Any help or advice for my situation

[2017SN]

I'm a 5th year student at a Canadian University looking into MPH programs across the country. 

cGPA: 3.1
Last 2 years: 3.7
Last year GPA: 3.9 

I was wondering if what my chances of admission would be I took a year off before I applied in order to work on my extracurriculars and gain experience in fields related to public health? 

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[COGSCI]

Are you only considering Canadian institutions? If that is the case, you don't really need to worry about your GPA since they usually look at the last 2 years of your undgrad (or 10 senior level courses). 

If you have some experience with research and other health related stuff through volunteer work, I would urge you to apply to at least 2 of your top choices this year and see if you get in. While you are waiting for the results, you can find an internship or a research position that is related to public health. 

If you do not get in after your first try, you can apply to about 3~5 schools. The reason why I am recommending you to apply to your top choices first is because you might actually get in with your current status. I have no information on your previous experiences, but I am sure you have some. It is good to go through grad school application process more than once (although it is definitely better to get in after your first try) because you actually learn a lot. Of course, this also depends on your financial capacity so do what is best for you!

Applications are still open for some schools: McMaster (Jan 25th), Queen's, UAlberta (Jan 30th), Dal (Jan 31st) and Western (Feb 15th) 

Edited January 18, 2017 by COGSCI

[2017SN]

Yeah I was only considering Canadian institutions. Do you know if the admissions for the US are similar or do they focus on cumulative GPA more? Also I'm missing a Statistics course which I think could be an issue for some schools. Either way thank you for your help, I appreciate it

[COGSCI]

I don't know if you were planning on taking GRE already but you need it for most US schools. I don't know about the GPA situation but I think they put emphasis on your cGPA. 

Register for a stats course this semester before the add/drop deadline because you would need it for MPH, especially if you want to do epi