Hi Folks,
I have been reading through various topics and I must say I am impressed by the dedicated members who provide well thought out helpful responses.
I am in desperate need of some help. I am a canadian student, I have completed my BSc Physiotherapy in the UK and I have completed a few undergrad courses at UBC (not a great GPA). I have dreamed of entering medicine for years, and this desire has only gotten much stronger since i started work in the hospital. As a result I have been looking at some post bacc programs in the US (since there are none offered in canada), but i have been unable to find many that accept canadian students. If anyone could provide some advice or feedback I would greatly aprreciate it. I want to make this happen, I just now have to figure out how.
Thanks
Hi
I’m a Canadian and I came to the some conclusion - no “formal” post bacc programs in Canada. I looked into a few of the formal programs in the US, but as I had a BSc already (20 years old), I was pretty much told across the board that they would not accept me into the programs.
Depending on where you want to go to school (Can or US) will determine what you have to do. I am in Ontario and I had a very strong final year in my undergraduate (the others years weren’t too strong but did show an improvement) so a couple of the med schools here (Western, Queens, Ottawa) only look at your best 2 years or last 2 years. So I am going back full time next year to get another really good year so I can apply to those universities. I am also covering my bases though and re-taking the pre-reqs, in part to prepare for the MCAT and also to allow me the option of applying to some US schools that accept Canadian students).
It really comes down to doing a lot of research, asking questions of the med schools you are interested in and developing a plan that will work for you.
I can tell you that although you will want to quickly get everything done, it is best to take your time and do it right vs muck up something which could add even more time to your plan to fix the recent mistakes.
Also, given that your BSc is from the UK, you might want to check into how Canadian med schools will view that. They probably will need you to run it through an approved “validating source”. Can’t remember what these companies are called, but they are uusally mentioned in the various web sites when they address international students.
Hope that helps a bit.
Good luck
Lynda
Wow,
I didn’t realize that the multitude of formal post-bacc are becoming that competitive that they would turn away canadians. Or do you think it is simply the ignorance on to evaluate both older non-trads and, more importantly, how to evaluate a “foreign” undergrad degree?
The other alternative is informal post-bacc, which I would think a decent school in the US would gladly take the “loonie” to pay for.
In my situation, I got the feeling it was just that I already had all the sciences courses (20 years old) and the programs were geared towards non-science graduates who needed to get their pre-reqs.
In the end, I decided an informal route would be the best way for me to upgrade my pre-reqs and prep for the MCAT. I do have to do a full year of upper sciences courses starting in Sept to make myself eligible for a couple of the Med Schools in Ontario.
Schools up here really are quite different from the US system (eg. only the 6 Ontario schools have a centralized application process but there are only 13 english med schools here and 2-3 french med schools but every school has a different formula for evaluating GPAs - 2 best years, all years, all years with the worst course from each year dropped, weighting schemes by year etc). It has been an education sorting through where I feel I have a chance.
On top of that, we don’t have pre-med advisors per se, nor do the med schools want to talk to premed students for the most part (I managed to get a couple of them to talk to me and provide me with guidance but overall it has been like pulling teeth).
All of this to say, I am trying to keep my options open with regards to US schools too which for the most part have been very helpful whenever I bombard them with questions.
Lynda
Hi, I just came across this discussion cos it’s my current dilemma. Don’t know what to do. I applied this cycle and got the big R (3 ON schools). Do you mean Grad school grades are not as important? I’m also a non-trad. I have BSc (lab science) and a Master’s major in Biology. Science heavy but my undergrad GPA was not as competitive compared to other applicants that I’ve seen in other forums. I actually thought my 1st year was high cos I was one of those top students, and then I had family problems and my grades went downhill. My grad school was science-heavy as well (mostly Bio) with thesis - high GPA and best thesis. I think my EC’s are quite good. Anyway, do you think post-bac is better at this point? I’m mostly interested in going to Canadian schools. I hope you can get back to me. Thanks!
Hi, what did you end up doing? Did you go for a post-bac? Which program? Currently on the same sitch - undergrad GPA not as competitive as others. Thanks