what are my chances of getting in

[playarf]

hi

I just finished my first semester of 3rd year undergraduate studies in Nutritional Sciences at the dreaded Univ of Toronto :roll: (cant wait to get out of this hell hole). I am maintaining a 70% average, and I am planning to do the MCATs this upcoming summer and apply for may entry. Since I am doing a specialist and doing all these upper year science courses, design solely for Grad School, do you think the admissions committee will take that into consideration? I am very worried as my marks may not be high enough *sigh*...

Take care all,

A.K

[Siddman]

I myself graduated from UofT and i had about the same average in percentage as you... it was some what like ...74%....and i took research courses in my fourth year and i had no MCAT. Since my GPA was not good enough for entry into med school in US or Canada..i didn't bother writing MCAT. From my undertanding.....you should have no problem getting into May semester....all you need is a good reference letters and some job experience during school. My advise..... is to apply fro may semester right now...i applied for Jan 2005 semester like in August 2004 and still did not get a spot in Jan....do apply as soon as possible....
Good Luck,

Siddman

------------------------------------------------------
Faith it seems... is not without a touch of irony....

[scoobz1981]

Yes, apply asap... and the committee doesn't really look down on you for not having MCATs if you come from a good science background. You can still take em, but I just suggest applying ASAP. I am also a UofT grad... I went to erindale... my average was a 2.99 when I got into SABA 20 months ago... now I am studying for Step1...

Val

[playarf]

thanks you guys :)
i forgot to mention that i was gonna apply for may2006, heh
i wanna finish my BSC (BULL S*** CREDIT) first...hopefully, ill get in...

[Siddman]

In that case you better write MCAT...Saba might make the MCAT requirement mandatory because now it has CA approval and more students are going to apply for limited seats....and hope you all the best for May 2006...

Good Luck,

Siddman


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Faith it seems... is not without a touch of irony

[playarf]

I myself graduated from UofT and i had about the same average in percentage as you... it was some what like ...74%....and i took research courses in my fourth year and i had no MCAT. Since my GPA was not good enough for entry into med school in US or Canada..i didn't bother writing MCAT. From my undertanding.....you should have no problem getting into May semester....all you need is a good reference letters and some job experience during school. My advise..... is to apply fro may semester right now...i applied for Jan 2005 semester like in August 2004 and still did not get a spot in Jan....do apply as soon as possible....
Good Luck,

Siddman

------------------------------------------------------
Faith it seems... is not without a touch of irony....

yeah, i hate how the GPA scale is structured, i ALWAYS get unlucky and my mark in % reflects something diff. than the actual GPA given to me... thats one of my beefs with UT...
they shouldnt have a GPA system, instead, just use a number or % system...IMO its simple and an exact indicator...e.g one of my friend scored 95+ in his 4 of the first 5 first year courses, and in his only humanities course, he got a 84...so the average was a 92% overall, but a GPA of less than 4 (can u believe that!?!?) !! for this reason, his GPA wasnt good enuff for high end scholarships! such stupidity and mental torture..gah! whatever...

val, you went to UTM eh...a lot of brown ppl there, lol...i live 5 mins away from that place, heh...yet i chose the downtown campus :S

[Siddman]

UofT being the most competitive school in Canada....has a very screwed up GPA system......its true....and 84 % is like 3.7 GPA and they can make your percentage go up and down as they wish with respect to class average. Soooo....even if you get a final % like 96% (which i got in Inorganic chemistry)....you can accept your % to go down to 86% (that is what it ended up).....sooo yes its ture that UofT wants their students to get low marks and to have a hard life....what can you do or say ......but hope the best of luck......

Regards,

Siddman


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Faith it seems...is not without a touch of irony

[bollywoodboyz]

I totally agree with everyone on this post. UofT is one of the hardest and competitive school ever. They purposely drop student's GPA to maintain class average to D or D+. Its not only science courses, they apply this rule to non-science courses as well. I had to opportunity to attend York, but unfortunately for UofT's name....i chose this school. BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE. The course material is same everywhere, but the marking scheme makes a huge difference. Even the TA's are not even consistent. For ex, personal experience...i borrowed a previous year lab from a friend and stated exactly the same answer in different words, the TA was same as my friend's TA; nevertheless, the mark was different. not just 1-2 marks, but 12 marks difference....CRAZY....WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?....My parents and cousins couldn't.
Anyway, i made the mistake and therefore, i am paying for it.

