Medical Schools in Canada: How to Get In (2021)

Part 1: Introduction

There are a number of reasons you might want to attend medical school in Canada.

Maybe you’re a Canadian who wants to be educated at home and serve your local community. Maybe you’re a non-Canadian attracted to the strong education system in Canada—with six of the schools ranked in the top 100 in the world by Times Higher Education—giving graduates tremendous freedom to practice internationally.

Maybe you’re drawn to the low cost of attendance at Canadian schools, where annual tuition sits around 13,000 USD for Canadian students and 23,000 USD for international students, compared to 30,053 USD on average for in-state students and 53,469 USD for out-of-state students at public medical schools in the US.

Or maybe you’ve heard about the country’s high standard of living, its natural beauty, its poutine—and it’s a place you want to call home.

Whatever your reasons for wanting to apply, you may already know that medical school admissions in Canada are somewhat different from those elsewhere.

The goal of this article is to guide you through the process of applying to a Canadian medical school (whether you’re a citizen of the Great White North or not), highlight the differences between applying to American and Canadian medical schools, and describe strategies you should employ to maximize your chances of getting in.

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Part 2: Canadian medical school and residency admission rates

How hard is it to get into a Canadian medical school?

There’s a myth that Canadian medical schools have lower standards of admission than other schools because the country has a shortage of doctors. In reality, medical school admissions rates in Canada are quite low compared to those of the United States—averaging around 10-20 percent vs. 46 percent.

The doctor shortage—which is real—isn’t translating into a significant increase in admissions rates, because class sizes remain limited. There simply aren’t that many medical schools and hospitals in the country, nor is there enough staffing and resources to accommodate a greater number of students and interns.

That’s why Canadian medical schools heavily favor candidates who reside in the same provinces. They feel more certain that those students will remain in the region to practice.

Additionally, Canadian medical schools expect their graduates to get into a Canadian residency program with relative ease, whereas many Canadians who graduated from a foreign medical school find it very difficult to match into a residency back home. (We’ll explain why later on.)

You can find the exact admissions rates for each school at the end of this article.

(Essential reading: How hard is it to get into medical school?)

Do Canadian medical schools accept applications from international students?

Of the 17 Canadian medical schools, seven don’t accept international students at all.

Two of the remaining 10—Dalhousie University and the University of Calgary—only accept students from foreign countries (typically in the Persian Gulf) that they’ve signed a contract with.

They do this in part to ensure their graduates continue to practice in Canada. The Canadian government heavily subsidizes these schools and prefers to see graduates serving the healthcare needs of its own taxpayers.

So if you come from the US, UK or another country that usually does not have contracts with Canadian schools, you’ll have to focus your efforts on one of the other eight. Keep in mind also that while these schools might allow international students to apply to their programs, there’s no guarantee that they’ll take any, and when they do, it’s often only in the single digits. Just 11 non-contract foreign students enrolled in Canadian institutions for their first year of medical school in 2016-2017.

Furthermore, three of these schools—Laval University, the University of Sherbrooke, and the University of Montréal, all located in Quebec—only offer instruction in French.

But medical school admissions are competitive everywhere, and by applying to a Canadian institution, you’re increasing the odds that you’ll get in somewhere. Canadian medical schools also tend to have fewer application requirements than American schools, so if you can add Canadian medical programs to your list while avoiding burnout, you might feel better having more options.

Do Canadian medical residency programs favor applicants with a Canadian medical degree?

If you’re a non-Canadian citizen interested in establishing your career as a physician in Canada, you’ll have a far better chance of landing a Canadian medical residency if you get a Canadian medical degree. In 2018, 91.6% of Canadian medical school graduates (CMGs) successfully matched to a medical residency in Canada, compared to only 58.5% of US medical school graduates (USMGs) and 22.6% of international medical school graduates (IMGs) who applied to Canadian medical residency programs.

Some Canadian residency programs don’t even consider IMGs or USGs, whereas others—such as the University of Toronto and McMaster University—have quotas for such applicants.

The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada even recommended last year that IMGs and USMGs not be allowed to apply for residency until after the second round of admissions.

