McGill University

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Originally posted by ramz
Lets see...thoughts about McGill medicine anyone???

Theyre a Canadian school that accepts 100% Canadians, right?
 
No, they accept out-of-province and americans, too...an American buddy of mine is going to school there, and loves it.
 
McGill accepts more Americans than they do out-of-province Canadians... They like pretending that they are an American school 🙂
 
Stellar school. My roommate goes there and loves it. Systems based, Montreal rocks and it is crazy cheap in Canada right now. Good luck getting in.
 
From what I've heard McGill ranks very highly amoung the top medical schools in the world. Montreal is a great city too. Yah, unfortunatly they tend to favour americans (about 25 seats per year) than OOP canadians (8 seats per year). Talk about patriotism 🙁
 
McGill is an excellent medical school and yes, they do accept out of staters but there is a GPA cut off of 3.5 ( check that b/c I don't remember the right cut off).

Schools like Yale does consider McGill as Ivy so if you attend McGill undergrad, that will go in favor of you applying to schools in the U.S.

I know that Yale Med looks at attending McGill undergrad favorably.
 
McGill is probably not very strict with its cutoffs toward American applicants.

McGill's out of province seats are more like 5... They do tend to accept 8-9 OOP applicants to have a yield of 5.

There are many threads on this school already. Just do a quick search.😎
 
re: McGill being like an Ivy school ...

Canada is not like the US in that we have only public schools. As a result, the quality of education is VERY similar across Canada. We don't have this perception of some schools being the best, others being mediocre, and others being bad. A degree from anywhere is pretty much equivalent.

Of course, some people may argue with this, and some try to do rankings etc, and there are a few programs at particular schools that some think are better or worse. It's not as simple as everything being _identical_. But as compared to the US situation .... all our schools are the same. 🙂 For example, medical schools in Ontario don't care at all what undergraduate program you attend.

CanadaGirl
 
Although I've heard that a lot of people consider McGill (prob more in the states) ivy leauge, I agree with Canadagirl in that due to the fact our education is more regulated, it is pretty the same across the board (not dependent on the school you choose)
 
just because i don't want to start a new thread on the topic....

has anyone heard from McGill? They supposedly do American/International interviews in January, so I imagine invites are coming out soon. Don't forget to post 'em!!! 🙂
 
2 very quick questions on the subject:

1) I've heard that, because there are no canadian equivalents to the USMLE's that American students at McGill are somewhat on their own in studying for steps 1 and 2 and that as a result they don't do quite as well in comparison to their top 10 US allopathic peers; is that true / any thoughts?

2) I've heard that in Canada your given more independence in your clinical rotations but not as much supervision and that it can be rather daunting during required rotations; again, any thoughts on this?

TH
 
TH-

I'm gonna let someone who knows more about McGill answer even though I have some idea about the answers....i'm sure thewonderer or candybits will stumble across this thread soon enough. I just wanted to ask you if you applied this cycle to McGill...as far as i know, it's only me and MGoBlue13 otherwise.

good luck!
 
I know that even if they don't do as well on the USMLE, the residency matches for american students is awesome. So I wouldn't even worry about that. As far as clincial rotations go, I have no idea.

Thanks for the name drop, chopsuey. 😉
 
Originally posted by MGoBlue13
I know that even if they don't do as well on the USMLE, the residency matches for american students is awesome. So I wouldn't even worry about that. As far as clincial rotations go, I have no idea.

Thanks for the name drop, chopsuey. 😉


That was the answer I was going to give...

MGoBlue13...oops, was I not supposed to? I'm sorry!

...ack, i really want to know if I have an interview! you'd think after 6 months in this process, I'd have learned a little something about patience...😀
 
Thanks for the name drop for me too (!) chopsuey 😀

In Canada, the board is taken right before your graduate (i.e. the same timing as USMLE step II). However some schools (like U of Alberta) do give a comprehensive basic science exam before allowing students to move on to clinical rotations. I am not sure if McGill does the same thing. The American students there might not get time off "specifically" to study for the board, so you might have to plan well ahead in your 2nd year to time yourself (I believe that McGill operates on 1 1/2 years of basic science, followed by 1/2 year clinical exposure and then 2 full years of rotations; similar to what they have at Baylor).

Ultimately, it is how well your graduates do on residency application that count, not the USMLE step 1 scores.

As for being overwhelmed by clinical rotations, it depends on your med school. At my US med school, we were overwhelmed. I started off with surgery and had 1 single day off in 8 weeks (and that was, ironically, on labor day). The cardiac surgeon I followed did not care that I saw 3 CABG's already; he still wanted me to scrub into my 4th CABG case in that week). On the other hand, some other med schools do "baby" their students a bit more. They make sure students get 1 day off a week on surgery (or internal medicine) to rest and recuperate, and don't place too many patients on your shoulder. My friend at U of Alberta was on medicine, and unless he is on call, he gets both Sat and Sun off every week. So both types of med schools exist on both sides of the border. If rest and not being overwhelmed by patient load are important to you, then you might want to avoid the school that work you to death. But you should double check that carefully beforehand (and that's hard to find out unless you get to meet 3rd years while you interview). And even if you get to meet 3rd years, there are ALWAYS some who either want to appear real tough in front of you (so you can look at them in awe) or are workaholic and really feel that being in the hospital 110 hours a week is the best thing that has ever happend to them since their parents gave birth to them 😉
 
Originally posted by chopsuey
That was the answer I was going to give...

