No, it's not a joke. I know quite a few people who had lower gpa and mcat scores than you who not only got interviews, but got acceptances into canadian medical schools. The OP has a decent shot and should not have any problems getting interviews, provided he sends a completed application early enough. The fact that you got 0 interviews probably had less to do with your gpa/mcat scores, and more to do with other factors that I'm not aware of, like timing of application, letters of reference, numbers of schools applied to, completion of pre-requisites, etc.
exactly. I know people with lower mcat who got in and these people most probably would not have gotten in good schools in the US based on MCAT. I know one dude who got into queens with 30 MCAT, WTF? What does that tell me about Canada? I am a canadian citizen and I always was fascinated and wanted to do medicine here. Do I want to now? No, I probably hate this place. Sorry to say that but that is the reality of my experiences.
Most students in Canadian med schools, especially from Ontario, would brag about the Divine nature of medical education in Canada. Do not be fooled by their bogus claims. Canada does have very qualified doctors, it does not however give Canadians the legitimacy to look down up equally qualified and trained doctors from other countries across the world.
I used to ignore when someone with lower scholastic achievements with way less or almost non-existent traveling and international experience would get in Ontario schools while I would not get an interview just because I was one mark less in MCAT cut off of one section or just because my autobiographical sketch did not "impress" the douche bag going over my application. I was naive. I've self sacrificed enough. My overall MCAT is way better than many people who got accepted in Ontario schools (Queens, UWO, UT etc). Of course there are people who performed better than I did. But I am being punished, which seems to be for eternity, for having a mark in one section lower than the cutoff. Is that fair? maybe? Are other students being accepted with lower overall MCAT more qualified than I am? Hell no.
If you can afford to keep on applying to University of Toronto for 3 application cycles with a 4.0 gpa, good research experience and other extracurriculars, its your call. But do not for a minute think that University of Toronto will provide you better medical education then lets say a middle-tier school in the USA. For instance, Jefferson Medical College? But most Canadians like to think so just because its from their ego. They want to attribute "high value" to something for which they had to suffer. It's human nature to justify something for which they put so much effort.
The only upper hand that Canadian schools have over US schools is tuition fees. But that will change soon too. Quebec has already banned the freeze on tuition fees. If I remember McMaster asks for like $80k/year from international students? Not worth it dude.
UAlberta has already slashed approx 40 seats for medicine this year I think. Not looking too green up North.
