Mscglobalhealth22

I remember when applying to this program I thought my grades were too low to get accepted having seen many accepted students in the Msc Global Health 2021 GradCafe forum having a GPA greater than 11 which is why I've made this post for future students who come across this forum to discuss what made my application unique to get an acceptance with a mid GPA GPA: My GPA was 10.7 for the last 10 courses, I finished my undergraduate degree in Life Science at UofT a semester early so these were the only grades McMaster received. I majored in Human Biology and Population Health and so a lot of the courses I took were very social determinants of health based. I did take a few courses related to global health. References: One of my professors had known me for 3 years as I took 3 courses (2nd, 3rd and 4th year level) with her and I was able to build a very strong relationship with her. My other professor I had for 2 courses both in the same semester and was able to go to her office hours (online) to discuss my future goals, aspirations and course related questions for her to get a good idea of the type of student I am which allowed her to tailor the reference letter specific to me which I think is very crucial for reference letters. Personal Statement: If there is one thing I am confident that got me into this program would be my personal statement. I think one main reason why people with exceptional stats get rejected is because their personal statement is not quite specific to global health but rather to other programs like public health or population health or health equity studies. Also because they fail to show how their leadership skills will help them to become a future leader in global health. I networked with many current Msc Global Health students through social media and got advice from them as to how they made their personal statement stand out. One student in specific took the time to go over my personal statement and gave me very critical feedback and even arranged a zoom meeting with me to ensure that my personal statement was stellar which I will never forget. Research and Extracurricular: I want to start off my saying that I had little to no campus experiences but had a lot of off campus experiences. However a lot of my experiences were long term and specific to my interest in maternal and infant health which was a recurrent theme in my personal statement: Volunteered at a youth leadership program where I taught children from ages 9-16 to develop applied skills such as public speaking, teamwork, effective communication, and leadership skills at an early age. Volunteered at an Infant and child care centre where I worked one on one with children with special needs. Youth engagement leader at a global health organization advisor where I conduct virtual public engagement workshops, where I along my team interviewed female Indigenous tribe leaders from Peru, Honduras, and Kenya about the barriers their communities experience from achieving adequate health Worked as an integration camp counsellor working one on one with children with special needs Researched at a pharmaceutical genetics company and St.Micheal's hospital, where I conducted literature reviews that explores environmental and genetic factors that impact reproduction in females I hope this helps, Lmk if you have any questions and I am sharing this with you all because I was once you constantly worrying about my stats or if I have enough research and volunteer experiences and know how I would be viewed as a competitive candidate. Don't lose hope!

Got accepted May 6th, Offer Accepted May 18th