MGoBlue13...oops, was I not supposed to? I'm sorry!


Nah, it's allright. It's just great to finally get some recognition on this board, even if it is for being a french speaking canuck lover...😀

I'm stoked about hearing from McGill. We should be hearing soon. They seemed cool as **** when I called for my extension... only time will tell if we can become the friendly neighbors to the north.
 
i applied to mcgill this cycle. i hold dual citizenship for the US and Canada. who thinks i would be considered either an OOP or an American student. i was born in Montreal, but moved to the US when i was a baby. both my parents got their PhDs in experimental medicine from McGill. do they look at that at all? when should i expect to hear from them? thanks for any info anyone might have...
 
I have a feeling that as dual citizen, you will be treated as OOP instead of international. But please do call them up and check because I am not sure. This question should be pretty easy to answer for them.

When I applied, I vaguely remembered that they asked for proof of citizenship after you get accepted. This is vital since McGill is heavily supported by the province and if they don't do a good job differentiating between in-province v.s. out-of-province v.s. international, they will anger some people in the provincial government. So I don't think that you can declare being international and pay international tuition (but a heck lot easier to get in than as an out of province applicant). There is already enough tention between english-speaking McGill and its french-speaking home of Quebec.
 
interesting... i just talked to the admissions office at mcgill and the lady said that i would be considered a quebec resident because i was born in quebec. i didn't expect that at all. pretty interesting residency requirement. i've spent less than a year in my whole life in quebec.
 
bump...

does anyone from last year know when they offer interviews?

more importantly, anyone else applying to mcgill this cycle??
 
For internationals, interviews are in January. The invites will be sent out December 20th... which is tomorrow, heh.
 
when do they go out for residents?
 
Originally posted by derisivewords
For internationals, interviews are in January. The invites will be sent out December 20th... which is tomorrow, heh.


not to be ridiculously impatient, but do you know if they're on the website, sent by e-mail or snail mail???

(i know, i know....just humor me here 🙂 )
 
Originally posted by chopsuey
TH-

I'm gonna let someone who knows more about McGill answer even though I have some idea about the answers....i'm sure thewonderer or candybits will stumble across this thread soon enough. I just wanted to ask you if you applied this cycle to McGill...as far as i know, it's only me and MGoBlue13 otherwise.

good luck!

Nope, chop, not this time around, I'm just planning my strategy for next time around.... the head of my program really, really discourages students from applying to more than 20 schools so I have to make some hard decisions early to narrow the field down.... 🙂 ....McGill is definately one of my first choices... from a research and academic perspecitve their competitive with any US school, its in montreal, and it sooooooooo cheap!

good luck, chop, and tell me how it goes!!😉
 
I am also waiting to hear about an interview, but since it's Jan 5th and they only interview US on the 17th and 20th, I'm not too hopeful at the moment.🙁
 
i received my interview invite from mcgill about a week ago. it seems that they interview all international students on january 17th and january 20th. last year there was only about 90 students interviewed for 22 spots. does anyone else have an interview on the 20th? if so, see ya there!
 
Originally posted by whyadoctor?
i received my interview invite from mcgill about a week ago. it seems that they interview all international students on january 17th and january 20th. last year there was only about 90 students interviewed for 22 spots. does anyone else have an interview on the 20th? if so, see ya there!

90 for 22 spots is not that bad at all, considering that not all students who get accepted will matriculate! There are probably still some who are a little reserved about going to Canada for med school as opposed to staying in the US. Say, maybe they accept 40 to get 22 spots filled???
 
no clue how many acceptances actually go out. i just can't believe how cheap it would be for me to go there. since i was born in quebec i would get in-province tuition at 3,500 canadian dollars! that's just insanely cheap.
 
Have any other international applicants received interviews yet? I just wanted to confirm that I don't have any more hope at this school (McGill).
 
it seems that i should never have been considered an international student and am now considered a resident. they interview residents in march and send out invites in february. it's a lot easier to get in as a resident, so, this is good news. good thing i hadn't bought my plane ticket yet...
 
Originally posted by bokimbo
Have any other international applicants received interviews yet? I just wanted to confirm that I don't have any more hope at this school (McGill).

I would personally give them a call or an e-mail. It does not hurt. Just say that you have heard some international applicants getting an interview around end of Jan, and since you are very interested in McGill but you have not heard from them so far, does that mean you won't receive a similar invitation?

It would not hurt at this stage of the game. 😕
 
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