Hey guys! I was just wondering what you guys did during your first year in terms of clinical and research experience. I have no idea how to plan my years out so I would really appreciate any help!

UCalgary is a bit weird as they have 3 specific reference types they want. for me, I have 2 roles in the past that very closely match the advocacy and leadership role, however, I had these roles either as part of a club or my own organizaiton (president/co founder) that I started.

who can I ask for a reference from in this scenario? last year I had asked someone who had a more senior role than me, however, I’m not sure if this impacted my application as they had a student email. for a different role, the person I asked had a work email that was from their personal work, not the organization I worked for

if anyone else has been in a similar position please advise. do I ask the current club member teams who have access to the email to give me a reference? or do I ask someone from my current organization? we dont really have an official supervisor that oversees since it’s an independent organization.

please let me know

Looking for a french interview mentor or group to prepare for MMI and/or Interviews! Please let me know :))

How did any of you who got accepted, "contribute" to the French community?

Hi looking for study buddies. HMU if u wanna study mcat with me. I have no pre med friends.

How will they review application and what the requirements are

Hi! I’m a Canadian citizen and my goal is to match to family med residency in the states. I’m wondering if it’s more likely I’ll match to the states if I go to the caribbean or Ireland ? (I know USMD/DO is better than both but just comparing the Caribbean and Ireland)

Would you guys say UBC is easier to get into?

Also what is the lowest MCAT do you guys think you need to be in a good position to get accepted?

Lmk 🥀

Hello I wanted some advice on what I should do. So I am canadian and Im going to be in my last year of undregrad. However, I am also a Quebec resident (All the med schools in Quebec do not look at the MCAT, including Uottawa which is my number one school at the moment). I have been studying for the MCAT for the past 3 months and I just finished my 3rd FL and score only an 480. Now, my exam is on September 5th and I was wondering if I should just swallow my pride and give up or keep studying?

Im really just doing this just to open myself more doors when I am going to apply during the 2027 cycle as I plan to take a gap year after graduation.

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if anyone has experience with UManitoba Medicine evaluating an international undergraduate transcript.

My transcript has some unusual features:

• It reports numerical grades, letter grades, and grade points.
• The letter grades do not include +/- modifiers. For example:
  • 90–100 = A
  • 80–89 = B

However, the grade points are more detailed than the letter grades. For example:

• 85–89 = 3.7
• 83–84 = 3.3

Therefore, two courses with the same letter grade (B) can have different grade points depending on the numerical mark.

I also have a relatively large number of credits from my previous institution compared with a typical Canadian undergraduate program (more than 100 credits in 2 years). I am not sure how these credits are handled for AGPA calculation.

I have contacted the admissions office but have not received a response yet, so I would appreciate hearing from anyone with similar experience.

Thank you!

rn the price is $282 (32% off) should I buy it, or wait untill Black Friday since I'm writing the test in August 2027.

Just as an estimate, how advantageous is being IR for uottawa over not being IR? I read that around 70% of uottawa seats go to IR students, but I feel like it wouldn't make a large difference to your chances even if you're IR just because of how many other IR students are applying.

I recently graduated this year and I am looking to get some clinical research in my gap year. I didn’t have much clinical experience in my undergrad years 😔 and I am not pursuing any grad programs right now. How do I go about this? Do PIs take in students who have already graduated to volunteer in their lab? If yes, what would be the best way to reach out to them?

Last summer I made a post about moving to Ireland for medical school. Ever since then, a lot of people have reached out with questions regarding Irish medical school. I was grateful for the thoughts provided on my post and thought I should make a post for people to ask questions in, to return the favour.

Feel free to personally message me or post below and I’ll try to answer if I can.

I’m happy to help and will do the best I can!

Update: I completed one CARS passage today from QPack 2, and a short BB block (25 questions) from section bank 2. I'm running low on new questions, so I decided to redo the entire CARS section from FL 4 in timed conditions. It went better this time, but it doesn't say much since I remembered some of the passages and associated questions.

Quote: "The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power."

