400% hike in incoming Black medical students at McGill University

A year ago, fewer than 2% of those admitted to McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (one of the top medical schools in the country) were Black. A typical incoming class had fewer than 5 Black students, a situation that has existed for many years. “When I was younger and thought about working in medicine, I didn’t think it was possible. You just didn’t see doctors who looked like me,” recalled Victoire Kpadé, who graduated from McGill’s undergraduate medical program in the spring of 2022. Thanks to initiatives such as the McGill Black Candidate Pathway and the Community of Support Program whose goal is to increase the number of Black students within medicine, McGill’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences saw a 400 % increase in the number of incoming Black medical students in the Fall of 2022, with 24 Black students among the incoming group of 200 new medical students. To encourage applications from prospective Black students, they are offered the option of submitting a personal statement about how their identity has impacted their path to medical school in their application. They can also access mentoring from current medical students.