Hey Guys!

Hope you've all been enjoying your summers and getting lots of relaxation time in I currently just graduated from McMaster University in June with an Honours Bachelor of Science in Biology and will be attending the University of Toronto School of Medicine this Fall. As someone who read millions of forums about medical school on here and premed 101 and have some experience with the whole process, I am willing to answer all and any questions! I'd like to assist others in making their dream come true. I did not have a perfect 4.0 GPA and had a lot of bumps along my path, so I'm willing to share my experience to those interested. I have some time now in the next couple weeks before starting medical school, so feel free to post or message me any questions or concerns you may have!!

First off congratulations, Im sure you probably worked extremely hard for this! Just curious, did you have a lot of extracurriculars/volunteer work on your belt? And did you live on residence?

Hey thanks for doing this, and congratulations!! I was wondering, why did you choose Medicine as your career? A lot of students in the first year come in with the hopes to become a doctor, but not a lot of them know for sure that it is the career for them. How would you suggest people to figure out, if medicine is for them? Thanks again!

Congratulations Jovana! If you don't mind, could you share how you went about preparing for your interviews? Are there any resources and/or methods you would recommend?
Thank you for creating this thread!

To reply to nerdingout:

Thank you! Yes it was a tough, long road but def worth everything! No I didn't live on residence, I live close to Mac so I decided to commute as I enjoyed coming home to home cooked meals and having my own space however residence is a great experience in itself! Yes i had a fair amount of extracurriculars/volunteer work but all were stuff i enjoyed and things I did for longer periods of time.

To mcmastergdcb:

Thank you That's a great question! I agree a lot of people think medicine is the only career you can follow if you're in science, however there are many different options and you really should explore all avenues. The road to being a doctor is not an easy or short one. I personally did a 5 month co-op placement during high school at a hospital where I was exposed to pretty much everything. I got to shadow numerous different doctors, work in different sections of the hospitals and really see what a day to day looks like for a doctor. It was this experience that really showed me how much i enjoy medicine and would love to do it for the rest of my life. My best advice to determine if medicine is for you is to shadow different physicians, volunteering at hospitals helps but it doesn't really give you the chance to try out different things as there are many regulations in place. Talking to medical school students and physicians in general will help give you an idea of what this career involves to help see if this is something you would enjoy.

Oh atoms:

No problem! Glad to be of any help and thanks i used the science career office in both my ABS and interview preparation. Its a free service you get and it honestly was super helpful. They offer interview prep for both MMI and traditional. Also talking with medical school students and other doctors was helpful in getting their personal experience and advice. I read some interview prep books, but didn't find them very great. My best word of advice is doing live prep by having your friends ask you questions or present scenarios and using resources available to you such as the career office!

Hi! firstly i'd like to congratulate you I just had a question regarding those daunting essays that UofT and other schools might ask for, how did you go about writing them? And how you went about choosing your references? Also also, i didn't end up doing too good in first year chem and since most schools want 1 year general chem, do you suggest I take more chem courses during my 2nd/3rd year ?
Sorry for so many questions and thanks in advance!

Hey, congrats on your acceptance. It's great to hear when people achieve their goals. I was looking for confirmation that U of T doesn't look at sumer courses? Also what is your opinion on taking physics 1BB3 and english courses. My worry is some med schools have requirements which I want to satisfy(mostly american schools). Also I was wondering how much studying should be done for the MCAT? I know that they are changing next year when I will write it but are there any specific resources that you found that helped? Thanks so much

Oh boy I have a lot of questions for you...
but let me start off by saying CONGRATS! You should be proud of yourself.
Now on to my questions...
1) What WAS yourGPA if you don't mind me asking?
2) Have you done poorly in any class?
3) is first year important and will the marks you get during this year be seen by med schools?
4) What exactly do med schools look at? (What courses and what grades do you need)
5) Also, when should I start preparing for the MCATS?

Thanks for taking your time doing this, I'm really passionate about getting into med school

I apologize for the delay in responding to everyone, I've been busy preparing to move to Toronto as orientation starts in 1 week for me!

To Coomzz:

Thank you! For writing the essays you really want to make sure you don't waste any space for any ideas that may not be necessary. What I did first is I would brainstorm answers and list my personal experiences that I had to back everything I said. The U of T essays are really more like writing a story. You really want to start off with a BRIEF intro that's 1 or 2 sentences long describing what the question means. Your personal experiences that reflect the question/add to your opinion and then at the very end tie it back to how your experiences and your viewpoint will make you a great physician. I enjoyed the writing process, as it gives you a chance to show to the admissions committee you're more than just a GPA or MCAT.

For choosing my references, I chose people that knew me very well but also could showcase my different skills. I chose my volunteer supervisor at my local hospital who knew me since I was in grade 11 and continued to supervise me, my research supervisor who knew me for 2 years and my Student Success Leader supervisor who also knew me for about 2 years. You don't want all your references to come from profs or all from volunteer supervisors, it's really beneficial to have a mix

Most schools require it but they don't necessarily look at that mark, for example u of t drops your 6 lowest marks and if chem was one of those it would be gone. Same with Ottawa, they require it but if you apply after 4th year your first year marks aren't included and it doesn't matter that chem is one of the requirements. So unless you enjoy chem I wouldn't say you need to take more! Some schools require orgo so you just may have to take that

hope this helps!

to macskittles:

Thanks! I am actually unsure about whether U of T looks at summer school courses, for some reason I feel like they do but you can check that out on their website. I took physics 1BB3 and found it a lot easier than physics 1B03, however I never took any english courses. I took orgo and physics as there were schools in Canada (like McGill) that required a full year of physics. Like you I was afraid of taking english courses as it's hard to do really well and I was afraid of them lowering my GPA. My plan was that if this time around I didn't get into med school, then I would take english in my year off to be apply to reapply to canadian and american schools.

There really is no time amount for studying that you can put to the MCAT, it all depends on you and your studying habits. Some study a few weeks and some months. The best resources I found were just doing a bunch of practice tests, especially aamc ones, to allow you to get a feel for what the actual MCAT is like.

Best of luck

Wow thank you so much for doing this! Best wishes

What advice would you give to students who have a less than perfect GPA?

Hey, congratulations on your acceptance! You must be so ecstatic about going to U of T to pursue medicine
I am going to McMaster for life science, and I hope to pursue medicine after I graduate. I just had couple of questions regarding academic requirements for med schools. I have researched but is still unsure :s
So the first question is, is it true that math (like calculus math) is not necessary for the MCAT?
and secondly, which math course did you take in first year, 1ls3 or 1a03?
I was initially planning on taking 1ao3, but people have told me that I should just take 1ls3 as it is much easier, and math isn't really necessary for med anyway.I would really like to know what you thought of this!
Thank you so much for your time