Failed courses...at UBC

[M20012002]

Hi. I'm a 3rd year biological science student at UBC. Unfortunately, I wasn't too good at organic chemistry and failed both chem 231/232. I re-took these courses and did much better on them. Will this severely affect my chances of getting into medical school? In my other courses, I have received above average marks.

[Ian Wong]

It might. I don't know how UBC does their transcripts (I did undergrad at UVic). If they include the marks from the time you failed the courses, as well as the time that you passed them, then your chances start going downhill fairly rapidly.

More importantly than that is whether UBC med, or other med schools factor a failed grade into their GPA conversions. If they do, it could be extremely difficult to bring your overall/prerequisite GPA's up to a level where you'd make it past the initial application screen.

My best advice is to contact each of the Canadian med schools and ask them how they would evaluate a previously failed course. Don't apply to each specific school unless you know exactly how they will interpret your transcript; it might save you the application fee and a lot of hassle with essays and other application materials. You can find links to those med school websites here:

www.geocities.com/mdpremie/schools/list.html (http://www.geocities.com/mdpremie/schools/list.html)

Ian
UBC, MS2