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From MyMCAT

Contents 1 Introduction 2 Academics 3 Reference Letters 4 The MCAT

Introduction

Applying to medicine is not a simple and straightforward journey. It also doesn't involve just the MCAT. In Canada, universities are looking for excellence in academics, extracurriculars, references, the mcat, and interviewing. For your best chance of success, many of these traits require years to acquire. Each university will emphasize different aspects of these five areas so you should check out the universities you are interested immediately to see where your focus should be placed.

Academics

While many universities emphasize that grades are everything, it is often necessary to have an excellent academic standing to get an interview, and only once this interview hurdle is passed do the grades weigh less in the "admission formula".

Often medical schools consider a combination of your GPA in the necessary prerequisite courses, your last 2 years of courses, and your complete university transcript. Each school will weigh these requirements differently, but regardless, one should consider that doing better in your academic years will make the other, often more subjective traits, less important. Furthermore, a strong foundation in your prerequisites will make the MCAT much easier.

Reference Letters

As an addition to medical school interviews, most schools also require a minimum of two (usually three) reference letters. Often these references must also come from different areas of life such as academic, volunteer, and community members. Thus it is essential that throughout your journey into medicine, you remember to make an impression and ask those people who think highly of you for references.

The MCAT

Many schools have recently been reducing the weight of the MCAT in terms of medical school admissions as it has been shown to not provide any correlation to those "softer" skills that the ideal physician should have. That being said however, the MCAT is still a requirement at most schools (Quebec schools excluded) and doing better on the MCAT will provide a stronger application. Furthermore, some schools