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[BernieMac]

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[Guest]

Alberta , 4th year UG

 

Soccer Player- entire life, high school captain (Division 1), university intramural every year + drop in

Soccer Head Coach for a high school team- 3 years, took team to 2nd place finish for first time in 10 years

Soccer Referee- 2 years 

Soccer Camp Counsellor- 2 years, temporary supervisor 

Orientation Leader (+ trained new staff)- 3 years

Tour Leader (+ trained new staff)- 2 years 

Let's Talk Science Outreach Volunteer- 3 years

Teaching Assistant for grade 12 science course- 1 year

Refugee Warehouse Support Member- 6 months 

Club Executive at university

Club Executive at university 

Elected student government rep- 1 year

Mentor for international students- 3 years

Mentor for poor family- 1 year

 

Research:

 

Volunteer in ecology lab,

volunteer in neuroscience lab,

research study participant,

attended science talks,

working on abstract

 

Part Time/Summer Employment:

 

Newspaper Courier 

Dairy Queen Employee 

Dollararma Employee

Best Buy Employee

Canadian Tire Employee 

Misc Labour Job

Tutor

 

Awards:

 

University Scholarships

Leadership Award

Service Award

Dean's List 

 

+ 3 Outstanding Reference Letters 

 

Lived in 3 continents, 2 third world countries, fled warzone, and grew up below poverty line in Canada  

 

Would these ECs be considered competitive/outstanding? Are my ECs strong considering my GPA is 3.71 and MCAT is 75th percentile ):

I'm not a medical student, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

I think you're ECs are okay, but not outstanding for a 4th year UG student. You have a long list of long-term ECs, but it's hard to tell how good they are without an idea of the work you did in each. For example, you volunteered in a neuroscience lab... Did you wash equipment or did you have a significant role in the research?

And I'm not sure if being a participant in a study is really relevant...

 

Try to get some medicine-related shadowing experience and if possible, try to get a job position as a receptionist/assistant in a medical clinic. 

[Fresh fry]

 

 

Would these ECs be considered competitive/outstanding? Are my ECs strong considering my GPA is 3.71 and MCAT is 75th percentile ):

Your ECs are fairly run of the mill standard premed stuff, there is nothing there that I would say is "outstanding". It looks like you have done a lot of things when you list it out like that but a lot of them are fairly minor commitments. As a reviewer I would ask why have you had so many different part time jobs? What do you mean by "mentor for poor family"? What is the time commitment for these things? What the @#$% is "attended science talks"?

 

Also, an aside, I don't know why people list minor GPA based awards and things like the Dean's list; to have the kind of GPA that is required to apply to medical school I don't know how one could not be on the Dean's list. Also the give away minor (<$1500) "scholarships" aren't fooling anyone, anyone reading your file knows what they are and that 10 000 other students in the province got the same one that year. The leadership award requires context, is it a university, from an organization. It also goes along with the university executive thing everyone thinks sounds great on paper. There are over 200 clubs at my school with 4-5 execs per club meaning that anywhere from 5-10% of the population on campus is a "club executive". 

 

Sorry, this is taking the form of a rant and it isn't directed at you, more of some general points for anyone else who may be reading this to take as well.

 

The answer to your question is "no". There is nothing here that would overcome a GPA of 3.71. I'm sorry and I wish you the best of luck.

[SleeyPanda]

Nope. I would definitely focus on rewriting the MCAT. 

[VolumeOverload]

A lot of blunt honesty in the feedback you've received, not all of which I necessary agree with.

I would say what you listed is fairly average to above average as far as medical school applicants go.  What can take your application to the next level and truly make these activities seem exceptional is how well you write them.  Admittedly the OMSAS application does not leave a lot of room for that but since I know you're applying to U of C (from previous topics), we can focus on that.

For example, the fact that you engaged in activities where you volunteered with refugees, low SES families and international students seems to stem from your own experiences and challenges coming to this country.  I think that's great and shows a genuine reason for wanting to give back to those particular groups.  Highlight this!

You have a lot experience with soccer in a number of evolving leadership positions.    Why not relay how these opportunities put you in a better position to pursue other leadership activities in your post-secondary education (tutoring, TAing, club execs etc.)?  

