That's super great that we have someone like yourself to answer our questions!

What was your undergrad degree? Also, are there any past nursing student/nurses in your program?

I have a few questions,

What was your university GPA?
Can you give a summary of the med school application process?
What have you found most challenging about med school so far?
Are you sleep deprived and stressed 24/7? lol

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions on this forum, im sure a lot of people will really appreciate it, myself included :)

No problem! Happy to help :)

My university GPA was somewhere in the 3.9's.

I wrote a really long summary of the med school application process in a new premed website I am starting with some classmates. I don't think I'm allowed to post the link... but you should be able to find it, if you know what I mean ;)

In short, the med school application process is basically:
1. Complete at least 2 to 3 years of undergrad. Make sure you take any prerequisite courses (each med school is different). Mean while, keep up your GPA, get involved in your school and community, and take the MCAT.
2. In the Fall of your 3rd or 4th year of undergrad, you are eligible to apply to med school - this usually involves a list of your awards/activities, a personal essay of some sort, and 3 reference letters (this varies from school to school). Keep in mind that many applicants are also Masters and Phd students, as well as people in the working world who have previously completed undergrad degrees.
3. In Feb-April, med schools send out Rejections and Interview Invites. The interview is usually either a traditional style interview (1 doctor and 1 med student doing a 30-45 minute interview with you) or the Multiple Mini Interview (where you do 10 different 10-minute stations where you must discuss ethical scenarios, act, etc.).
4. In May, for applicants who were interviewed, you find out whether you were accepted, waitlisted (this means you might get in if a spot frees up) or rejected.

The most challenging part about medical school is the volume of information you are expected to know. There's a lot of memorization. I am the type of learner who is more into "understanding why", but a lot of medicine is just knowing the facts, which has been particularly challenging for me. If you don't like rote memorization, medicine can be really frustrating sometimes.

Medical school is as stressful as you want it to be for the most part. No one tells you how much to study. Some people go to the library and study everyday. Others cram days before the exam.

In terms of sleep deprivation, once you start clerkship (3rd/4th year) and are in the hospital full time, there are some days when you will be "on call" where you work 24 hour+ shifts. Depending on what department you are in, you may or may not sleep during those 24 hour shifts.

Medicine has it's pros and cons, but I don't think it's as glamorous as many people think. It's one of those jobs where you don't realize how tough it can be until you're knee deep in it. There are definitely quite a few people who end up regretting going into the profession.

I just wrote this to sort of answer the common question "what ECs should you do to get into med school?" You might find this useful:

Probably the #1 question I get asked by premeds is: "What extra-curriculars did you do to get into medical school?"

Premeds ask this question for a number of reasons. For one, they want to know what works - am I doing things even remotely attractive to medical schools? And secondly, they want to know how they match up - am I doing enough?

However, I think it's a dangerous question to ask because it can mislead premeds into thinking they need to do X or Y to get into medical school.

Just to clarify for those who haven't had this question answered before: there is NO magic formula of ECs and volunteering to get you into medical school.

If I surveyed my entire medical school class, I would find a huge variety of experiences.

There are Masters and PhD graduates with publications, research conference presentations, etc. Then there arts graduates who have never done any academic research in their entire lives.

There are sports addicts, who joined every single school sports club and team. Then there are those who immersed themselves in music. Or social justice causes. Or none of the above.

The only common denominator among med students and their ECs is that they worked really hard. They realized that quality was more important than quantity.

All that said, if you could only do one EC, I would recommend that you do something in community leadership.

When I say community leadership, I'm basically saying having a leadership role in a group or club that does something positive and meaningful for your community.

Just find something you like doing and make a community leadership activity out of it. If you are interested in social justice issues, become the president of a school social justice club you believe in. If you like teaching math, go start a local tutoring group. If you fancy hockey, go coach a local kid's hockey team. And don't just do the bare minimum - make it great. Grow it. Do something aewsome.

The power of doing a community leadership activity is that it allows you to develop and demonstrate key qualities attractive to med school admissions committees:

1. Leadership - this is obvious
2. Teamwork - anyone who is a good leader should in theory be a good team player as well
3. Communication - you can't be a successful community leader if you can't communicate well
4. Commitment / good work ethic - if you are successful, you probably worked damn hard at it
5. Service - serving your fellow human being and creating positive change in your community

Not only will you have developed important skills for being a good doctor, and for being a competitive applicant, you will hopefully have invoked some meaningful, positive change in your community. It's a win, win, win situation.

No problem! Glad you are finding it helpful :)




Definitely, luck plays a big role in getting into medical school. There are always many more qualified applicants than there are spots. But that's why I think if you have a competitive application and apply enough times, most likely you will get in at some point.

1. Medical schools will tell you that it doesn't matter what undergrad school or program you went to, as long as you have the necessary GPA and prerequisites.

For medical schools that use strict GPA cutoffs (e.g. University of Western Ontario), this is definitely true - it doesn't matter what school you went to.

For schools where it's not exactly clear how they use your GPA (e.g. UofT), no one except the admissions committee knows for certain. Maybe they do, maybe they don't, but I suspect it does not play a significant role. Every medical school class has students from many different universities in Canada, including the "easier" ones.

2. Getting a good MCAT is really important because every school uses it differently. For a school like UofT, all you need is a 9/9/9/N. For a school like Western, you might need a 9/10/11/Q. The point is the better you do on the MCAT, the more medical schools you are eligible for. The MCAT is a tough but important test, one that you want to take a few times as possible, so when you are studying for it, really study your hardest.

Also, I think some applicants forget how important it is to spend the time to put together a great application. You've spent the last 3+ years working your tail off to have great marks and a great resume - truly, you can spend 1-2 months working your tail off even more to turn that resume into a great essay.

Don't write your essay last minute. Really spend time thinking about which references you want to ask, and give them advanced notice. You've worked this hard already, you owe it to yourself to present the best version of yourself to the admissions committee.

I have to decide between doing an undergrad in science at Acadia, a small university, or an undergrad in chemical engineering at McGill. I'm also waiting on Mac Health Sci but I'm being realistic and expecting not to get in.

Do you know any engineers who are in medicine? I also know it is a GPA killer, which is the only reason I'm hesitant of accepting it, however should I decide not to pursue medicine it would give me a good back up.

Or would it be better to take science at a small university where I would be able to have a very high GPA and more spare time to do EC's? Thanks!

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions. I was wondering if you took Orgo in the summer? Also, what 2 years in Health Sci were your highest averages?

Oh, what program did you attend, if you don't mind answering. What else courses do you suggest taking that would benefit me for the MCAT?

I'd rather not give details, but I went to a regular life sciences program.

For the MCAT, the most important courses to take are 1st year physics/chem/bio and organic chem. Physiology would also be very useful, but I think if you have a science background, you will understand the study materials for that OK.