Applying to Canadian Med Schools with low MCAT score?

[medanon19]

Hello I am a Canadian hoping to apply to a Canadian med school. I have a previous BSc pharm degree and an overall average of 82% in all of my university coursework. I have written the MCAT four times and my highest overall score is 506 (not great, I know). My problem is, with my current stats, it is very difficult to apply to a Canadian med school since most of the universities require each MCAT section to be over a minimum of 124 and unfortunately, I am at the borderline of 123 for my CARs section in my MCAT.

I'm wondering if anyone is in a similar boat and if anyone knows of any Canadian universities that accept students based on their overall MCAT instead of a minimum of each section? Suggestions anyone?

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[PrincetonReviewPreMed]

Hi!

You appear to have a strong background in the sciences and the only aspect holding you back is CARS. Unfortunately when it comes to Canadian schools, their outlined MCAT section minimums are firm, and depending on the school and your province of residence, these minimums may or may not be in your favour. As you may already know, nearly all schools use 124 as the hard minimum for all their sections. Canadian schools are known for their obsession with CARS.

However, there are a handful of schools in Canada that completely disregard the MCAT, and provided you are qualified and eligible on the other fronts, they are possible options for you. In terms of English MD programs that could work for you:

- University of Ottawa does not require it, only CASPer

- McGill University does require it, but looks at the entire score and does not outline a minimum section score. According to their criteria however a 508+ would be considered competitive. If you are not a Québec resident then you’ll have a much tougher time as well due to the limited out-of-province seats.

- McMaster is technically also possible with a 123 minimum, however since they generally only focus on the CARS component of your MCAT score you will not be considered competitive and will have to stand out to the school in other ways.

If you do happen to be a Québec resident then all the French MD program options open up for you. These schools do not require the MCAT at all but basically only accept Québec residents:

- University of Laval

- University of Montréal

- University of Sherbrooke (they do actually accept just a few non-Québec residents as well)

Lastly, there are options you can also look into outside of Canada (US, Australia, UK, etc), but that’s another topic.

Hope that helps!

Tim Dinh

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Course Instructor

Princeton Review