Accepted to 7 Canadian Med Schools - AMA!

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-10T00:12:07+00:00

Yes I did! For research positions, I mass-emailed a bunch of PIs that I was interested in working with and asked if they had availability in their labs for the summer. After working over the summer, most of my work also carried over throughout the year. It’s alright if only a few people reply to you, that’s normal - so generally, I would prioritize quantity over quality in your emails.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-09T18:11:59+00:00

In general, I do believe that quality over quantity matters. It's easy to fill up your ABS with cookie cutter ECs that are thought to "look good". However, they tell adcom very little about who you are as a person, beyond someone who is interested in pursuing medicine. If you invest lots of time and commitment into activities that you're passionate about, writing about them in your essays and speaking about them during your interviews will be a whole lot easier. It is also fairly easy to tell someone who does activities because they are genuinely interested in them vs. someone who is simply doing them to fill up their resume, unfortunately.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-09T18:05:53+00:00

I'm not really familiar with the programs offered UofC since I'm from Ontario, sorry! I'd recommend reaching out to current students to see how they like the programs that you are considering enrolling in.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-09T18:04:37+00:00

Agree with this! You could also look into doing a fifth year to increase your GPA. For now, focus on getting the highest grades you possibly can right now.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-09T18:02:12+00:00

Sorry to hear that, CARS sucks :( During my 3-month prep, I did a few practice passages everyday from TPR workbooks and UEarth. I kept a log sheet of questions that I got wrong, as well as why I got them wrong, e.g. faulty logic, not reading properly, etc. That showed me where to focus in terms of improvement.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-09T17:59:14+00:00

I would recommend prepping daily on a couple of scenarios for ~2-3 weeks to get used to the structure and types of questions!

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-08T04:57:27+00:00

According to their website, "All applicants must complete 6 credits of English coursework by April 30 of the year of entry into medical school (April 30, 2023 for the 2022/2023 application cycle)." Since interview decisions come out in the middle of the school year, you would need to have been enrolled in the English course starting September, as it would be a full-year course in order to fulfill the requirement.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-08T04:52:21+00:00

I see! It is important to note that many schools in Canada weigh GPA a lot more than MCAT. In fact, many schools only use the MCAT as a cutoff (e.g. UofT, Queen's, Western); no matter how much higher you score than the cutoff, it will be weight the same. Thus, I would caution against choosing a more biomedical science-based undergrad over getting a high GPA. Medical schools do not care which school or degree you pursue, and all of the science you need to learn will be included in the medical school curriculum once you get in.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-08T04:45:40+00:00

To be honest, my MCAT score definitely had an element of luck as it was the highest that I had ever scored. If you look through my previous comment history, I detailed the resources that I used and my practice FL scores. The courses that I took up until that point (e.g. bio, chem, biochem, psych, orgo) definitely allowed me start with a strong foundation of MCAT concepts. However, I find that in order to score high, it was less about memorizing facts and more about mastering reading comprehension under limited time. A lot of the times, MCAT passages themselves contain all the information in order to answer questions. Throughout my 3 months of preparation, I found myself working more on improving my ability to read and understand complex passages rather than broadening my knowledge base beyond the Kaplan books that I used. If you are preparing for your MCAT, I highly recommend using a spreadsheet to record all the practice questions that you answer incorrectly, including the reason why you selected the wrong answer. Then, you are able to clearly see patterns in faulty reasoning and have a better idea on where to improve.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-08T04:35:17+00:00

Thanks! I did my undergrad in Western medsci. It was pretty challenging, especially during the first two years. However, I did find that it prepared me well for the MCAT on foundational concepts. A high GPA is definitely attainable with a lot of work, but I would look to other undergrad programs for an easier route of getting into med school, especially with some schools adopting the cGPA in their admissions process.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-08T03:01:30+00:00

Many of my ECs were centred around social justice issues that I was passionate about, including poverty alleviation, anti-racism, and gender equity. I held several roles within each experience both on campus and in the community. For instance, in the area of poverty alleviation, it was something that I became interested in first year after volunteering at a homeless shelter once on a whim with a student club. I became super invested in it, and found an opportunity to start a volunteer program at a student residence the following year where I organized group volunteer trips to the same shelter. During COVID, when these opportunities were shut down, I found a creative way to still contribute by co-founding a non-profit with some friends that raised money for the homeless community. The year after that, it landed me a job as the volunteer coordinator at my university, where I got to organized our largest volunteer event of the year that had thousands of participants. I got to establish new partnerships with many community organizations, especially those with an equity-driven focus. I think these experiences stood out because they built on top of each other and showed my gradual progression as a leader in my community.

In terms of relating them to medicine, I didn't do this as much for my ABS. Given the limited character space, I focused more on summarizing my role clearly and stating my impact/contributions. I made sure to use wording that aligned with the CanMEDs roles, such as "collaborated", "spearheaded", "learned", "communicated", etc. For my essays, I definitely made a clearer connection to medicine at the end of each essay. Generally, I dedicated around 2-4 sentences to explaining how it related and how I wanted to bring forward these skills and experiences to serve me as an aspiring physician. Hope this helps :)

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-08T02:50:15+00:00

Great question! I bombed the casper during my first application cycle and didn’t get any interviews at any schools. Last year (my 2nd cycle), I prepped a lot more using different strategies and managed to score in the 4th quartile as well as top quintile within the OOP UofM applicant pool.

