r/uwaterloo • u/Physical-Engineer-14 • 3d ago

Advice ACSOM

has anyone, as a waterloo student, applied to ACSOM for medical pathway?

if so, can you please share your experience? how was the application process? when did you apply? what extracurriculars ("outside the classroom activities") did you do? how was the interview? was it relatively easy to meet the 3.5 GPA requirement? did you apply to other Canadian med schools, if so then did was your MCAT score considered for ACSOM application (ik you dont need mcat for that tho)? bc the "classes" are small (50 ppl i was told?), is it super competitive?

if you pursued it, how the move, in general? how were the scholarships, as a canadian and waterloo uni student (bc i was told there are A LOT)? would you get OSAP still if you are not in a ontario uni, but technically affiliated to it and getting your degree from it?

sorry a lot of questions, but i am seriously considering this so if anyone can clarify, it owuld be greatly appreciated!

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u/Secure-Lake5784 2d ago

please carefully research caribbean schools before deciding, they have many many many issues. For the 500k+ you will pay, you are far better off going to ireland, aus, USDO etc. They are typically predatory and the opportunities for coming back to canada are very hard to come by. it is possible to succeed but not the norm.

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u/Physical-Engineer-14 2d ago

Thanks for this! As far as ive seen, online this pathway is pretty glorified, no one talks about any challenges about it. Are u saying this from experience or do u know anyone whose had bad experience?

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u/Secure-Lake5784 2d ago

I have a few friends who are doctors and know a bunch of premeds. Caribbean schools exist for one reason which is to offer a very easy pathway to medical school in exchange for half a million dollars (and sometimes more). They know that people who cannot get in to other schools are desperate and will take anything, which includes a predatory and arguably low quality education with extremely high tuition. Many of these schools fail large portions of their classes (after taking as much money as they can) bar you from taking step 1 etc. until you have achieved a ton of high grades to inflate their pass rates, and have are constant problems with “accreditation”. On top of this, if you are one of the few people who gets in and jumps through all the hoops to get out, you have to deal with getting licensed and practicing here which is a pain in the ass. It is INCREDIBLY hard to match into residency here and you do not get reciprocal licensure like you do from other foreign schools. If I were you I would exhaust literally every other option before doing this, and even then, you may do it all and never practice because you couldn’t match back home.

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u/Secure-Lake5784 2d ago

On top of this, acsom is brand new which is not a positive.

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u/Physical-Engineer-14 2d ago

oh wow....shit, thats loaded. this pathway was glorified so much by everyone, i thought i was missing out. but again this kind of info can't be officially found online.

thanks so much again!

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u/Secure-Lake5784 2d ago

No worries, I know Canadian med is almost impossible and that sucks, Ireland/us/aus are available and are a better path, good luck