Originally Posted by macsci

In Canada, that is how the game is played. Suppose you have Applicant A and Applicant B, with similar extracurriculars, scholarships, etc, etc, both have met prereqs and MCAT cutoffs.

Applicant A:
Works their butt off in a reputable engineering program at a known university. Fourth year applicant with a 3.75 cGPA (top of the class).

Applicant B:
Chooses to major in a general science program at a joke institution and picks only bird courses for 4 years. Fourth year applicant with a 3.95 cGPA.

Both have same level of interest in medicine. One just happens to have a higher gpa coming from an easier institution.

Guess who is getting in...

I don't necessarily agree...I know people have gotten interview offers with 3.4 GPAs, so it's not all based on GPA. Whether that 3.4 makes it to the final cut is another story but many other factors do come into play...

Originally Posted by SciMania

I don't necessarily agree...I know people have gotten interview offers with 3.4 GPAs, so it's not all based on GPA. Whether that 3.4 makes it to the final cut is another story but many other factors do come into play...

Multiple interview offers to which schools? I'm curious how they made it past the GPA cut-offs. In any case, this is just one individual (and an outlier if you ever look at admission statistics for various schools).

Here are some stats for McMaster med:
Class of 2013: http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/documents/Classof2013.pdf

Class of 2012: http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/documents/Classof2012.pdf

Class of 2011: http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/docume...1stats_000.pdf

U of T med stats:
http://www.md.utoronto.ca/admissions/statistics.htm


Besides all other selection criteria, GPA is king in the med school application process. This is especially true for GTA residents applying to Canadian schools.

Damnnnnnn, someone got 15 on Verbal reasoning in the 2013 class? That's intense.

They have different factors if you completed your Masters.

Lol. It's even more intense how there's 17 people 19 years old or less.

Originally Posted by MCHEDDENITE

but isn't that pretty sad. Like, you come to McMaster which had one of the highest entrance averages to get it 88% life sci 90+ health sci and you work your ass off to complete to the degree but you won't get into med school cuz some music kid at trent has a high GPA and will take your spot without having to do a single organic chem course. system = flawd

Why the hate on music? Seriously. Stop being bitter. Music takes an incredible amount of dedication.

Engineers might have a legitimate complaint though, as well as people who go to harder schools vs. easier schools.

Originally Posted by arathbon

Why the hate on music? Seriously. Stop being bitter. Music takes an incredible amount of dedication.

Engineers might have a legitimate complaint though, as well as people who go to harder schools vs. easier schools.

ok i dunno i just listed it bc someone mentioned it be4

Originally Posted by justinsftw

Lol. It's even more intense how there's 17 people 19 years old or less.

Ya, how do you manage to get into med school being 19 or younger.

They had to have started university earlier. i.e. 15-16. To get in McMaster, you have to finish 3 years of undergrad. They couldn't have possibly started at 17, because they would be 20 when applying.

Yea. I read some story of a kid who graduted highschool at 16. I don't know how people fast track through highschool. Or if it was different for me. I remember, they didn't let me take summer courses (even though I was great student). Heck, I remember, asking my teacher if I could take loan the next year's physics book over the summer to study myself, and he said, we don't allow that. >.<"

They are either geniuses who were exempted from grade levels at a public school, or rich kids who are home-schooled or attended a private school.

GPA is hands down the most important factor, as has been stated many times. I am in second year at U of T Meds now and will be interviewing people over the next few weeks for the 2015 class. Several of my friends have been applying for many years now, but have been unsuccessful in getting interviews because of low GPAs. Unfortunately, there is no way of leveling the playing field for those in "difficult" programs, because it isn't possible (or fair) to assign a difficulty score to every post-secondary program in the world. Keep in mind however, that several schools will look at your two most recent years or your two best years or use weighing scales to drop your lowest marks.

From my experience, it's easiest to get marks in courses that you like. I tried a few bird courses during my undergrad at Mac and ended up getting lower marks than the more "difficult" courses I was interested in. I was originally in a Biochemistry core program which offered a lot of elective space, but soon switched to a specialization, with basically no elective space because of this. I found it hard to study useless information and would just end up leaving those courses for last minute cramming.

Originally Posted by arathbon

In 20 courses I have gotten one mark that wasn't an A or A+. It was a B in English. The two other humanities courses I took I earned an A and an A+ in. I only got an A in Italian because I already knew the material from high school, and I was barely able to pull off an A+ in Critical Thinking. Meanwhile I never doubted that I could get A+'s in first year chem, and I don't think I have a science course yet where I worried about not getting at least an A. (Except Orgo chem which was intimidating at first, but as I wrapped my head around it became much easier than most people say it is).

Originally Posted by arathbon

Actually I got an A in Orgo I (Chem 2OA3). I'm hoping for an A+ this term. Your perspective may change if you take any Arts courses that involve essays or other assignments that require creativity and or higher level thinking.

Easy there, bragger. No need to wave your e-peen around for everybody on the Internet to see.

Originally Posted by eullwm

Easy there, bragger. No need to wave your e-peen around for everybody on the Internet to see.

Its not bragging. (In fact your second quote is me correcting someone who overstated what I did.)
I was just using myself as an example of art courses sometimes being harder than science courses.

Originally Posted by ooburii

Most of the people I know taking the non-science route to med school are pretentious and doing it just to gain the advantage of a higher CA.

At Mac, at least, there aren't many 'easier' routes to medical school than the typical one (life sciences). Humanities programs aren't as easy as you think they are.

Originally Posted by arathbon

Its not bragging. (In fact your second quote is me correcting someone who overstated what I did.)
I was just using myself as an example of art courses sometimes being harder than science courses.

Your B in English is showing.

Instead of using a generic example of, say, one of your science-based 12s and comparing it to English, you felt it necessary to say you have 19 A or A+ marks, as well as feeling it necessary to inform the world about your Orgo I mark and how you intend to do one better this term. How you could not consider that to be bragging is beyond me and strongly hints towards incredible arrogance.