Is UBC the easiest Med School to get into?

[Guest Katie]

I've always thought that UBC is the easiest med school to get into (for people who live in BC) because the acceptance rate is ~20%, the highest of any med school in Canada (that I know about). But today in the Vancouver Sun, there was an article stating that UBC is the most difficult med school to get accepted into in Canada. Does anyone know if the newspaper is completely wrong? Or is the acceptance rate not a fair estimate of how easy it is to get into a particular med school? Thanks everyone!

[Guest Jase133]

I -think- that once you're granted an interview, the probability that you will get in is, strictly statistically based, 128/300.

That's a pretty good chance.

 

But then again, UBC interviews are known to be confrontational (for one of them at least).

 

Good luck! =)

[Guest Ian Wong]

Absolutely not. Don't believe everything you hear, particularly when it comes from a newspaper. When you think about it, a newspaper is just a collection of facts and opinions gathered together by a reporter, who may be writing about something totally out of the boundaries of his or her expertise.

 

How many reporters do you think really know much medical school admissions? It's not exactly a front-page headlining topic.

 

I think when it comes right down to it, that almost every medical school is equally hard to enter. There's simply too many qualified applicants, and no where near enough spots. Som people will say that U of T is harder to get into than Queens, which is harder to get into Mac, yadda yadda yadda, etc, but the reality is that each medical school is looking for a slightly different applicant profile, and therefore uses different admissions criteria and selection processes.

 

That's why someone will easily get into one school, and be flat out-right rejected from another.

 

For example, I got into UBC, and U of Calgary, but was rejected from U of Sask. Not only was I rejected, but it wasn't even close; I received a very low interview score there, despite having really good interviews at U of Calgary and UBC. Am I bothered that USask (not exactly a medical school powerhouse) saw fit to reject me?

 

Not really, because I know they were using different criteria than the other schools.

 

The bottom line here is that just as with everything else in life: If you don't try, you have already failed. The reality is that once you receive an interview, (like Jase just mentioned), you have a 1:2.5 chance of being accepted at UBC. If you receive interviews from multiple schools, then the odds are very good that you will be accepted somewhere. The best thing to do is make sure your GPA and MCAT scores are high, and also work on becoming more well-rounded, while getting in some interesting work, travel, or volunteer experiences, which will help immensely on your interviews.

 

UBC isn't any harder to get into than any other schools, and if you are a BC applicant, it's probably the Canadian med school that is easiest for you to enter.

 

Ian

UBC MS2