Thanks for the insight, I am a huge fan of this channel and really appreciate what you are doing for hundreds of pre-meds. I have some questions for you: 1. I am in my third year applying to McMaster and other universities. I have a really high GPA (3.96) and a great CARS score (131) but my extracurriculars are not very strong. I am curious about what my chances are of getting into Mac are because their selection formula makes no mention of the ABS. So essentially how important was your ABS/Extracurriculars for McMaster and does the admissions committee even read the applicants' ABS/References. 2. Did you mention your ABS activities in your interview at Mac? 3. I go to UWaterloo and similar to Niagara Falls there is a campus here as well. So are you going to spend three years in Niagara Falls to complete your pre-clerkship and your rotations or will you have to go to Hamilton? 4. Did you apply to the NOSM in Thunderday and any other schools outside of Ontario such as BC or Cummings? 5. Do you believe extracurricular activities and the ABS are the most important factors when applying to Queens? So what do you think my chances are? Keep up the great content and good luck.
Thanks a lot Varun, I really appreciate hearing you say that because helping all the pre-meds out there was really the reason why I started this channel :) Ok, so there's a lot to unpack here - let's see what I can do. 1. Your stats are certainly impressive, congratulations on your success so far! Now I cannot speak officially on behalf of McMaster University, but I can say that insofar as their official admissions website goes, the ECs are not explicitly mentioned in terms of how they select. As far as I can tell, pre-interview selection at McMaster is done according to their breakdown: 32% GPA 32% CARS 32% CASPer and an up to 4% bonus for a Masters/PhD. However, ECs will be important during your interview if you are selected and I will definitely do an interview prep video later on in the year! 2. I can't specifically talk about my own interview (confidentiality agreements are signed after the interview process), but I can say that when you answer questions, supporting your statements with life experiences will lead to a MUCH stronger response than simply stating facts or giving blanket responses. 3. Tricky question for me to answer, but very important. I was assigned to the Niagara Regional Campus (NRC). My offer admission as well as those to students from the Waterloo campus and the Hamilton campus are binding to the originally specified campus without the option of switching (as far as I can tell). Having said that, you are never limited to staying or studying at your assigned campus. I really like the NRC facility and will most likely do much of my studying and tutorial sessions as well as research and horizontal electives in that area. However, I do not typically like watching lectures on a video monitor. For that reason, I plan to drive (40 min.) to the Hamilton campus whenever possible for the major lectures and then stay in NRC when my schedule gets too busy. Owning a car is definitely a luxury thank grants me flexibility in regards to where I want to study. On a final note, pre-clerkship for us only lasts the first 15 months of the program. (We do not get summer's off and will finish 1 year earlier than other medical schools) 4. I applied to U of Alberta, however my application didn't process due to an issue I had with the Bear Tracks emailing system (everything works out for a reason I guess lol). NOSM is a separate story. Its a great program and I was meaning to do a video on it like I have for the other University programs, however, I don't know if I feel qualified to do so since I did not apply to the school. My application lacked rural community involvement and ultimately I felt like I wouldn't have been a very competitive applicant at that university. I was planning on applying to both BC and Cummings if I had been unsuccessful in my first application cycle. UBC in particular is a very pretty university and I actually got to go and check it out while on vacation after my MCAT :) 5. Many applicants refer to Queen's as the "Black Box" This is not a derogatory name in any way, (Queen's is a great school and I had a great time at my interview!) but simply refers to the lack of information that we have in regards to statistics or weighting of individual components at certain steps of the application. I made a video on the school and broke down how they select. Now I can't speak on their behalf. All I can say is that from what I can gather, the breadth of my ECs seemed to have been quite competitive in comparison to other applicants. On the other hand, my GPA (3.78 2 YR) was significantly lower than a lot of unsuccessful applicants. My MCAT (517) was definitely respectable, but coming across applicants in the 520+ range is not uncommon at Ontario med schools. From these reasons, I personally* believe that Queen's highly values an applicants ECs. Sorry about the long response, I tried to give my best answers possible lol. If you've stuck around this long, my final recommendation is for you to stay optimistic :) With your stats, it's only a matter of time before you are invited to an interview... Just keep up the hard work! However, I would strongly advise you to work on improving your ECs if possible. In the very least, it will definitely help you out during interviews and then even beyond then! Best of luck and thank you for the encouragement.
Hi! Thanks for the video! Can you please make a video about how to secure a good research position? I’ve always wanted to get involved with research but have no idea who to contact. Thanks so much!
