Mcgill Physiotherapy Towards Med?

[Jm8888]

Hi!

 

I'm a cegep student that didn't get into med this year, so I'm hoping to reapply next year at university of sherbrooke. Has anyone here done physical therapy at mcgill and got into sherbrooke med a year after cegep? I hear that Mcgill's 4.0 scale puts me at a disadvantage because it is not converted on 4.33 at sherbrooke but I hear from others that it actually is. 

 

Thanks for the help!

[Bambi]

I would have thought you would be applying to Sherby after you complete the 1st semester of 2nd year undergrad taking only 4 courses that semester so that you will be considered as a cegepien.

[Snowmen]

You can try but to be competitive, you would have to get a nearly perfect GPA during your first semester. To give you an idea, my 4,1 GPA gave me an R score of roughly 38 at Sherbrooke which ended up being sufficient with a very high MMI score and a CRC of 33,0.

 

My guess would be that a perfect 4,0 GPA would give you about 37.

[crystal93]

Would you be happy with physiotherapy as a career, or do you only see yourself doing medicine?

[Jm8888]

Would you be happy with physiotherapy as a career, or do you only see yourself doing medicine?

See that's the thing.....I don't think I'd be happy as a physiotherapist. I mean the courses sound awesome but the job itself...not so much (to me). I also have the option of optometry at udem which I'd be much more happy with as a career if med didn't work out....but I'd still be kind of dissapointed at the fact that I wouldn't be a physician. The reason why I'm debating is because optometry is 8 courses per semester in French and will be much harder to get a high GPA (at least I assume) since there's the whole Uni learning curve + French learning curve + 3 classes more than the typical Uni student.....while physio is at McGill + Ill know people in the program + 5 classes in English and with it I can apply to McGill med in 2.5 years rather than in 4.5 with opto. Decisions decisions

[lolabean]

In all honesty, do something you will enjoy...if you don't find the courses interesting it will kill to get a high GPA. Also, you can still get into med without doing an undergraduate program in something that gives you a really high CRU. Personally I find the french schools variable in their CRU calculation. I think the most valuable advice I can give is go into something interesting, get involved in ECs that truly mean something to you, and give your self time to grow before med school. Trust me it will really help out when writing applications and for the interview  

[crystal93]

^ I agree with lolabean.

 

Would you be able to apply to the French medical schools while in optometry, and then if you weren't accepted apply more broadly when finishing your undergrad?

 

I would suggest going into a program that brings you towards a career you would enjoy. Additionally, say worst case you start working as an optometrist, you could continue applying to medicine while working. If you were to enter a program without career prospects, or leading to a career that doesn't interest you, what would you do once you graduate if you don't get into medicine? I don't mean to sound negative, but it is competitive and I like to always have a plan for each possible outcome.

[Jm8888]

I would be able to reapply, but the issue is that optometry is divided into a preparatory year (which would be what I'm going into) and then 4 years of optometry school. Apparently, I hear the CRU is different in the preparatory year and it doesn't give a good CRU unless you get 4.33/4.33, which I doubt is attainable for an Anglo studying in French for the first time with 8 course load. That is why physio is appealing. Med is my ultimate goal. Optometry seems good because yes it's one of the "big 5" health professions so it is obviously the safe choice, but if I go into it, get let's say a 3.7 which would give like a 28 CRU, then med is done in the French system and I'd have to rely only on McGill and write the MCAT for external schools. All this time I thought that opto preparatory year gave huge CRU's like pharmacy or dent does but now I'm hearing otherwise.

[crystal93]

Have you looked at the document that explains how CRUs are calculated? Not all schools calculate the CRU the same way though, so it wouldn't answer all your questions.

 

Do you have any other options right now, or it's between optometry and physiotherapy?

[Jm8888]

Have you looked at the document that explains how CRUs are calculated? Not all schools calculate the CRU the same way though, so it wouldn't answer all your questions.

 

Do you have any other options right now, or it's between optometry and physiotherapy?

