Canadian/US schools that do not require prerequisites

[cocoappleli]

Hello,

I am 27 years old and planning to change careers into medicine. I completed my undergraduate degree in business and didn't take any science related courses. In addition to doing a post bacc degree, I was thinking to just apply to schools that do not require prerequisites. When schools say they do not require prerequisites, do they really not care, or would they still treat students who do not have these required courses differently than the ones who do? 

As well, currently I only know of McMaster and Queens. Are there any other Canadian or US schools that do not require these science courses? 

[InstantRamen]

If there are no prerequisites, they will not favour one degree over another. I used this to my advantage during med school applications and did the easiest degree possible. The caveat is that the MCAT is really tough. Having some of those courses may be helpful in consolidating information to score well (but is not a necessity). Some people do just fine independently studying.

Check the websites of medical schools you are interested in. Lots of non-traditional applicants in medicine.

[Edict]

That's really about it, i mean the only one that is really accessible is McMaster, because they don't even look at ECs. 

[zoxy]

On 1/26/2022 at 11:04 AM, cocoappleli said:

As well, currently I only know of McMaster and Queens. Are there any other Canadian or US schools that do not require these science courses? 

Of the Western schools UBC only has an English requirement. MCAT is not used for pre-interview ranking at UBC. Alberta, Calgary, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba don't have any pre-reqs. Manitoba and Sask require 519+ MCATs for an interview as an OOP though. Calgary only uses the CARS component of the MCAT for scoring pruposes. Alberta's admission process is somewhat of a black box. 

In Ontario, Queens, Mac, and Western don't have pre-reqs. McMaster only looks at CARs, Western loves the MCAT and has high cutoffs for each section, and Queens is a black box. UofT needs two life science classes and one humanities class as pre-reqs. Ottawa has the most extensive set of pre-reqs in the country, mainly because they don't use the MCAT.

In the East, neither Dal or MUN have prereqs.

In the US, almost every school requires a year of Gen-chem, Orgo, Phsycis, Bio, and a semester of Biochem. Some of the better schools also heavily recommend a year of calculus and a semester of statistics.

For most folks, the lack of prer-reqs and the MCAT isn't really a barrier. It's the sky high GPA averages, especially in Ontario.