Let's tackle these one at a time. I'll address the time-line first.
Sept. 2000 - April 2001:
Complete third year of degree. By now, you should
have taken all the courses that will help you in the
MCAT. These would include first year Physics,
Inorganic Chemistry, and English, second year Organic
Chemistry, and probably Biochemistry and some Biology courses.
August 2001:
Write the MCAT. Haha! Sucks to be you! :)
October 2001:
Receive MCAT scores from the AAMC. Prepare your
applications, including all reference letters,
autobiographical essays, and a current transcript and
send them to the med schools. For Ontario schools
(and I didn't apply to them, so this is secondhand
info), send application materials to OMSAS, who will
forward them to Ontario medical schools.
January-May 2002:
Sit tight and wait for interview/rejection letters.
They could come at any time in this interval. Make
sure to do well in your fourth year studies. When
your fourth year marks are available (after April 2002
final exams), send them to the medical schools that haven't rejected you.
May 2002-August 2002:
Harass the mailman on a daily basis looking for those
rejection or acceptance (!) letters from schools that you've interviewed at.
September 2002:
Start med school.
Now, the other question is one that I cannot answer
with any certainty. Please take that into account when reading this.
I know for a fact that OMSAS applications have a spot
which you can mark if you feel your application is not
representative of your true abilities. I would
consider your personal hardships as directly affecting your schoolwork.
What you must do now, is prove that you can excell in
your studies. An admissions committee right now, will
see an applicant with a run of "bad luck" who has not proved (GPA wise) that they
can thrive in a medical school academic environment.
Therefore, my top recommendation now is to try to
crush each of your remaining courses. If you can
finish your degree with stellar marks, the admissions
committee will now see a student whose marks dropped
in times of great personal distress, but rebounded
sharply upwards when their situation became more stable.
It is possible that a computer-generated GPA cutoff
might torpedo your application before they read your
autobiographical statement or your reference letters.
In that case, those medical schools will be closed to
you unless you pursue a graduate degree, but I believe
there are many schools out there that would look at
your extenuating circumstances, particularly if you
finish your degree with very high marks.
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