Of course, a Canadian medical degree does not guarantee that you will match to a Canadian residency. To qualify for a Canadian medical residency program, you need to be a citizen or permanent resident of Canada. Foreign students who have studied for two years at an accredited Canadian post-secondary school can apply to become permanent residents.

IMGs, by contrast, have to pass the Medical Council of Canada Qualifying Examination—which graduates of Canadian and US schools won’t need to do until they’re ready to become full doctors—before they can even apply for medical residency programs. They also have to fulfill several province-specific criteria, including additional exams, available here.

Bottom line: if your goal is to match into a Canadian medical residency program, it would make your life a lot easier if you attend a Canadian medical school.

Part 3: How to ace Canadian medical school admissions

Some claim that medical schools in Canada are less concerned with personal characteristics and more concerned with grades and test scores than in the United States.

They cite the fact that most Canadian universities require applicants to hit a minimum GPA and MCAT score to even be considered for admission; that the mean GPA of successful applicants is also higher than in America (about 3.7, compared to about 3.5), and that very few Canadian schools ask for the lengthy medical school personal statement common across the border.

But that argument is somewhat misleading.

Canada’s GPA requirements are higher because the admissions process is more competitive in general—and not because Canadian schools don’t care about your personal characteristics.

On the contrary, they need to make sure that the students they admit have the personal qualities necessary  to care for diverse patient populations.

The CanMEDS educational framework, initially developed for the education of physicians in Canada, describes the abilities required of physicians to effectively deliver healthcare in detail. It’s important enough that we’ll list the CanMEDS roles here: communicators, community collaborators, leaders, health advocates, scholars, and ethical professionals.

The focus is not just on knowledge, but decency and sensitivity to the personal and social histories of patients and communities.

It might be useful to sit down with the CanMEDS traits at the start of your application process and begin to list every experience you’ve had that might fall under each of these categories. It’ll come in handy as you assemble your lists of activities and answer the short essays that vary by school.

Just as pre-writing your secondary essays for American schools is a handy way to avoid fatigue, planning ahead according to CanMEDS roles will make your Canadian medical school application process much smoother.

The reason most Canadian medical schools have dropped lengthy personal statements is that they don’t think that they are valid assessments of an applicant’s personal qualities. A student with the time and money to set up a public health project in Peru is going to have a way better story than one who spent their off-school hours working for minimum wage—even if the latter has all of the personal qualities that would make them an excellent physician.

So Canadian medical schools make heavy use of a few other metrics, including:

• 20- to 50-word descriptions of extracurricular activities similar to the AMCAS Work & Activities section, sometimes with supplementary elaborations of maximum 250 words
• The Computer-Based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics (CASPer), an online personality test stocked with scenario-based questions
• The Multiple Mini Interview (and its variations), designed to elicit candid answers more effectively than a panel interview. Increasingly common in the United States.

In this part of the article, we’ll explain step by step how you can use these metrics and others to show that you have the CanMEDS characteristics, and get into your top-choice med school.

You should also check the list of universities at the bottom of this article, which will tell you which universities use which of these metrics, since all of them do things a little differently. (For example, not all schools use the MMI, and not all of them consider the MCAT.)

And finally, you should visit the websites of the schools you’re applying to, because most of them explain how they weigh each component of your application. The University of Montréal, for example, explicitly states that it assesses candidates based 40% on academics, 50% on the MMI, and 10% percent on CASPer.

Step 1: Check the Canadian medical school admissions deadlines

Deadlines vary significantly between universities and regions.

The six Ontario medical schools centralize their applications through the Ontario Medical School Application Service (OMSAS). Their timeline usually looks like this:

• July: Applications open
• October: deadline for transcripts, autobiographical sketch, references, and other materials
• November: MCAT score submission deadline
• January: interview offers
• Late January-late March: interviews
• May: first-round admissions offers

Other schools use their own online applications, whose precise timelines vary year-to-year. But here’s a sketch of their usual final deadlines:

• August: Dalhousie University
• September: University of British Columbia and Memorial University of Newfoundland
• October: University of Calgary, University of Manitoba and University of Saskatchewan, University of Alberta
• November: McGill University
• January: University of Sherbrooke
• March: Laval University and University of Montréal

Some schools, like the University of British Columbia, offer early decision deadlines. But even in those cases, applications aren’t reviewed until after the final deadline for submission—so applying through early decision won’t offer you an admissions advantage.

