<p>Which universities should I go to to increase my chances of being accepted into medical school? Should I go to McGill or the Ivy League universities? I live in Canada and I think if I tried hard, I could possibly get into Cornell, Brown, or Duke.
My concern is that if I go to these top US universities, it will be harder for me to stand out from the crowd of talented pre-meds. I think if I go to McGill on the other hand, it would be easier for me to perform better than the other students in my class.
Do medical schools consider an applicant's class rank or do they consider more the applicant's undergraduate school's prestige? Also, where would it be harder to score a higher GPA? McGill or the lower ranked Ivies?</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply. So if I get into McGill, make it through alive, and apply to US med schools, they would consider me as if I went to the Ivies?</p>
<p>^ Yes if you do well at McGill I think you will be fine for top U.S. medical schools. Your biggest problem will be to get U.S. residency. Its hard for international students to get into U.S. medical schools because U.S. medical schools prefer taking U.S. students.However, if you establish residency in the U.S before you apply to medical school you should be fine.</p>
<p>College GPA and MCAT score are the most important. The rest is really a game and depends on specific Med. School. We found that the next the most important one in D’s success was relative location home/Med. School, including IS vs OOS. In regard to EC’s, leadership…everybody has this “other” stuff, although “being good at interview” and knowing it beforehand seemed to be a little plus. If you are 4.0 and 35+, nobody can take it from you, period. State college into top 20 would be no problem.</p>
<p>Hmm… can anyone tell me what the difference is between a general science program and a pre-med program? I mean, can’t you apply to med school even if you go to a regular science or even a non science program? So what’s the point of a pre-med program?</p>
<p>There are no pre-med programs. You can be any major, including (as an example) being at conservatory of music or any combination of major(s)/minor(s) and take longer than 4 years in UG. If you are planning to apply to Med. Schools after that, you need to complete courses that are required by Med. Schools.</p>
<p>o i c. So for example I choose a general science program and then if I take the courses related to the biological sciences and chemistry and want to pursue a career in medicine then I’m considered a “pre-med?”</p>
<p>Any student is considered to be “pre med” if they intend to take the 8 or so classes that med schools require and they intend on applying to med school…regardless of their major.</p>
<p>This is definitely not true, but I understand what you are getting at. Among Canadian schools, McGill is one of the most talented, along with Toronto. However, due to the nature of how admissions work in Canada it is not comparable to Ivys in terms of talent level.</p>
<p>However, if you do chose to stay in Canada and want a top US med, McGill and Toronto are the by far the best options (personally, I would probably go to McGill instead of Toronto). I’ve read some things of the Canada Premed forum and it seems like US medical schools care about where you went to school in Canada. I recall a 3.73 (which is very low for Canadian medical school admissions) and 36 from McGill getting interviews at many US meds, including Vanderbilt and Case Western. I know that many anecdotal evidence /= data, but just something I saw.</p>
<p>If you are staying in Canada, I’d say McGill is your best bet if you’re dead-set on US meds.</p>
I am just curious: How is the nature of admissions in Canada different from that in US?</p>
<p>I have an impression (I could be wrong here) that academic merit (instead of other talents in non-academic areas, passion for volunteering, etc.) carries more weight in Europe. Is it similar in Canada as well?</p>
<p>^You’re right. It’s solely based on GPA but there isn’t UW or W, just one gpa. And obviously a gpa at one school can mean something entirely different at another school. Also grade 12 marks are used for admission in Canada (and grade 11, but that’s just for early acceptance which I don’t think McGill even does). So kids can just try really hard in grade 12 and slack the other 3 yeArs. Lastly there is ^No standardized test.</p>