Who Should Apply

The Admissions Committee recognizes the critical shortage of Indigenous physicians in Canada and the need to educate more Indigenous physicians to serve as role models and to address the health care needs of Indigenous people of Canada.

The Committee has developed an alternative process for assessing Indigenous candidates. We have reserved a minimum of 4 seats for qualified Indigenous applicants per year to the MD program to the Kingston Campus by this alternative process.

You must apply through OMSAS and indicate that you are applying as an Indigenous applicant.

If you wish to be considered through the Indigenous application category, you must submit the following documentation through OMSAS by the application deadline:

• A separate letter to the Chair of the MD Admissions Committee, in which you declare your Indigenous ancestry and give specific information about their First Nation, Treaty, Indigenous community or Indigenous organizational affiliation.
  • Your letter should request consideration by this alternative process and expand on your academic and personal background, how you are culturally connected to your Indigenous community, and your reasons and motivation for wishing to become a physician.
  • Ensure you include your name on the letter. The letter must be in 12-point font, be a minimum of 1.5 spacing, and have a minimum 1-inch page margin.
  • Maximum 1 page.
• A letter of support from a representative of your First Nation, Band Council, Tribal Council, and/or Treaty, Indigenous community or Indigenous organizational affiliation.
  • This individual needs to identify themselves in the letter, their connection to you, and their role in the Indigenous community.
  • This individual should be able to speak to your Indigenous community involvement and personal character traits that would qualify you as a promising candidate to pursue a future in medicine.
  • This letter of support should take into consideration the same ideas of the Confidential Assessment Letter and, as such, applicants should choose an individual who has more than a casual relationship with you and can evaluate you in a non-biased fashion.
  • Try to avoid references from family members, family friends or personal friends as we require objective referees and we do not consider these individuals objective. If you are submitting a letter from someone who may be called in to question, ensure any kinship is clearly defined in letter. For example, stating they are a family member or distant family member does not suffice. Exact relationship descriptors are required. (i.e., second cousin).
  • Ensure that they include your name on the letter.
  • The letter should be in 12-point font, be a minimum of 1.5 spacing, and have a minimum 1-inch page margin.
  • Maximum 1 page.
• Proof of Indigenous ancestry. You must submit 1 of the following documents:
  • Indian status cards from First Nations that are federally recognized and those listed on the Indigenous & Northern Affairs Canada website.
  • For Non-status First Nations persons, your parents’ and/or grandparents’ Indian status card and your long form birth certificate or baptismal certificate. (Submitted documents must show the connection to the person with the Indian status card.)
  • A membership card indicating that you are a member of a Non-status First Nation that is currently in a court case (e.g., the Algonquin land claim).
  • Métis citizenship from organizations that are members of the Métis National Council (MNO) or the Manitoba Métis Foundation For the Metis Nation of Ontario. Applicants must provide the MNO letter stating complete status is required for people using the MNO card.
  • Nunavut Trust Certificate card or Inuit roll number

Your application will not be considered under the Indigenous Student Application Pathway unless you follow all of the instructions and submit your documents by the application deadline. It will instead be considered under the mainstream admissions process, provided you have completed all application pieces. 

A panel consisting of representatives from the Admissions Committee and the Indigenous community will review the files of all candidates who wish to be considered by this alternate process and select candidates for interview. The panel will pay particular attention to academic commitment towards a career in medicine. (Only in exceptional circumstances will candidates with a GPA of less than 3.0 and a MCAT score of less than 120 in each section be selected for interview.)

For recruitment events or Indigenous involvement at Queen's School of Medicine, please contact healthsci.indigenous@queensu.ca.

Additional Resources:

• Faculty of Health Sciences Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
• Four Directions Indigenous Student Centre
• Office of Indigenous Initiatives

Applicants must apply through OMSAS.

At the request of the Department of National Defence, the Queen’s University MD Program program has completed arrangements with the Department of National Defence (DND) to create up to 9 additional training positions in the Queen’s Medical Doctorate Program that are above and beyond our provincially funded 100 seats. Canadian Forces Staff who are supported by the DND would be eligible to apply for these positions and offers of admission will be made to those who qualify.

To be eligible for subsidization under the MMTP, you must already be a Regular Force (full-time) member of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), be fully qualified in your current occupation and have worked for 1 year in that occupation before the MMTP Competition closes. If you are currently a civilian, you are not eligible for subsidization under the MMTP.

Regular Force military candidates interested in the Military Medical Training Program (MMTP) can obtain more information by consulting the Officer Specialist Training intranet website.

Military candidates who apply through the MMTP must meet all application eligibility requirements, including the necessary requirements as outlined by the military. These candidates must follow the same application procedures as all other applicants. The application fees will apply, and the candidates must follow the same method of payment as all other applicants.

If you apply to the MMTP stream, then you are not eligible to apply to the:

• MD/PhD, MD/Master’s combined program or the
• Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine program.

All military candidates wishing to apply to medical schools under MMTP sponsorship must inform the Director General Military Careers DMCPG 5-2 by email at the same time of their application to the medical schools.

