Admissions Blog

NOTICE – Temporary Mailing Address Change

By Admissions on Jul 10, 2020 Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we have temporarily changed our mailing address until normal administrative activities resume. If you know that you are going to apply to the UBC MD Program for the 2020-2021 application cycle, you can send your transcripts to the following address: Faculty of Medicine, MD Admissions University of British Columbia C/O  Campus Mail Office 2329 West Mall Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4 (SEE ALSO: Contact Us) We will not be able to update the transcript status until the application opens and you have entered the institution into the transcripts section of the application, but we will begin collecting and collating documents for the upcoming admissions cycle as they arrive.   Permalink | No Comments

Update – Application Deadlines & MCAT 2020-2021

By Admissions on Jun 29, 2020

Due to the delay in opening the MD Application this year, we have decided to postpone the application deadline to October 1, 2020 at 12:00 (noon) Pacific time. We will also be moving the early application deadline to September 1, 2020 at 12:00 (noon) Pacific time.

In addition, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, for the 2020-2021 admissions cycle only, we will be accepting all eligible MCAT scores from April 2015 to the last available test date that allows you to submit your scores to UBC MD Admissions by December 1, 2020. This means that applicants can sit any of the currently listed MCAT exam dates, including those in September, as it is our understanding that scores for the last test on September 28, 2020 will be released on October 13, 2020. If the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) adds any more test dates, you may register for those, provided you are able to submit your scores to us by December 1, 2020. Please remember that you will still need to achieve a 124 in each of the sections of the MCAT exam, in order to remain eligible for the UBC MD Program. It is recommended that you take the MCAT exam as early as possible, so that you know whether your score is eligible in advance of the application deadline.

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Offers 2020 – Waitlist Shortened

By Admissions on

The waitlist was shortened today. Although it’s never easy to receive disappointing news, we hope that being informed of the final decision on their application will help applicants who are no longer on the waitlist move on to their future plans. Waitlisted applicants who did not receive an application status update today are still on the waitlist, but it is unlikely that a position will open up in the class. It is best for these applicants to think about their future plans as well.

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Update – COVID-19 and your application

By Admissions on Jun 25, 2020

We know that many of you are eagerly waiting for us to announce COVID-19 related policy adaptations for this admissions cycle, as well as when the application will be open this year. We are incredibly grateful for your patience during this time. We are sorry to say that due to systems beyond our control we are delayed in making these announcements. At the present time we are hopeful that we will be able to open the application and inform you of policy adaptations in early July. We will update you as soon as we can.

In the interim, we encourage you to begin collating the materials you will need to apply. One piece of information that can take a long time to collect is verifier information. For the non-academic activities, employment history, and rural and remote suitability sections of the application, you will be asked for the contact information for someone who can verify your experiences. This includes their name, their title as it relates to the activity listed, their email address and phone number. For example, if you were the captain of a basketball team in university, you will need to collect the contact information for your coach. We highly recommend that you contact all of your verifiers in advance of submitting your application and ask them if they would be willing to verify your experiences.

Another way to begin preparing for your application is to list your activities as they fall into the following categories:

• Leadership experiences (maximum 3)
• Service experiences (maximum 3)
• Experiences highlighting your capacity to work with others (maximum 5)
• Experiences highlighting your hobbies, interests, or talents aka “diversity of experiences” (maximum 10)
• Awards, rankings or honours in an “area of human endeavour” (maximum 3)
• Employment activities

Additionally, if you are interested in applying for one of our northern or rural positions (all 32 positions at the Northern Medical Program, up to 10 positions at the Southern Medical Program, and up to 2 positions at the Island Medical Program), we encourage you to begin compiling your list of activities/experiences/people that relate to these sections of the application:

• Activities relevant to northern, rural, and/or remote living (maximum 10)
• Ties to a northern, rural or remote place (these are people—like spouses, parents, siblings, friends, and other relatives that live in a northern/rural/remote community) (maximum 3)
• Role of a mentor in your decision to pursue medicine (maximum 3)

We know this information might be a bit confusing, particularly for those of you who are new to the process, so please feel free to email us at admissions.md@ubc.ca while you wait for the application to open. We cannot answer your policy questions, but we can answer questions related to the activities and sections mentioned in this post. We will also be providing a comprehensive help guide with information about how to complete each section of the application, once it opens. In the interim, you are welcome to review last year’s help guide, to give you a sense of the information we will be looking for (though there will be updates this year, so do not rely on it once the new application system opens).

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Offers 2020 – Round 6 Sent

By Admissions on Jun 16, 2020

We sent our sixth round of offers today; congratulations to everyone who received an offer! The deadline for this round is June 19th at 12:00 p.m. (noon) PDT.

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