Best Premed Programs in Canada: Updated List 2023
One of the most common questions that I’ve been getting asked by students; which is the best premed program in Canada if I eventually want to get into medical school.
Here are the key takeaways that you should consider before choosing a premed program in Canada:
- Choose a major that fits in with the story of why you want to become a physician and will help you achieve your goals
- Pick a major that you find interesting that you can talk passionately about by the time you are interviewing at medical schools
- Consider subjects you are good at that will help you achieve a high GPA.
- Consider how the major aligns with medical school prereqs and preparing you for the MCAT.
Best Premed Programs in Canada
Let’s discuss different premed programs in Canada that can help you get a better GPA and prepare you for MCAT.
QuARMS Program
QuARMS is the faster road to medical school that only required two years of undergrad, no MCAT, and no med school applications or interviews. In fact, you’re already guaranteed admission into medical school at the end of the two years.
It’s the only program of its kind in Canada and provides ten lucky students a direct pathway into the Queen’s university school of medicine after completing only two years of undergraduate studies.
To apply for the QuARMS program you are required to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident and be nominated for the chancellor’s scholarship.
There are only one to three nominees per high school a nomination requires a minimum grade average of 90%. There is no way to be considered for QuARMS without a nomination for the chancellor’s scholarship.
Health Science and Medical Science
Health Science is broad, but essentially, it’s all about enhancing the health of communities.
Similarly, Medical science focuses on the science of human health and how the human body works, and students pursuing a medical science degree study biology, chemistry, and anatomy.
Remember that your GPA and MCAT scores play an important role. But what we’re seeing is that specialty pre-med programs like the health science program offered at McMaster or the medical science program offered at Western specifically have amazing rates of students that end up getting accepted into medical school
Kinesiology
Kinesiology is going to be a great premed program in my opinion for preparing for medical school.
A lot of students from kinesiology programs actually end up going to medical school as they already have a very complex understanding of the human body.
However, their schedules aren’t too hectic. The courses aren’t too hard and there are at least decent opportunities for extracurriculars or getting involved in research in undergrad.
I think the one place that kinesiology loses some points in the whole rating system is that they don’t really do a lot of the basic sciences when it comes to chemistry or physics.
But there are the options to take some of those things as electives from my understanding.
Biology, Biomed, Life science
Biology, Biomed, Life science degrees are good premed programs to study in Canada.
- Biology, Biomed, Life science degrees do a great job preparing you for the MCAT test.
- The courses are hard but not over the top hard. So it’s really possible to get a good mark in a lot of these courses.
Also, any research that you do in any of these fields is going to be really applicable to when you actually apply to medical school in Canada.
Nursing
The good thing about a nursing program is that a lot of the stuff that you do in a nursing undergrad is directly applicable to medical school.
- The bad thing though is that some of the more standard basic sciences don’t often show up in certain nursing programs. And then you might be at a little bit of a disadvantage for the MCAT
- Also, nursing school is notoriously difficult.
On the other hand, you also get a lot of opportunities to volunteer and do some really cool things with nursing that you could talk about in your pre-med application.
Chemistry Program
The chemistry program is going to do a little bit better than math and physics, at least for most of the different chemistry sections.
The good thing about a basic general chemistry program is that most of the time, a lot of the students are going to do a general biology course in the beginning and also a general physics course.
- All of these courses are really going to help you to prepare for a few of the sections on the MCAT.
- Now getting a good GPA in any of the different chemistry programs isn’t necessarily going to be the easiest thing.
One of the great things about a chemistry program though is that a lot of times these students end up getting involved in research that is often very applicable to a medical school application.
Psychology
Now psychology is cool and there’s a whole section on the MCAT, that’s completely dedicated to psychology and sociology.
There are also good opportunities for research and extracurriculars especially some of the more clinically oriented stuff.
But you are going to lose some points though in the basic sciences. Once again there’s not much exposure to physics or chemistry. A lot of these things are going to be really important for the MCAT test.
Math and Physics Programs
Unfortunately, Math and Physics Programs are going to be some of the worst programs at least in my opinion when it comes to being a pre-med student.
Now there are a few reasons why.
- The first one being is because these aren’t necessarily some of the easiest programs to get a good GPA.
- The second reason why is because when it comes to the MCAT, out of the four different sections, these programs are only going to prepare you for at most one of the sections.
Business programs
The cool thing about business is that it’s a great skill to have once you eventually make it into medical school.
- Business programs are not really intensive in terms of the amount of time that you’re spending in school and you can get really great GPAs in their courses.
- But you will be at a disadvantage at MCAT without studying basic science courses.
Social Sciences and Arts Program
Now I know what a lot of you guys are thinking that maybe it’s easier to get a good GPA in these programs.
But a lot of Social Sciences and Arts programs require essay writing, it’s often a lot harder to get a good grade than you think and that’s because the answers are subjective.
Majoring in sociology will at least help you out for one or two of the sections on the MCAT test but it won’t do much for the biology and physics sections.
And unfortunately, I don’t believe that these programs are going to prepare you very well for medical school.
Computer Science
Unfortunately, when it comes to the Computer science program layout, the courses are hard.
- Learning the discipline of Computer Science is a hard and difficult endeavor for most students. This means a low GPA
- Performing well in MCAT is difficult because basic science is not covered in the program.
Engineering Undergrad
In engineering, you end up taking six courses per semester just to be considered full-time students. Those aren’t easy courses either.
- It’s true: studying engineering is hard and getting a high GPA is difficult
- Also, the engineering courses aren’t really going to help you much on the MCAT with the exception of the physics section of the MCAT.
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