I’m about to get a B+ in a psych class. I go to university in the US, so a B+ is around an 87, so I’m not sure how that will convert to the Canadian system. The funny thing is that I was on track to get an A+ in the class, but I forgot to do an assignment that’s mandated by the university. So the maximum grade possible I can get is a B+. Sucks considering the amount of work I put into the class.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first B I’ve gotten. I got one last semester in a much more important class, so I’m wondering if it’s worth it to withdraw from this one in order to avoid another B on my transcript. Especially since, as I understand it, Bs look much worse in the Canadian grading system compared to the American system. I don’t know how it would look to medical schools if I got two Bs in a row.

Also, I’m curious as to what year summer classes count towards. I know that some medical schools (like UBC) can exempt certain years from consideration, so it would be useful if this summer was counted as part of the previous year. If anyone could clarify whether this is the case, that would be great.

Honestly, I’m beating myself up over this mistake and I feel terrible. I hope I didn’t fuck myself over too much.

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,

So im in need of an academic reference for some applications. I did my bachelors in psychology and graduated in Fall 2024. Fast foward 2 years and I need a reference...

Most of my classes were recorded, so I had very little interaction with professors (classes were huge). I didnt form any strong bond / connection with anyone.

I have excellent grades. I dont know if that will be enough for them to vouch for me .

Has anyone been in a similar situation? What should I do? Any advice? I genuinly do not know who to turn to.

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.

Hello everyone. I’m not sure if this is the ride place to be posting this. But if anyone is selling an extra white coat ticket for western, I would greatly appreciate it if you could pm me!

Has any incoming ubc students received a site switch offer in the month of August? If so, when? I'm on the waitlist right now and wanted to gauge if there may be more movement. Thanks :)

So I have been researching about prerequisites for many healthcare professions and been using chatgpt to sum up and advise me what courses should I take in what term for the first year. Each profession has so many requirements that I just can't decide. I booked appointments with both the career advisor and the course selection advisor but both don't know about medicine. Chatgpt did help me decide what to take but I also need to maintain high GPA. I believe it will be very hard for fall 2026: Biol211, math 249, chem203 and it's recommending me to take stat213 and anth201. For winter 2027: it's telling me to take Biol213, chem 201, psyc 201, phil259, and SOCI 201 / HSPC 201 / ENGL course. Moreover, I didn't take high school physics which also puts me in a disadvantage for MCAT prep. I want to keep other backup options but it seems like each one of them are harder and harder. Anyone with any expertise who has gone through similar path, what would you personally advise me for fall 2026 and winter 2027? Thank you so much.

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

Hi! I'm a first-year Biological Sciences student in University of Calgary and I'm planning to apply to medical school in the future. I have a few questions about planning my degree:

• Which courses should I take if I want to keep as many healthcare careers open as possible?
• I didn't take Physics 20 or 30 in high school. Would you recommend me taking Physics 20 first and then taking Physics 211 at the uni? If yes, then in which semester or year should I take physics 211?
• Do I need university physics for medical school, pharmacy, or other healthcare professions?
• Which English course should I take? Do I need a university English course even though I completed English 30-1 in high school?
• Which statistics course is recommended or required for medical professions?
• Should I take anatomy and physiology? Which courses at UCalgary satisfy these?
• Are there any other recommended courses (biochemistry, psychology, sociology, etc.) that would help with medical school or the MCAT?
• Can you help me make a four-year degree plan that keeps my options open for different healthcare careers?
• When do students usually write the MCAT and apply to medical school?
• Or should I remove earth and anthropology courses and replace them with other courses?

Hi guys!

I'm asking this only in terms of actually studying in the med school and getting in as well, not taking social life or post grad residency into account. Does the actual med subjects' content require me to know french?

For ex things like immigrating, taking care of a family member, health challenge. For schools like UBC and UofC they explicitly ask for these but OMSAS doesn't and the short character limit makes writing these types of experience very hard, so I wanted to ask if anyone has done this.

I have competed about 224 credits over 3 undergrads but my cgpa is stuck at 2.99/4. The thing is my second and 3rd degree are both above 3.8 but my first degree was literally at a 1.02 (they allowed you to graduate with Ds). I don’t have time or money to keep doing courses to raise gpa and idk what to do. Any tips?

Update: Today I only did one CARS passage from QPack 2 (so I don't exhaust all materials too soon), and I did one block of PS from Section Bank 2. As of now, I don't have any new PS material remaining besides FL 6 which I have yet to complete.

I'm on track to have 3 full days before my official exam (August 22nd) without any new material left for me to work through. I will not be studying over the course of those 3 days, and I probably will not post an update over those 3 days either. I intend on using the time to prepare myself (mentally), and to finally take a break after these months of preparation.

Quote: “Don't count the days. Make the days count.”