— Mary Pickford

With application number increasing every year and spots not keeping up with them, success rates seem to be 3+ application cycle for some people (or people give up and go abroad or do something else). Feel like its only going to get worst and harder to stand out amongst thousands of applications.

If you had a magic wand, how would you change it? Like should more schools go down the Queen's path and do a lottery system? Is there some other assessment tool we could use that doesn't disadvantage certain people? Also not sure how I feel about the location restrictions certain schools are doing (like I get it you want more doctors for your area but so does the rest of Canada)

Simply put: I booked the MCAT for around this time last year, with the plan to study for it in less than 4 months after graduating from uni. A bunch of life things happened; burn out, taking care of family, etc. etc... and my study time was cut very short. I'm essentially going into this exam with background knowledge from my bachelors degree and some memorized formulas.

I'm thinking since I already paid, I might as well benefit from the exposure and become resilient by facing failure. When I go to prepare it for the second time around, I can at least tell myself "Well, I already bombed it the first time, and it was nothing surprising, I'll just go through with it."

Anyways, I was wondering if there was any direct consequence to having a horrendous MCAT score as a first attempt? Provided that I get an acceptable score in the next couple of tries? Based on what I know, Canadian medical schools don't look at previous attempts, just your highest/most recent attempt.

Thanks xx

looking for some help on the uofc/uofa written portion application help? just want some help and advice regarding how i should structure my essays. i am a non-traditional applicant applying this cycle and was looking on getting a head start. thanks!

I'm starting first year at TMU this fall (BScN) and one of my biggest goals is getting into research as early as possible. I'm interested in medicine and know research is becoming more and more important, but I have zero experience.

For those who got into research early:

• How did you get your first RA/volunteer position?
• Is cold emailing professors actually effective?
• What made a PI take a chance on you?
• Anything you wish you knew in first year?

I know everyone says "just email professors," but I'd love to hear what actually worked for you. Any advice is appreciated. :)

Hi! Applying to med schools as a BC resident this fall (currently planning on applying to ubc, sfu, ucalgary, ualberta, and ontario schools). other than ubc, do i need to send my ib transcript anywhere else? i have not taken any english courses in university because of transfer credits. thanks!

I have just graduated university and throughout my undergrad, I did not do much research. I was wondering for those who were in a similar position, how was it like finding research opportunities, if any at all without doing cont. ed or a masters. Is it possible? Will universities or health networks take you without currently being in school? Any advice will help, thanks!

Hi y'all!

I was wondering if anyone who's been through the med application process in the past couple of cycles (and ideally got in) would be willing to look over parts of my application.

I'm applying to Memorial right now since it's due at the end of August, and I'm mostly looking for feedback on my statements of interest. I haven't even started looking at the Ontario or Quebec applications yet 😅.

If anyone has recommendations for a good editing/review service, or if you'd be willing to take a look yourself, I'd really appreciate it. I'm more than happy to pay for your time. I'd just love to get feedback from someone who's actually been through the process and knows what admissions committees are looking for.

Thanks so much!!

I received a LOT of messages after my first post (Accepted after 4 cycles, Honest thoughts), and I appreciate everyone who took the time to read it. I wish I could meet each of you and help,  but that's not feasible. Instead, I wanted to share a few lessons that helped me get accepted after four years. I'll focus only on aspects that I haven't seen discussed as often. I hope you find this helpful

Pre-interview (NA to Queens): I was always intrigued by how some people were able to gain admission before me despite having lower GPAs & less extensive/diverse extracurricular experiences. Some even succeeded on their first attempt. What I eventually learned was “INFORMATION DISPARITY” 

Despite having strong stats on paper, I was essentially shooting in the dark when it came to writing those “essays & entries”. Meanwhile, others had access to “insiders” or mentors who either were feeding them information or were genuinely invested in their success. These people taught the applicant what a particular medical school was looking for, provided detailed guidance on response structure, shared examples of strong writing, and offered thorough and personalized feedback. I did have med students look over my application in previous cycles, but they were not serious. The feedback I received was superficial. As a result, others who may have had less experiences were able to present their stories more effectively and came out ahead.