I have looked but it's so complicated and it varies year by year so I don't want to waste my time. I have some other options at McGill like neuroscience, BSc in physiology, but I know that these don't really do much in terms of CRU and I'm not that interested. I can also call back udem and beg them to reopen my vetmed file which I think they can do, but I dropped that program because I wasn't too fond of the realities of the actual job, plus it's in st-hyacinthe. Finally, I have pharmacy at ulaval which I got into, and I know that this program gives huge CRU's and is ideal, however I'm not sure I'm willing to relocate so far away and spend so much money and go through such a hassle just to switch again next year. That's why I thought the preparatory year in opto would be the best because I thought it was comparable but I'm hearing that it isn't. So it really is physio at McGill vs opto preparatory year at udem.

[Haribo7173]

Just some advice I have for you: take it or leave it. 

If your ultimate goal is med, I say go with what is known to give huge CRUs at all the French schools: physio. First, I'm assuming your CEGEP R score is very good since you got into both opto and physio so if you ace your first semester in physio, you will definitely have chances at Sherbrooke. I'm not saying it's a given, but it's definitely a possibility. If not then you most likely will have to complete your undergrad to get into med school (which is what most students who get into med school after CEGEP have to do anyway). At the end of the day, if medicine is what you want, what is a couple years here and there? (I'm starting a second undergrad myself!)

If you perform well, you will be competitive at all 4 Quebec med schools (work on your CV a little if you're considering McGill). 

 

Like you said, you'd be doing optometry in French which will take some adjustment. Not to mention the opto courseload seems much greater (it is a doctorate after all)...university ITSELF is not the same as CEGEP so just entering uni will require some adjustment... I'm not saying it'd be impossible, but to me, it definitely seems more difficult. I'm also not aware of many people switching from optometry to med (so you'd be heading into unknown territory)...

 

Just my two cents! Hope that helped and good luck

[Jm8888]

Just some advice I have for you: take it or leave it.

If your ultimate goal is med, I say go with what is known to give huge CRUs at all the French schools: physio. First, I'm assuming your CEGEP R score is very good since you got into both opto and physio so if you ace your first semester in physio, you will definitely have chances at Sherbrooke. I'm not saying it's a given, but it's definitely a possibility. If not then you most likely will have to complete your undergrad to get into med school (which is what most students who get into med school after CEGEP have to do anyway). At the end of the day, if medicine is what you want, what is a couple years here and there? (I'm starting a second undergrad myself!)

If you perform well, you will be competitive at all 4 Quebec med schools (work on your CV a little if you're considering McGill).

 

Like you said, you'd be doing optometry in French which will take some adjustment. Not to mention the opto courseload seems much greater (it is a doctorate after all)...university ITSELF is not the same as CEGEP so just entering uni will require some adjustment... I'm not saying it'd be impossible, but to me, it definitely seems more difficult. I'm also not aware of many people switching from optometry to med (so you'd be heading into unknown territory)...

 

Just my two cents! Hope that helped and good luck

Thanks for the advice. Your logic definitely makes sense. The scary part is the fact that Sherbrooke may not convert mcgill's 4.0 to 4.33, which would require me to get a perfect 4.0 just for a 37ish CRU which would be diluted by my cegep to about a 34.3. And if I don't manage to get the 4.0 then I'll pretty much be stuck in physio until I can apply to schools like McGill (which is a total crapshoot). It's not like doing physio at the French schools where I can hit 42's with a 4.33. But then again, I've heard from some sources that with the new calculation they actually convert the 4.0 to 4.33 scale. I emailed to ask. The second scary part is the fact of leaving programs like pharma, opt, etc for physio, which can mean leaving an opportunity for other good careers if med doesn't work. This is why I'm in such a huge dilemma and also the reason why I'm not making any decision until I get in touch with Sherbrooke and hear what they have to say. I heard that for programs that Sherbrooke does not have, they use a grouping system to group them in with programs of the same rigor. For example pharmacy would be grouped with med which is why it gives high CRU's. This is why I find it so perplexing why opto wouldn't be included in this group, even if it's the preparatory year.

