MCAT No Longer Considered at all For Applicants with a Canadian Degree

[Kanye East]

https://www.mcgill.ca/medadmissions/applying/requirements/requirements-edu/mcat
 

I was checking around the McGill website to view for any updates for the coming cycle where I found their MCAT requirements have changed. It appears they won't be accepting MCAT scores at all (last year it was optional) for any applicant with a Canadian university degree.

I really am not a fan of this decision as it makes the pre-interview so much more reliant on cGPA (which accounts for 70% of the pre-interview score). I thought it was great if it was optional as the people who were below the average cGPA could make up for it with a stronger MCAT score. I am obviously biased, but it really does feel unfair that Canadian schools keep relying more and more on high cGPA to filter out students. To me, it's clearly not a great standardized metric, and even more so during the pandemic with the shift to online schooling, when programs/classes can vary in difficulty and do not account for circumstances either. At least with an MCAT, you can always retake it but cGPA is tough to recover unless you have the time and money to commit to a whole second degree (in which case, how is this better than retaking standardized test?).

 

[Bambi]

Life is not fair as each medical school has the right to change their conditions for acceptance as they see fit, creating what appear to be casualties in this process. It is what it is. Good luck! 

[veromedico]

Its rather shocking to see this huge change! I wonder why they did this?

[KitKatCo]

If I recall correctly, the MCAT was only used to boost the science prereq GPA score if it made it more competitive for the applicant. Now they state this on their website:

Quote

As of Fall 2021, all basic science prerequisite courses must meet a minimum grade requirement; the GPA is not weighted in the selection process [...].

Since they are no longer assessing the sGPA competitively, there is no obvious spot for the MCAT to be integrated in the selection process.  

[veromedico]

1 hour ago, KitKatCo said:

If I recall correctly, the MCAT was only used to boost the science prereq GPA score if it made it more competitive for the applicant. Now they state this on their website:

Since they are no longer assessing the sGPA competitively, there is no obvious spot for the MCAT to be integrated in the selection process.  

Very true! 

[veromedico]

1 hour ago, KitKatCo said:

If I recall correctly, the MCAT was only used to boost the science prereq GPA score if it made it more competitive for the applicant. Now they state this on their website:

Since they are no longer assessing the sGPA competitively, there is no obvious spot for the MCAT to be integrated in the selection process.  

Thats true :"Grades from the science prerequisites will be considered in the selection process" , and "all basic science prerequisite courses must meet a minimum grade requirement" 

So since they just have to meet a min requirement, having a competitive MCAT score would not be taken into consideration!  

[Kanye East]

On 7/28/2021 at 11:25 AM, KitKatCo said:

If I recall correctly, the MCAT was only used to boost the science prereq GPA score if it made it more competitive for the applicant. Now they state this on their website:

Since they are no longer assessing the sGPA competitively, there is no obvious spot for the MCAT to be integrated in the selection process.  

Last year it was a little different when I applied! They included the MCAT (optionally and if it was beneficial to you) with your 70% academic score. This was for the pre-interview score only. They didn't specify whether this was to support the cGPA calculation or the academic context part of the score but it definitely could have helped pre-interview if you had a good score I would imagine!