The fact that you received leadership/service awards is great.  Not everyone gets these.  I was a successful applicant this year and I did not have any of those types of awards (despite being heavily involved in the community, school etc.).  Awards/recognitions are almost like objective metrics that support your discussion of your activities.  You're writing about how you're an effective leader?  Great.   The fact that you hold an award that recognized your leadership adds weight to your discussion. 

As others have said, it would be more helpful for us if you expanded a bit more on some of these activities (especially research).  I'm operating (perhaps idealistically) on the principle that you did these activities out of genuine interest rather checking off some pre-med checklist.  If so, there is worth to all the research activities you've listed.  For example, perhaps being a study participant was your first introduction to research and inspired an interest in the scientific process.  This curiosity was further exercised by attending non-mandatory science talks from experts in their respect fields.  Collectively, these experiences inspired you to pursue positions in a formal research setting through which your hardwork has led to the submission of an abstract.

 

Once again, certain school's applications will allow you to highlight these activities more meaningfully than others.  

 

Lastly, you need to abandon the idea that a 3.71 GPA equates to an uphill battle as far successful admission goes.  This maybe true for some schools, but certainly not all.

Just because you're not an olympic athlete with a 99th percentile GPA + MCAT, copious first author publications and 100k+ in external funding does not mean your experiences should be dismissed as mediocre.

Good luck!

[BernieMac]

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[Fakedoctor]

Your ECs are fairly run of the mill standard premed stuff, there is nothing there that I would say is "outstanding". It looks like you have done a lot of things when you list it out like that but a lot of them are fairly minor commitments. As a reviewer I would ask why have you had so many different part time jobs? What do you mean by "mentor for poor family"? What is the time commitment for these things? What the @#$% is "attended science talks"?

 

Also, an aside, I don't know why people list minor GPA based awards and things like the Dean's list; to have the kind of GPA that is required to apply to medical school I don't know how one could not be on the Dean's list. Also the give away minor (<$1500) "scholarships" aren't fooling anyone, anyone reading your file knows what they are and that 10 000 other students in the province got the same one that year. The leadership award requires context, is it a university, from an organization. It also goes along with the university executive thing everyone thinks sounds great on paper. There are over 200 clubs at my school with 4-5 execs per club meaning that anywhere from 5-10% of the population on campus is a "club executive". 

 

Sorry, this is taking the form of a rant and it isn't directed at you, more of some general points for anyone else who may be reading this to take as well.

 

The answer to your question is "no". There is nothing here that would overcome a GPA of 3.71. I'm sorry and I wish you the best of luck.

ouch you really didn't hold anything back did you, lol.

 

As for the OP with your GPA you might want to consider applying to the US, you'll stand a much better chance of getting accepted to a mid tier med school. Honestly a 3.71 wouldn't get you into dental school let alone meds, best of luck.   

[Mjacob45]

Alberta , 4th year UG

 

Soccer Player- entire life, high school captain (Division 1), university intramural every year + drop in

Soccer Head Coach for a high school team- 3 years, took team to 2nd place finish for first time in 10 years

Soccer Referee- 2 years 

Soccer Camp Counsellor- 2 years, temporary supervisor 

Orientation Leader (+ trained new staff)- 3 years

Tour Leader (+ trained new staff)- 2 years 

Let's Talk Science Outreach Volunteer- 3 years

Teaching Assistant for grade 12 science course- 1 year

Refugee Warehouse Support Member- 6 months 

Club Executive at university

Club Executive at university 

Elected student government rep- 1 year

Mentor for international students- 3 years

Mentor for poor family- 1 year

 

Research:

 

Volunteer in ecology lab,

volunteer in neuroscience lab,

research study participant,

attended science talks,

working on abstract

 

Part Time/Summer Employment:

 

Newspaper Courier 

Dairy Queen Employee 

Dollararma Employee

Best Buy Employee

Canadian Tire Employee 

Misc Labour Job

Tutor

 

Awards:

 

University Scholarships

Leadership Award

Service Award

Dean's List 

 

+ 3 Outstanding Reference Letters 

 

Lived in 3 continents, 2 third world countries, fled warzone, and grew up below poverty line in Canada  

 

Would these ECs be considered competitive/outstanding? Are my ECs strong considering my GPA is 3.71 and MCAT is 75th percentile ):

