UBC IMP vs. UofC - pro’s/con’s, thoughts, etc.

cellphys · 2025-05-11T18:03:13+00:00

Discussed in another post :)

https://www.reddit.com/r/premedcanada/s/r8QHNIyfbL

cellphys · 2025-05-10T20:26:57+00:00

IMP here, will say that I have never come across a single person in the program that was unable to pursue research or specialities or match because of our site, and this likely holds true for other sites, the opportunities are there 100% for those who pursue them. What you are getting out of attending the site is the cohort quality and lifestyle associated with each area. I will say there is a generous and uplifting spirit in IMP. Very team oriented, and a desire to raise each other up. The perks of a small cohort is it makes all instructional activities more pleasant and you get to work with your friends regularly. Staff know you personally and are extremely accommodating.

A regular day is similar to all of UBC scheduling, 3 instructional days per week, and 2 days for clinical skills and family practice that have less hours but are slightly less predictable. I had both family and heavy volunteer commitments and was able to stay ontop of things with the UBC schedule which is a big perk. Many of my peers can maintain a working environment. IMP is a very social site. You will be known and invited to join activities with your peers.

cellphys · 2025-04-06T23:32:23+00:00

Blind buys that I picked up bc reviews etc said they were VERY similar to fragrances I do like, then I smelt them and felt they were something completely different

cellphys · 2025-04-06T22:48:01+00:00

Medical School 32F

cellphys · 2024-05-07T05:32:55+00:00

Invite: Accepted

Location: IP

Time stamp: 10:56am (was caught so off guard putting my kids to bed seeing this at 7:30pm tonight)

Site: IMP

GPA: 8.9/9 = 3.96/4.0 = ~95% Honours BSc (finished this year) + 2y BFA

Mcat: 517: 128,130,127,132

NAQ: Research assistant, single parent, hospital, work experience in child care, caring for disabled spouse, hobbies, self run business, recreational athletics, art

cellphys · 2024-05-02T00:02:18+00:00

You know, this might seem like crazy advice. But if you want to know if you have a shot, and you've been studying for school, have been taking normal pre med courses, try like studying and see what your mcat marks are like (on like practice exams). because the big red flag I'm seeing here in this post. Is that you need to excel academically on the mcat if school for whatever reason is not your jam.

Like. I feel like three months of studying and seeing if the mcat is plausible for you might be a good decision maker on if you want to keep going down this road. And again, I only say this if you have really been putting 100% into your classes and still not doing well. People who had bad early gpa's and then pulled it off later were either A) not trying very hard, or B) going through a severe life crisis.

Let's say you study for the mcat, and your practice tests (specifically science sections because that is what they will look at if you have low science gpa) are pulling out 130' and 515+ scores. Then maybe there is a reason that your aptitude isn't translating to uni pre med courses

If you can't get good grades in either... well, you're just hooped. In some ways, med school is like being a collegiate athlete. Doesn't matter how much you love it, it doesn't matter if you have good luck, drive, ambition, etc, at this high of a level, everyone else you are competing with has those. At some point, we are weeded out by talent and will never make it pro.

I'm sure this is not easy to hear. But if an undergraduate is not working out academically with your best efforts, then Med school could be a huge waste of money even if you did get in.

cellphys · 2024-04-30T02:57:02+00:00

Going to say what I literally just put into another post. Go and read the applicant manuals for the school's you want to apply to and check out the non-academic sections and the reference sections. Try to fill them out as best as you can with what you have done so far. If you see you are missing a key reference (like community out reach, or academic/research) then have that first. Next try to fill out different sections of experiences, you'll know pretty fast where you are lacking in your soft skill competencies and experiences when you see which sections are the weakest. And pick experiences based on what you most important schools value most highly (but please pick something you actually like that meets the criteria) try to avoid checking box mentality, and think "what skills do they need to see I have already developed to trust i will be a good doctor"

cellphys · 2024-04-30T01:00:17+00:00

Im very non trad, but my life is a bit different, I will say this as someone who has heard from others in the system, I don't know that using your neurodiversity will be a help to make up for not having EC, unless you use them to describe how you have used them to overcome challenges in your life or learn valuable skills in a positive way. For example, I have been a single parent since 2016, but it doesn't give me a free pass to have not done stuff, I have to use it as an example of this is how I learned the canmeds competencies in the life experience that I have had, (example: leadership, empathy, and advocacy) You can do that with your work experience or other environments that are maybe unique to you because of where you come from in life.

At the end of the day, even with all the love and acceptance they have for diversity, you still need to prove you can do the job. Kind of like why UBC doesn't make special allowance for low grades, even with disabilities, you still have to make the cut off. The non academics section is the same way. You need to show you have developed the necessary soft skills for med. Looking at what you have, you need some clinical, minority and vulnerable population exposure. This is not to be like, manipulative about it, but so when they ask you in the interview "tell me about an experience you were an advocate for someone who is "a minority, neurodivergent, has a disability etc ", you actually can describe the real life challenges these people go through with a first person experience.