[Pharma dream]

Did you got any answer regarding the conversion of the GPA of McGill from 4 to 4.33

 

Thanks for the advice. Your logic definitely makes sense. The scary part is the fact that Sherbrooke may not convert mcgill's 4.0 to 4.33, which would require me to get a perfect 4.0 just for a 37ish CRU which would be diluted by my cegep to about a 34.3. And if I don't manage to get the 4.0 then I'll pretty much be stuck in physio until I can apply to schools like McGill (which is a total crapshoot). It's not like doing physio at the French schools where I can hit 42's with a 4.33. But then again, I've heard from some sources that with the new calculation they actually convert the 4.0 to 4.33 scale. I emailed to ask. The second scary part is the fact of leaving programs like pharma, opt, etc for physio, which can mean leaving an opportunity for other good careers if med doesn't work. This is why I'm in such a huge dilemma and also the reason why I'm not making any decision until I get in touch with Sherbrooke and hear what they have to say. I heard that for programs that Sherbrooke does not have, they use a grouping system to group them in with programs of the same rigor. For example pharmacy would be grouped with med which is why it gives high CRU's. This is why I find it so perplexing why opto wouldn't be included in this group, even if it's the preparatory year.

[Guest]

Hi!

 

I'm a cegep student that didn't get into med this year, so I'm hoping to reapply next year at university of sherbrooke. Has anyone here done physical therapy at mcgill and got into sherbrooke med a year after cegep? I hear that Mcgill's 4.0 scale puts me at a disadvantage because it is not converted on 4.33 at sherbrooke but I hear from others that it actually is. 

 

Thanks for the help!

I am not sure about Sherbrooke, but I know that Université de Montréal converts the 4.0 gpa to 4.33, and it is advantageous to McGill students.

May I ask what your cegep r score is? You will likely be able to increase it by going into physiotherapy, as it yields a high cote universitaire.

[kal23]

Any update on this situation?  I'm in a similar position.

[capoo]

On 2/28/2021 at 1:44 AM, kal23 said:

Any update on this situation?  I'm in a similar position.

Are you still in cegep? If yes, the situation no longer applies, Sherbrooke only takes your CEGEP into consideration when you apply during your 1st year of uni (because you don’t have any uni grades available on the application deadline so all they can use is your CEGEP R-score). So, that said, just do whichever program you like more, because it doesn’t matter.

[kal23]

23 minutes ago, keipop said:

Are you still in cegep? If yes, the situation no longer applies, Sherbrooke only takes your CEGEP into consideration when you apply during your 1st year of uni (because you don’t have any uni grades available on the application deadline so all they can use is your CEGEP R-score). So, that said, just do whichever program you like more, because it doesn’t matter.

yup I’m in cegep, applied to med and physio at mcgill. I guess I was wondering if it’s possible to get a ~4.0 gpa in physiotherapy mcgill, and if the conversion from /4.0 gpa to /4.3 gpa would disadvantage me

[capoo]

21 minutes ago, kal23 said:

yup I’m in cegep, applied to med and physio at mcgill. I guess I was wondering if it’s possible to get a ~4.0 gpa in physiotherapy mcgill, and if the conversion from /4.0 gpa to /4.3 gpa would disadvantage me

Every school converts, and I think the conversion should be fair enough. I know at least 3 people in my med school class who came from McGill PT (physio), so I think that shouldn’t be a problem.

[Jinyoungie]

On 3/9/2021 at 10:36 PM, keipop said:

Every school converts, and I think the conversion should be fair enough. I know at least 3 people in my med school class who came from McGill PT (physio), so I think that shouldn’t be a problem.

Hey do you know if immunology is a good first year program from which to apply to med?

[capoo]

On 3/26/2021 at 11:40 AM, Jinyoungie said:

Hey do you know if immunology is a good first year program from which to apply to med?

What do you mean by first year program? As in a program where you can get into med after only one year? In that case, every program is a good 1st year program in a sense, because your first year of uni simply doesn’t count if you apply in your first year of uni. It’s because the application deadline is way before the date that any of your uni grades are entered (you don’t have any grades available in November, so they can only use your R score to assess your application (that’s what we refer to as “faux collégien” here). It’s a whole another story if you apply after having done more than 60 credits tho, where your grades actually count.