Waitlisted for med school?

A reader who's a waitlisted Out of Province (OOP) applicant asked me how the waitlist generally works. I asked my friends in med school and the general consensus was that

1. OOP and In-province students have 2 separate waitlists, and


2. the OOP waitlist moves faster than the in-province one.

We thought about why that might be, and decided this was probably because the number of accepted OOP applicants is fixed (12 seats this year?) and it would only make sense that for every OOP applicant who reject the invitation, one OOP will be bumped up from the waitlist.

For point 2., we thought that OOP applicants are more likely to have applied elsewhere and choose to attend med school elsewhere. This means that they are more likely to reject the acceptance from a particular school, thus freeing up space for waitlisted applicants more quickly.

However, noone knows the exact numbers except for the admissions folks, so we could only speak to our observation and guesses. If you want hard numbers, your internet research would be as good as anyone else's.

What I would say is: you've demonstrated that you are capable and quite qualified, and you came really close in being accepted. The chances of you getting into med school are great. I remember someone from admissions telling us before the interview: "once you have come this far (to the interview), if you don't get in this year, chances are you will get in next year. So congratulations!"

I think that's the attitude you should have going into the summer :)

Non academic score

I received the following question from a reader:

any tips for getting a high naq score?

my naq activities include :

• 2 publications (student journal + canadian pharmacist journal)


• med ssrp (summer research)


• clinical work (pharmacy student at shoppers drug mart)


• played soccer for 10 years (community soccer)


• old folks' home volunteering


• ...i go to the gym...

cheers, [sender]

what were your naq activities?

This question is probably of interest to some more of you, so I'll jog down some of my thoughts on this topic.

First, before I try to answer this big question, let me say this:  NAQ score is very important for some schools, so good for you for wanting to work on it! A friend of mine who applied with me last year had a stunning GPA (~95%) and MCAT (~40), which were much better than my slightly-above-average academic record, but his NAQ was quite lacking. He didn't volunteer or join clubs or such. The only thing he could write about was playing on an intramural sports team. As a result, he did not even get an interview at some particular schools. (Although he had no trouble getting into some other ones, which are said to focus more heavily on academics.)

Tip 1: find your passion

Now, I believe that people do well when they do what's interesting to them, not when they are trying to impress someone or ramp up a mysterious score that no one knows much about. Once they focus their energy on the things that they enjoy, what's left is just the presentation of their experiences on paper. Of course, they can probably pull it off when they do something that's not their biggest passion, but when it's time to write about their experiences, it would be difficult for them to compete, on paper, with others who did the same stuff with real passion.

Of course, I don't mean if your passion is watching TV, you should watch TV all day. Watching House does not count as showing passion for medicine. What I mean is, if you enjoy working with kids, you should volunteer/work for a summer camp rather than in a hospital. If you enjoy community projects, you shouldn't force yourself to stay in a lab. If you enjoy soccer, play it till you are at the highest level of competition you'd like to be. Don't try to guess what the admission committee wants. Know what you want.

Tip 2: be referenceable

You pretty much need a reference for anything you say on the application. If you like jogging, join a group. Better, lead a team at a jogging event/fundraiser. If you like a sport, play on a team. If you are into arts/music, then join a club, win a competition, or do a project that involves your talent. If the only person knows what you did is your mom, it could be difficult to use on an application.

Tip 3: know your weakness and work on it

It's no a secret what categories each med school is looking for. Some common items include: community services, leadership, extracurricular experiences such as arts and sports. Some schools may actually specifically ask for experiences in rural or aboriginal communities especially if the provincial climate demands it.

There is a lot of room to interpret each heading, and not all headings need to be filled. But if you find yourself severely lacking in many of these categories, perhaps you should consider strengthening them. In general, a good balance between school work, community service, research, sports, creative pursuits, etc. would only work to your benefit.

So, if you feel that the tips above are nice and all, but completely useless because you only have 6 months to finish your application, here's

Tip 4: sell yourself like you mean it

There is no room to down play the significance of your experiences. No matter how you might feel about them (I always feel shamefully inadequate whenever I have to write an application or a resume), you must present your stuff with confidence and passion. Don't just list what you did, describe how well you did or what you've learned. Use specific examples to back up what you claim. If you learned the importance of empathy, how did you learn this? If you thrived in the face of great challenge, how did you do that?

Tip 5: get help if you need it

It's worthwhile to have your application/resume/essay reviewed by someone with an objective eye. Friends and family are a good start, but sometimes you need a Simon Cowell to get the job done. I've worked with the Career Services at my school before as a resume reviewer, and I know they offer phenomenal help students in terms of career advise and resume review. I'm sure other schools have similar services. If you have a mentor in a professional field/academia/industry/or wherever else who can speak to reviewing an application, feel free to ask them for their advise as well.

In terms of the last question regarding my naq activities, let me just say that I am not a varsity athelete, I'm not musically or artistically talented. I have no publications, and I haven't volunteered outside my community. I'm just a regular guy doing regular things. But I'm happy to say, more often than not, I do them with a passion :)

[Interview] Rules of the Game: Multiple Mini Interviews

I think by now we all know what MMI is, if not, it's a lot like this:

Basically, this is like speed dating but with very serious dates who grade you not on your looks but on your character. (Hm... my own metaphor intrigues me... which type of dates would I prefer?)

The above is the official description. But like everything else med school-related, there are abundent myths surrounding the details of this interview process. Here is a list of them and what I gathered:

Myth: the interviewers are not allowed to respond to you in any way, including nodding. They are not allowed to say a word, so basically you are talking to a video camera with a human face.

What I gathered: the interviewers are not allowed to talk to you about anything unrelated to the question. But they can ask you things related to it, so to probe your thoughts and keep the conversation going. I think it's true that they are not allowed to nod though, so it would be kinda weird.

Myth: it's better to keep talking, because otherwise the room will fall silent and awkward.

What I gathered: if you run out of things to say, the room will fall silent and awkward. I have a friend who stopped talking and stared at the floor with the interviewer for 2 minutes until the time is up (the interviewer was not allowed to keep talking or write down notes in the presence of the interviewee, so he had nothing to do either). But I think that's better than rumbling on with the same thing over and over again and muddle your arguments.

Myth: there is nothing you can do to prepare for the MMI becaues you will never know what the questions are.

What I gathered: the skills to read the question under pressure, synthesize a well structured oral response in your head, and articulating your thoughts precisely and concisely may be much more demanding than you thought. It is actually quite easy to stare at the question prompt and waste your 2 minutes, and be completely confused and nervous in front of the interviewer.

My solution: practice with mock MMI's.