5.3.1 Doctor of Medicine - Admission Eligibility
A. Eligibility for Admission
As a provincial university, the University of Calgary has a primary obligation to Canadian citizens residing in Alberta. Although priority will be given to Alberta residents, the School also invites applications from residents of other provinces. A maximum of 15 per cent of all available positions may be offered to non-Alberta residents. The residency requirement shall not be considered broken when the Admissions Committee is satisfied that the applicant has been temporarily out of the province for vacation, educational exchange or employment. Applicants will be considered residents of Alberta if they meet one of the following criteria:
Have been physically present in Alberta (or Northwest Territories, Yukon, or Nunavut) on a day-to-day basis for 24 consecutive months at some point between their 15th birthday and the first day of classes (of the year for which they are applying).
Have been on active duty for the 24 months prior to classes starting with the Canadian Armed Forces or the RCMP. A letter from your commanding officer supporting your active duty dates must be received by the application deadline. This does NOT include members of the reserves.
The Cumming School of Medicine does not accept applications from individual international students. Seats for international students are limited to students from institutions or countries that have formal, contractual agreements with the Cumming School of Medicine.
The Cumming School of Medicine is committed to providing an equitable, diverse, inclusive admissions approach that mitigates discrimination and bias. The MD Program admissions strives to identify and remove barriers to admission for individuals from underrepresented groups, including but not limited to, Indigenous peoples; individuals of diverse sex, gender, and sexual identities (LGBTQ2S+); racialized and cultural minorities; persons with disabilities; and those from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. In recognition that academic barriers may have been encountered by Black and Indigenous applicants, equitable and inclusive admissions processes for Black and Indigenous applicants are outlined in 5.3.1.C.
The Cumming School of Medicine is committed to providing appropriate accommodations to students with disabilities to ensure an accessible and equitable learning environment in accordance with University of Calgary policy. Consideration for accommodations are available both at the file review and interview stage. Please see the Applicant Manual for further details. Physical and learning disabilities should not prevent the student, upon graduation, from communicating with patients, making observations, gathering and analyzing data necessary to arrive at medical judgments, and from performing in a safe and timely manner the therapeutic interventions expected of a physician who has completed the educational program leading to an MD degree. Potential applicants with a disability who are concerned that their disability may impact their ability to complete or apply successfully to the MD program are encouraged to contact Student Accessibility Services or the MD Admissions Office to discuss their particular situation.
The Cumming School of Medicine will not normally accept applications from students who have withdrawn, who have been required to withdraw, or who have been expelled from any national or international medical school or college of medicine. Voluntary withdrawals for well-established personal or medical reasons may be considered.
B. Admission Educational Requirements
A baseline knowledge of Indigenous culture and ways of healing is critically important prior to entering medical school. Therefore, all applicants must complete an Indigenous education requirement. Accepted options to satisfy the Indigenous education requirement are in Section 2.8 of the Applicant Manual. The Indigenous education requirement must be completed with appropriate documentation uploaded into the UCAN application platform by application deadline.
The Cumming School of Medicine welcomes applications from individuals with a wide variety of educational backgrounds. There is no preferred degree, nor does it require that a student undertake a formal pre-medical program. No specific courses are required for application or acceptance to the MD program other than the aforementioned Indigenous knowledge requirement. The Admissions Committee recommends that applicants consider taking courses in as many of the following disciplines as their schedules allow, as the content of these courses will be helpful in preparing for the Medical College Admission Test and during the MD program: Anatomy, Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Literature, Ethics, Statistics, Biochemistry, Physiology, Psychology and Research methods. Whether or not an applicant has taken these courses at the time of application will not be taken into consideration in scoring the academic record. Students should ensure that the courses they choose satisfy the degree requirements of the undergraduate faculty in which they are registered.
Students must have completed, at the time of application, a minimum of two full-time years of university education. See section 3.8 of the Applicant Manual. A full-time year is defined for the purposes of application as a minimum of 24 units (credits), completed over the fall and winter terms or equivalent. These courses must be completed at an MD/PhD granting institution or be transferable to such an institution. The admissions committee will also consider, on a case-by-case basis, applications from individuals who have been unable to complete undergraduate studies on a full-time basis for well-established personal medical or financial reasons. Such individuals must first petition the Admissions Committee for permission to apply by contacting the Assistant Dean of Admissions prior to July 31st of the application year.
