Do mature students get accepted to medical school on the same criteria as younger students?

[523206720]

My friend got accepted into university for biology but changed his major after 1 year to economics. then he got a graduate degree in economics. As far as I know, he never completed his degree in biology. He worked as a financial analyst for the government, and then quit his job to work as a psychic, then worked as a financial consultant. Then he applied to medical school and got accepted. I don't understand how somebody can do well on the MCAT when they only completed 1 year of study in biology - well enough to get accepted even into the University of Toronto for Medicine (a school that only accepts 200 medical students a year) out of 60 000 - 70 000 overall students. (I knew a guy who got into Harvard but was rejected by U of T). I have no idea how he got into medical school unless he redid his degree in biology and never told anybody about it.

[Hans222]

That's unbelievable indeed. The only thing I could imagine is that the fact he managed to complete his economics studies after having been in biology the first year, means he can adapt to change. And they may have seen that as a strong point.
But it's so strange... I'm afraid he may have "known someone" and it's been arranged.

[RasmusAiken]

Life experience can count for a lot when applying for med school. Still he'd have to score well on the MCAT which requires advanced knowledge of math, physics, biology and chemistry. I'm guessing he was a fairly brilliant guy to begin with.

[Watermelonoma]

no, if you apply as a mature student, you'll often get treated with slightly easier criteria, particularly if you are coming from a masters or phD. The criteria is of coarse, different for every med school, so you should call them up

[Anonymous]

You don't need a bio degree to et into med school. Med schools are looking for brilliant people with unique backgrounds and stories and it seems your friend perfectly fit the bill.

[Anonymous]

yes they do.