The medical school application is a daunting process that is not only expensive, but quite confusing. The most commonly used application systems are AMCAS and AACOMAs for MD programs and DO programs respectively. However, a less known application system is OMSAS, the Ontario Medical School Application Service. Many applicants have many questions regarding OMSAS and I am here to help you all understand this hefty process.
Yes! You can apply to both Canadian and U.S. medical schools in the same cycle. You will need to use AMCAS/AACOMAS/TMDSAS for U.S medical schools and OMSAS for Ontario Medical Schools. The schools that use OMSAS are listed as follows: Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine (McMaster University); NOSM University; University of Ottawa; Queen’s University; University of Toronto; Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry (Western University). Check out this blog post for more information on the OMSAS system.
While getting into medical school in the U.S and Canada is difficult regardless, it is considerably more difficult to get into Canada medical schools. They offer significantly fewer programs and often have lower acceptance rates. Approximately 5.65 applicants apply for each seat in Canada, compared to 2.38 in the US. With the higher number of applicants and the lower number of programs, acceptance into Canadian medical schools proves to be increasingly challenging.
The main differences between AMCAS and OMSAS are the deadlines. AMCAS opens for editing May 1st, 2025 and the earliest submission date is May 27th, 2025. For OMSAS, the 2024 deadline was October 1st while the application opened in July. While AMCAS utilizes rolling decisions, OMSAS does not. What this means for applicants is that while it is beneficial to submit your AMCAS application as soon as possible, there is no benefit to doing so for OMSAS.
While you are able to discuss experiences through both your personal statement and your work and activities sections in AMCAS, OMSAS has a comprehensive section for all experiences known as the Autobiographical Sketch (ABS). There are a few different categories that you can group your experiences into: Employment, Volunteer Activities, Extracurricular Activities, Awards and Accomplishments, Research, and Other. You can list up to 32 experiences vs only 15 for AMCAS. Another key difference is that while AMCAS allows up to 700 characters, OMSAS only allows for 150.
While the GPA calculations between AMCAS and AACOMAS can be quite similar, there are small differences between them. OMSAS uses a conversion table to convert other undergraduate GPAs. The cumulative average is calculated by adding all the course weights and all the converted grades, then dividing the total course weights into the total converted grades.
Visit the AMCAS and OMSAS websites for more information on the respective application processes. I know it can be daunting, but Motivate MD is here for you. Click this link to schedule a free consultation.
