is if you do well on VR and CASPer you'll be in good shape - and that really goes without saying. Your ECs are pretty good too but as I said it's unclear how much impact that has. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daleader Posted February 5, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2013 Thank you so much I really appreciate your help. Besides Mac, do you know any other schools who don't require a full-course load? Any US schools? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trojjanhorse Posted February 5, 2013 Report Share Posted February 5, 2013 Thank you so much I really appreciate your help. Besides Mac, do you know any other schools who don't require a full-course load? Any US schools? do your research first and then ask. Not everything will be fed on a silver platter here. Why spam each bloody subthread with the same post? Why make a new thread for this? Use this http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67575 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 Auto reject because of have not taken full-course load during my undergraduate years (3-4 courses/term) and I know its going to affect my application big time. As a result, I will be staying 1-2 extra years to finish up. I also haven't written MCAT as of yet. Need Full course load otherwise you could do 1 course / semester to have the best ECs in the world since you have no classes to worry about. Actually this is not true at McMaster (I think 3 full courses per year is acceptable). Still, it's not a good idea to disqualify yourself from all of the other schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Savac Posted February 23, 2013 Report Share Posted February 23, 2013 Mac meds needs 3 years of full classes I believe. Let me double check that. So with no full course years only mac meds might work, all others instant disqualification since you don't have to worry about marks at all and just do EC all day. They require 90 credit hours (which is 3 full years), but it can be spaced out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
w_robin Posted February 25, 2013 Report Share Posted February 25, 2013 I also haven't written MCAT as of yet. I really appreciate if you have any suggestions/feedbacks/advice regarding my situation. Should I work on improving my EC? Taking into consideration that I didn't take full-course load, do you think I have ANY CHANCE at all? What about US schools? Thanks a lot in advance. What we say here is completely inconsequential if you don't get an MCAT score that gets your foot through the door. Write the MCAT first, then worry about getting into medical school. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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