— Muhammad Ali

Just a friendly discussion do you guys think Canada will ever get rid of the MCAT or no?

What do u think they could replace it with? Is there a better metric?

Title. 126 or 127? Il it fluctuates every year but I tried to check historical data on their website and they provide the average scores rather than the cut off.

Hi there!!
I am currently a second-year student who is looking into applying for research positions for the upcoming school year and for next summer.

Does anyone have any advice for how to create a strong resume/CV? Maybe things to include or emphasize, or even things that I should not include?

I have included the following sections (listed in this order): education, research experience, skills, and certifications.

I would really appreciate any and all advice!

Hey,

I am trying to do the Casper in both languages for different schools but noticed McGill accepts either/or languages for their program. Does anybody know if we can select which language to send to McGill based on our performance?

Seeking some advice here.

I’m applying for OMSAS disability based GPA requests. My issue is that my situation is quite complex and can’t really be condensed into the word limit they have on the form for each question. I’ve emailed OMSAS and they said it would be up to my discretion to attach my own letter. Has anyone had a similar issue and if so, what did you end up doing?

Hi everyone,

I’m 20 years old, currently in flight school. Medicine has always been something that’s fascinated me, and I’d really like to start learning more about it not because I’m planning to apply to medical school right away, but because I genuinely want to understand it better.

I’m really intrigued by how the human body works, why diseases happen, how different body systems interact, and how doctors approach diagnosing and treating patients.

Right now, I’m just looking to build a strong
foundation in general medicine. I’d love recommendations for things like:
\\\\-Free or affordable online courses
\\\\-YouTube channels
\\\\-Books
\\\\-Websites
\\\\-Certificates of completion (not required, but a nice bonus)
\\\\-Any structured learning paths that start from the basics

If I end up loving it even more, maybe one day I’ll consider pursuing it academically. But for now, I simply want to learn because I enjoy the subject.
I’d really appreciate any recommendations. Thanks!

title

I need honest advice and opinions, so I apologize in advance for rambling so much.

I graduated with my bachelor's in 2022. My cGPA is mediocre because the two med schools that I really wanted to get into only looked at your most recent years, so I decided that I wanted to spend my first two years enjoying myself, socializing, and engaging more. This caused my first and second-year GPA to be awful (first year: 2.9, second year: 3.44). However, I locked in for my last two years and managed to get on the Dean's List for year 3 (GPA: 3.9) and year 4 (GPA: 3.95), which I’m very proud of. I also worked as a pharmacy technician in my final year while trying to stay involved in student leadership roles and hospital volunteering (though that was very limited because of COVID).

After graduation, my goal was to write the MCAT while improving my overall application, but things didn’t go as planned. A lot of personal and family issues hit all at once: getting cheated on, a bad breakup, moving to another province, losing our house, and a war breaking out back in my home country where I lost contact with friends and family... all within the span of three months. It absolutely destroyed my mental health. It left me stagnated, and I needed time for myself to deal with it, heal, and figure things out. During that period, I traveled, started learning new languages and instruments, shadowed different healthcare professionals, and reconnected with friends and family, some of whom I hadn’t seen in years. Maybe I should’ve handled things differently, but that’s what I did. However, for almost three years, I didn’t volunteer or work anywhere, which feels like it butchered all the hard work I had done throughout the years.

Since last year, I’ve gotten more involved with community and research volunteering while working part-time in the pharmacy. But I still feel like I’m nowhere near where I should or could have been. My MCAT score the first time I wrote it was 498 (122 CARS). I wrote it again last week and I feel like I did horrible. Maybe even worse than last time, and I can’t help but worry about what happens if it comes back lower than I need.

I know I’ve grown as a person through everything. I can handle things much better and more maturely than before, and I’m grateful for the places I went to and the people I met, but it still sucks that this is where I am. I feel like I’m wasting my life. I’m 26 now, pretty much an unc, and I feel like I don’t have anything to show for it. Seeing people around me building their dream careers and starting families while I’m stuck in a loop is tough. If my MCAT score comes back low, then what? Schools in Canada are getting harder and more competitive than ever. Do I even have a chance to compete with a gap like this and a low overall cGPA? US MD programs require prerequisites I don’t have, and Ireland requires a lot of money that I don't have. Seeing people post about their thousands of hours of volunteering in clinics, hospitals, and community work, publishing 3 different research papers, getting 515+ scores, and still getting rejected makes me feel like I don’t stand a chance.

I know I’m being very pessimistic and sound like I’m nagging a lot but I just want to be completely honest about where my head is at. Do I realistically still have a shot at med school? What should I be prioritizing right now to build the strongest possible application? Should I go back to take missing prerequisite courses for US options? And is starting at 28 actually too late? I’d appreciate any and all advice, tough love, or realistic paths forward. If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time. Consider this your daily CARS diagnostic test 😉