u/MedRebecca

If I shadowed two doctors for a pretty consistent amount of time, and both experienced are pretty significant ones to my journey, how can I incorporate this into my ABS? I’m not super familiar with the system (did undergrad in US), but I understand Canada is not so fond of shadowing due to patient privacy and whatever…

I’m also lacking in ideas in general for the ABS as a younger applicant. Any advice?

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone! With OMSAS opening soon, I thought I’d jump on here and see what people have to say about this process.

For context, I’m a Canadian citizen, born there and lived there my whole life until college. I chose to go to a US undergrad, and I’m now in middle of the American med school application cycle. I’m not an American citizen, and therefore my chances of getting into USMD are quite slim, so I thought I’d also apply through OMSAS.

I’ll be honest, I’m not so educated as to how the Canadian cycle works at all, so if anyone would like to catch me up on key details I’d appreciate it! I know the basics, I just don’t understand what makes Canadian med schools notoriously difficult to get into. In my head, I have a higher chance getting into a Canadian school than an American one?

I’m planning on applying to UofT, uOttawa, western to avoid Casper lol (took the American Casper, scored 3rd quartile, idk if I can get 4th quartile).

My GPA is 4.00, my MCAT is 512 (127/126/129/130).

Thanks in advance for any thoughts, advice, or comments!

I’m so sorry everyone I post too much but genuinely I’m lost and appreciate the help!! I’ve got some questions…

1. I’m a fairly privileged ORM, no significant diversity aspects to speak of. I received the SKMC secondary today and ofc their first prompt is their grand diversity one which I’ve been pushing off prewriting. My question basically is: does it hurt me to frame my diversity as my EMT volunteer service in an underserved area, which shaped my perspective on the multiple aspects of a human that contribute to their illness? Or does that work to explain how I’ve come to view diversity/how my experience will allow me to contribute my understanding of diversity?
2. If you’d like to view the full rant about it, feel free to check my previous post

here but essentially I’ve been ghosted by 2 LOR writers, which in turn is preventing my committee head from writing and submitting my committee letter, and this is detrimental especially since I’m a Canadian applicant and obvs already at a disadvantage there. Update now-I’m being ghosted by the committee head too. No, I can’t go in person (campus closed, I’m back home for summer), no, I don’t have any other means to contact them. What would you do?? I’ve genuinely been spamming their emails and they told me WEEEKSSS ago that they’re working on it but now…nothing. I’m at such a loss. I would be appalled if my application will have to be withdrawn this cycle because of external factors. I literally asked them a year ago for these letters and was very straightforward about timeline and they agreed to it.

3. I’m stressed. That’s it.

Thanks so much in advance to anyone who plans on responding or even reading this🫶🏻

I knew this would happen. I asked some people MONTHS ago to send in their LORs to my committee writer knowing they would say yes and then forget about me despite constant reminders. I’m a Canadian applicant (went to NYC undergrad if that makes a difference at all), so the earlier I can get my secondaries in and complete would obvs be an advantage for me. But now I only have 2/4 of my writers who submitted TODAY to the committee head, and I can’t get in contact with the last 2 and idk what to do.

Plus the committee needs to write and submit the committee letter obviously once they get everything. What do I do? How do I politely harass my writers to send it in 😭

That’s all I have to say. Writing for 5 hours and walking out with a grand total of 2 paragraphs has humbled me and robbed me of brain cells

I have a lot of self-initiated project on my app (e.g. I wrote a novel, I started a cake business, I did a literature review not under an official prof/PI, I started an academic mentorship thing for underresourced students, I started a chemistry club not under any official school thing).

I have no one really that can verify that besides me. Is it a red flag? How many is too many? And if that’s too many self-verifications, is there an alternative way I can have a contact verifier despite the self-initiation?

Help💀🥀

Long story short, I’ve been trying to contact the committee letter writer for a while now, and they just won’t answer. They’re also the ones who explicitly instructed me to a) take my MCAT and b) get my LOR writers to send the letter directly to them. And I did both of those commands.

I’m trying to submit and close this primary asap, and Ik you don’t need the LORs in for that, but what do I do??

04/24 and 04/25 test takers: how you feeling?? Finally nearing the end of the uncertainty misery

Taking it in an hour, send help

Hey! I’m a Canadian who did undergrad in the US and am applying very broadly within the US. I wasn’t planning on applying to Canadian schools at all, but recently the idea really appeals to me. I’m really confused about the ABS section though, and it makes my life a little miserable because I’m currently 18, so I only have 2.5 years of experiences I can add (graduated high school and will be graduating college early, don’t ask🙈)

Do I need all 32 slots? If not, what’s the average/baseline?
Is there any specific type of thing they’re looking for besides the obvious med-related ones? Or does anyone have any unique ideas/recommendations?

Thanks in advance!

I saw a post a while back while I was deep in MCAT prep and dreaming of the day I’d be free of the misery I was in. The post went something along the lines of spiralling post MCAT and pre-score release and specifically how they couldn’t stop crying. I laughed then because it sounded insane, but now that I find myself in the same place, I’m laughing at myself.

I did not realize how much this whole thing would impact me. I have much more free time now and everyone keeps telling me to go get a job or something, but I want to ENJOY LIFE for once. For myself. But I also keep being bored and lonely, and I’m obviously going insane. This process sucks. The uncertainty sucks (hehe 4/24 CARS IYKYK).

29 days until score release….😭