THE CURRENT MEDICAL SCHOOL ADMISSIONS SYSTEM DISCRIMINATES AGAINST THE POOR and LOWER MIDDLE CLASS.
UBC and other Canadian universities weight volunteer work heavily in medical school admission.
Students who must work to pay their way through university and students who have responsibilities to care for disabled or otherwise dependent family members are disadvantaged in the medical school admissions process.
Although the tuition of many international medical schools is more expensive, some reputable international medical schools have lower tuition than Canadian medical schools.
Further, some international schools offer a direct entry program where a student can begin medical school directly out of high school. A direct entry program is more economically accessible to the financially disadvantaged. It allows students to graduate sooner, decreasing the cost of education, and the number of years of lost earnings.
There are a limited number of positions in Canadian medical schools.
As a result, it is rare that a person will be admitted without an undergraduate degree.
Many students take Masters and PhD programs to make themselves more attractive to the medical school admissions committees.
There is no evidence that shows that this additional education, which is expensive to the student and the tax payer, will result in better doctors.
The average Canadian medical school student applied 2.59 times before being accepted.
Direct entry programs offered internationally allow a person to graduate in 6 to 7 years versus the average of 10.59 years for Canadian medical school graduates.