Step 2: Find out how your schools will calculate your GPA

University grading systems tend to vary, so each Canadian medical school has its own way of calculating GPA. Usually this is just a matter of matching a letter grade or percentage system to a 4.0, 4.33, or other scale.

Some schools—the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, to name two—drop the lowest grades of those students who have consistently taken a “full course load,” which in Canada typically means 5 classes.

You may worry about this if you come from a system where students take fewer than 5 classes per term, but don’t. Admissions committees are familiar with grading systems at other institutions and will not penalize applicants for taking less than a full course load.

Any slight advantage or disadvantage from conversion probably won’t matter, especially if you’ve excelled at school and aced the other application metrics. Still, if your old university used an unconventional grading system, it wouldn’t hurt to mention it in the “Academic Explanations” box included on your application forms.

Step 3: Write your activity lists/OMSAS autobiographical sketch

The only written statement most Canadian medical schools accept is a list of your extracurricular activities with brief descriptions, similar to the AMCAS Work and Activities section.

Unlike AMCAS, though, most Canadian schools have you submit these lists through their own online application portal (barring the Ontario schools, which all use OMSAS). The number of activities you’re allowed to list also varies between schools (32 for OSMAS, 10 for the University of Calgary) along with the length of the description. (Ranging from 20 to 250 words.)

These activity lists are one of the only windows the admissions committees get into your personal life, so you need to select the best activities and write about them concisely.

How to select your activities

Don’t list every activity you’ve ever done. Because admissions committees only have so much time to devote to one applicant, you should select the activities which best match up with the CanMEDS character traits.

Hopefully your activities include physician-shadowing, research assistance, and volunteer medical service—all of which serve as proof of your curiosity about the field (“scholar”) and care for communities (“health advocate”).

But remember that CanMEDS doctors are expected not just to be academic, but conscientious citizens, sensitive communicators and community collaborators. They’re expected to care about the personal feelings and social histories that complicate medical treatment, and deal with them both in their office and in the public sphere.

You could show those traits by writing about medical-related activities. You might also showcase a sociology project, a volunteer position at a safe-injection site, or your time on a competitive debate team.

You could also do it by including activities from your daily life. We’ve read successful applications that listed caring for a family member who has Alzheimer’s and helping a younger student with bipolar disorder. These activities are worth mentioning because they undoubtedly impacted your life and perhaps influenced your medical school aspirations.

Descriptions of employment history and hobbies such as hiking, weightlifting or singing in a band, are also helpful because they demonstrate commitment and that you’re able to interact with people in the real, non-medical world.

How to write your activity descriptions

Once you’ve chosen your activities, make sure you clearly and concisely explain what you did, what you learned, and how it connects to CanMEDS. Cut fancy diction and transition words and use partial phrases.

Obviously this is easier said than done in 250 words, let alone 50 or 20. So let’s look at a few fantastic examples, by an applicant we’ll call Jane. You’ll find that they all employ the same strategies regardless of length.

20-word description for OMSAS schools, UBC and others

Caregiver for aunt w Alzheimer’s

Work with family to give 24/7 care for aunt with Alzheimer’s needing help with eating, bathing, toileting

The genuine physical and emotional effort involved in this activity and its obvious link to CanMEDS values like “communicator,” make it impressive. Jane also makes all 19 words purposeful by using sentence fragments, abbreviated words, and simple diction that has impact (e.g., “toileting”).

50-word descriptions for University of Calgary and others

       Cashier at hospital gift shop

Helped patients, families, nurses, and doctors stock up. Helped clients buy gifts/flowers for loved ones. Organized and priced goods and cleaned and maintained the store. Made connections with regular patient families and ran donation for parents who could not afford gifts.

The humility of the work shows a desire to learn more about what patients and practitioners feel when they’re at a hospital. And the emphasis on small but emotionally significant interactions suggests that Jane learned how to embody CanMEDS roles like being a “communicator” and a “health advocate.”

100-200-word descriptions for University of Toronto and others

Volunteer at Indigenous Medicine Centre

At the Centre I helped grow and cultivate plants to make traditional medicine for Indigenous community members. I also participated in medicine making workshops and learned about Indigenous perspectives on health.

