With medical school taking up the next 4 years of your life, it is important to know about various medical schools in Canada and their ranking, as it can impact where you choose to apply. It is important to remember that each person has unique factors impacting their ranking (such as distance to family, tuition, etc.), but below you will find the general list for how Canadian medical schools compare to one another.
Macleans, a Canadian news distributor, recently ranked the top 15 Canadian medical schools based on the below criteria:
According to Maclean’s, the ranking of Canada’s top 15 medical schools can be seen below:
Medical school is quite expensive and it is important to have an understanding of the cost of an MD program. Thankfully, the information is readily available and there are also 3rd party sources that help calculate the costs and break down what they include. By having an understanding about the costs, it can be useful to look into various scholarships that are offered for the different schools in order to be able to take advantage of as much financial aid as possible. In fact, here is a link that compiles all the scholarship opportunities for each school.
Another important factor to consider is the residency matching rates of each university once medical school ends and residency begins. According to BeMo, rates for matching range from 89.84% for the University of Montreal up to 96.58% for Dalhousie University. Complicating things a bit more, match rates vary for CMGs (Canadian Medical Graduates), IMGs (International Medical Graduates), and USMGs (U.S Allopathic Medical Graduates). The match rate for CMGs is 94.9% on average, 75.8% for IMGs, and 81.8% for USMGs.
While the above is a ranking created by Maclean’s, depending on what you value, the ranking may change. For example, if you are someone who loves research and would love to dive further into it, then UofT, McMaster, and the University of Alberta would be good choices as these are the top 3 schools when looking at the schools with the largest research budget. If you are someone who would prefer a shorter program, McMaster University’s MD program is only 3 years! If student services are a particular priority then the University of Manitoba and Western University are great choices.
In addition, it is important to know the admission criteria if you are applying out of province as some schools have different requirements for out-of-province applicants. The University of Calgary states that non-Albertans must have a minimum of 128 on the CARS section of the MCAT in order to be eligible to apply. With an understanding of each school’s strengths, as well as the admission requirements, you can set yourself up for success!
Below are the links for each school, if you are interested to learning more about a specific program:
Regardless of which medical school you choose to pursue, any medical school is a fantastic choice! The education and experience you receive will last a lifetime and any medical school would be lucky to have a candidate as qualified as you!
Written By: Emily K
My name is Emily and I am a first year medical student at the University of Toronto. My mentorship extends beyond academics and into sport! While I love coaching in Judo, I have also mentored students from high school to university levels in various subjects including the sciences and English. I have clinical experience supporting individuals with psychiatric diseases and research experience in the domain of neuropsychopharmacology. I am excited to be a part of Motivate MD so that I can support like-minded students passionate about being an asset to healthcare who can benefit from having the experience of a mentor who was once in their shoes.