Hi Gianluca, your videos are amazing! I am going to university next year and I am strongly considering Ryerson Biomed Sci. I am really set on going to medical school in Canada as well! I have a few questions about the program that I hope you can answer. 1) Is it possible to acquire research assistant jobs in the program? If so, are there any tricks in acquiring a position? Are there any professors that I should be looking to ask? How many hours of research position did you do in total? 2) Is it possible to start a club in the school? Did you start any clubs in your undergrad? 3) What clubs did you join? Are there any clubs you strongly suggest joining? I hope to see a wide variety of clubs to join next year. 4) Did you find it hard to juggle the program's course load and extracurricular activities? How many hours of extracurricular activities did you do in each year of undergrad? 5) Is it possible to acquire TA positions in upper years of the program? Thank you for all your time. The time to decide which university I am attending is drawing near. Hopefully, I can hear back from you soon!
Hi Anwar, thanks so much :) I can't speak directly on behalf of the program, and just keep in mind that everyone's experiences are going to be different - but I'll give you my perspective. 1) Unpaid research positions are common for undergrad students through the university - I'll make a video about research at some point in the future, but just speak with your professors in person when the opportunity comes up. 2/3) There were definitely clubs that students had organized - the premed society in particular was one I remember (I did not join or start any clubs and my advice is that doing so is entirely up to you! definitely not a med requirement.) 4) Undergrad can be very challenging, especially for premeds trying to juggle extracurriculars. This is the case at all schools. I would work 8-20 hours per week in the school year (varied from year to year) and did a lot of other stuff. It fluctuates, but maybe 20-30 hours per week cumulative. 5) I have friends who became TA's and I myself was also offered a position but I had to turn it down due to my schedule being full already. I will say that the "average" student isn't offered a position like this in undergrad, but I had become well known by some of the professors by the time I was in 4th year. Hope this helps!
Wow! One of the best premed videos I watched! Thak you!! I just had a question about how many experiences we can put in our application and how much words we can describe them in? Thanks! Edit: Did they ever ask you about your awesomoe experiences like scuba-diving during the application or interview process?
No problem dude - glad it helped! Back when I applied, the OMSAS system limited it to 32 experiences that were completed within the last 5 years. I would imagine it's the same now but the new guidelines always come out in July :) I can't talk too much about the specifics of my interviews (because we sign an NDA afterwards) but I will say that thankfully I had a chance to let them know what I've been up to for the last few years 🤙 Overall, it was an enjoyable experience - once I learned how to control my nerves 😅
Hi, Often times, medical schools insist that their applicants should have conducted some extracurricular activities which show commitment towards medicine. However, if the applicant chooses to pursue an activity which may not be related to medicine, could it count against them? For instance, I am really interested in flying and I would just want to keep it as a hobby. If I put flying as an activity on my application, would it count against me, as it may not show commitment towards medicine? Thanks, Aman
Hi Aman, that's a good question. I had a few things on my application that probably didn't look like they were geared towards my interest in medicine (my skydiving certifications, underwater videography, salsa dancing, etc.) In my opinion, when you list these types of activities, it's very important to describe what you learned/gained from your experiences that has you a more competitive applicant. It's great to show individuality and creativity - but keep it in the forefront of your mind that you are structuring a medical school application :) hope this helps
Hi Gianluca, thanks for the video. I have a question. Should these experiences be current? I immigrated to Canada just 3 years ago and wit h all burdens of immigration and getting to know how should I do things, I only have 100 hours of volunteering at a hospital and undergraduate research. But, my backpack from my country before immigration is full of all cool experiences. Do you think those are helpful and should be mentioned?
I'm sure the process of immigrating has been very time consuming - but that's awesome that you were still about to get some hospital volunteering and research done! I believe that the cut-off for extracurriculars and such is that they need to have been done within the last 5 years (or at least that's how it was for me back when I applied). Check the OMSAS requirements to see what they say about this, but if it meets their recommendations, then I would 100% include those as well :)
hey man great vid i have a few questions,,, 1.) what are the jobs or rather the responsibilities you acquired when you were a hospital volunteer? 2.)same question for the teaching assistant. 3.)can teaching assistant be put in the employment section of the application? thanks
Thanks Jay 🤙 1) At the hospital I volunteered in the clinical trials pharmacy. I would help keep track of patients who were waiting for the prescriptions and would also make sure that their med orders were showing up from other parts of the hospital. I would also sit and speak with the patients who were waiting if they wanted company. 2) which teaching assistant specifically are your referring to? 3) Yes it can, so long as you were getting paid (at least that's my understanding of it anyways) :)
@@nxtgenmdHiiii! Thank you so much for the great videos you made! They really helped me sort out the med school application process! I still have another question. I also volunteered at the hospital and more than a year when I was in Grade 12(going into my first year at queens health sci now), but all I did was sort through files at the Cardiology unit, which I find not particularly meaningful. So I am wondering what I should do or who I should talk to if I want to get more meaningful experiences out of hospital volunteering like you did. ^_^
LOL I'm sorry... That's the exact opposite of what I was trying to accomplish with this video 😅 You still have lots of time to work on your EC's. I know it's hard rn because everything's closed, but be on the lookout for whatever opportunities start showing up!
