Need advice on how to improve my application

[musicman]

Hi,

 

I have been reading this forum for quite some time and have decided to post as I am at a loss. Here are some general stats:

 

Quebec resident

 

undergrad GPA: 3.14 (McGill Biochemistry - every semester huge improvement over the previous)

 

Masters GPA: 3.93 (Université de Montréal Masters in Public Health) Currently in my last semester

 

Employment: currently hold two research assistant jobs

 

Research:

1 first author publication

1 second author publication in process

1 first author publication in process

4-month internship at the Public Health Department of Montreal (implementation and structural evaluation of coordinated care networks)

 

Volunteering/Extracurriculars:

Founded a Rotaract club (part of Rotary International)

President and multiple exec positions of another Rotaract Club

Committee member for the organization of Rotary International Convention (20 000+ attendees)

Representative of clubs in the district (oversee all 9 clubs for one year)

Organizing an international youth leadership/professional development convention

Volunteering at local homeless shelters and serniors residences

 

Piano for 19 years

ARCT in Piano Performance from Royal Conservatory of Music

Gold Medal Award for the Arts: Montreal Board of Trade Competition

Silver Award: Quebec Music Educators Competition

 

I recently received refusals from McMaster, uOttawa, and McGill and am awaiting a decision from Université de Montréal, which won't be out until April. I would really appreciate some advice in how to improve my application for medicine. While I love public health, I have always wanted to be a doctor and really can't see myself doing anything else. Are there some schools abroad that I should consider? I am contemplating retaking the MCAT (physical sciences and biological sciences scores were good, verbal was weak).

 

Also, does anyone know the Université de Montréal policy on Masters grades in the CRU?

 

Thanking you all for your help!

[KomodoDragon]

To be perfectly honest, I'm pretty sure you need a second undergrad. I don't know a whole lot about Quebec med schools, but in Ontario a 3.14 is considered pretty low and most schools don't care about your masters grades. At most you'll get a small boost to your application just for having a second degree.

 

And if your verbal score was weak, then I'd probably look into taking the mcats a second time too. On the plus side, they're taking out the writing section soon so that's one less thing to worry about! Good luck!

[musicman]

Thanks KomodoDragon. I am strongly considering re-taking the MCAT. I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around this idea of doing a second bachelors degree... it seems counter-intuitive to me, but is something I am considering as an option since it is what some med schools are requiring.

 

Thanks

[tooty]

i hope you choose the 2nd undergrad option because it is the only way you will become competitive. anything other than a full time 2nd undergrad will be a waste of your time. call it couterintuitive backtracking... whatever you want. it is what it is. it's either a 2nd undergrad or never enter into med school in Canada.

[fonky]

I agree with tooty.

 

At u Laval t a completed masters degree will increase your cote laval by 1 point, and a completed Doctorate degree will further increase it by another point, but neither the master's nor the doctorate courses count in the computation of the cote laval.

 

I believe it is the same principle in all other 3 of Quebec 's schools. Mc Gill will accept any other second undergrad, it can be accounting, music, name it, you just have to perform well. The other french schools accord better grades to more diffucult programs, you can look at the table des etalons of universite laval to get an idea.

 

I myself am considering a second undergrad, the only problem is I have 3 children to support so I have to accumulate enough money in order to be able NOT to sell the house we live in...

 

Also, at MCgill and uLaval, there is a track for non-traditional applicatns that have been working for more than 2 or 3 years. check this out, it might be interesting for you if you go work for a couple of years, it would put you in a different category of applicatns. However, at ulaval, only 8 spots are available for such candidates, and at mcgill only 3, so it depends on how sure of yourself you are, take a look at these.

 

But my advice to you is : if you have no children and no family to support, follow your dream, go start a second undergraduate and ace it. Then you will be fully competitive at all quebec schools. BTW, mcgill does not demand mcats for the quebec residents.

 

Good luck to you and good reflection.

[musicman]

I know that if I go back and do an undergrad I can do well. The low GPA was a bad year where I took way too much on in my extracurriculars and lost focus on what was really important, my studies. Like many posts I've read about, this idea of doing a second undergrad is "backtracking" and is kind of demeaning, and I really have difficulty with seeing the real point of this. Why is a masters, which in my case was a totally new field and was a lot of work and not easy, be totally ignored, while a second undergrad be considered? Can someone shed light on their thinking with this, please? Hoping knowing the idea ehind it will make me see its importance and consider it more.

 

Thanks for your thoughts!!

[Drogba]

Medical schools need a consistent way to measure the performance of applicants, and undergraduate studies have a more consistent grading scheme than graduate studies.

 

For this reason it makes it difficult to compare graduate grades (which may be only 2 or 3 courses) to full time undergraduate years. However, some schools do consider graduate grades, so it depends on the measures chosen by each particular school. It's also important to look at it from a different perspective, not all places (example US) forgive poor past performance, so the fact that it's possible to complete a second undergrad and have your previous grades wiped clean at certain schools is a positive. The schools basically want you to prove to them that you can compete using the same criteria applied to everyone. It's easier said than done to return to undergrad and score really highly. Nothing in life is easy, this is the way it is, if you want it bad enough, this is just another obstacle.

[tooty]

The biggest reason is that no adcom has the resources to evaluate the intensity of every undergrad and grad program relative to each other. Calgary for one, takes a holistic approach to the academic score, but it would be tough to justify your low-3 GPA even with a high grad GPA. Since the vast majority of applicants have only an undergrad, it's much easier to focus on tweaking undergrad requirements than incorporating grad degrees, especially since grad degrees are incredibly variable.

 

Things probably won't change. Since there are many more qualified applicants than there are spots, it becomes arbitrary to choose among the top few hundred applicants for the one hundred+ spots.

[future_doc]

Second undergrad is the only way. Do what you have to do if you want it badly enough. Otherwise, move on.