 

I read the other comments and wanted to add my opinion. I think a lot of your activities look like they could be very good but its a bit difficult to tell given the limited descriptions. As the other poster said above, a volunteer in a lab could mean many things, so if you expand on some of the things you wrote we could be more helpful. Also, about being an exec on a club, I personally would only mention it if you did something significant in that role (i.e. as an exec, you planned activity x...). I would take out attending science talks unless it was a large number that you could lump together for a minimum total of 25 or so hours. I would take out research study participant. I disagree with the other poster above about awards--> I would put in all awards (even Dean's list) unless you are short on room or something like that. I personally included 2 scholarships under 2000 and under 1000 on my application and did not experience any negative outcomes from doing that. 

 

To discuss your gpa and mcat, if you're considering applying to ON schools, you need to calculate your gpa at each individual school as many of them use weighting formulas, and you may have a gpa significantly higher than 3.71. My cumulative gpa was similar to yours (much higher weighted gpa though) and I had two ON interviews. I would apply to ON schools if your wGPA is over 3.85. I would also apply to Mac with your current gpa if you have 128+ on CARS. To address your mcat score, the specific breakdown would be very helpful. i.e. if all your section scores are 126-127+ and you did better on CARS i.e. 128+ you may have a chance at ON schools. Depending on your mcat breakdown though, I would likely recommend rewriting. Good luck with everything, I hope this post was helpful!

[wifflball]

ouch you really didn't hold anything back did you, lol.

 

As for the OP with your GPA you might want to consider applying to the US, you'll stand a much better chance of getting accepted to a mid tier med school. Honestly a 3.71 wouldn't get you into dental school let alone meds, best of luck.

As someone who applied to OMSAS with a 3.63 cGPA and was accepted, I have to disagree with Fakedoctor. That being said, I highly recommend you rewrite the MCAT to put yourself in a better place in regards to med school applications.

[Guest]

As someone who applied to OMSAS with a 3.63 cGPA and was accepted, I have to disagree with Fakedoctor. That being said, I highly recommend you rewrite the MCAT to put yourself in a better place in regards to med school applications.

you're the exception, not the rule...

[wifflball]

you're the exception, not the rule...

My point is that there is no rule. I encourage everyone who truly wants to enter the medical profession to apply (as finances allow) everywhere they meet the GPA cutoffs, even if those cutoffs are supposedly not representative of the average GPA of those accepted. To say someone with a 3.71 GPA won't be accepted, as Fakedoctor did, is just not true.

[Galaxsci]

I think the "quality" of your ECs depend on how much time you spent on each activity, but based on what you gave us, I'd definitely argue that they're above average. Also, given the number of part-time jobs you've had, I think you've got a substantial number of other involvements (unless each job was for a few weeks or something like that).

 

All of this being said, I don't think your ECs are outstanding, but they're above average in my opinion. I don't think they'd make up for your below average gpa unfortunately, but I don't know much about Calgary applications, so I can't really give an informed opinion there. Best of luck though!

[JohnGrisham]

I'd disagree, they look pretty solid. 

Your MCAT though is what you need to work on.

Also without any depth of time, we cant say. Did you work at DQ for 1 month or 4 years? Big difference. 

They are at least average, so by no means are they bad. But they could very well be scored above average at some schools like UofC or UBC - depending on the specifics of the committments that you have not presented.

[masterandmargarita]

Your EC's are quite in depth/detailed and I would say pretty good although some such as attending science talks I would personally leave out. That is rather vague and I don't know how much an admissions committee would care about that. You want EC's that demonstrate long term commitment, leadership, research, etc. I'm not really sure why there are some harsh sounding posts in response to them though, overall, they are by no means bad. Your MCAT score could be higher to improve your chances. Your (cGPA?) is not bad. I don't *think* that your ec's would make up for it, but don't forget that some medical schools will drop your lowest year, not count courses from a community college, will look at the last two years (Queen's), etc. So there are some things that will work in your favour. Also there are a fair amount of people who manage to get into medicine with a 3.7. Just this cycle at McMaster for instance 30 students with GPA's ranging from 3.70-3.79 were admitted. So it's not impossible. Good luck.