Medical Schools in Canada: How to Get In (2024)
/Learn proven strategies to get into the best Canadian medical schools including admissions rates, how to write your personal statement and prepare for Casper
Learn how to get into canadian medical schools
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Part 1: Introduction
There are a number of reasons why you might want to attend medical school in Canada.
Maybe you’re a Canadian who desires to be educated at home and to serve your local community. Maybe you’re a non-Canadian attracted to the strong education system in Canada—seven Canadian medical schools are 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 medical schools, where annual tuition sits around $13,000 USD for Canadian students and $20,000 USD for international students (conversion is current as of April 2024). When compared to the average costs of medical school tuition in the U.S.—around $52,483 USD at public universities and $65,453 USD at private schools—Canadian medical school is a relative bargain.
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 16 percent nationally vs. 43 percent in America.
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).
(Related reading: How Hard Is It to Get into Medical School?)
Do Canadian medical schools accept applications from international students?
Among Canadian medical schools, there are a variety of policies toward international applicants. Some accept applications from international students, some only accept applications from foreign countries (typically in the Persian Gulf) that they’ve signed a contract with, and others don’t accept international students at all.
In part, this focus on homegrown applicants is to ensure that Canadian medical school 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.
Nevertheless, out of Canada’s 17 medical schools, seven do take applications from “non-contract” international students. So, if you come from the U.S., U.K., or another country that doesn’t usually have contracts with Canadian schools, you’ll have to focus your efforts on one of these seven.
However, keep in mind 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 7 non-contract foreign students enrolled in Canadian institutions for their first year of medical school in 2021–2022. However, it should be noted that among schools that accept international applicants, Queen's University, University of Toronto, and McMaster University did not report data.
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.
That said, medical school admissions are competitive everywhere, and by adding on a Canadian institution, you’re technically 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 by virtue of 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 2023, 95.25 percent of Canadian medical school graduates (CMGs) successfully matched into a medical residency in Canada, compared to only 77 percent of U.S. medical school graduates (USMGs) and 35.5 percent 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.
Furthermore, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada has even recommended in recent years that IMGs and USMGs not be allowed to apply for residency until after the second round of admissions.
Of course, a Canadian medical degree doesn’t guarantee that you will match into 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 American 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.
Here’s the 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.
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Part 3: What are Canadian medical schools looking for?
Some claim that medical schools in Canada are less concerned with personal characteristics and more concerned with grades and test scores than their counterparts 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, and that very few Canadian schools ask for the lengthy medical school personal statement that’s common across the border.
But that argument is somewhat misleading.
Canada’s GPA requirements are higher simply because the admissions process is more competitive in general—not because Canadian schools don’t care about your personal characteristics.
On the contrary, like American medical schools, they need to ensure that admitted students possess 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, thus, is not just on knowledge but also on decency and sensitivity to the personal and social histories of patients and communities.
We recommend sitting down with the CanMEDS traits at the start of your application process and listing 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 medical 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. For instance, a student with the time and money to set up a public health project in Peru is going to have a more impressive-seeming 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 up to 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 and becoming increasingly common in the United States
In the next section, 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 Canadian med school.
You should also check the list of universities in the appendix to 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 percent on academics, 50 percent on the MMI, and 10 percent percent on CASPer.
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Part 4: How to ace Canadian medical school admissions
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 applications, transcripts, autobiographical sketch, references, and other materials
October/November: MCAT score submission deadline
January: Interview offers
Late January–late March: Interviews
May: First-round admissions offers
To learn more about how to fill out OMSAS the right way, we’ve created a comprehensive guide to the application, which you can view here: OMSAS Application: The Ultimate Guide.
Other schools use their own online applications, whose precise timelines vary year-to-year. But here’s a sketch of their usual final deadlines:
July: Dalhousie University
September: University of British Columbia, Memorial University of Newfoundland, McGill University
October: University of Calgary, University of Manitoba, University of Saskatchewan, University of Alberta
November: University of Sherbrooke, University of Montréal, Laval University
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—such as the University of British Columbia—drop the lowest grades of those students who meet the school's criteria for adjusting their GPA.
You may worry about this if you come from a system where students take fewer than five 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 it’s important to select the best activities and write about them concisely.
How to select your activities:
Don’t list every activity you’ve ever participated in. Because admissions committees only have so much time to devote to one applicant, you should select the activities that 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”).
(Related reading: How to Choose the Right Extracurricular Activities for Medical School)
But remember that CanMEDS doctors are expected not just to be academically strong, but also 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 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, and our guides to medical school personal statements and medical school secondary essays will teach you all you need to know.
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.
You’ll be prepared for scenarios like this 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.
Prompt 1: 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 that 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 that 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.
Prompt 2: 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 cannot 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.
