2024 Medical School Admission Statistics
Now that the Ontario Medical School Application Service (OMSAS) has opened, it’s officially medical school application season!
By now, you should have already identified which Canadian medical schools you’ll be applying to based on their entry requirements and your profile. For instance, do you meet medical programs’ minimum GPA and MCAT cutoffs? Do you meet their residency and/or geographical requirements? Which schools are you considered a competitive applicant?
While the answer to this last question isn’t always cut and dry, and while it shouldn’t be the sole determiner of which schools you apply to, it’s a good starting point. Just remember that sometimes an applicant with average grades can still stand out if they use the right strategy and tell their story authentically and compellingly.
To refresh your memory on the entry stats and the average GPA and MCAT scores for each Canadian medical school, we’ve tabulated the information below. Armed with this information, you can develop a strategy that positions you as an ideal candidate.
Admissions Statistics
Ontario Schools
Non-Ontario Schools
Your Action Plan
Now that you're equipped with the cutoff scores for each medical school, take a moment to assess your GPA. Are your grades competitive according to the average scores listed above? If not, do you have a justifiable reason? Some medical schools give you the opportunity to explain extenuating circumstances that may have affected your academic performance. This approach is especially beneficial if your GPA has seen a notable improvement throughout your degree. This upward trajectory demonstrates to admissions committees your adaptability and capacity for growth.
The other application components, such as the Autobiographical Sketch (ABS) and essay questions, require you to have a good understanding of each school’s mission, philosophy, and values. You can find this information on each school’s official websites. We also recommend exploring blogs that many schools offer, such as Western University's Thrive Online and Dalhousie's Ask A Med Student Facebook page. These resources can provide firsthand insights into what medical schools value in applicants and how they approach the application process.
We also recommend familiarizing yourself with the seven roles under the CanMEDS Framework, and identifying how you and your experiences align with each one. These experiences could be employment, volunteer or research opportunities, or even anecdotes from your personal life that demonstrate the ways in which you possess these qualities.
Once you’ve completed these steps, create an outline for your ABS and each essay question. Consider these questions as you write:
Which of your experiences can you highlight in each of your responses?
Do these experiences align with the school’s values and with at least one of the CanMEDS roles?
Do these experiences adequately demonstrate your strengths? If not, do they demonstrate a capacity for growth?
Are you answering the question or are you taking too much liberty and discussing irrelevant details?
Is your outline looking like a grocery list or have you managed to tell a story? If it’s looking like a grocery list, how can you craft a narrative?
From here, the final step is to write your essays! Ensure you have enough time before your application deadline for others to review and edit your work. They can detect spelling or grammatical errors you might have missed and help improve the structure of your essay or suggest alternative ways to express your points.
***
Looking for support on your medical school application journey? Looking for support with your medical school application journey? Check out our application support and interview preparation services! We can even help you create a long-term plan that includes the experiences and skill development opportunities that will build your profile early on.
With industry experts on our team and 20+ years of experience, we’re ready to create a unique strategy that will give you the greatest chance of success and help you develop the confidence necessary to tackle the application process.
Good luck! The I Got In team is rooting for you.
