 There are currently 158 MD programs and about 37 DO programs in the US and in Canada there are 17. Stay tuned to find out how my Canadian students realize their US medical school dreams. Hi, I'm Dr. Josie. This is Write Your Acceptance. Welcome, welcome. If you are here for personal statement advice, medical school admissions advice, make sure you click that subscribe button so you don't miss a video. I have worked with hundreds and hundreds of students personally. And you know, to realize their medical school dreams, I have students in med school, in residency and beyond. And I'm ready to help you maximize your content, really stand out as an applicant. And it all starts here. Stay tuned. Let's dive really quickly into the numbers, about 40% acceptance rate for med schools right now in the US, about 9% acceptance rate for international students. Canadian students are considered for the most part out of state. And there are Canadian friendly schools that have a higher, slightly higher acceptance rate for Canadian students or out of state students. And so let's dive into those details. So step one, put together a strong Canadian friendly medical school list that you are kind of matching or that your stats are comparable basically to the matriculating students, right? So about 15, 25 programs, I hear students applying to more and more every cycle, which I know is a lot. But you want to make sure that you have a very varied list. You want to check the stats, what GPA and MCAT score are the matriculating class coming in with. So really kind of vary your target list, where it's like, you know, a few of your schools are that your stats are a point or a couple points higher than the stats that are being advertised that are getting in a third of the of the list are kind of like on target for you. So kind of make it balanced in that way. And later in the video, we'll kind of go through a couple of the resources that you can kind of use to start building out that varied list. But that is number one, make sure that you have a varied kind of Canadian friendly school list to start maximizing your chances. Also make sure you have in this varied list, private institutions, because public funding is for public schools. And so public institutions, public programs, sometimes focusing on in-state students to really kind of shape and nurture their in-state student population. And so it could be harder to get in as an out of state, you know, candidate into a public institution. Step two, your plan ideally to apply to a medical school in the US should be a multi-year plan. It has been my personal experience working with Canadian students that sometimes they tend to have less shadowing and clinical experiences largely because of insurance liability kind of hoops in Canada. But if you are, you know, set on or if you're thinking of considering to apply to US medical schools, you want to make sure that you are kind of thinking about this in a multi-year fashion so that you do get in clinical hours, do get in shadowing hours, figuring out how you can do that. If you're applying to DO programs, you want to make sure that you have that kind of immersive experience in DO approaches. So, and I'll give you a few of really, really good contacts for Canadian students a little later in the video. So we'll talk a little bit about that too. I will link another video above on what it really takes to get into medical school, just breaking down all of the steps because right now I'm just focusing on shadowing and clinical just because that's kind of historically been what my students have had a little less experience in, but I'll give that to you there if that's of interest. So another point is to start volunteering with your community as soon as possible, right? Think about ways that you could kind of volunteer that could make a local difference, but that could have kind of international appeal, a Neal Exchange program, elderly center, tutoring, and then possibly maybe your volunteering experience has tangentially a connection to medicine and wellness so that you can kind of bring that in and loop that into kind of deepening your why medicine. So you're serving your community, but you're also kind of clarifying and deepening your why medicine, which is super important. Step three, as you are building up your shadowing clinical experiences, volunteering, shore up those research opportunities. Ideally, maybe even contact a US faculty member and see what research opportunities you can get into really kind of I think connecting and making kind of strides to have connections in the US within the medical space could potentially go a long way. So one of the things I want you guys to do is to connect with the Canadian Osteopathic Association. If DO is of interest, here is the link. They have a list of regional DO physicians in Canada as well. Start reaching out to them to get shadowing experience. I'm going to give you their Facebook page in the description. And then here's a breakdown of the associations. They have the Ontario Osteopathic Medical Association, British Columbia has theirs, American Osteopathic Association. They also have a student association you can kind of connect with. You know, it really is about networking and really is about really finding those opportunities as much as possible. So I think these kind of may serve as potential, you know, starting points to start nurturing those relationships. If you're applying to this upcoming cycle and you want to learn more about how I work with students to elevate your message and write your strongest application, schedule your free call today, my calendar is in the description below. Step four, the US timeline is earlier than Canada's. Too often I connect with Canadian students and they want to apply, but they're applying around the same time as their Canada applications. And my advice to you to be as strong as possible because of the rolling admission kind of game, you want to apply as early as possible. So the US timeline applications open for submission end of May, you're kind of finishing with that end of June, July, August after the verification process, you're kind of working those secondaries, then interviews are September through February, then kind of like, you know, decisions are released. So you want to think about applying earlier in the cycle for the US schools and then dedicate your energy to your Canadian applications. So step five is to actually build that Canadian friendly school list. And so you want to go into the MSAR and really just start to learn as much of the stats as possible so that you can really kind of pinpoint the schools that are going to be the best fit for you. Here are some MD and DO programs that you might consider to at least research and do your kind of due diligence on to see if they're a good potential fit for you. So here are acceptance rates for top US medical schools for Canadians. I'll link the source below, but you have Boston University, you have Pennsylvania, you have Stony Brook, University of Illinois, University of Virginia. So you have a few schools there, some of them to kind of consider Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook. They have the learn curriculum, then you have the SUNY Upstate Medical University's Norton College of Medicine. Applicants must have at least 90 semester course hours in the United States or Canada. The university considers academic accomplishments extracurricular kind of, you know, in a holistic process. The University of Illinois College of Medicine is one of the largest public medical schools in the US and their class is approximately 1400 students. So that might be of interest. They have three campuses, Wayne State University School of Medicine, except undergrads who are US citizens, US permanent residents, Canadian citizens. I'll link a longer list of Canadian friendly schools in the description for DO programs. MSU has a very interesting kind of newly fostered relationship with Canada. So that may be of interest. So Michigan State partnered with the Canadian Osteopathic Association. I linked in the description and they have this kind of student profile on their website. So you can see it too. But basically Philip Van, I can't say his last name. My apologies. I have a weird last name too. I hate mispronouncing. So he is from Vancouver and was first introduced to the field of osteopathic medicine in undergrad. And then it talks a little bit about because Canada does not have any colleges of osteopathic medicine. He began researching schools that would sponsor him in the US. He was pleased to discover MSU.com has a Canadian initiative program which reserves seats for Canadian students to study at MSU and offers a scholarship to reduce the international tuition closer to the in-state rate. In 2019, he matriculated to the class of 2023. And in 2020, he discovered the Canadian Osteopathic Medical School Association. So his profile is super interesting and a program and initiative that may be of interest to you. Other DO programs that may be of interest. Kansas City, University of New England, NSU, AZCOM, Turo, New York, Rowan, Western U, Pomona. So I have a few there. So some rapid-fire questions. Do Canadian students require a visa? No. You will need an I-20 or a DS 2019 certificate of eligibility from the school that you are studying in. So will your Canadian prerequisites be accepted? For the most part, yes. If you are coming from a French school in Quebec, that might be a little kind of of interest. So that might be a little tricky. So you want to make sure that all of your credits are being transferred. Hope this was helpful. And if you're starting to think about applying this coming cycle, make sure you grab your spot on my calendar for a free call to learn about how I work with students, how I help you build your personal statement and activities and interview prep, and just really maximize your chances to get that acceptance and be one step closer to your white coat dream. Thank you so much for stopping by and I'll see you soon. Bye.