[playarf]

yeah, ever since first year, ive been telling everybody that DO NOT COME TO UT...i regret coming here...for many reasons, main ones being:
-this school doesnt offer much scholarships
-huge class size (first yr bio was 2200 people! can you beleive that?), and for this reasons UT MUST maintain a C average...the profs get criticized if the avgs are too high, its rediculous...
furthermore, UT does NOT recognize its own students in offering them admission to grad and professional schools...did you guys know that more people from York get into UT med school than UT people???? thats totally whack!
lastly, for BSC (where marks matter the most), this school is the worst...as i said BSC doesnt mean anything these days besides a requirement for higher degrees...
honestly, its not that i dont work hard...the material IS challenging, i agree...yet i manage, but come test time, i dont know what happens...im always unsatisfid with my results...serious...coz the tests here dont really test you on knowledge, but interpretation...gah!
please tell me it doesnt get any worse...i know med skool is crazy work, but hopefully its FAIR, compared to this s*** skool...
sorry for the rant...

cheers

[scoobz1981]

At U of T, luckily I took 3rd year analytical chem in 2nd year, but when I was in 3rd year I had friends in that class, and the class average on the midterm was 27%... with the remark.... 39%.... So, that should be an indicator of how hard U of T is!


Val

[playarf]

yeah, you went to UTM right? I always wanted to compare the amount of work req'd in undergrad studies vs. in med school...how would you compare it?

[scoobz1981]

Med school was easy in comparison to UTM science. The amount of work was less than at UTM and the tests were way easier. The only difficulty I had, was the transition from 3rd semester to 4th semester at Medical school. I found that the questions upto that point on the tests were very straight forward, and you could answer them easily. It wasn't like the tests at UTM where they asked you to learn everything in the book, and then asked a question that wasn't in the book! At SABA, all the questions came straight out of the lecture material or text book. The only trouble I had was in 4th semester (pathology). I found that the questions were very vague (like the USMLE which was good and tought me a lot) but it was like I had to learn how to answer them all over again (what I found was that 1st you must make the diagnosis, and then you can begin to answer the question, without the diagnosis you couldn't do it). So, all in all, U of T must have taught me how to study well, cause I didn't have a problem with med school. How are the other U of Ter's finding it?

The other thing you will have to get used to is manditory attendance at Caribbean schools, cause at UTM I showed up to class 4 or 5 times a semester... lol... for me the attendance was a hindrance and I couldn't learn as much cause that eliminated half of my day for studying (not that I needed it, but you know what I mean).

Val

[bollywoodboyz]

Wow, this is crazy....I always complain to my cousins regarding my grades in UofT....and they always tell me that i am trying my best because the studies in their university (to name a few YORK, RYERSON, LAURIER) is not that hard. If they work hard, they definitely get the marks. But now i know UofT is crazy...according to Scoobz1981 post. Seriously any pre-med in canada....if you want to do something in life...DON"T go to UofT. I am not trying to put UofT down....I am just stating my opinion, just like my colleagues have done so. i am telling you guys LEARN FROM EXPERIENCE. we went through it and we've ruined our grades and our life. After Carribean, we can never come back to Canada where our family is....but since we made the mistake, we have to pay for it. Some people may read this post and say what a bunch of COMPLAINERS...but we are just giving our word of wisdom to prospective pre-med r's.

if you still don't believe us...read this Globe and Mail article...submitted by a good friend of mine...and Globe and mail published it.

_________________________________________________
From globeandmail.com, Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Harvard versus U of T

SARAH BROWN


New York -- Re Why Harvard Hates Straight A's (April 22): Having attended both Harvard and the University of Toronto, I can state that there are two differences between the schools: Harvard is much more difficult to get into, whereas the University of Toronto is much more difficult to get out of -- with a degree and decent grades, that is.

