Thinking about Med School?
Perspectives of a Waterloo Grad
Robert Moreland
Jan 2010
19/06/10

Waterloo Grad (2009)

BSc Biomedical Science, minor biology

BA Joint Honours Psychology and Economics,
minor management studies

First Year Medical Student at Schulich Medical
School
19/06/10

Professional Computer Programmer

Medical Imaging Researcher

Interviewed at four of the medical schools in
Ontario, accepted at two, waitlisted at one

Normal human being
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
The advantages and disadvantages of becoming a
doctor

The process to become a doctor in Canada

Medical school application process in Ontario

Tactics for Improving your application

What it’s like to be a medical student
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Why Become a Doctor?
PROS
Unique ability to help people
Doctor-Patient Relationship
Remuneration (after residency)
Leadership responsibility
Flexibility (potentially)
Intellectual challenge
Huge demand
Ability to have an impact
Unique research opportunities
Unique position in society
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Why Not Become a Doctor?
CONS
Extremely High Cost
Time spent training (school + residency + fellowship)
Extended Work Hours/Usual Hours
High Level of Responsibility
“Compassion fatigue”/Stress/Burnout
Non-medical obligations
Difficulty finding balance between career and family
Constant Uncertainty
Constant Skill Upgrading
Bad Outcomes will occur
Often unable to assist
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Just a Few Possibilities in the World of
Health Care
Program
Years of Study
Type of Degree
Dentistry
8+years
D.D.M.
Medicine
10 + years
M.D.
Nursing
4 + years
Undergraduate
Midwifery
4 years
Undergraduate
Physiotherapy
2 years
Masters
Dietician
1 year
Masters/Internship
Social Work
4 years
Undergraduate
Occupational
Therapy
2 years
Masters
Physician Assistant
2 years
Undergraduate*
(*Apply after 2nd
year)
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
Forget everything you have ever seen on television
about medicine

Read as much as you can about the field

Talk/Shadow actual doctors

Volunteer in Health Care

Seek help from your career centre
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
◦
◦
Step 1)
Get into a recognized and progress along an university
undergraduate degree program - Usually a honours degree
program
(takes 3-4 Years)

Students may also take additional graduate training
prior to applying into medical school

(takes an additional 2-7 Years)
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
◦
Step 2)
Apply and get accepted into a recognized medical school
program

Most students start applying to medical school in
the fall of their 4th year

Interviews are held in Feb/Mar of the following
Winter

Notices of acceptance begin in mid May, and
continue through the summer
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
Step 3)
◦
Complete medical school
(takes 3 or more usually 4 Years)

Medical school is divided into two distinct phases:
◦
◦
◦
First 1.5-2 years are called preclerkship and are spent
primarily in lecture based learning, small group problem
solving, and laboratory work related to medical science
Second 1.5-2 years are spent in clerkship where medical
students rotate around the hospital directly involved in
patient care. This is the beginning of clinical training
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
◦
◦

Step 4)
Apply under the Canadian Resident Matching Service
(CaRMS) and get into a recognized residency program
(2-6+ Years)
This is the point at which one decides on what type
of doctor you want to be (i.e. what specialization
you will follow) and attempt to be accepted into the
corresponding training program
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
CaRMS matching is similar to the medical school
admissions process - It’s competitive, exhausting,
and requires considerable work. Results of the
matching are also legally binding

You may not actually get the specialization you
want and this is a risk in entering the medical
school system. However most people do match
into a desired field
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
For many residency programs the experience is
probably the most intense period of work/learning
imaginable

Extended work weeks (50-80+ hour weeks) with
rotating on call shifts (1 in 3 or 4) is common

Residents advance over time increasing their
degree of responsibility and autonomy as they gain
experience and skill
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
◦
◦
Step 5) Optional
Complete a Fellowship for further specialized training
(1-2 Years)

Fellowships are become increasingly common in
medicine as technology advances it takes us
longer to learn the highly advanced skills required
to most effective

