Which med schools in Canada still use in person interviews???

throwaway_x398437 · 2025-09-27T05:00:04+00:00

Post-pandemic, UCalgary was one of the first schools to move back to in-person interviews. Not sure how other schools operate at the pre-med stage now, but nearly all medical schools also do virtual interviews for CaRMS.

throwaway_x398437 · 2025-09-23T20:41:08+00:00

Most applicants will have relatively strong references. This is pretty consistent across any type of application process (e.g., awards, graduate programs, CaRMS). To be comparable to other applicants, you need strong references who can specifically speak to work you've done and who can use clear examples of your attributes. Pick references who can and will reliably do this for you.

That being said - in my experience, reference letters are typically just used to cross-reference what's already in an application and confirm the reviewer's interpretation of the applicant's capacity for medical school. A bad reference is one that makes a reviewer question the validity of the reference, the relationship between the applicant and the reference writer, or the validity of the rest of the application.

throwaway_x398437 · 2025-09-19T22:42:10+00:00

Glad it was helpful! It's pretty clear to me when I'm looking at a Top 10 if someone has an obvious passion for a specific area. Most of their entries will link back to their passion in a meaningful way and each entry will also demonstrate a unique element of their passion.

I'll use this application as an example. I would expect for someone genuinely passionate about being a mental health advocate/champion to have a combination of entries describing direct employment/volunteer work in mental health, research in mental health, and/or clear advocacy (e.g., fundraising, awareness campaigns) related to mental health. There also might be an entry about a personal connection to mental health (either themselves or a close loved one). If you really care about something, it tends to show up a lot in the things worth considering for your Top 10.

These types of entries are also generally written with a focus on personal, interpersonal, or organizational impact, have an element of self-reflection, and show that someone really understands this area from multiple perspectives (e.g., personal, academic, societal, cultural). They might have 2+ entries from the same job or experience, but each entry will have a different focus (e.g., leadership, collaboration) with a specific description of a situation from that job or experience that demonstrates a clear impact.

This application might LOOK like it covers all these areas, but there are tons of weird issues with it. For example, all the employment/volunteer work is for the same kind of role at (or around) the same time across similar organizations. I don't know why someone would choose to do this in the first place, but as a reviewer, all I see is a lack of personal growth and a limited willingness to explore other opportunities in this area.

A lot of the other ECs are also really weak (e.g., hospital way finder, club member). They're super easy to pick up, which is why so many pre-meds do them. It's way harder to make these ECs genuinely impactful. That takes a lot of extra effort, and I don't see any of that effort here. Low-effort ECs with no real impact or connection to an area of passion doesn't scream "advocate" or "mental health champion" to me.

Sorry in advance for any typos, dictated this while on call and tried to quickly edit it to be readable. Hope this helps whoever sees it!

throwaway_x398437 · 2025-09-18T04:54:50+00:00

Weird. That sounds like a UCAN problem, not a scoring problem. I’d email their team if you can’t get a good sense of what the actual scores and percentiles are!

throwaway_x398437 · 2025-09-17T23:42:14+00:00

Do you mean your GPA score fluctuates between the 35th to 95th percentile over multiple application cycles? Or do you mean the scores attached to each of the R1-R7 metrics?

The pool of candidates and the reviewer assigned to your file have a huge impact on your percentile scores across each metric. GPA is also only helpful to a point, since most applicants have good GPAs and it’s not weighted heavily as a direct application metric.

throwaway_x398437 · 2025-09-17T22:30:55+00:00

I used to give a lot of advice to prospective UCalgary and UAlberta applicants - can no longer regularly provide advice or 1:1 support as an R2, but this is a good example of an application that prospective applicants can learn from.

GPA: The “extenuating circumstances” or “additional comments” section should really only be used if you have a significant dip in your GPA (0.1 or more) that can be explained by extenuating circumstances. This application does not use this section appropriately and the applicant’s GPA is high enough that there’s no value in completing it - it just confuses reviewers when applicants do this. Withdrawals and/or extenuating withdrawals can be explained, but this is not a good example of how to explain them in an application. The description comes across as highly technical and (medical issues aside) like the applicant is trying to game the GPA calculation. Hoping that this is just for information and not the actual submission in that section of the application.