@@nxtgenmd Oh no actually I am very grateful of your video because otherwise I wouldn't have any idea about how to improve! Because of my lack of information (my parents don't even speak English and I have never had a friend who get accepted into medical school) I have been thinking that extracurricular activities doesn't matter as much if my marks are high enough... Honestly thank you so much for the wake up call❤️❤️!
How the hell do you get all this done in 4 years? I don’t get how you find the time to get all the other things done when you’re working full time in the summer. I’m sorry but volunteering and being an advocate don’t pay the bills 😂
I'm definitely not going to disagree with you there 😅 The best advice I'd have for it is to go slow but steady. Don't kill yourself tracking down ECs, but add a few in whenever you have time. After 4 years its amazing to see what you've put together 💪
This channel is exactly what I’ve been looking for! No one is doing it like you, thank you so much for doing this!
Thanks for letting me know. I’m glad you’ve liked the videos so far and I’ll be sure to keep them coming :)
I can tell by your personality that you would be a great doctor 👍
Aha thanks so much for that. I certainly hope that I will be! :)
The most informative video on extra-curricular that I have ever seen, thank you :)
Aha I try my best Sunny :) thanks for the encouragement and good luck
Your videos literally deserve millions of views!!
Thanks Yasmin! I don’t know about millions, but A few hundred thousand would be nice 😅
Wow thank you so much for this video! It summarized everything so neatly, and it was super helpful!
Thanks so much for the feedback Atena :) I'm glad you liked it!
Thank you Dr.
you're welcome :) good luck
Thanks so much! It was really informative.
Glad it helped!
Thanks for the insight, I am a huge fan of this channel and really appreciate what you are doing for hundreds of pre-meds.
I have some questions for you:
1. I am in my third year applying to McMaster and other universities. I have a really high GPA (3.96) and a great CARS score (131) but my extracurriculars are not very strong. I am curious about what my chances are of getting into Mac are because their selection formula makes no mention of the ABS. So essentially how important was your ABS/Extracurriculars for McMaster and does the admissions committee even read the applicants' ABS/References.
2. Did you mention your ABS activities in your interview at Mac?
3. I go to UWaterloo and similar to Niagara Falls there is a campus here as well. So are you going to spend three years in Niagara Falls to complete your pre-clerkship and your rotations or will you have to go to Hamilton?
4. Did you apply to the NOSM in Thunderday and any other schools outside of Ontario such as BC or Cummings?
5. Do you believe extracurricular activities and the ABS are the most important factors when applying to Queens? So what do you think my chances are?
Keep up the great content and good luck.
Thanks a lot Varun, I really appreciate hearing you say that because helping all the pre-meds out there was really the reason why I started this channel :)
Ok, so there's a lot to unpack here - let's see what I can do.
1. Your stats are certainly impressive, congratulations on your success so far! Now I cannot speak officially on behalf of McMaster University, but I can say that insofar as their official admissions website goes, the ECs are not explicitly mentioned in terms of how they select. As far as I can tell, pre-interview selection at McMaster is done according to their breakdown: 32% GPA 32% CARS 32% CASPer and an up to 4% bonus for a Masters/PhD. However, ECs will be important during your interview if you are selected and I will definitely do an interview prep video later on in the year!
2. I can't specifically talk about my own interview (confidentiality agreements are signed after the interview process), but I can say that when you answer questions, supporting your statements with life experiences will lead to a MUCH stronger response than simply stating facts or giving blanket responses.
