Dr. Brule Posted July 25, 2013 Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 Hi everyone - I'm very interested in applying to a US school next year if I don't get anywhere in Canada this year. Here goes: My undergrad degree GPA was pretty strong (about 3.75), but I took some part-time "independent studies" courses prior to enrolling in my biochemistry undergrad program back in 2005, and I got an F in a calculus course and a D in organic chem. I was kind of ... going through stuff back then, but I know the blame rests solely on my shoulders for my performance. Anyway, those grades seriously bring me down: To about the 3.55 level if you count every course I've ever done. I will have a Ph.D. in chemical eng. by the time I apply, and my grad GPA is ~3.95, but I've included the grad courses in my cGPA calculation. My MCAT score is 33: 9VR/12BS/12PS. I will likely retake to bring up my VR score. The other stuff: -7+ papers; maybe 1 patent (one paper was super highly rated by the American Chemical Society) -5 scholarships -~8 oral conference presentations, many at huge American engineering conferences -Approximately a gazillion poster presentations. -Organized 4 conferences -Graduate student club for my dept. -loads of TAing (2-3 lab courses, thermo-dynamics tutorials, heat transfer tutorials) -A number of other volunteering positions, but they're smaller than the above -I've done a lot of work with handicapped persons within Montreal's Jewish community (two full summers worth, but I got paid minimum wage because it was a government-sponsored program). -I was a summer camp counselor at a camp for severely disabled children when I was 18. -I've supervised a number of undergrads for their final year theses. -I won some big International thing with BASF where they fly you to Germany as part of their recruitment process. Only a handful of non Germans are selected. -I speak English, French, German. -I've traveled a lot -Avid skiier -By the time I apply I should have hundreds of hours volunteering at a hospital, but I have none right now. -My mom says I'm real good lookin' I'll try to have more by the time I apply. Anyway, I'm just wondering if you guys think I would be an attractive applicant to American schools. I've heard that they look at their applicants more holistically than Canadian schools. I know that American schools, however, do hold you to every grade on your university transcripts, and I'm super scared that the F and D I got way back when will really hinder me because of how they've affected my cGPA (my undergrad school doesn't count them into the program cGPA, but I think American schools will just mash everything I've ever taken into one GPA, which is where I'll have the 3.55). I mean, I've obviously demonstrated that those grades don't define my abilities, but I'm still pretty worried. Thanks a lot, guys Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
advair250 Posted July 25, 2013 Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 Great shot at Canadian schools and American schools, no need to worry at all. You have amazing stats and life experience. PhD to boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hintobean Posted July 25, 2013 Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 Great shot at Canadian schools and American schools, no need to worry at all. You have amazing stats and life experience. PhD to boot. Sorry to disagree, but I think the only Canadian school OP might have a shot at is UofT. Either way, I'm rooting for you, wonka_vision! (I think we really benefit from having non-traditional student, it's too bad more Canadian schools haven't figured out how to get away from the GPA-centric evaluation system). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Brule Posted July 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 Well at Canadian schools I'm evaluated differently. UofT gives me a much higher GPA because of their scaling and so do Queen's, Dalhousie, Calgary, Edmonton, etc. Those schools don't care about what I did before I was fully enrolled because it was part time and outside of my degree or just beyond the years they'll count in my GPA calculation. Example: Dalhousie will give me a 3.9 GPA (they'll count my best senior undergrad year and PhD GPA), Toronto will give me 3.8 based on my undergrad and their scaling. Canadian schools are varied in how they calculate GPA, but American schools (from what I've seen) just take every course ever. I'm really just interested in USA just incasies. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
advair250 Posted July 25, 2013 Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 You have done your research, and have realized you will be competitive for some Canadian schools, based on weighting and PhD performance as well. You'll be fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Brule Posted July 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 Man I hope so. I've wanted this ever since I was 16 and had major medical problems. Being under the knife a lot really got me thinking about medicine. Anyway, do you know if 3.55 is considered OK at American schools? That's my major question, I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
advair250 Posted July 25, 2013 Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 Yes, with the rest of your application and productiveness with your PhD, you are well above other applicants, who might have an arguably higher gpa. But your recent GPA is quite strong, and they wont care about 2 classes you took a long time ago and did poorly in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Brule Posted July 25, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 25, 2013 That's awesome, man -- thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hintobean Posted July 26, 2013 Report Share Posted July 26, 2013 Well at Canadian schools I'm evaluated differently. UofT gives me a much higher GPA because of their scaling and so do Queen's, Dalhousie, Calgary, Edmonton, etc. Those schools don't care about what I did before I was fully enrolled because it was part time and outside of my degree or just beyond the years they'll count in my GPA calculation. Example: Dalhousie will give me a 3.9 GPA (they'll count my best senior undergrad year and PhD GPA), Toronto will give me 3.8 based on my undergrad and their scaling. Canadian schools are varied in how they calculate GPA, but American schools (from what I've seen) just take every course ever. I'm really just interested in USA just incasies. If your MCAT retake is successful in bringing VR up to 10 (or hopefully 11), I think your application would become VERY competitive for these schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleeping_sickness Posted July 26, 2013 Report Share Posted July 26, 2013 Are you from Montreal/do you have QC residency? that would be a game changer. You would almost certainly get an interview at McGill and the rest would be up to the interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Brule Posted July 26, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2013 Are you from Montreal/do you have QC residency? that would be a game changer. You would almost certainly get an interview at McGill and the rest would be up to the interview. I am from Montreal (Qc resident), but McGill will take every course I've ever taken, and they want me to retake a lot of pre-requisite courses because I took some of them (like Physics) over 10 years ago. Kinda sucks because I mean I've demonstrated my abilities in these subjects on the MCAT and I've taught like advanced level course material that covers physics as an engineering TA. I also have a bloody degree in biochemistry, but they'd want me to retake general chemistry 1. Bleh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Brule Posted July 26, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 26, 2013 If your MCAT retake is successful in bringing VR up to 10 (or hopefully 11), I think your application would become VERY competitive for these schools. I know UofT will let me in with the 9 and so will Dalhousie. At Dal you can have one score at 9, but your total has to be 30, and I have a 33. I mean, Verbal is important, but from what I've read, I don't think having a 9 this year will hurt me too much. I'm applying this year to Toronto and Dalhousie (and maybe McGill). I may try for Queen's too, but I don't think I'll make the verbal cutoff (it's usually 10). I will retake the MCAT in Spring 2014 which will give me enough time to really beef up my verbal skills. I will definitely need better verbal for applying out west, though, which I intend to do only if I don't get anywhere this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.