Graduate degrees are also often needed to
ultimately work at academic centres
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Total Time 8 – 15(or more) Years

And then there is still setting up one’s practice and
paying off considerable loans

“Becoming a doctor is not a sprint, it is a marathon.
Get a helmet and enjoy the ride”
 Dr. Chan
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Questions so far?
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
Every school is different, and the various
regulations and requirements change frequently
and often surprisingly

Never the less there are several generally
recognized objectives in order to become a
competitive applicant

Currently about 1 in 6 people who apply in a given
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year will be accepted
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1. High Grade Point Average (GPA) in a qualified
program
2. High and Balanced Medical College Admission
Test Score (MCAT)
3. High Quality Essay/Personal Statement
4. Strong Letters of References
5. Significant and relevant Extracurricular/Volunteer
activities
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
There are two parts to this requirement:
• The applicant must be taking a qualified program
• The applicant must achieve a high GPA
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
Key Point:
In Canada virtually all honours academic programs are
considered equal when applying medical school
This is an often ignored point and results in students taking
overly difficult programs/courses to impress that however
actually detract, rather than enhance, a person’s application
It also means students are free to take the program that best
suits their interests and talents
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
◦
Caveats:
There some prerequisites required by some (but not all)
medical schools before an application can be considered
 Regardless of program students must take these courses, which
generally cover a mix of humanities and science
◦
◦
The MCAT exam requires an understand of basic
general/organic chemistry, physics, and biology. Taking
associated courses is one way, but not the only way, to
master this material
Schools do expect consistency and appropriate progression
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during one’s degree

The second part of this object is obtaining a high
enough GPA to be competitive

Key Point:
GPA is not the same thing as overall average. Instead it is far
less forgiving of low grades and thus a high GPA indicates
not only good performance, but also consistently good
performance
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
Failure to understand how to calculate GPA and
what affects it is probably the single commonest
deficit in knowledge in most people applying

Key Point:
◦
Low GPA, often due to failure to understand how GPA is
computed, is the single biggest reason people are unable to
get interviews at medical school
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How to Calculate GPA
OMSAS 2010 Data
Most schools (virtually 19/06/10
all) fall under

Person takes 5 courses and gets the following
results:
AFM 131 Management
85
BIOL 130 Intro Cell Biology
CHEM 120 Chem Prop of Matter
ECON 101 Intro to Microeconomics
GER 101Elementary German I 86
85
92
87
(3.9+3.9+4.0+3.9+3.9)/5= 3.92
This is a high competitive GPA for the term
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
Person takes 5 courses and gets the following
results:
AFM 131 Management
83
BIOL 130 Intro Cell Biology
CHEM 120 Chem Prop of Matter
ECON 101 Intro to Microeconomics
GER 101Elementary German I 82
84
89
84
(3.7+3.7+3.9+3.7+3.7)/5= 3.74
Traditionally a not a competitive score at most of the schools
in Ontario. Yet in terms of average it is almost 19/06/10
the same as

Person takes 5 courses and gets the following
results:
AFM 131 Management
99
BIOL 130 Intro Cell Biology
CHEM 120 Chem Prop of Matter
ECON 101 Intro to Microeconomics
GER 101Elementary German I 76
100
98
97
(4.0+4.0+4.0+4.0+3.3)/5= 3.8
Traditionally an only weakly competitive score at19/06/10
most of the
•
Every Ontario school uses the same conversion
table, but they calculate GPA score differently.
Many give you a break in certain ways:
•
Western: best two (best 5.0 counted each year)
Ottawa: weighted 3 year
NOSM & Mac: cumulative
Queen’s: most recent two (includes summers)
UofT: can drop 1 full-year course every year (if
you’ve done a full course load every year)
•
•
•
•
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
Since GPA measures consistently as well as
average it is advisable to aim for a 85% or higher in
every class you take.

