McMaster Univ

[medical22]

I live in the States and am interested in applying to McMaster University. One of the reasons i'm interested is because I didn't do too well on my MCATs and that is the only negative thing (I have a good GPA, extracurriculars, etc.) and this Univ does not require MCAT scores. How competitive is it? Do they accept students from the States? I know that schools in Ontario have a centralized application, but if I'm only applying to one school in Ontario, do I still have to go through OMSAS?

Thanks.

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[warpath]

Hi,
I did my Undergrad at Mac. It is an extremely competitive school and they take only 8 international students. They prefer older students with diverse life experiences. There interveiw process is also rigorous (involving group discussions where they assess your interactions with members of your group). They screen thoroughly because their curriculum is unlike any other school. Mac was the first medical school to start problem-based learning. As such, they take it to the extreme. They have tutorial groups instead of lectures. No exams, no grades. Instead their evaluation involves personal narratives on each student. About applying through OMSAS, I'm not sure. For more information, visit http://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/

Uchehttp://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/

 

[Thewonderer]

I saw the McMaster website. Up to 10 international students a year. That's pretty interesting.

Fighting for those 10 spots is probably not that bad since most people don't know about. Most Americans do not even know that Canadian med schools and American med schools are accreditted by the same body, Liason Committee on Medical Education. That is made pretty clear in the offical med school guide book published by AAMC. So graduating from a Canadian school does not make one FMG or IMG (as opposed to Australian, Irish or English med school graduates).

Well, I guess I will add McMaster to my recommendation list that already includes McGill and MUN.

 

[GCS:3]

I almost applied to McMaster as well. The application was too much work, so I decided against it. I'm kind of glad I did, because I hear their interviews are messed up (work as a group while being watched through a 2 way mirror). Also, the word here at McGill is that their students don't do so well on the boards. Not enough classroom time maybe.

 

[Thewonderer]

Originally posted by GCS:3
I almost applied to McMaster as well. The application was too much work, so I decided against it. I'm kind of glad I did, because I hear their interviews are messed up (work as a group while being watched through a 2 way mirror). Also, the word here at McGill is that their students don't do so well on the boards. Not enough classroom time maybe.

Maybe it is Mac's PBL system responsible for the somewhat lower board score. But Mac also does not require MCAT and like non-traditional applicants. That might be a very good fit for some of the people on this board who are looking into international med or US DO schools (they also like older applicants).

 

[panacea]

I can confirm the interviews are pretty strange because I had one there. Neat about the school is it goes through-out the year (no summer break) and you finish in three years as opposed to the typical four. I can also confirm that they like non-traditional applicants. A friend of mine that did history got in there. For some reason or another the school likes females more than males. The entering class is always close to 2:1 females to males.
The following show what I mean:
http://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/stats_2003.pdf
http://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/stats_2004.PDF

There is a wealth of information on the Canadian Premed Forms. It is here --> http://pub125.ezboard.com/bpremed101 <-- but unfortunately only partially functional at the moment.

You may also want to look at the Univ. of Toronto if you have a very good GPA. They don't care about the MCAT so long as you make the cut-offs and those cut-offs aren't that high (9s in all the numerical sections, N in the writing sample).
The info is here --> http://www.ouac.on.ca/omsas/pdf/b_omsas_e.pdf <--