At Harvard, undergraduates have to take only four full-time courses per year to earn a degree, and they have a longer school year in which to prepare for their exams. At U of T, five full-time courses must be taken, and the school year is much more condensed.

The atmosphere at Harvard is quite "country-clubish" and leisurely, while at U of T it is a downright pressure-cooker.

At U of T there is an unwritten policy in most classes that 20 per cent of the students in every class will receive a failing grade. At Harvard, most students receive a minimum of A- grades. In fact, to receive anything less than a B, one would have to miss exams and not hand in assignments.

As far as getting into Harvard goes, the most significant factor is whether or not you are a so-called "legacy," meaning that if your father, mother, or sibling went to Harvard before you, you can still get in, as hundreds do, with mediocre grades in high school.

I'm not surprised that current Harvard students feel that they deserve A's for their $100,000 investment; if they were forced to compete with students at the U of T, many would receive only C's at best.
__________________________________________________ _
if you want to search it's in the Globe and Mail archives.

[playarf]

thanks Val...
and boyz, thaz a very truthful scenario...
and for anybody who's thinking im a complainer...im not...i got into trinity college with honours...thats the best college in UT and UT being the best univ. in all of Canada...so go figure...
At UT, u're just a number or a statistical sample...nothing more...and as i said, more students from York get into UT med school than our own, as there is NO preference given to UT students, what B.S....we take all these hard courses, like molecular genetics and microbio, and physiology...and people who pretty much breezed through univ. with an arts degree get into meds from york...pisses me off

[scoobz1981]

LOL... I am a complainer.

The way I see it, if I had to go back, I wouldn't have gone to U of T if I wanted to goto a Canadian Med school. But then I also wouldn't have spent 2 years in the Caribbean. In the end, I think if you are dead set on Canadian med schools, U of T science is NOT the way to go. Although I took lots of hard courses (including quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics, and most 4th year chem courses offered!) I wouldn't say that U of T was a waste. It certainly taught me how to study and effectively use my time (which I am thankful for). It may have added some stress to my life, and caused some changes for me, but that is part of growing and being able to adapt to what life throws your way.

As for going to Caribbean med schools, it doesn't necessarily mean you will never practice in Canada. In fact, you certainly can get licenced in Canada. You just can't do all of your clinical rotations there. Now, if you live on the border of Canada and the US (like I do) then you could certainly try to goto a Caribbean school that has Buffalo/chicago/detroit rotations, which would make coming home for the weekend very easy!!! Also, if you know people at Canadian hospitals, you can do upto 12 or 16 (now I can't remember) weeks of clinical rotations up here in Canada per year. Licensing in Canada is possible. Getting a Residency in Canada is also possible but I wouldn't be shooting for anything more than family practice or IM cause the way the Canadian Match works is that the Canadian students match first, and only then the remainder of the spots go to the Foreign grads. Unfair... yes... but that is the price. So, if you are dead set on going back to Canada, the Caribbean is still an option for you and I know plenty of people in my class who are dead set on going back to Canada (I wish them luck - but I am not one of them). The way I look at this is, if Canada didnt want me to attend their "fabulous medical institustions" then that's cool with me, their loss!

Val

[playarf]

yeah, honestly...i dont want to live and or practise in canada...doctors are treated like s**t...
most of our family is in the states (and half of them are doctors *sigh, the family pressure*, lol)...so, im leaving as soon as im done here...its a good social and government system, but not for me...heh

yeah, buffallo and michigan for Clinical rotations seem like a good idea...

also, for your clinical rotations, does SABA set those up or do you gotta arrange those for yourself??

[scoobz1981]

They set up your cores (first 42 weeks) the rest (electives) you set up yourself but that is easy (30 weeks).... And the doctor thing is Canada is pretty funny, cause I was talking to my friend who is a dermatogist in Canada, and he was saying that the new ruling seems to be that there will be more walk in clinics set up in the next couple of years, but the government is taking the money from the budget that is suppose to pay the doctors salaries. Funny.

Val