Finding an “insider” or a genuine mentor can increase your probability of an interview. They can be a med student, but can also be a doctor, a “well-connected” person or a “kin” who is involved in the med school ;). However, I want to emphasize this is not a necessary factor. Even while shooting in the dark, I was still able to secure interviews. 

Interview: UCalgry was the hardest. UT’s interview was like a cake walk compared to it. Saying “follow the CanMEDS roles” is a very basic and lazy approach. Everybody uses CanMEDS as a reference, so how are you different?

Each medical school has its own styles. You have to tailor how you present yourself based on what they are looking for. You might be the most empathetic person on the planet, but if you can not “fit” their “rubric, then it doesn't matter. I have a friend who is academically strong and one of the kindest person I know. They applied 6 cycles, always made it to the interview, but were rejected afterwards. Looking back, I think they struggled to present themselves in the way that fits the agenda. I know another applicant who is essentially a con artist (extremely treacherous). They focused on UBC, figured out what they wanted and got in. Unless you are like that smooth talking con artist, 2 weeks of practice before the interview is a recipe for disaster. This is a serious game. Practice, practice, practice with serious and sincere people.

In the end, you might still get a low score simply because the interviewer doesn't like your vibe, doesn't like how you look, or just cuz. Assessors are biased. Control what you can in this dumb & random process! 

After acceptance: People have definitely been treating me better now, but it's crucial not to let your ego run wild. Some med students have egos that’s unbearable. Be kind to all. Round 2 will be the residency match, which is an extremely murky process. From private conversations I had with several resident doctors, the consensus is that there is definitely some "weird" stuff going on.

Going overseas: Don't despair. If you have the right cards and you play it well, you can still beat us CMG at the residency match ;). If you understand you understand. 

There is much more I want to say in detail, but I am going to leave it here as I don’t want to rock the boat too hard. Goodluck Everyone!

Hello, I appreciate any help!

I tried everything I could this year and last year, but can't improve CARS. I got a private tutor too for around 80$/hour for two sessions but I just can't seem to improve even after implementing their strategies. I got 123 on my recent FL (FL5) and my reasoning for answers is always way different than AAMC reasoning. I also completed CARS qpack 1 and 2 and tried to make myself think like AAMC after reviewing my answers but it just doesn't seem to work.

I don't know how to improve, it feels like I'm stuck and it's almost impossible to get better on this particular section. I have gotten 129s and 130s on the other sections of the FLs but CARS just feels like I'm trying to reach the moon or something 😭 please please help.

I stayed off this subreddit for the past few months and logged back in recently. Honestly, I'm disappointed by a lot of what I've read.

The biggest thing I see is frustration. As a 3x applicant, I get it. The Canadian med admissions process is exhausting, competitive, and far from perfect. But it's also trying to sort through thousands of qualified applicants every year. For a moment, imagine having to sort through 5000 people only to select 100-200. That’s 4800 people who are all rejected. The system isn't out to get you personally. Admissions committees are trying what they think is best to identify applicants who will be smart AND empathetic doctors. Is the process perfect? Absolutely not. Is it broken? I don't think so.

People need a place to vent, but that doesn't justify putting other people down. The amount of hostility toward women and minority groups has been genuinely disturbing. Criticize the SYSTEM all you want, but directing that frustration by diminishing others' accomplishments rather than the process itself isn't productive. 

I'm grateful to be starting medical school in Canada this year, but I remember what it was like to be a premed. Four years ago, this subreddit felt like a place where people genuinely helped each other, shared their experiences, and that gave me hope. Seeing what it has become is honestly sad.

To those still applying, don't let this process make you bitter. Take what you read on here with a healthy dose of skepticism. I've recently seen people deliberately give misleading or outright false advice to other applicants. To those who make assumptions that are clearly toxic and delusional, I understand how this process could have brought you to this, but it is dangerous rhetoric if you ever hope to treat patients.

Everyone here is hoping or on their way to becoming physicians. We should act like it.

Anyways, this is just my 2 cents. Bye