GPA
The GPA used for the purpose of the application to the MD program is calculated automatically by the online application system once applicants have entered all their undergraduate and graduate grades. It is calculated using the average of all full-time undergraduate years, defined as 24 units (credits) of which 18 units or more must have received a numerical or letter grade completed between September and April. Each such academic year is considered equivalent for the purposes of this calculation, regardless of how many units were completed within it.
For the GPA to be calculated, the applicant needs to have a cumulative minimum of 39 units (credits) associated with a numerical or letter grade as follows:
The units/credits completed during the Winter Term of the Year of Admission will be counted toward a student’s full-time status as outlined in the application procedures for these programs.
The GPA for the academic year reflect:
The grades from the Fall Term of the year prior to admission, as long as a minimum of 9 units/credits are associated with a numerical or letter grade; OR
Relevant Fall and Winter Term, as long as 18 units/credits are associated with a numerical or letter grade AND all eligible units/credits in the Winter 2020 Term are reported as numerical or letter grade.
Considering the requirements noted in 1 and 2 above, the calculated GPA is then modified as follows:
Applicants who have completed or will have completed their undergraduate degree prior to matriculation into the MD program will have their lowest GPA year removed from the above calculation. The lowest GPA year must have a minimum of 18 graded units (credits) included in the GPA calculation.
Applicants who have completed or will have completed a graduate degree prior to matriculation into the MD program will have their cumulative GPA for that graduate degree included in the calculation as equivalent to a single full-time undergraduate year. For this to apply each year must be associated with a minimum of 18 units credits associated with a numerical or letter grade.
For those taking graduate studies who do not meet the above criteria (i.e. fewer than 18 units or credits per year), up to 18 total credits may be substituted for courses in the lowest full time undergraduate year. PLEASE NOTE: you will be indicating this within UCAN and applicants exercising this option may have their application audited to ensure accuracy.
Applicants with both remote and recent post-secondary studies may elect to invoke a 10-year exclusion rule, and in doing so exclude from the GPA calculations any academic work completed more than 10 years previously. Applicants electing to do so, however, must meet the eligibility requirements based on academic work done in 10 years immediately preceding application.
Albertan applicants, Indigenous applicants, regardless of their province of residence, individuals currently on active duty with the Canadian Forces or the RCMP, and current students or graduates of the Rural Pre-medicine Program at Selkirk College in Castlegar, B.C., must have an admissions GPA of 3.20 or greater in order to be eligible to apply.
Non-Albertan applicants must have an admission GPA of 3.80 or greater in order to be eligible to apply.
Applications from individuals who do not meet these GPA minimums will not be considered.
Please refer to the Applicant Manual of the year of application for details regarding GPA calculation.
Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)
All applicants must write the Medical College Admission Test in sufficient time to ensure that their MCAT scores will then be available to the Admissions Committee by the application deadline. This usually means that writing the test by mid-August of the year of application. The MD Admissions Office will update on its website on an annual basis the last possible MCAT sitting for the current application cycle. Applicants should contact the MCAT Program Office (https://students-residents.aamc.org/taking-mcat-exam/taking-mcat-exam) for details about the test and they must instruct the organization to release their MCAT results to the University of Calgary after July 15th.
Applicants to the Cumming School of Medicine should also be aware that all applicants must complete the 2015 MCAT. The results of pre-2015 version of the MCAT, if available, will still be considered by the committee as part of the overall assessment of academic merit.
There is no MCAT minimum for Albertan Applicants or for individuals to whom the 3.20 GPA minimum applies.
Non-Albertan applicants must achieve a score of 128 on the CARS sub-section of the MCAT in order to be eligible to apply.
C. Equitable and Inclusive Admissions
Black Applicant Admissions Process (BAAP)
Eligible applicants will have the opportunity to voluntarily self-identify with the Black community on their application. The process is outlined in the Applicant Manual Section 6.3. Applicants to the BAAP may also include an optional personal essay highlighting why they have chosen to apply through this application stream.
Indigenous Application Process (IAP)
The Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) encourages and supports applications from candidates who identify as First Nations, Inuit and/or Metis. The Cumming School of Medicine recognizes the marked under-representation of Indigenous individuals within the medical profession and the importance of producing a medical workforce that represents the demographic diversity of the population we serve. In recognition of these facts, certain modifications to the application process for Indigenous applicants are currently in place. Any applicant may self-declare as Indigenous and will be invited to submit an optional supplemental short essay describing their connection to their community and the impact of their heritage on both their preparation for medical school and their plans following completion of the MD. All self-declared Indigenous applicants are required to submit proof of status or Indigenous identity through the UCAN system. All Indigenous applicants will also be invited to interview. Specific details are outlined in section 6.2 of the Applicant Manual.