MCGILL MEDICAL SCHOOL “DUMBS DOWN” IN ORDER TO ATTRACT MORE FRENCH SPEAKING STUDENTS. SOL SPEAKS BUT GAZETTE DOESN’T LISTEN. COULD BE THAT’S WHY HOME DELIVERY IS DOWN TO $6 A MONTH.
UNPUBLISHED LETTER
Dear Editor,
I am concerned about the decision of the Admissions Department of McGill University (Gazette July 28/10) to remove the MCAT from their standardized admission test to McGill’s Medical School.. At present, almost all Canadian and U.S medical schools require applicants to submit MCAT scores. According to Dr. Saleem Razack, Assistant Dean of Admissions, Quebec would have kept the MCAT if there were a French equivalent of the test. He furthermore claims he had met with MCAT representatives about the possibility of translating the exam into French, but found “it was too complicated”.
That brings into play the question of how solid is a widely-used, highly respected test that cannot be translated? This is a test that has been considered the ‘gold standard’ of testing for admission to Medical Schools across Canada and much of the United States. Harvard University Medical School requires applicants to pass the test. In Canada, two-thirds of our universities use the MCAT. Among the universities who do not use it, we count Universite de Montreal, Laval University and UQAM. If McGill abandons this exam, we are also making the entrance for less qualified anglophones easier. This will nullify the intended benefit to many of the francophones it was intended to help.
The Faculty of Medicine is not a faculty where the quality of graduates is variable. These are the future surgeons who may be operating on us, our children and our grandchildren. In my opinion, this proposal by the Admissions Department clearly means that we are “dumbing down” the level of education in order to attract more francophones to the programme, regardless of what the consequences may be.
Respectfully submitted,
Sol Boxenbaum
Talk show host
Commentator