For additional information regarding the MMTP application process, contact:

Name: DMCPG 5-2
Title: Commissioning and Education Programs Supervisor, Director General Military Careers
Email: cmp.dmcpg5@forces.gc.ca

For additional information regarding Medical Officer Recruitment, roles, responsibilities and prospective military service in Health Services, it is strongly encouraged that you also contact:

Canadian Forces Health Services Attraction Cell
Email: CFHSAttractionCell-CelluledattractionSSFC@forces.gc.ca 

Applicants must apply through OMSAS.

Graduate applicants who have met the minimum threshold requirements, will be given consideration of their graduate student status and level of education based on what is submitted at the time of the OMSAS application deadline.

To be considered a graduate applicant for our admissions:

1. Applicants must have completed their graduate degree by the August 1 prior to the commencement of medical school. This includes all graduate programs listed on your application; 
2. Applicants must be in their final year of a multi‐year graduate degree program to be eligible to apply as a graduate applicant. Applicants must indicate on their application the expected date of degree completion;
3. Applicants that are in a 1‐year graduate degree program must complete their graduate degree prior to applying to be eligible as a graduate applicant. Otherwise, they will be considered as an undergraduate applicant;  
4. A subcommittee will assess the suitability of the candidate’s performance and if the graduate degree was completed at an accredited university;
5. If the subcommittee determines that the applicant is suitable, they will progress to the next step in the method of selection.

If your application qualifies as a graduate applicant and you are offered a seat in our program, the offer is based on the expectation that your graduate degree(s) will be completed by the August 1^st prior to the commencement of medical school. If you are unable to meet the deadline you will normally lose your seat in the program. We require an official transcript as proof of graduate studies conferral.

The combined MD/PhD and MD/MSc programs at Queen’s University are offered jointly by the School of Medicine and the School of Graduate Studies at the Kingston Campus.

The combined MD/PhD and MD/Master’s programs provide benefits to both scholarship and the professional development of physician-scientists by allowing better integration of clinical and research training experiences and providing better opportunities for fostering translational research.

Our programs are in keeping with the strategic directions of both the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Strategic Plan and Government of Canada’s Science and Technology Strategy, which emphasize the need for:

• providing increased trans-sectorial and multidisciplinary training,
• building research excellence,
• translating knowledge into practical applications and
• deepening the pool of highly skilled individuals.

Students in combined MD/graduate programs bring a distinctive, clinical and translational perspective into their laboratories and, conversely, these students also bring a basic science perspective to share with their fellow medical students. This is especially relevant in the context of the greater emphasis now being placed on team-based learning approaches as an important component of the Queen’s medical curriculum.

The programs admit a limited number of exceptional students who wish to combine their medical training with advanced training in research. We generally have 3 spots available in this combined program.

Graduates from these programs will be well prepared to pursue postdoctoral or research-intensive residency training and, as fully trained physician scientists, will contribute to increasing Canada’s capacity in basic, clinical, translational and patient-oriented research.

You must indicate your intention to apply to these programs in your OMSAS Application.

You must provide the following additional items for the MD/PhD or MD/MSc programs and submit them through your OMSAS Application:

• A current Curriculum Vitae.
• A letter of intent indicating your research interests and accomplishments, and graduate program(s) of interest.
• Abstracts of any publications, if available.
• 2 additional confidential letters of recommendation focusing on your research accomplishments and potential to become a physician-scientist (in addition to the 3 references that are required for the MD application).
  • You may use the same referee for both the PhD/MSc component of this application and the MD references; however, there are different forms that will need to be completed as an MD referee and as a PhD/MSc referee.
  • The MD component will require the completion of the CAF, while the PhD/MSc referee will be required to upload a letter of recommendation. You will see the referee selection choices in the OMSAS Application.
• If you are currently completing a PhD or have completed a PhD, you must include an additional 1-page statement clearly stating the reasoning for why another PhD degree or Master’s degree is necessary to advance your skill sets and how different this PhD or Master’s will be from the existing degree that you hold. This document must be uploaded using SAM in the OMSAS Application.

You must meet the admission requirements for both programs (both the MD and PhD programs or the MD and MSc programs) and will be assessed for eligibility for admission by each program. All components of the main MD application and the supplemental pieces for the combined MD/PhD and MD/MSc programs must be completed in order to be considered.

MMTP applicants are not eligible for this combined program.

If you apply to the MD/PhD-MD/Master’s combined program, then you are not eligible to apply to the:

• MMTP stream or the
• Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine program.

Note: There are different eligibility and application requirements for the MD component and the PhD or MSc component of this combined program. Ensure that you review our How to Apply page as well as the MD/PhD and MD/MSc website.

Further information and additional eligibility requirements »  (Please be advised that the MD/PhD and MD/Master's Program website is currently undergoing updates and is expected to be relaunched by the last week of August 2023.) 

The Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program is a new, first-in-Canada medical education model specifically designed to address the shortage of family doctors. It aims to graduate practice-ready, community-focused physicians able to provide comprehensive care to patients in southeastern Ontario. The program will be based at the Queen’s satellite campus at Lakeridge Health in Durham Region.

Further information and additional eligibility requirements »