I also explored the deep connections between health, community and land; the health disparity that Indigenous peoples face; and the things that tradition can contribute to community health and reconciliation.

I hope that my volunteer work has helped sustain the Centre and continue the flow of vital medical traditions and knowledge. As a future physician, I hope that I’ll be able to fight those inequalities and bring Indigenous health perspectives into my practice.

Canadian medical schools need more doctors who are sensitive to the needs of indigenous communities. Admissions committees even consult aboriginal elders to ensure they’re meeting these needs. Jane shows that she has these traits by repeatedly using “learned” and suggesting that she doesn’t plan on forgetting all about these lessons, once she’s a doctor.

If you’re not from Canada or don’t have access to volunteer opportunities in these communities, that’s okay. Include an activity that shows that you want to learn from—not just “serve” or interact with—marginalized groups.

Step 4: Write your personal statement

Some Canadian medical schools ask you to submit longer personal statements on specific questions, AMCAS-style. Writing these is a bit different from what we’ve discussed so far

You shouldn’t forget, however, that Canadian medical schools are looking for students who embody the CanMEDS roles.

The University of Toronto, for example, asks you to write four 250-word statements on four questions—about your life, current affairs or medical practice—which try to see whether you have the CanMEDS characteristics.

Dalhousie asks applicants for a 1500-word essay on the experiences and learning experiences—with an emphasis on community—that would make you an excellent physician.

You’ll be prepared for most of these scenarios if you keep your CanMEDS prewrites handy. But let’s take a look at two examples, answering questions from a previous University of Toronto admissions cycle. We’ll mainly focus on the substance of their answers, rather than their structure or style.

Physician and author Abraham Verghese argues that the most important innovation to come in medicine in the next 10 years is human touch. Discuss.

Simply treating the biological factors behind illness is, in my view, insufficient. Physicians need to also address the social and psychological factors which contribute to a patient’s suffering by building a strong doctor-patient relationship: that is, by adding a human touch.

As a suicide hotline operator, I spoke regularly with callers who suffered from mental illness and who were frustrated with a medical system which, they told me, constantly prescribed them psychiatric medications which didn’t improve their underlying emotional distress. One had been in and out of hospitals for years yet still called the hotline regularly for help. Pills improved some symptoms like insomnia, he said, but he continued to feel an intense solitude and had no way of reaching the doctors who had worked with him at the hospital. As a result, he told me, the treatments had made him feel even more alone. His only constant source of support was a hotline manned by operators who, though well meaning and highly competent, were by no means mental health professionals. The experience showed me how the absence of the “human touch” can not only fail to treat illness, but sometimes make it worse; and how physicians need to be as multidimensional as the illnesses that they fight, dealing with the human feelings as much as biochemistry.

Let’s think about this in terms of the CanMEDS roles. The reference to a specific author might tempt you to show off how you’re a “scholar” by, for example, discussing some of the literature on the importance of a “human touch” in treatment.

Jane decides to show that she’s a “communicator” instead, making the obvious inference that both CanMEDS and the prompt recognize the importance of having physicians who take patients’ full description of their suffering seriously and try to treat it as best they can.

The volunteer experience she uses to illustrate all that is impressive, but what’s more important is that she explicitly describes the insight about communication which the experience “showed her”—suggesting that she’s really taken it to heart.

What is your preferred style of learning? How has this impacted your educational development?

My friends are often confused by my commitment to both science and the humanities. As a literature major, I write about the links between human nature, war, and our enduring quest to discover higher purpose. But as a self-directed scientist, I entered a neuroscience competition and conducted research in the field of reproductive medicine, winning second place at my university for my work determining the toxicity of grooming products. I’ve never considered these passions to be contradictory or even separate. I believe that science and the humanities can tackle each other’s most intractable problems and reveal one another’s true potential. Only the combined study of science and art, for example, can help us understand the complexity of the human psyche, without which we can not truly heal the physical body. So I study both and keep my eyes peeled for novel insights, no matter the subject I may be studying. For example, reading a poem about missing indigenous women is, for me, not just a literary exercise—but a chance to learn about the intersectional oppression which underlies why these communities continue to lack access to adequate medical care.