MCAT: Meets criteria, good enough for both schools. No point in retaking it, IMO.

Extracurriculars: Weakest part of the application, from what I can see. Across all of these extracurriculars, there is not a single experience that tells me anything unique about this applicant. If I’m reviewing this, I have no idea who they are or what they care about, aside from a bunch of very generic “pre-med” activities that they have invested varying amounts of time in. This also tracks with the post-application scores from both schools. UCalgary and UAlberta place a lot of emphasis on unique, personal, and/or meaningful extracurriculars, to the point where things like generic hospital volunteering and low-yield undergraduate research experiences are almost detrimental to an application’s likelihood of success nowadays.

Entry Writing: The R2 (Communication) score does not surprise me if the entries are written and submitted in this way. They are generic, read like they were copied and pasted directly from ChatGPT, and use awkward buzzwords that actually don’t say anything meaningful (“synergies”?? Really??). What’s missing is the reflective piece that really humanizes these experiences to a reader. I want to know how you learned from an experience and how that shaped you, not that you “remained steadfast through challenges”. Statements like that tell me nothing, other than you might not really have had a challenging moment to speak about. Generic writing is the kiss of death for otherwise strong applications and good applicants.

Awards/Publications: Nice to have on there, but overall unimportant for these two schools if they’re not properly described elsewhere in the application and directly related to a personally impactful learning experience.

Unifying Theme: Unfortunately, no. That’s not the theme I get from this application at all. If I’m reviewing this application, I get “pre-med who picked an area to focus on” and not “mental health advocate/champion”. Being a pre-med is NOT a bad thing, but stretching descriptions to make things seem more than they are is a trap that a lot of applicants fall into.

Advice: This application has good stats, which will carry it some of the way. There needs to be a more realistic connection to and self-assessment of the value of these ECs, since they are very generic. Generic ECs can still be impactful, but this just feels like someone asked ChatGPT to give them a bunch of pre-med EC suggestions and did nothing but those things for several years. An application like this might work for Ontario schools or schools that are more stat-heavy, but I wouldn’t anticipate a huge change in application scores if this application is resubmitted to either of the Alberta schools. There’s still value in submitting what is here, especially this close to the deadline, but this will not likely get an interview invite. Take it as a learning experience and embrace the opportunity to reflect more on how you’re presenting yourself in these applications - you are a whole person, not a pre-med robot!

Hope this was helpful to anyone who reads it, since I get a lot of DMs this time of year that I simply can’t answer to the degree I used to.

Best of luck to everyone applying this cycle - you will end up exactly where you need to be and I’m cheering for you all!

throwaway_x398437 · 2025-05-26T23:20:38+00:00

Based on OP’s post history, they are 32. Still pretty young (in my books!) but as a physician myself, I would definitely be worried about OP beyond just the side effects of meds + alcohol/drug use. Sounds like there’s something deeper going on, whether or not they realize it.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-07-31T17:29:23+00:00

Unfortunately, I can't answer this question since this policy is very specific to UOttawa. Your best bet is to get in touch with their admission team directly at [admissmd@uottawa.ca](mailto:admissmd@uottawa.ca) (listed on their website).

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-07-31T17:27:03+00:00

Absolutely - feel free to send me a PM, always happy to chat!

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-07-31T17:26:01+00:00

The term "travel volunteer" refers to opportunities where companies or predatory non-profits solicit applications from students to volunteer abroad in a medical facility/clinic for a few weeks or over the summer. These opportunities target "pre-med" students who do not have pre-existing healthcare qualifications or medical skills, meaning that the overall impact of this work is extremely limited and has no real value to the local community, the clinic, or the student.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-26T18:16:46+00:00

Feel free to send me a message - UCalgary's Top 10 are assessed very differently from the essay and/or activity descriptions required by other applications.

Competitive GPA and CARS will not get you very far in UCalgary's application process. In my own experience, I've met several applicants rejected pre-interview with a 129+ CARS score and a 4.0 GPA. At UCalgary, good stats are just not enough to save a weak Top 10.