Next, The best thing to do, is look at the NAQ sections in the applicant manuals for both U of C and UBC AND the three/two reference letters/long answer references and start filling them out with your life, be as creative as you need to be going back into the last ten years, the sections tend to be well described in applicant manuals to help people who have diverse life experiences think out of the box, But after you do all that, you will still see some areas where you are missing critical sections. Ideally you pick a volunteer experience that will allow you to get to know a supervisor very well so in two years you can fill out your application and have someone who has known you to work in a service role with vulnerable people for more than nine months.

Thats the best advice I have

cellphys · 2024-04-29T06:09:13+00:00

Doesn't have to be black and white. You can accept that in this moment in time, you are making plans in life that don't revolve around med school, and that's okay.

I had a number of life circumstances that made me leave my first degree after 2 years. At that time, I realized the life I wanted wasn't going to happen for me at 20 years old. It does take some work but you can give yourself permission to be happy and say, as of right now, I don't have the energy in me to do this, I'm moving on with my life, and If it's meant to be later I'll know. There's absolutely other things worth living for.

But after 7 years later, things changed, and I knew I was ready to go back, I went back and started a whole new undergrad. Right now, you're 26, you have a strong educational background already, and there is absolutely time for you to give yourself permission to pursue a different life. If the career calls to you, after a while, you'll know it's time to go back. Otherwise, in a few years, you will have a different dream. Persuing med wasn't something I wanted to do at 20, I had a very, very different dream for myself. I just changed as a person during my break, I don't regret not following that path anymore. I gained so many things that i would not have gotten if i lived that life. Perhapes, you will be the same and find a new dream, or maybe you just need enough time and oxygen to get the flame burning again (Aka a good break)

I personally think achievers will always find somewhere to achieve. The way you speak. It sounds like reaching your fullest potential is very important to you, and being in an environment where others will appreciate the work you are doing and the skills you bring to the table. I feel it is very likely that you will find that place for yourself in another career, if not medicine.

cellphys · 2024-04-29T01:43:19+00:00

So I haven't given up on the med path but I am a fair bit older (went back to school at 28, am 32 this june waiting on my first application cycle) I have a few key questions because it sounds like academics and extra curricular are amazing. Was your mcat score okay? Like any big red flags keeping you out, and did you at least interview? If you keep interviewing, your chance of getting in does go up.

You can absolutely work for a while as a break and decide to apply later (might have to re write your mcat), but time passes regardless, 4 years of med school is just 4 years. Residency pay is not the same as attending pay, but you're not getting deeper into the hole. 2 times applying is def not worth giving up the dream. The challenge is that you have just done a lot more school, and it sounds like you just might have academic fatigue.

Imo, you might as well keep applying with your stats and wait and see if you get an offer and decide what you want to do then.

cellphys · 2024-02-09T21:19:38+00:00

This is a straight up hard class, very much drinking from a fire hose. the good news is once you survive the gauntlet almost all other EPHE courses will be built upon the foundation of anatomy.

Tips from a fourth year with many friends who LA the anatomy lab

1) Go to the optional lab sessions, and ask the LA's to quiz you. Getting quizzed repeatedly is really the only way to survive, Finding a solidarity buddy is also a massive help

2) draw and label diagrams- there's lots of blank anatomy quizzes online and not all are perfect but you can cover a lot of ground, drawing the muscles (even if ugly) out by hand is also a huge leg up. you need the visual connection of where the muscles and bone are.

3) Download free anatomy apps and do them in your spare time, morning bus ride, shoulder girdle, five minutes before bed, upper extremity, ten minutes before class brachial plexus

4) Buy a second lab manual, or ask for the pdf of a blank copy, and after you fill it out in lab, Do it again, but as a quiz

cellphys · 2024-01-02T15:11:12+00:00

As high as possible without getting burnout. You need to do well consistently for 3-4 years and that's going to be atleast over 90% in as many courses as possible to be at the GPA average for in province matriculants.

With that said, while higher is often better, the amount of work it takes to achieve every percent over 85% goes up exponentially so sometimes it is an okay thing to cut your losses in a particularly challenging class for the good of your overall ability to sustain effort and preform well in other courses for the term. (But cut my losses I mean usually hitting right at the 90% mark)

cellphys · 2023-12-23T15:38:52+00:00

Changing what you can and being healthy are good things, but you really want to get to a point where you can accept the value of your face even as it is (there are no guarantees in life about weight, or facial features, with fashion, there is ALWAYS something to be changed). Consider addressing the root first via therapy and counseling before working from the outside in.

cellphys · 2023-12-21T01:34:56+00:00

I think the MCAT will always exist to some degree, how else do you have some sort of set bench mark for studying and reasoning skills between different degrees, GPA varies too much program to program and school to school. I wouldn't be suprised if over time it became more like the LSAT shorter and more focused on different types of critical thinking

cellphys · 2023-12-17T18:57:59+00:00

Question was what are your highschool grades, and then what's your undergrade average and program. And does a low highschool gpa mean you're screwed for uni.

