Medical Schools That Don't Require The Mcat Or Only The Critical Analysis And Reasoning Section

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I personally think calgary is doing a good job with the admission formulae. They don't weigh the GPA heavily, only VR is considered, a 10% subjective component let's adcoms decide what they think of the difficulty of programs/etc and account for it, and Life experiences are essentially what matter the most.

 

Well said.

U of C admission process looks fairly balanced.

 

One of advanatges of the current med school admission process is that different schools weight all the factors differently, so people can apply to their own strenghts. What skews it, though, are territorial quotas.  Few people outside of Alberta have a chance at U of C.

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When I was finishing highschool, the cost of writing the SAT both monetary (~$100) and timewise was the biggest hurdle I couldn't overcome to even consider applying to do my undergrad in the states.

 

There are for sure more barriers for the economically disadvantaged than the MCAT, but it's definitely a big one. Now that I'm in a considerably better financial situation, I can say stuff like the $600 I spent on MCAT and prep materials is worth it in the long run because it helps me to secure a better future, but the funny thing about the psychology of the poor is long-term thinking is impaired, risk-reward ratios gets skewed.

 

As a poor person, there would be no way I'd risk pursuing med (with the possibility of going through multiple applications cycles, multiple MCAT rewrites) for the very slim chance of making it. It would seem like too much money thrown down the drain. Also, a poorer person has typically less volunteering activities, which is another disadvantage.

 

I'd say it may even be a bigger psychological barrier than ridiculous EC requirements. When I applied, I didn't think I had a good chance because I have done no volunteering work. My rationale, as for most people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, was if I had time to work for free, I'd rather work for money. But I didn't feel completely hopeless because all my work experience still counted as ECs. Lack of volunteering puts me at a disadvantage, but it didn't disqualify me (as having no MCAT would).

 

The cost of tuition in the US far outweighs the cost of writing the SAT though. In the US they can waive the cost but I don't imagine they would do that for Canadians since its not mandatory to write the SAT.