3. Tricky question for me to answer, but very important. I was assigned to the Niagara Regional Campus (NRC). My offer admission as well as those to students from the Waterloo campus and the Hamilton campus are binding to the originally specified campus without the option of switching (as far as I can tell). Having said that, you are never limited to staying or studying at your assigned campus. I really like the NRC facility and will most likely do much of my studying and tutorial sessions as well as research and horizontal electives in that area. However, I do not typically like watching lectures on a video monitor. For that reason, I plan to drive (40 min.) to the Hamilton campus whenever possible for the major lectures and then stay in NRC when my schedule gets too busy. Owning a car is definitely a luxury thank grants me flexibility in regards to where I want to study. On a final note, pre-clerkship for us only lasts the first 15 months of the program. (We do not get summer's off and will finish 1 year earlier than other medical schools)
4. I applied to U of Alberta, however my application didn't process due to an issue I had with the Bear Tracks emailing system (everything works out for a reason I guess lol). NOSM is a separate story. Its a great program and I was meaning to do a video on it like I have for the other University programs, however, I don't know if I feel qualified to do so since I did not apply to the school. My application lacked rural community involvement and ultimately I felt like I wouldn't have been a very competitive applicant at that university. I was planning on applying to both BC and Cummings if I had been unsuccessful in my first application cycle. UBC in particular is a very pretty university and I actually got to go and check it out while on vacation after my MCAT :)
5. Many applicants refer to Queen's as the "Black Box" This is not a derogatory name in any way, (Queen's is a great school and I had a great time at my interview!) but simply refers to the lack of information that we have in regards to statistics or weighting of individual components at certain steps of the application. I made a video on the school and broke down how they select. Now I can't speak on their behalf. All I can say is that from what I can gather, the breadth of my ECs seemed to have been quite competitive in comparison to other applicants. On the other hand, my GPA (3.78 2 YR) was significantly lower than a lot of unsuccessful applicants. My MCAT (517) was definitely respectable, but coming across applicants in the 520+ range is not uncommon at Ontario med schools. From these reasons, I personally* believe that Queen's highly values an applicants ECs.
Sorry about the long response, I tried to give my best answers possible lol. If you've stuck around this long, my final recommendation is for you to stay optimistic :) With your stats, it's only a matter of time before you are invited to an interview... Just keep up the hard work! However, I would strongly advise you to work on improving your ECs if possible. In the very least, it will definitely help you out during interviews and then even beyond then! Best of luck and thank you for the encouragement.
Thanks for the insight, all the best!
Thanks so much Elyas :) The same goes for you!
Really helpful video
glad to hear it!
Hi! Thanks for the video! Can you please make a video about how to secure a good research position? I’ve always wanted to get involved with research but have no idea who to contact. Thanks so much!
Very very helpful, thank you so much :)
Glad it helped :)
Hi Gianluca, your videos are amazing! I am going to university next year and I am strongly considering Ryerson Biomed Sci. I am really set on going to medical school in Canada as well! I have a few questions about the program that I hope you can answer. 1) Is it possible to acquire research assistant jobs in the program? If so, are there any tricks in acquiring a position? Are there any professors that I should be looking to ask? How many hours of research position did you do in total? 2) Is it possible to start a club in the school? Did you start any clubs in your undergrad? 3) What clubs did you join? Are there any clubs you strongly suggest joining? I hope to see a wide variety of clubs to join next year. 4) Did you find it hard to juggle the program's course load and extracurricular activities? How many hours of extracurricular activities did you do in each year of undergrad? 5) Is it possible to acquire TA positions in upper years of the program? Thank you for all your time. The time to decide which university I am attending is drawing near. Hopefully, I can hear back from you soon!
Hi Anwar, thanks so much :) I can't speak directly on behalf of the program, and just keep in mind that everyone's experiences are going to be different - but I'll give you my perspective. 1) Unpaid research positions are common for undergrad students through the university - I'll make a video about research at some point in the future, but just speak with your professors in person when the opportunity comes up. 2/3) There were definitely clubs that students had organized - the premed society
in particular was one I remember (I did not join or start any clubs and my advice is that doing so is entirely up to you! definitely not a med requirement.) 4) Undergrad can be very challenging, especially for premeds trying to juggle extracurriculars. This is the case at all schools. I would work 8-20 hours per week in the school year (varied from year to year) and did a lot of other stuff. It fluctuates, but maybe 20-30 hours per week cumulative. 5) I have friends who became TA's and I myself was also offered a position but I had to turn it down due to my schedule being full already. I will say that the "average" student isn't offered a position like this in undergrad, but I had become well known by some of the professors by the time I was in 4th year.
