Students not Able to Get into McGill Med School Even with a 4.00 GPA due to Diversity

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The Gazette
August 9, 2013

MONTREAL - With only about 10 per cent of all applicants getting into medical
schools across the country, the dream of becoming a doctor is one filled with
lots of heartache for even some of the brightest students.

And the dream seems to be a castle in the air for more and more anglophone
students in Montreal who are competing to get into the one English medicine
program in the province, at McGill University, where an increasing emphasis on
diversity has many urban anglophones grumbling that they aren’t the cohort
McGill is courting these days.

A growing list of anglophone students rejected from medicine at McGill — many
with GPAs ranging from 3.95 to 4.0 who didn’t even get interviews — are
wondering if they are too English, too urban and too affluent to get one of the
185 or so highly coveted spots in the program.

McGill officials insist the program’s push for diversity — aiming to ensure
the school recruits students from a broad spectrum, including those from visible
minorities, rural areas and lower socioeconomic groups — just puts the
university at the forefront of a growing trend in medical education, and that
there are no quotas.

However, at least one person involved with the admissions committee believes
diversity has become the prime value of the medical school and that it is having
a “very destructive” effect.

The changing face of McGill medical students

The McGill Admissions Committee has some serious questions to answer. McGill is my former alma matter and after reading this article, I am ashamed to tell folks now that I am a graduate of McGill. How can the admissions committee pass up students that have 3.95 and 4.00 GPAs in favor of "diversity". This logic of reasoning is mind boggling. As a patient, I want the most intelligent doctor to look after me, not a doctor that fits the "diversity" category. The university should be after the most intelligent students, nothing else.

Henceforth, I will stop donating to McGill and the McGill University Health Center (MUHC). I want nothing to do with McGill or it's hospitals. There are many hospitals in Montreal that are not affiliated with McGill. For any health issues I can easily frequent hospitals like St. Mary's or the Lakeshore General.

Diversity indeed.