Admission requirements US & Canada

GPA | MCAT | Personal statement | Extracurricular Activities and Volunteer Work

Medical School US & Canada Links

GPA and MCAT requirements in Canada

With the increasing number of applicants each year, Canadian medical schools weigh the MCAT and GPA heavily, among other important qualities they consider in their selection process. Several Canadian schools even set competitive cutoffs each year to limit the number of applications they review in detail. The average GPA in 2010 for entering students at Canadian medical schools ranged from 3.66 to 3.88, and the average MCAT scores ranged from 28 to 33.

Here is a list of the GPA and MCAT averages of some medical schools in Canada. The full list can be found in the MSAG Worldwide 2013-2014 guidebook.

GPA and MCAT requirements at selected medical schools in Canada in Recent years
Medical School	Average GPA	Average MCAT
University of Alberta	3.86	32.94Q
University of British Columbia	84.98%	31.8Q
McMaster University	3.82	10.86 (VR only)
University of Toronto	3.88	32Q
Dalhousie University	3.8	29

GPA and MCAT requirements in the US

Medical schools in the US usually require applicants to complete prerequisite courses before applying, but unlike European medical schools, there is no preference given to students with scientific degrees. All undergraduate majors are accepted equally provided the prerequisite requirements are met, and the applicant has shown academic endeavor in their studies. A study at Harvard Medical School found that students are successful in medical school regardless of their undergraduate major, as long as they have adequate preparation in sciences.

Average GPA and MCAT requirements at selected US medical schools in 2010
Medical School	Average GPA	Average MCAT
Dartmouth Medical School	3.83	34
Harvard Medical School	3.88	36
University of Hawaii, John A. Burns	3.68	32
George Washington University SOM	3.71	30
Yale University	3.86	37

Although the averages may give some insight, there is a large range of accepted scores. For example, the University of Texas Medical School at Southwestern reported an average entering GPA of 3.81 and MCAT of 33.1, however, the MCAT scores of accepted students ranged from 25-40, and the GPAs of accepted students ranged from 3.1 to 4.

Extracurricular Activities and Volunteer Work

All Canadian and US medical schools expect applicants to have taken a significant commitment to volunteering and gaining healthcare experience. In Canada in 2007, medical schools who reported the percentages of applicants having gained specific extracurricular experiences reported that 75-95% of matriculants had done volunteer work, approximately 60% had healthcare related experience and approximately 50% of matriculants had done research. Note that to our knowledge, this information is no longer disclosed. However, with an increasing competition, we can expect that these percentages have gone up slightly since. Research experience can also go a long way, and this is particularly true in many medical programs in the US.

Personal Statement Requirements

While many Canadian schools have stopped requiring personal statements in the last few years (for example, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Calgary have removed their personal statement requirements), many schools in Canada have other ways of assessing applicants' personal attributes. In many cases an autobiographical sketch is used, in which applicants list their awards and activities in a standardized form, which is scored based on depth and breadth of experience. McMaster University is also introducing a 90-minute online personal characteristics assessment this year. These sections in the applications are weighted very heavily, and can make up between 25% and 45% of of the pre-interview ranking score at some medical schools.

In the US, each medical school have a different secondary application. Most of them include several essays, one of them often being a personal statement. Many schools also have a question which allow to write anything else that you want to say that has not come up elsewhere in your application.

Overall, medical schools are not ranking you based on the number of volunteer or healthcare related experience you have done, you are marked on the attributes that you can bring accross in your essays such as integrity, leadership, reliability, competence, good communitor, etc.

The MCAT

Learn more about the Basics of the MCAT including test structure, scoring and costs: Introduction to the MCAT

More Information

You may browse our website or click on the links below to find out more about the following:

You can also find information on medical school application at home and abroad:

Irish medical courses: Irish medical schools information
Australian medical courses in Enlgish: Australian medical schools information
Polish medical courses in English: Polish medical schools information
Other Estern European medical courses in English: Eastern European medical schools information
Caribbean medical programs in English: Caribbean Medical schools information
American medical schools: American medical schools information

UK medical courses for students who have an undergraduate degree: Graduate Entry Medicine UK
UK medical courses for students finishing secondary school: Medicine for undergraduate applicants UK

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