Hope this helps!
Thank you so much, this is very informative and useful.
Glad you liked it and thanks for letting me know :)
Wow! One of the best premed videos I watched! Thak you!! I just had a question about how many experiences we can put in our application and how much words we can describe them in? Thanks!
Edit: Did they ever ask you about your awesomoe experiences like scuba-diving during the application or interview process?
No problem dude - glad it helped! Back when I applied, the OMSAS system limited it to 32 experiences that were completed within the last 5 years. I would imagine it's the same now but the new guidelines always come out in July :)
I can't talk too much about the specifics of my interviews (because we sign an NDA afterwards) but I will say that thankfully I had a chance to let them know what I've been up to for the last few years 🤙 Overall, it was an enjoyable experience - once I learned how to control my nerves 😅
Amazing video once again!
Thanks again Suhel :) Glad you liked it
This was so helpful!
Glad it helped! :)
Hi,
Often times, medical schools insist that their applicants should have conducted some extracurricular activities which show commitment towards medicine. However, if the applicant chooses to pursue an activity which may not be related to medicine, could it count against them? For instance, I am really interested in flying and I would just want to keep it as a hobby. If I put flying as an activity on my application, would it count against me, as it may not show commitment towards medicine?
Thanks,
Aman
Hi Aman, that's a good question. I had a few things on my application that probably didn't look like they were geared towards my interest in medicine (my skydiving certifications, underwater videography, salsa dancing, etc.) In my opinion, when you list these types of activities, it's very important to describe what you learned/gained from your experiences that has you a more competitive applicant. It's great to show individuality and creativity - but keep it in the forefront of your mind that you are structuring a medical school application :)
hope this helps
Hi Gianluca, thanks for the video. I have a question. Should these experiences be current? I immigrated to Canada just 3 years ago and wit h all burdens of immigration and getting to know how should I do things, I only have 100 hours of volunteering at a hospital and undergraduate research. But, my backpack from my country before immigration is full of all cool experiences. Do you think those are helpful and should be mentioned?
I'm sure the process of immigrating has been very time consuming - but that's awesome that you were still about to get some hospital volunteering and research done! I believe that the cut-off for extracurriculars and such is that they need to have been done within the last 5 years (or at least that's how it was for me back when I applied). Check the OMSAS requirements to see what they say about this, but if it meets their recommendations, then I would 100% include those as well :)
hey man great vid i have a few questions,,, 1.) what are the jobs or rather the responsibilities you acquired when you were a hospital volunteer? 2.)same question for the teaching assistant. 3.)can teaching assistant be put in the employment section of the application? thanks
Thanks Jay 🤙 1) At the hospital I volunteered in the clinical trials pharmacy. I would help keep track of patients who were waiting for the prescriptions and would also make sure that their med orders were showing up from other parts of the hospital. I would also sit and speak with the patients who were waiting if they wanted company. 2) which teaching assistant specifically are your referring to? 3) Yes it can, so long as you were getting paid (at least that's my understanding of it anyways) :)
@@nxtgenmdHiiii! Thank you so much for the great videos you made! They really helped me sort out the med school application process! I still have another question. I also volunteered at the hospital and more than a year when I was in Grade 12(going into my first year at queens health sci now), but all I did was sort through files at the Cardiology unit, which I find not particularly meaningful. So I am wondering what I should do or who I should talk to if I want to get more meaningful experiences out of hospital volunteering like you did. ^_^
I'm in my third year and my experience don't even cover half of those six categories... I feel screwed...
LOL I'm sorry... That's the exact opposite of what I was trying to accomplish with this video 😅 You still have lots of time to work on your EC's. I know it's hard rn because everything's closed, but be on the lookout for whatever opportunities start showing up!
@@nxtgenmd Oh no actually I am very grateful of your video because otherwise I wouldn't have any idea about how to improve! Because of my lack of information (my parents don't even speak English and I have never had a friend who get accepted into medical school) I have been thinking that extracurricular activities doesn't matter as much if my marks are high enough... Honestly thank you so much for the wake up call❤️❤️!
Did u make medical school
How the hell do you get all this done in 4 years? I don’t get how you find the time to get all the other things done when you’re working full time in the summer. I’m sorry but volunteering and being an advocate don’t pay the bills 😂
I'm definitely not going to disagree with you there 😅 The best advice I'd have for it is to go slow but steady. Don't kill yourself tracking down ECs, but add a few in whenever you have time. After 4 years its amazing to see what you've put together 💪