If achieved this would make a candidate GPA wise
highly competitive at every school in Ontario

Unfortunately this sometimes introduces conflicts
between learning and getting into medical school
19/06/10

Since achieving a high GPA is often a function of
interest in the material, it is advisable to be in a
program that interests you highly

Many (but not all) schools do not count courses in
the summer. If you must take a course you will do
poorly in, consider taking it then.
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
Sometimes dropping a course is advisable to
protect your overall GPA***

Since many schools punish you in some fashion for
dropping a course, some students take an extra
course easy course in the fall to provide flexibility

*** Beware of the effect of course dropping with
respect to Toronto’s policies.
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
◦
◦
◦
◦
The MCAT is a four part test designed to test
various skills relevant to the field of medicine:
Verbal Reasoning (VR)
Physical Sciences (PR)
Writing Section (WS)
Biological Science (BS)
All parts of the test are written in a set sequence on
a single day. There are many offerings of this test
spread out over the year
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
On the MCAT BS, VR, and PS are scored on a z
normalized scale with values ranging between
(worst)1-15(best).

The WS section is scored on a letter scale (worst)J
to T(best)

Some schools use strict MCAT cut offs (Western,
Queens) and some use it as a part of the scoring
(Mac, Western, Toronto )
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
The MCAT is principally a thinking test rather than
a science test

There is virtually no memorization style questions.
They are testing logic and reading comprehension

One half of the test (VR and WS) are entirely nonscience. These section traditionally are the main
non-GPA barriers in Ontario to interviews
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
Key Point:
Do practise tests. Do them under practise conditions and take
them seriously
Study early and do not ignore material you are
weaker on (surprisingly happens a lot). You can
study and improve VR and WS scores.

Key Point:
If at all possible, give yourself enough time to repeat the test if
necessary to achieve a desired score
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
There is considerable debate about the types of
volunteer experience that premeds to engage

Volunteer work is not just another checkbox that
needs to be filled in on your application

The question to consider is why adcoms are
interested in volunteer experience in the first place
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
Medical schools want people passionate about
medicine in their programs

Key Point
People that are truly passionate about
something do not wait to start doing it
Therefore if you are interested in medicine you will
on your own already start volunteering in a
medically related area – not because you have to,
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but because you want to

So this is a way to start your medical training right
now. Find your passion and go with it!

Possible areas:
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Medically related research
Hospital/clinic volunteer
Community outreach
Environmental issues
And the list goes on and on
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


◦

◦
◦
Once again, do what you like!
No “perfect formula” for Extra-Curriculars
Try lots of different things
You can discover what you enjoy and want to concentrate
on
Keep track of:
What you did
And for whom (‘Verifiers’)
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
Three schools have specific supplement materials
they wish you to complete for your application
1.Toronto: Personal Statement
2.NOSM: Mini-essay response to several topics
3.Mac: Short essay responses to five questions

All of these materials are incredibly important and
often ignored
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You
will have spent 1000s of hours working on your
GPA, 100s of hours on your MCAT prep, 100s more
on your volunteer/Extra curricular activities.
Your
written responses will be worth a similar wait
pre interview to your GPA
Key point:
Take the time to do the essays/personal statements right
19/06/10

Personal statements are difficult because you are
under pressure to distinguish yourself and they
force you to articulate your reasons for medicine

Take the time to develop a proper theme for your
work

Tell a story where you can. Do not speak in
generalities when an example is possible.

Always get your materials proof read by19/06/10
someone
Key point:
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
This framework recognizes the 7 primary skills a
successful physician should have

It permeates most aspects of the application
process, including critically the interview
themselves and often aspects of personal
statements and essay question responses

You need to be aware of the roles and what
aspects of your experience demonstrate you
proficiency in these areas
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
◦

This is a url to a master document where they are
all described
http://meds.queensu.ca/medicine/obgyn/pdf/CanMEDS2005
.booklet.pdf
No one will be perfect in all areas of the CaRMS
roles but prepared applicants will have experience
in many, and understand them all
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