Happy Canada Day everyone!!! I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend.
I have officially taken over for Dr. Ian Walker as Director of Undergraduate Medical School Admissions here at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary. I will be joined by Dr. Rabiya Jalil who will be the Associate Director. First of all, I want to acknowledge the truly amazing job Dr. Walker did in his tenure as the Director of Admissions. He implemented many new policies and procedures during that time and his legacy will live on for many years to come.
As a school and as an admissions office we pride ourselves in being transparent with our process and policies. This is why the most relevant material can be found in our application manual. It details the admission policies and procedures and answers many of the questions that applicants may have. I would encourage you to read it thoroughly to familiarize yourself with the way we do things. Each year, including this year there are slight changes; so even if you have applied to us before, please reread the manual.
The manual can be found here: https://www.ucalgary.ca/mdprogram/files/mdprogram/19_20applicant-manual_june28_2019final.pdf
If you have specific questions, we encourage you to first refer to the manual before reaching out to the office. We are more than happy to provide clarification on specific points in the manual but our expectation is that you have used the manual as a reference prior to calling the office. Some applicants have a false belief that by calling the office that they will gain information that will help them in the application process. This is a not true.
The application site officially opens on July 3rd and can be found here. https://ucan.ucalgary.ca/Security/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fdefault.aspx
We recognize that for many of you, especially if this is your first time applying that it can provoke both stress and anxiety. However, we would encourage you to relax, get organized and use the remainder of the summer to prepare your application. This will relieve much of the stress and anxiety that can escalate if you wait until the last minute to apply after the summer is over.
You should start with the following:
- Request that your transcripts be sent to our office by the post secondary institutions you have attended.
- Begin speaking to the individuals you want to nominate as your referees.
- Begin sketching out your top 10 list.
We wish you all the best, and we look forward to receiving your application and meeting many of you along your journey.
Remo Panaccione, MD, FRCPC