Because this question is so open-ended, there’s a risk that you’ll write a description of your learning style which doesn’t touch on the things that UT wants in its applicants.

Jane avoids that by focusing her response around CanMEDS and highlighting only the aspects of her learning style which will make her a great physician. There’s a lot of academic work nowadays on the potential synergies between science and the humanities, so Jane’s discussion of that and her own interdisciplinary work helps bolster her competence in the “scholar” role.

But more impressive is how she uses those ideas to show how she is a “leader” and a “health advocate,” by suggesting that the humanities gave her a better understanding of the historical inequalities underpinning the poor quality of medical support for indigenous people.

In general, it’s a good idea to demonstrate how you’re a “scholar” and a “leader” at the same time, as Jane does, to show that you understand the real-world medical issues that make academia important, in the first place.

Step 5: Prepare for CASPer

CASPer is an online test which presents applicants with a series of hypothetical scenarios and asks them to explain what they would do in each. These scenarios don’t test medical knowledge, or look for “right” or “wrong” answers. They instead give applicants a score based on how well their explanations match up with the ethics and sensitivities of the ideal physician.

CASPer is currently used by 7 Canadian med schools.

Step 6: Prepare for your interviews

Nine Canadian medical schools use the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format, while six either modify it or combine it with panel interviews. Only two schools use traditional panel interviews by themselves. The list of medical schools in the appendix will tell which format your preferred universities use.

Here’s how you can prepare for each type of interview.

The Multiple Mini Interview

During the MMI you’ll go one-by-one through six to ten stations. You’ll be given a prompt or a scenario at each, and asked to answer a question or complete a task.

Our medical school interview guide will tell you how you should think about and answer these questions. Remember that med schools use the MMI because they think it’s a better way to measure both your communication skills and personal traits, by pushing you away from canned answers.

In the guide, you’ll also find sketches of the types of scenarios you might have thrown at you and advice on how you can prepare for them.

Canadian MMIs are not exactly the same as American MMIs. They tend to have more scenarios which touch on local problems. While the format has spread around the world, it was actually developed at McMaster University to make sure that medical schools were recruiting future doctors who could address the country’s needs.

Canadian MMI committees will therefore include not only doctors and students, but Aboriginal elders, French-speaking people, and members of other communities.

That doesn’t mean that all of the scenarios will be entirely Canada-specific, but some will, so a sensitivity to the country’s current affairs could be a massive asset. McGill’s sample MMI questions, for example, touch on both the ethics of prescribing homeopathic medicines and the ethics of giving preferential treatment in med school admissions to students from northern Ontario. Sample MMI questions from UBC and Calgary show a similar mix.

Modified MMIs

The universities of Montréal, Laval and Sherbrooke conduct their interviews together under a modified MMI format. The response times are slightly shorter than in most other MMIs (7 vs 8 minutes) and there is a larger number of stations (12).

Panel Interviews and Combined Panel + MMIs

Some Canadian medical schools still use traditional interviews focused on learning about the applicant’s personal history and professional qualifications. Western University and the University of Ottawa use 45-minute, three-person panels. Queen’s University and Memorial University of Newfoundland combine those panels with the scenario-stations of the MMI. Finally, the University of Toronto breaks up MMI-style scenario stations with one-on-one, personal interviews.

Remember that all of these formats are ways of seeing whether you have the characteristics of the CanMEDS roles.

The best way to prepare for these slightly wonky formats is to read our guide on panel interviews and the MMI and be ready to explain how your personal experiences help you embody the CanMEDS characteristics.

Step 7: Didn’t make it? Consider reapplying

If you aren’t accepted to any of your top choices, one of your options is to reapply to medical school. Fewer than 15 percent of applicants are accepted on the first go. And since perfectly qualified candidates are so often rejected, Canadian medical schools allow them to reapply without prejudice. Consider taking a gap year, during which you could retake the MCAT, strengthen your extracurricular activities, or improve any other weak component of your application.

