Dal med school admissions might dissuade Indigenous, African-Canadian applicants: report

The admissions process at Dalhousie University’s medical school might be partly to blame for the school’s difficulties in attracting African-Canadian and Indigenous students, according to the finding of a review committee. A 12-page report submitted by the committee to the school’s dean in August 2016 has just been made public, and in it, the committee “speculates that potential candidates from diverse backgrounds might not apply because of an apprehension of bias against them within the admissions process.” The report also found that Dal’s admissions committee placed too much weight on the medical college admission test (MCAT) and on the grade-point average of candidates, which Committee Chair Gus Grant says are not particularly good measures of one’s ability to practise medicine. CBC