MD Non-Canadian International Junior

[subtroglodyte]

Started my third year and plan on applying to USMD schools the next cycle. I’m really concerned about my ECs primarily because I have zero clinical experience and shadowing. I was stuck in my home country freshman year( because I’m non-Canadian international) and my university was online for fall semester sophomore year- and that made getting clinical experience and other ECs hard .

I’m sharing my current profile to get some advice on what I could do to maximise my odds of getting into an international friendly US MD school next cycle.

Also - what schools do you think I could get in with my current profile.

South Asian male ( ORM)


cGPA : 3.985 , ECs :

Research ~ 700 hours ( 600 this summer at a hospital’s research program - overall research focuses on global health / public health);

Productivity : 1 8th author publication in a mid/low impact journal, two first author posters at a university conferences, one first author poster at a hospital research program.

Non-Clinical Volunteering : Teaching underprivileged students in my home country ~ 300 hours + Volunteer at needle exchange in 144 hours

Clubs : Co-Editor-in-Chief & Founding member of university public health journal( second and third year ), exec for UNICEF club( started third year), exec for debating society ( started third year )

Internships : 80 hours of qualitative research over two months at a union of sex worker in my home counters ; 3 months of an internship at a healthcare non- profit think tank in my country.

I’d love to get some feedback on my current profile - and understand what other activities I should optimise for. ( besides volunteering / shadowing )

It would also be useful to learn what med schools I might have a good shot at.

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[liuwode]

hello~what's your sGPA and MCAT? I am also a non-canadian international student applying the next cycle. Would love to connect!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

While you do need a very strong MCAT, you absolutely need clinical experience with shadowing in the United States. This discussion becomes moot until then IMO.

 

[subtroglodyte]

While you do need a very strong MCAT, you absolutely need clinical experience with shadowing in the United States. This discussion becomes moot until then IMO.

Im currently working on getting clinical experience and shadowing. And I plan on taking the MCAT next summer. But say I get a great score (520 ish ) and get 100-150 hours of clinical experience, what would my odds look like ?

 

[subtroglodyte]

hello~what's your sGPA and MCAT? I am also a non-canadian international student applying the next cycle. Would love to connect!

Not sure about my sGPA but it might be slightly lower, and I haven’t taken the MCAT yet. But I’m happy to connect !

 

[Mr.Smile12]

Im currently working on getting clinical experience and shadowing. And I plan on taking the MCAT next summer. But say I get a great score (520 ish ) and get 100-150 hours of clinical experience, what would my odds look like ?

Not impossible, but it will be a challenge since you are non-Canadian international. That's at least why knowing your options in terms of intermediate steps until your US immigration status is more favorable might need to be considered seriously.

 

[chilly_md]

Come back with an MCAT score. It would not help you if we made hypotheticals to fill the multiple unknown variables on your app. As mentioned above, it is very difficult for non-Canadian international students and they nearly always have stellar applications from both a stats and extracurricular perspective.

 

[Benja99]

Those a some really interesting extracurricular’s you have! They sound super cool and would be great stories. I’d for sure recommend Dr. Grey’s podcasts on how to write about your experiences and stories.

As for clinical experience, it’s just as important for the medical school as it is for you. You want to be sure you really enjoy clinical practice, and that you know what physicians actually do. So you definitely should shadow physicians, at least until you’re confident you have an understanding of what their routine is- then shadow some more to demonstrate consistency lol. As for clinical experience, I know that it may be difficult as an international student, but getting some sort of hands-on, patient contact clinical experience is important. Volunteering at a nursing home, contact tracing, clinical experiences sanctioned by your school are examples of what my friends did who were here on F-1’s.

Also, don’t forget that you have the option to do an OPT year, and additional 6-months if your major is STEM. So you could slow down and take a gap year if you would like to help prepare your application.

Hopefully this helps. I’m mid-cycle right now so I’m no expert, lol!