All applicants to the Doctor of Medicine Program must be registered in a baccalaureate degree program and obtain their degree the year admission is sought or already have completed their degree program. We have no preference for which institution you attend nor which degree program you complete; you should be pursuing your own interests while fulfilling the requirements of your degree program. Applicants must have a minimum of 60 transferable units of course weight (ucw). We require that our applicants complete one academic year (September 1 through April 30) with a full course load prior to being admitted; the definition of full course load as ascertained by your accredited home institution must also be recognized by the University of Alberta. For example, the University of Alberta recognizes a full course load as 30 transferable ucw, equivalent to 10 half-year courses. The purpose behind this requirement is to assess whether students will be able to handle the course load in the Doctor of Medicine Program.

Courses from external institutions are converted to University of Alberta ucw. Labs that are co-requisites for lectures and are reported as separate courses on external transcripts will not be included in the total ucw; at the University of Alberta a course with a lab component is reported singularly as 3 or 6 ucw.

IB/AP credits received towards your baccalaureate degree are not considered part of post-secondary coursework and will not be used towards your application.

cGPA Calculation for 2019/2020 Application Cycle

To calculate cGPA, we include all transferable post-secondary coursework to which a grade was assigned while the student was enrolled full-time (by UofA definition) during the academic year (September through April) or full-time during the Spring and Summer terms (May through August).

For undergraduate students, to be considered full-time you must complete 18 transferable units of course weight (ucw) during the academic year (September through April) or 12 ucw during the Spring and Summer terms (May through August).

All coursework completed as part of a thesis-based graduate program to which a grade and course weighting was assigned will be included in the calculation of cGPA.

For applicants presenting 4 or more full-time academic years (September through April) of transferable post-secondary coursework, we may exclude the lowest academic year from calculation, provided that it is not the most recent full-time academic year, nor the only year in which the student earned 30 ucw.

All applicants must complete the MCAT and meet the minimum requirements for each section in a single test sitting to be eligible to apply to the Doctor of Medicine Program.

Meeting the minimum cGPA and MCAT scores for application does not guarantee admission to the Doctor of Medicine Program. We encourage our applicants to have an alternate career path in mind as the number of qualified applicants exceeds the number of positions we have available in our program. 

MCAT scores must be released and verified within the Secondary Medicine Application by the October 1, 2019 11:59:59PM MST deadline. As such, the last testing date we will accept for the 2019/2020 application cycle is August 31, 2019. You must release your scores to us via the THx system on the AAMC website by this deadline. Please note that we are only accepting scores from the MCAT2015; scores from test dates prior to January 1, 2015 will not be accepted. If there is a discrepancy between the information you provide to us and that available from AAMC we will contact you through your UAlberta email account to correct this prior to the October 1 deadline.

The MCAT2015 is comprised of four sections:

1. Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems (CPBS)
2. Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS)
3. Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems (BBFL)
4. Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behaviour (PSBB)

For course recommendations to complete the MCAT, please refer to the AAMC website.

All applicants are subject to the same application requirements.

Applicants who have obtained a Masters or PhD are eligible to receive additional points towards their rank score. For those nearing completion of their program who wish to have these points added to their score, please have your supervisor provide a letter as proof of successful completion once you have defended your thesis with no required revisions.

For those completing a Masters by coursework we will require a letter from your faculty indicating that you have completed the required coursework and have applied for and been approved to graduate.

Deadline for receipt by the Office of the Registrar of all up-to-date transcripts, including showing 1^st and 2^nd term registration for those applicants currently enrolled in post-secondary. If your institution does not show 2^nd term registration on transcripts at this time (ie. McMaster) or if you are not yet able to register in 2^nd term courses (ie. Harvard), please contact the Office of the Registrar to arrange to send your course registration directly. We suggest requesting transcripts in early September for all domestic institutions and in August for international institutions.

Please refer to your BearTracks To-Do List and Comments for document status and details on required supporting documents. Failure to meet this deadline will result in a delay in review of your application.

For applicants currently enrolled in post-secondary, updated transcripts showing 1^st term grades and 2^nd term registration must be received and processed by the Office of the Registrar by this date. If you fail to meet this deadline your application may be considered incomplete and result in the closing of your file.

For applicants currently enrolled in post-secondary, June 15 is the deadline for receipt by the Office of the Registrar of updated transcripts showing 1^st and 2^nd term grades as well as proof of degree conferment. We highly recommend requesting your transcripts in May, as soon as all grades are available, so as to not delay any changes to your admission decision.