Appendix: List of medical schools in Canada

(Note: Global rankings are based on the Times Higher Education Best universities for medicine 2020 list, whereas national rankings are based on Maclean’s Canada’s Top Medical/Doctoral Schools 2020 list)

Medical schools which accept non-contract international students

University of Toronto

• Rank: 13th globally, 1st nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Room and board: $15,991
• Admission statistics
  • Overall acceptance rate: 8.3%
  • Mean admission GPA: 3.96/4.00
•  First-year tuition
  • Canadian resident: 24,400 CAD
  • International: 59,768 USD
•  Application requirements (through OMSAS)
  • Science and humanities prerequisites
  • MCAT, minimum 125 each section
  • Modified Personal Interview (MPI)
  • Four 250-word personal statements on specific questions
  • Autobiographical sketch of up-to 32 activities + 3 250-word explanations
  • 3 reference letters

McGill University

• Rank: 25th globally, 1st nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 10.9%
  • Out-of-province rate: 3.4%
  • International rate: 1.9% (up to 2 spots)
  • Mean admission GPA: 3.70/4.00
• First-year tuition
  • In-province resident: 5,021 CAD
  • Out-of-province resident: 15,546 CAD
  • International: 29,176 USD
• Application requirements
  • Science prerequisites
  • CASPer
  • MCAT (if undergraduate done outside Canada) 508-509+
  • MMI
  • CV and verifiers

McMaster University

• Rank: 23rd globally, 4th nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 7.8%
  • Out-of-province rate: 4.9%
  • International rate: 1.6%
  • Mean admission GPA: 3.84/4.00
• First-year tuition
  • Canadian resident: 27,241 CAD
  • International: 72,168 USD
• Application requirements (through OMSAS)
  • No science or humanities prerequisites
  • CASPer
  • Minimum MCAT Critical Analysis and Reasoning 123; other sections not considered
  • MMI
  • Autobiographical sketch
  • 3 reference letters

University of Montréal

• Rank: 58th globally, 10th nationally
• Language of Instruction: French
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 25%
  • Out-of-province rate: 8.5%
  • International rate: 5.5%
  • Mean admission GPA: Not published
• First-year tuition
  • In-province resident: 3,507 CAD
  • Out-of-province resident: 10,857 CAD
  • International: 20,377 USD
• Application requirements
  • Proof of French proficiency
  • Science and humanities prerequisites
  • CASPer
  • Modified MMI (joint with Laval and Sherbrooke)

Queen’s University

• Rank: 176th-200th globally, 5th nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 4.1%
  • Out-of-province rate: 5.5%
  • International rate: 0% (up to 5 spots)
  • Mean admission GPA: Not published
• First-year tuition
  • Canadian resident: 26,827 CAD
  • International: 60,773 USD
• Application requirements (through OMSAS)
  • No science or humanities prerequisites
  • MCAT (minimum score unpublished)
  • MMI + panel interview
  • Autobiographical sketch
  • 3 reference letters

Laval University

• Rank: 176th-200th globally, 11th nationally
• Language of instruction: French
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 19.9%
  • Out-of-province rate: 11.1%
  • International rate: 1.2%
  • Mean admission GPA unavailable
• First-year tuition
  • In-province resident: 3,826 CAD
  • Out-of-province resident: 11,658 CAD
  • International: 21,864 USD
• Application requirements
  • Proof of French proficiency
  • Science and humanities prerequisites
  • CASPer
  • Modified MMI (joint with Montréal and Sherbrooke)

Memorial University of Newfoundland

• Rank: 201st-250th globally, unranked nationally
• Language of instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 31.5%
  • Out-of-province rate: 8.1%
  • International rate: 0%
  • Mean GPA: 3.85/4.00
  • Mean MCAT: 127 each section (no minimum)
• First-year tuition
  • Canadian resident/citizen: 8250 CAD
  • International: 22,790 USD
• Application requirements (through CaRMS)
  • No science or humanities prerequisites
  • MCAT
  • Situational Judgement Test
  • MMI + panel interview
  • Brief extracurricular and biographical descriptions through CaRMS

University of Sherbrooke

• Rank: 401st-500th globally, 13th nationally
• Language of Instruction: French
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 19.8%
  • Out-of-province rate: 23.3%
  • International rate: 2.5%
  • Mean admission GPA: unpublished
• First-year tuition
  • In-province resident: 4,503 CAD
  • Out-of-province resident: 11,608 CAD
  • International: 20,799 USD
• Application requirements
  • Proof of French proficiency
  • Science and humanities prerequisites
  • CASPer
  • Modified MMI (joint with Laval and Montréal)

