Just What the Doctor Ordered
Just What the Doctor Ordered
The Insiders Guide to Getting into Medical School in Canada
Christine Fader
Contents
Part I: Getting ready
Read this section if you are in high school, early university, or new to the application process.
Part II: Application elements and how to shine
Read this section if you are preparing to apply in the next couple of years.
Part III: Additional strategies and special circumstances
Read this section to develop a strategy that works for your unique situation.
Introduction
I got in!
These are three of my favourite words, and I am fortunate to hear them quite regularly from the medical-school applicants I work with directly. I wish I could hear them even more than I already do. This is part of what has led me to write this resource: the idea that more students might benefit from the information, perspectives, and strategies that other applicants to medical school have found useful.
I hope this resource gives support and encouragement to your dreams of becoming a physician, and concrete ideas and strategies for success in a challenging process. I hope it will, in some small way, help you be the next one to say: I got in!
Why this resource?
If youre reading this resource, you are likely already aware of how challenging the process of admission to a Canadian medical school can be. If you are like many applicants, you may have already tried applying on your own, without success.
You are not alone. Most medical-school applicants I see have extremely high grade point averages, not to mention extracurricular and community activities galore. They tend to apply to many medical schools, yet receive only one or two interviewsif any. Many of the accomplished students who have sought my help are on their second or third application attempt.
How can this be?
I believe part of the answer lies in numbers. There are ninety-six universities in Canada with a total student population of about 1.8 million. Not every student hopes to become a physician, of course, but take a moment to think about how many students you know in high school or university who are thinking about medical school. When I worked at orientation fairs for incoming students to first-year university, the question I got most from students and parents was: Can you tell me what courses we need to get into medical school?
So, there are potentially lots of interested students. We have limited numbers of medical schools in Canada and limited numbers of spots available at each school. This means that the posted minimum requirements from medical schools dont necessarily reflect the reality of a successful application in Canada.
When I visited a Caribbean medical school several years ago, I spent a week with several premedical advisors from the United States. As the only Canadian advisor, I was startled to hear some of the statistics that my American counterparts told me represented their students: grade point averages in the low 2s (out of 4), and entrance exam scores far lower than any I had seen in my daily work at a Canadian university.
I thought to myself: If the students I worked with had similar statistics, I could understand why they didnt receive offers of admission. But their statistics were much bettereven among students who were applying to Caribbean medical schools because they felt they couldnt compete with applicants to Canadian medical schools.
The students I have seen in the last twenty years have, by an overwhelming majority, strong academics and good test scores, and contribute enthusiastically, consistently, and broadly in their larger communities. Yet, less than fourteen percent of applicants to medical school received offers in 20152016 in Ontario. This percentage appears to be similar across Canada.
In my experience, most medical-school hopefulswhether they are in high school or universityare used to setting difficult goals and achieving them. The goal of admission to medical school, or the perceived failure to achieve it (if you have applied before), can present the biggest challenge you have ever faced. I have seen this challenge erode the confidence of the most stellar students, but I have also seen those students and many others persevere and succeed.
Why this author?
Id like to tell you a bit about why I think I can help.
Over the last twenty years working as a career advisor at a Canadian university, I have worked with thousands of students, from first-year undergraduates to PhD candidates, in diverse degree programs from fine arts to engineering physics. My work has involved helping undergraduate and graduate students explore career options, consider related degree decisions, strategize about further education, search for jobs, and improve their career-development knowledge and skills.
During this timein my university job and, since 2007, in my private practiceI have also worked with thousands of students hoping to become physicians. I have an insider perspective on the health sector from a wide range of experience. For example, for eight years, I volunteered as a community member on a medical-school admissions committee, where I reviewed applications and interviewed candidates. I was not involved in selecting candidates, and I do not speak for medical schools or their selection criteria (particularly since admissions procedures have evolved since my committee work), but I did screen many candidates and came to recognize qualities that, in my judgement, made some candidates stand out. I have also developed and delivered hundreds of workshops on applying to, and interviewing for, medical school and residency programs, and have spent eighteen years working with final-year medical students and international medical graduates applying to residency programs.
So, I offer you:
experience as someone who has read thousands of medical-school applications and coached thousands of students through application strategies and medical-school interviews (in my private practice, I have given personalized coaching to a hundred or so studentsall, except one, have succeeded in getting accepted to medical school)
knowledge of the processes, terminology, and challenges of medical school and residency programs
stories of applicants who have struggled and ultimately succeeded in their goals
twenty years of coaching students to medical school and residency placements
career-counselling techniques to help you present yourself as an informed and focused applicant, and to develop crucial backup plans
And I offer you the experience of hundreds of thousands of hours working with students just like you.
However, I want you to be skeptical of any secondhand source (and that includes me and a long list of others: medical students, doctors, advisors, guidance counsellors, parents, and helpful books and friends). Only the medical schools themselves, in the year that you plan to apply, have the most current and accurate information or interpretation of a given rule. Be wary of people or sources (websites, campus clubs, mentoring groups) that make definitive statements about rules: the rules come from processes that continually evolve. Every expert (including me) is filtering information through their own lens. We are merely interpreters and not the source. Make sure that you are getting the information that you need and can trust. That means always validate what you hear, read, see, or suspect from the source in other words, from the people who will take your application money and decide your future in their program.