Looking for secondary essay examples? Click below to access sample secondary essays for every prompt required by every MD and DO program in the United States and Canada. 1500+ essays and counting.
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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 part of a trio of assessments known as Altus Suite; the other two components of the suite are called Snapshot and Duet. Some schools may require you to complete one or both of these tests in addition to Casper.
Casper is currently used by 12 Canadian medical schools.
(Suggested reading: How to Prepare for the Casper Test to Get Into Medical School & Casper, Snapshot, and Duet: Everything You Need to Know)
Step 6: Prepare for your interviews
Some Canadian medical schools use the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format, while others either modify it or combine it with panel interviews. Only a few 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 and MMI-specific guide will tell you how you should think about and answer these questions. Remember that med schools use the MMI because they think, by pushing you away from canned answers, it’s a better way to measure both your communication skills and personal traits.
In the guide, you’ll also find sketches of the types of scenarios you might encounter 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, a format known as the Modified Personal Interview (MPI).
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.
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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 20 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.
About the Author
Dr. Shirag Shemmassian is the Founder of Shemmassian Academic Consulting and one of the world's foremost experts on medical school admissions. For nearly 20 years, he and his team have helped thousands of students get into medical school using his exclusive approach.
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Appendix: List of medical schools in Canada
Below is a list of Canada’s 17 medical schools, divided into schools that accept non-contract international students and schools that don’t.
When viewing acceptance rates, keep in mind that these are overall acceptance rates, and that acceptance rates for in-province, out-of-province, and international applicants vary considerably. Further details on how each group tends to fare, such as how many seats in a given med school’s entering class are allotted to each, may be found on individual schools’ websites or in the AFMC’s guide to Canadian medical school admissions.
(Note: Global rankings are based on the Times Higher Education Best Universities for Medicine 2024 list, whereas national rankings are based on Maclean’s Canada’s Top Medical/Doctoral Schools 2024 list).
Medical schools that accept non-contract international students
Rank: 9th globally; 2nd nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: Not reported; rumored to be around 8.3%
Mean admission GPA: 3.93/4.00
First-year tuition:
Canadian resident: $23,090 CAD
International: $91,760 CAD
. Application requirements (through OMSAS):
Science and humanities prerequisites
Minimum GPA of 3.6/4.0
MCAT score with a minimum of 125 in each section (with an allowance of 124 in one section)
Two 250-word personal statements on specific questions
Autobiographical sketch of up to 32 activities + three 250-word explanations
3 reference letters
Modified Personal Interview
Rank: 36th globally; 4th nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 6.7%
Mean admission GPA: 3.88/4.00
First-year tuition:
Canadian resident: $25,129 CAD
International: $95,000 CAD
Application requirements (through OMSAS):
Minimum GPA of 3.0/4.0
CASPer
MCAT score with a minimum of 6 on the Verbal Reasoning section or 123 on the Critical Analysis and Reasoning section; other sections not considered
Autobiographical sketch
3 reference letters
MMI
Rank: 26th globally; 1st nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 7.5% (up to 2 spots allotted for international students)
Mean admission GPA: 3.89/4.00
First-year tuition:
In-province resident: $6,049.89 CAD
Out-of-province resident: $18,882.99 CAD
International: $59,778.81 CAD
Application requirements:
Science prerequisites
Does McGill University require Casper? - Yes
MCAT score is no longer required as of the 2024 admissions cycle. However, it is required if you wish to use U.S. government student loans.