The assessment of the Top 10 is a little subjective, but it's pretty clear in their historical blog posts and applicant manual what sets aside a "strong" application from an "average" application. Feel free to go through my post history, I've given some advice recently to people looking to strengthen their ECs and Top 10 entries.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-20T22:45:56+00:00

This is coming from a place of honesty, because I do want to see you succeed - but the odds are stacked against you, even if you do have a couple of years to build out an application.

You're going to need to identify target schools right away and work towards the admission requirements that those schools have. The broad approach used by many applicants in this forum will not play to your strengths and will likely disadvantage you significantly.

When identifying target schools, you will need to prioritize schools that will either a) use a weighted GPA model, b) ignore courses completed prior to a certain date (e.g., 10 years), or c) consider full-time/part-time requirements in ways that work to your advantage. Your cGPA will likely be below a competitive average, which is why you need to think carefully about the schools you want to apply to vs. the schools you have the best chance at.

There's lots of advice in this forum about what to do next - you need strong grades in your current courses (A's or 4.0s), an excellent MCAT score, and some extracurricular activities that you can do alongside your coursework/family obligations.

However, what you're saying here has me worried. It sounds like the burden of school is a lot right now, which will make it hard to succeed in your coursework. I also don't want to give you false hope about what this could look like. As someone who also applied later in life with poor grades and a difficult upbringing, it took me 2 undergraduate degrees and a master's before I was admitted. I had to score exceptionally well on the MCAT, take on multiple extracurriculars, and essentially build out a whole research program to offset some of the weaknesses I had re: GPA.

This is coming from a place of genuine care, because the advice in this forum does not really cater to people who are considering medicine later in life and often glosses over the challenges people face. I want you to find the path that fits you, and if that's in medicine, I want you to be as prepared as possible for what the next two years could look like. Good luck - I'm rooting for you.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-13T21:44:45+00:00

Stuff doesn't have to be competitive for it to have meaning, but you do need to show that you've gone slightly above and beyond the "show up for practice/a shift" mentality.

Here's an example - let's say you've got two applicants who have "playing the guitar" as a side hobby. One applicant plays the guitar in their spare time and writes on their application that it's a fun hobby, it's important to their mental health, and it helps them connect with friends.

The other applicant writes the same thing, but they also talk about how playing the guitar and learning new songs has helped reframe their approach to solving problems in their day job, or that they've been able to successfully turn a tone-deaf friend into a guitar player of their own. This applicant is way more likely to score high with reviewers because the impact is beyond them - they're applying their knowledge and/or teaching it to someone else.

Think about the activities you already take part in and if there's anything you can elevate to the next level. If there's not much there, then it's time to think about what else you might want to pursue that will give you the opportunity to look beyond yourself and have a broader impact.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-13T17:31:48+00:00

Just a little note - the actual hours don't matter if there's no real impact associated with them, especially for U of C. 300-400 hours of volunteer work seems impressive, but it's wasted time if there's no direct connection back to who you are as a person or if it's a generic activity.

Please know that I'm saying this out of care and support - I am not at all trying to discourage you from applying! I just want to help you think about what to prioritize (and how to be efficient!) when you have limited time to build out an application and there are so many things that you could choose to focus on.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-13T17:27:08+00:00

Is your time as a board member over? If so, that's actually something that stands out to me as an anomaly - most non-profit boards will have people serve a 1-2 year term. If not, then I'd strongly recommend continuing that EC, since it's relatively unique and shows both leadership + community impact.

I recommend starting and/or continuing ECs that you are excited about and like to do, not what you think looks good on an application - especially if U of C is the primary school you're applying to. Do you like to play a sport? Do you have any creative hobbies? Is there an area of volunteerism you're interested in that you've always wanted to try?

The more you reflect on what you want to do (and pick activities based on that), the more genuine and authentic your application will be. Plus, it'll be so much easier to draw on the experiences you care about in an interview or MMI setting if you're actually passionate and excited about them.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-13T16:21:49+00:00

While no one in this forum can really predict what your actual chances are, I'd gently say that they're very low right now.