Medical schools which do not accept non-contract international students

University of British Columbia

• Rank: 30th globally, 3rd nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 19%
  • Out-of-province rate: 6.5%
  • Mean admission GPA: 4.00/4.33
• First-year tuition: 17,755 CAD
• Application requirements
  • English requirement
  • MCAT (minimum 124 in each section)
  • List of extra-curricular activities with brief descriptions and verifiers
  • MMI
  • 3 reference letters after interview stage

University of Alberta

• Rank: 71st globally, 6th nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 21.1%
  • Out-of-province rate: 29%
  • Mean admission GPA: 3.83/4.00
• First-year tuition: 12,044 CAD
• Application requirements
  • No science or humanities prerequisites
  • MCAT (minimum 124 in each section)
  • CASPer
  • MMI
  • List of extra-curricular activities with brief descriptions and verifiers
  • Two reference letters

Western University

• Rank: 101st-125th globally 8th nationally
• Language of instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 10.6%
  • Out-of-province rate: 7.9%
  • Mean admission GPA: 3.91/4.00
• First-year tuition: 27,225 CAD
• Application requirements (through OMSAS)
  • No science or humanities prerequisites
  • MCAT (minimum 126 each section, 128 Critical Analysis and Reasoning)
  • Panel interview
  • Abbreviated autobiographical sketch (up to 8 activities, 2 for each of 4 core values)
  • 3 reference letters

University of Ottawa

• Rank: 101st-125th globally, 9th nationally
• Language of instruction: English and French
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 6.9%
  • Out-of-province rate: 9.5%
  • Mean admission GPA: 3.93/4.00
• First-year tuition: 25,686 CAD
• Application requirements (through OMSAS)
  • Science prerequisites
  • CASPer
  • Panel interview
  • Autobiographical sketch
  • 2 letters of reference

University of Calgary

• Rank: 101st-125th globally, 11th nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 19.9%
  • Out-of-province rate: 19.7%
  • Mean admission GPA: 3.83/4.00
• First-year tuition: 15,012 CAD
• Application requirements
  • No science or humanities prerequisites
  • MCAT (minimum 128 for non-Albertans)
  • MMI
  • Brief description of top 10 past extra-curricular experiences
  • 3 letters of reference

Dalhousie University

• Rank: 201st-250th globally, 7th nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 25.9%
  • Out-of-province rate: 2.1%
  • International rate: 16.7%
  • Mean admission GPA: 3.8/4.0
• First-year tuition
  • Resident/citizen: 21,373 CAD
  • International: 29,337 CAD
• Application requirements
  • No science or humanities prerequisites
  • MCAT (minimum 124 all sections; 499 total for maritime, 503 total for non-maritime)
  • CASPer
  • 1500 word personal essay
  • 250-word essay for non-maritime students on connection to the maritimes
  • List of activities with brief descriptions and verifiers (up to 7 for each of 3 sections)
  • MMI
  • 3 reference letters

University of Manitoba

• Rank: 201st-250th globally, 14th nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 31.8%
  • Out-of-province rate: 13.6%
  • Mean admission GPA: 4.05/4.50 (“Adjusted GPA” system.)
• First-year tuition: 9,463 CAD
• Application requirements
  • No science or humanities prerequisites
  • MCAT (minimum 515 for out-of-province)
  • CASPer
  • MMI

University of Saskatchewan

• Rank: 301st-400th globally, 14th nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 47.5%
  • Out-of-province rate: 22.7%
  • Mean admission GPA: Unavailable
• First-year tuition: 16,642 CAD
• Application requirements
  • No science or humanities prerequisites
  • MCAT (minimum > 26th percentile)
  • MMI
  • 3 reference letters

Northern Ontario School of Medicine

• Unranked globally, nationally
• Language of Instruction: English
• Admission statistics
  • In-province rate: 4.7%
  • Out-of-province rate: 2.3%
  • Mean admission GPA: 3.8/4.0
• First-year tuition: 23,432 CAD
• Application requirements (through OMSAS)
  • Science and humanities prerequisites
  • MMI
  • Autobiographical sketch
  • Short essays on 4 supplementary questions
  • 3 reference letters