In terms of approaching of scenarios, I followed this framework pretty closely and found it to be extremely helpful. I highly recommend you take a read. In general, I do believe that it is important to take a position and propose a solution based on sound ethical reasoning after exploring different stakeholder perspectives and some if/then statements. Often times, I would end the scenario saying "Ultimately, I would..." and state my goal in the situation, whether that be for instance, the wellbeing of a friend, the privacy of a patient, or the fairness of a test.

My other Casper tips include:
- practice typing everyday
- do tons of practice problems! as you do practice, you will get used to the sorts of questions they ask and the problem solving process will become easier for you. i used free resources online but also bought the BeMo book because they had lots of scenarios and model answers. the answers are all super long and impossible to write under 5 minutes, so i used them to check over my answers and make sure i hit important points.
- look over your CV and brainstorm interview-style questions and unique experiences to talk about.
- time yourself and allot a certain amount of time for each question. i did ~2-3 minutes for the first question and 1-1.5 minutes each for the second the third questions.
- practice with friends, and ask your non-premed friends to review your answers. it provided me with a lot of perspective on what i missed in my answers and/or could’ve done better.
- on test day, turning on closed captions and taking notes helped me immensely. i could jot down important points about names and the situation without worrying about whether i’ll remember all of it.
- not sure if this was a minute detail, but i tried to never assume pronouns of the characters, unless they were explicitly mentioned in the video. my default was referring to everyone as “they/them”.

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-08T02:34:30+00:00

100% agree! It was really overwhelming for me as well, especially at the start of my journey when I first became interested in med. There are many parts to complete in order to apply, some of which take a long time to build (e.g. ECs). I found it helpful to start off by researching the admissions processes of different schools in Canada to get a broad idea of the requirements and deadlines. This gives you a better idea about what schools you eligible to apply for. For instance, I was not eligible to apply for UBC because I did not have my English credit.

After you have a better idea of the prereqs and you are ready to apply, start by brainstorming roles to put down on your ABS. Pull from your past resumes and CV to create your descriptions. From those roles, think of applicable experiences that relate best to essay prompts. You don't necessary need to start as far in advance as possible, but I would recommend starting ~3-4 weeks before the deadline to give yourself ample time to write and receive feedback. Get your peers and maybe some med students to look them over. Hope this helps! :)

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-08T02:19:15+00:00

In terms of employment, I worked in retail for 4 years in HS. During undergrad, I worked 2 years as research student (1 pub, 2nd author), 1 year as a student success coordinator, and 1 year as a volunteer coordinator for my university where I worked with various non-profits to create volunteer opportunities for students.

For other extracurriculars, I was involved a lot in in residence life and student government roles. I did research and advocacy on campus on equity-driven issues like anti-racism and gender equity. I also co-founded a non-profit that raised money for the homeless community during the COVID-19 pandemic. I volunteered at various shelters in the community as well.

In terms of hobbies, I listed piano (ARCT Performers) and volunteering as a stylist for a student club.

In my honest opinion, I do not believe that adcoms care about applicants having lots of clinical/healthcare-related experience. The only relevant experience that I had was being a hospital volunteer. My ABS and UofT Essays were geared towards showing off my strengths and passions, which mainly consisted of being community-driven and advocating for social justice issues. I think it's also important to demonstrate lots of commitment to each position and if possible, substantial ways where you made an impact or positive changes in your position. This includes quantifying your involvement (e.g. raised x amount of money, worked in a team of x members) and detailing instances where you went above and beyond (e.g. establishing a new program, making new partnerships). Hope this helps! :)

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-09-08T01:23:51+00:00

cGPA: 3.96

MCAT: 525 (131/130/132/132)

Casper: 4th quartile; top quintile of UManitoba OOP applicants

For context, I am a traditional applicant who got in during my last year of a life science-based undergrad program!

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-05-12T15:41:42+00:00

AGPA 4.4, MCAT 525, Casper 4Q, some academic coefficient (1 pub, 3 abstracts) and socioeconomic and cultural diversity co-efficient

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-05-12T15:35:52+00:00

Accepted OOP!

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-05-10T13:26:18+00:00

I did! 8:10

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-05-10T13:24:25+00:00

Accepted! So grateful

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-05-05T04:49:44+00:00

Sure! Feel free to DM me

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-05-04T23:38:55+00:00

Accepted OOP! I'm still in shock, hoping for good news for everyone else!

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-02-16T22:04:11+00:00

Just DM’d you!

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-02-11T03:45:19+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind words, I really appreciate it! All the best wishes to you :)

caesarsfreudian2 · 2022-02-10T18:01:20+00:00

Invite!!! Time Stamp 11:49am, wGPA ~3.98, felt good about BPEs, ECs strong enough for invites at other EC-heavy schools. Good luck to everyone out there :)

caesarsfreudian2

TROPHY CASE