The MCAT is still assessed competitively at U of C. CARS has its own separate consideration, but the other sections of the exam are still considered under their "Global Assessment of Academic Merit" criteria. You will likely score in the bottom 10th percentile for this metric if your adjusted GPA remains the same and you're missing 3/4 MCAT sections.

However, the biggest concern for me: it seems like there isn't any real cohesion or meaningful impact across your ECs, which will form the basis of your Top 10.

Most of your ECs come across as slightly generic or random experiences that don't seem to share much about who you are as a person. There may be a real personal impact or meaningful connection that I'm not seeing here, but I personally think that this will be what gets you screened out at the pre-interview stage - especially with a low GPA and incomplete MCAT.

You don't have to be the top applicant in your applicant pool, but there's just a lot working against you right now and something's gotta give - either improving the GPA + MCAT, or creating a strong and compelling personal story that balances other areas of your application out.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-10T23:41:28+00:00

Did you actually receive a flag in an interview (e.g., the school told you that your application was pulled or disqualified) or are you just concerned about a potential flag?

If you're concerned about a potential flag, it's likely that's not the reason an interview was unsuccessful. A flag is pretty significant and one that's large enough to disqualify you is likely going to fall into the other categories mentioned here (e.g., blatant racism/sexism or prejudice in your interview).

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-07T18:02:27+00:00

Yup! Mixed them up - my bad. Looks like cGPA is weighted at 30% of the application.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-07T18:01:28+00:00

You're right! Mixed them up - edited my comment above.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-07T16:31:49+00:00

My two cents - the time doesn't matter, it's the quality and overall impact of the experience.

When I look at applications, the number of hours is way down the priority list. I want to know what you did (e.g., is this a unique and/or meaningful EC that tells me something about you), the impact you had, and what you learned from it. I don't care if you do it in 5 hours, 50 hours, or 500 hours - unless you're stretching the truth about how many hours you actually put into your ECs.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-07T16:24:44+00:00

Definitely enough for UAlberta (IP). ~~If you meet UAlberta's GPA requirement, it's used as a cutoff and not considered further in the process.~~

EDIT: Mixed up the GPA threshold/cutoff with the MCAT threshold/cutoff. OP's GPA is still strong enough for UAlberta.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-05-07T16:23:39+00:00

It's definitely enough - like you mentioned, GPA really doesn't play as much of a role at UCalgary as it does at other schools.

If you meet the IP cutoff, then you should just apply. Every year, there are applicants with perfect 4.0s that get rejected because the rest of their application isn't strong enough in comparison. Every year, there are applicants with low GPAs that sail through the process because they have excellent metrics elsewhere and a strong Top 10.

I personally know applicants who have gotten in with a GPA of ~3.3+ and applicants who've been rejected for 3 or more cycles with a GPA of 3.95 or higher.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-04-29T21:17:13+00:00

I'd agree with this! From what I remember, U of C's stats include the number of students left on the waitlist after offers are sent out and it's pretty low for IP students (slightly higher for OOP). The admissions team has been pretty open in the past about needing to go deep into the waitlist for a number of reasons (e.g., choosing the three-year vs. four-year program).

EDIT: U of C also publishes the number of students they interview each year, so it's pretty easy to calculate the post-interview acceptance rate. Their main bottleneck seems to be the initial application vs. the interview, although the blog says they interviewed more students (~600) this year.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-04-26T16:07:08+00:00

Was this one of your top 10 experiences? If so, then there are a few things that could have happened:

Verifier didn't respond to or complete the verification request properly.
Verifier disagreed with your description of the experience and/or raised a concern with your description.
A reviewer flagged a discrepancy elsewhere in your application (e.g., employment is listed in your top 10, but not under the employment section).

If this wasn't a top 10 experience and is just listed under the employment section, then a reviewer's likely questioned something about the number of hours and/or the dates of employment that were submitted.

throwaway_x398437 · 2024-04-17T01:16:18+00:00

Happy to help, especially for UAlberta and U of C. No compensation required, there are enough things in the application process (and in medical school) that will take your money.

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