🇨🇦 Canadian Medical School Admissions
Canadian Medical School Admissions: Pools, MCAT Quirks & Real Data
Canadian medical school admissions is heavily segmented — provincial seat allocations, dedicated Indigenous pools, McMaster’s CARS-only screen, and Quebec’s CASPer-led process all matter. AdmitBase ingests AFMC CMES data plus per-school admission reports and shows cohort-filtered stats on every Canadian medical school page.
17
Canadian medical schools
AFMC CMES
Canonical data source
5
Indigenous-pool schools
1
CARS-only school (McMaster)
The 17 Canadian Medical Schools
Distribution by province. Six schools do not require the full MCAT — these admissions processes are built around CASPer, GPA, and (in Quebec) the cote de rendement collégial.
British Columbia
- University of British Columbia (UBC)MCAT required
Alberta
- University of AlbertaMCAT required
- University of Calgary (Cumming)MCAT required
Saskatchewan
- University of Saskatchewan (College of Medicine)MCAT required
Manitoba
- University of Manitoba (Max Rady College)MCAT required
Ontario
- University of Toronto (Temerty)MCAT required
- McMaster University (Michael G. DeGroote)CARS subscore only
- Western University (Schulich)MCAT required
- Queen's UniversityMCAT required
- University of OttawaMCAT not required
- NOSM UniversityMCAT not required
Quebec
- McGill UniversityMCAT required
- Université de MontréalMCAT not required (French-language)
- Université LavalMCAT not required (French-language)
- Université de SherbrookeMCAT not required (French-language)
Nova Scotia
- Dalhousie UniversityMCAT required
Newfoundland and Labrador
- Memorial University of NewfoundlandMCAT required
The In-Province Advantage
Approximate admission rates from AFMC’s 2024 Canadian Medical Education Statistics (Table F-14, residency-by-outcome breakdown). The asymmetry is the single most important fact about Canadian medical admissions.
| Home province | In-province acceptance | Out-of-province acceptance |
|---|---|---|
| British Columbia (UBC) | ~17% | ~3% |
| Alberta (UofA + UofC) | ~12% | ~2% |
| Saskatchewan | ~24% | ~3% |
| Manitoba | ~22% | <2% |
| Ontario (avg, English schools) | ~8% | ~6% |
| Quebec (French schools) | ~14% | <1% |
| Atlantic Canada (Dal + Memorial) | ~25% | ~3% |
Numbers approximate; computed from AFMC CMES 2024 per-school applicant and matriculant counts and individual school admission reports. AdmitBase’s school pages show the exact reported figures.
What AdmitBase Shows You
On every Canadian medical school page in your dashboard, a green panel sits under your main match score and surfaces stats filtered to your cohort:
Stats filtered to applicants matching your profile, drawn from this school’s most recent reported data.
Cohort size
96
Mean AGPA
4.21
Median MCAT
514
Median CARS
128
- Cohort split by residency (in-province / out-of-province / Indigenous / rural)
- Cohort split by gender, age band, and undergraduate discipline
- McMaster CARS-only screening surfaced as a special-case match
- Five Indigenous-pool schools (UBC, Manitoba, Alberta, Calgary, Saskatchewan) reported separately
- Quebec schools flagged when their CRC + CASPer process diverges from the standard MCAT/GPA model
- Annual data refresh from AFMC Canadian Medical Education Statistics
How the Match Score Treats Canadian Schools
Standard MCAT/GPA schools (UBC, Alberta, Calgary, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Toronto, Western, Queen’s, McGill, Dalhousie, Memorial) use the standard 50/50 MCAT-GPA weighting against admitted class percentiles.
McMaster — match score uses the MCAT CARS subscore only. The full MCAT total is ignored.
Ottawa, NOSM — no MCAT. Match score computed against GPA distribution alone.
Laval, Sherbrooke, Université de Montréal — CRC + CASPer + interview-led process. AdmitBase reports the GPA distribution and flags the comparison as approximate.
Canadian Premed Reading
Frequently Asked Questions
How many medical schools are there in Canada?▾
There are 17 LCME-accredited medical schools in Canada, distributed across every province except Prince Edward Island and the territories. Quebec has four (McGill, Laval, Sherbrooke, Université de Montréal). Ontario has six (Toronto, McMaster, Western, Queen's, Ottawa, NOSM). The remaining seven are Memorial, Dalhousie, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Calgary, and UBC.
Do Canadian medical schools require the MCAT?▾
Most do, but six exceptions do not require the full MCAT: University of Ottawa, NOSM University, Université de Montréal, Université Laval, Université de Sherbrooke (the three Quebec French-language schools), and effectively McMaster — which requires the MCAT but only screens on the CARS subscore.
What is the in-province advantage at Canadian medical schools?▾
Every Canadian medical school reserves the majority of its seats for residents of its home province. At Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, out-of-province admission rates often fall below 5%. At UBC, BC residents have an admission rate roughly 3-4x that of out-of-province applicants. Quebec schools close most programs to non-Quebec residents entirely.
What is the Indigenous applicant pool?▾
Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Calgary, and UBC operate dedicated admission pools for self-identified Indigenous applicants with rigorous but distinct academic thresholds and separately reported statistics. AdmitBase treats Indigenous self-identification as a cohort dimension and surfaces matched-pool stats wherever the data is reported.
How does AdmitBase calculate Canadian medical school match scores?▾
AdmitBase uses the standard 50/50 MCAT-GPA weighting for the 13 schools where it applies. McMaster is special-cased to use the CARS subscore only. Ottawa and NOSM use GPA alone (no MCAT). Quebec schools are flagged as approximate because their CRC + CASPer process diverges meaningfully from the MCAT/GPA model.
See Your Cohort Match at Every Canadian Medical School
Free to start. Add your residency, gender, age and undergrad discipline — every Canadian medical school page in your dashboard will show stats filtered to applicants like you.
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