CV and verifiers
MMI
Rank: 90th globally; 10th nationally (tie)
Language of instruction: French
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 16.6% (2 spots allotted for international students)
Mean admission GPA: Not published
First-year tuition:
In-province resident: $4,000 CAD
Out-of-province resident: $12,280 CAD
International: $30,100 CAD
Application requirements:
Proof of French proficiency
Science and humanities prerequisites
Does the University of Montréal require Casper? - Yes
Modified MMI (joint with Laval and Sherbrooke)
Rank: 201st–250th globally; 9th nationally (tie)
Language of instruction: French
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 24%
Mean admission GPA: Not published
First-year tuition:
In-province resident: $4,157 CAD
Out-of-province resident: $12,975 CAD
International: $34,561 CAD
Application requirements:
Proof of French proficiency
Science and humanities prerequisites
CASPer
Modified MMI (joint with Montréal and Sherbrooke)
Rank: 126th–150th globally; 5th nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics
Acceptance rate: 4.1% (up to 5 spots allotted for international students)
Mean admission GPA: Not published
First-year tuition:
Canadian resident: $24,958 CAD
International: $88,181 CAD
Application requirements (through OMSAS):
MCAT score
CASPer
Autobiographical sketch
3 reference letters
MMI + panel interview
Rank: Unranked globally; 13th nationally
Language of instruction: French
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 12.5%
Mean admission GPA: Not published
First-year tuition:
In-province resident: $4,767 CAD
Out-of-province resident: $12,285 CAD
International: $28,615 CAD
Application requirements:
Proof of French proficiency
Science and humanities prerequisites
CASPer
Modified MMI (joint with Laval and Montréal)
Medical schools that don’t accept non-contract international students
University of British Columbia
Rank: 34th globally; 3rd nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 12.8%
Mean admission GPA: 0.88/1.00
First-year tuition: $19,995.42 CAD
Application requirements:
Minimum GPA of 0.75/1.00 for in-province applicants or 0.85/1.00 for out-of-province applicants
English coursework requirement
MCAT score with a minimum of 124 in each section
Does UBC require the Casper test? - No
List of extracurricular activities with brief descriptions and verifiers
MMI
3 reference letters after interview stage
Rank: 100th globally; 5th nationally
Language of instruction: English and French
Admission statistics
Acceptance rate: 5.7%
Mean admission GPA: Not published
First-year tuition: $25,487 CAD
Application requirements (through OMSAS):
Minimum GPA of 3.5/4.0
Science prerequisites
Does the University of Ottowa require Casper? - Yes
Autobiographical sketch
Panel interview
Rank: 73rd globally; 6th nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 12.4%
Mean admission GPA: 3.81/4.00
First-year tuition: $15,877.20 CAD
Application requirements:
Minimum GPA of 3.3/4.0 for in-province applicant or 3.5/4.0 for out-of-province applicants
MCAT score with a minimum of 124 in each section; out-of-province applicants must score 128+ in CARS
Does the University of Alberta require Casper? - Yes
List of extracurricular activities with brief descriptions and verifiers
Two reference letters
MMI + panel interview
Rank: 101st–125th globally; 7th nationally (tie)
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 15%
Mean admission GPA: 3.87/4.00
First-year tuition: $17,685 CAD
Application requirements:
Minimum GPA of 3.2/4.0 for in-province applicants or 3.8/4.0 for out-of-province applicants
MCAT score with a minimum of 128 in the CARS section for non-Albertans
Brief description of top 10 past extracurricular experiences
3 letters of reference
MMI
Rank: 126th–150th globally; 12th nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 10.5%
Mean admission GPA: 3.7/4.0
First-year tuition: $23,986 CAD (In-Province) $26,444.00 CAD (Out-of-Province)
Application requirements (through OMSAS):
MCAT score
Autobiographical sketch
3 reference letters
Panel interview
Rank: 201st–250th globally; 7th nationally (tie)
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 11.1%
Mean admission GPA: 3.86/4.00
First-year tuition: $24,575 CAD
Application requirements:
Minimum GPA of 3.3/4.0 for Maritime residents or 3.7/4.0 for non-Maritime residents
MCAT score with a minimum of 123 in all sections (minimum total score depends on GPA)
Does Dalhousie require Casper? – Yes
Five 250-word short essays + 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)
3 reference letters
MMI
Rank: 201st–250th globally; 13th nationally
Language of instruction: English or French
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 16.1%
Mean admission GPA: 4.18/4.50
First-year tuition: $12,200 CAD
Application requirements:
Minimum GPA of 3.3/4.5 (applicants with GPAs lower than 3.94/4.50 are discouraged from applying)
MCAT score (applicants with scores lower than 515 are discouraged from applying)
CASPer
MMI
Reference letters after interview stage
Memorial University of Newfoundland
Rank: 501st–600th globally; 19th nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 14.9%
Mean GPA: 3.85/4.00
First-year tuition: $14,250 CAD
Application requirements (through CaRMS):
MCAT score
CASPer
2 letters of reference
MMI + panel interview
(Note: While Memorial University previously accepted international students, they no longer do as of June 1, 2021.)
Rank: 401st–500th globally; 15th nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 23.6%
Mean admission GPA: 0.88/1.00
First-year tuition: $20,246 CAD
Application requirements:
Minimum GPA of 0.75/1.00 for in-province applicants or 0.85/1.00 for out-of-province applicants
MCAT score with a minimum score of 492 (122–123 section score minimums)
Does the University of Saskatchewan require Casper? – Yes
3 reference letters
MMI
Northern Ontario School of Medicine
Rank: Unranked globally; unranked nationally
Language of instruction: English
Admission statistics:
Acceptance rate: 3.7%
Mean admission GPA: 3.8/4.0
First-year tuition: $23,247.00 CAD
Application requirements (through OMSAS):
Minimum GPA of 3.0/4.0
Autobiographical sketch
Short essay responses to 4 supplementary questions
3 reference letters
MMI