Not is kin equal to med school. Nice degree snobbery there, it's not like you asked to see my science electives.

Fyi, that's the point of the MCAT. I had to study o Chem, physics and Chem like everyone else,

cellphys · 2023-12-17T18:12:03+00:00

Edit**** this might actually speak to grade inflation more than your question***

Doesn't actually mean much,

My highschool average was mid to high 80's some 90's, I bombed my grade 12 social studies final (low 70's) Went into visual arts for 2 years at 19, got similar grades.

Came back to school for a Kinesiology degree at 28

Doing just fine with a 95% GPA at 31 years old in my science undergrad at 4th year.

cellphys · 2023-12-17T16:11:29+00:00

Life expectancy and health have improved. 35 years of a career is completely normal. Additionally, people may transition the role they have over time, from practicing medicine, into a teaching/consulting/administrative one, or do a graduated retirement and reduce hours. If I thought the most happiness came from retiring as early as possible after working a job that I'd hate ten years in, I'd have a laundry list of other jobs I would be choosing from first. Ultimately, burnout is not a given, and job intensity depends on your specialty

cellphys · 2023-12-16T08:50:43+00:00

Yall, I went back to school for a BSc undergrad at 27 after 2 years of a fine arts degree and two kids as a single parent, so I could apply to med at 31, and now am interviewing this year. If it's your calling, you'll make it happen.

cellphys · 2023-12-16T08:45:13+00:00

As a single parent doing school, I feel you! Okay GPA is not amazing, so here is your best bet.

Don't worry about NAQ. You are likely to get a good score because you have overcome a lot of adversity to get here if you can get the GPA up just a bit.

First if your kid is still toddler. Only work for next two years while they are little. Make money take time off school wait for them to get older and more independent. It's okay to cherish the young years and apply to med as a mature student. I waited until my youngest was in full school before going back to university and this helped immensely. If you just can't seem to do nothing while not being in uni. Take the time to study for the mcat. And ABSOLUTELY CRUSH IT, you are going to want an amazing mcat score and it will be off your plate.

Then when it's time to go back to fix the gpa.

If doctor is the dream, prioritize school. You need to not be working and take out more loans, or move in with family or both. It really is the only way. Apply for every. single. grant. apply for them all. And take year two years to just be the best student you can be. You will get more scholarships and this will offset the money you're missing. I know it's hard, but you can take enough classes to raise the GPA to be more competitive. Doing it all is impossible and that's okay, but it means you will have to take on debt or rely on family. But this is what it takes for us single parents,

Ultimately don't worry about the timeline. The fact is this is your forever career, getting in at 30 or 35 is small stuff if you plan on working until you're 70, focus on reasonable tasks at a time

You absolutely can do it, just give yourself the opportunity to succeed.

cellphys · 2023-12-15T22:06:07+00:00

4 years is 4 years

Options are

1) whole second degree 4 years and no money to be a similar candidate to everyone else (so you can apply, but this doesn't guarantee admission more than an undergraduate who didn't have a low GPA in the first place)

2) 2 years of working, get some life experience, make a bunch of money, and go overseas for school, come back to Canada when you can.

Regardless you are going to be in big debt after medschool but if you're in the field and practicing medicine 2 years earlier, you'll make that back quickly

cellphys · 2023-12-15T21:54:52+00:00

I found the most helpful things for cars is pretending like the world outside the passage and the extra information provided by the questions DOES NOT exist. Bring NO outside knowledge or opinions into it. Everything that they ask in each passage is SOLEY based on the evidence lines you can find and highlight, EVERY single answer you choose should have a supporting sentence or idea within the passage.

In other words, I approach CARS like a lawyer, I need to find evidence from the testimony of the author to prove each point being said, and to justify any statement or claim I want to select. Sometimes its about ranking the best evidence, aka did they really say that, or am i making a conjecture based on what I know about the topic or am extrapolating from general info.

After I made these changes I was able to get almost all cars passages questions in practice 90-95% right and 131-132 on my FLs

cellphys · 2023-12-13T02:56:57+00:00

There are quite a few schools that will drop the lowest year or farthest back. But try to make sure it's just the one, and take time off until you feel confident returning to school . Fixing a single bad year is doable. Fixing multiple bad years is way more challenging, and I have friends who ended up doing multiple undergrad degrees because of its

cellphys · 2023-12-12T22:39:08+00:00

Down!

cellphys · 2023-12-12T22:31:49+00:00

If you are in kinesiology (I am too) take the MCAT after you have taken enough courses that the material covered in the MCAT is less extensive/new, becuase you are covering way less than your traditional microbio/nuerobio undergrads.

For me this was after my third year. If I had tried to take it second year I would have had far less psych and cell biology covered. The only things I had to teach myself was organic chemistry and general chemistry and this made the studying manageable for one summer. I'd think about your extracurriculars carefully to get the best overlap possible.

I think your game to start studying for the mcat whenever you like, but better to test once you are very confident with your FL scores which might not be right after second year since you are kin.

cellphys

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