The short answer is: it depends on which med school you are applying to. Physics is required by some Canadian med school programs, tested on the MCAT, and expected as a prerequisite by a handful of institutions, but it is not a universal requirement across every Canadian medical school. The longer answer, which is the one actually worth reading before you plan your undergraduate course schedule, is that physics matters more than most pre-med students expect, even at schools that do not list it as a hard prerequisite. If you want to protect your options and perform well on the MCAT, one year of university-level physics is a decision you are unlikely to regret.
Still with us? Good, because this is one of those questions where the nuance actually matters. Whether you are building your course schedule in first year, reconsidering your second-year electives, or just trying to understand what med school admissions committees are actually looking for, this guide gives you the clearest possible picture of what physics means for your application across Canada.
Why Physics Comes Up in Med School Conversations at All
Here is what a lot of pre-med students are surprised to discover: physics shows up on the MCAT whether or not your target med school lists it as an admissions prerequisite. The Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems section of the MCAT tests content from both general chemistry and physics, including mechanics, fluids, optics, electrostatics, and waves. You do not get to opt out of those questions because your school does not require physics as a course. The MCAT tests it regardless.
That means even if you identify a Canadian med school that does not formally require physics as a prerequisite, skipping the course entirely and trying to learn physics concepts from scratch while studying for the MCAT is a strategy that tends to backfire. The students who perform most confidently on the physics-based MCAT content are almost always the ones who took a university physics course beforehand, worked through problem sets, and built actual familiarity with the material in a structured learning environment.
So before you decide physics is optional for you specifically, ask yourself: do I want to walk into an MCAT physics passage having studied it properly, or do I want to be scrambling through content review hoping it is enough? Most medical students who have been through this process would give you the same answer.
UofT Med School Requirements
Let us talk specifics, starting with one of the most competitive and closely watched programs in the country. The University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine is among the most applied-to med school programs in Canada, and understanding exactly what it expects from applicants saves you from planning around outdated assumptions.
UofT does not publish a rigid list of required prerequisite courses in the same way that some American medical schools do. Instead, the program takes a holistic view of academic preparation and expects applicants to have completed a full undergraduate degree before applying. That said, UofT med school requirements include a strong academic record across science and non-science coursework, competitive MCAT scores, and evidence of the personal and professional qualities assessed through the Casper test and multiple mini-interviews.
Because UofT does not mandate specific prerequisite courses, some applicants interpret this as permission to skip science electives like physics entirely. That interpretation is risky for two reasons. First, MCAT content coverage is essentially unavoidable, so any science course that appears on the MCAT is worth taking properly before you write it. Second, a strong undergraduate transcript demonstrates academic breadth, and a schedule that avoids quantitative and physical science courses can look thinner than one that engages them directly.
The practical guidance for UofT applicants is this: take physics. It covers MCAT content, rounds out your academic profile, and gives you no disadvantage. Skipping it in hopes of a lighter semester saves you a course but costs you preparation you will need anyway.
Canadian Med Schools Requirements
Now let us zoom out and look at the broader picture across Canadian med school programs, because the variation in requirements from province to province is wider than most students realize.
Some Canadian med school programs do list physics explicitly among their expected or required prerequisites. McMaster University’s DeGroote School of Medicine, for example, has historically expected applicants to have a strong MCAT score with competitive performance across all sections, which makes physics preparation effectively necessary even if the word physics does not appear in the admissions checklist. The University of British Columbia requires applicants to have completed a strong foundation in the biological and physical sciences, and the MCAT remains the primary standardized measure of that preparation.
Programs at Dalhousie, Queen’s, Ottawa, Calgary, Alberta, and Manitoba each have their own admissions frameworks, and the degree to which physics is formally listed varies. What remains consistent across virtually all Canadian med school programs is that the MCAT is required, the MCAT tests physics content, and a competitive MCAT score is one of the most important components of a successful application.
Beyond the MCAT dimension, some programs do explicitly require physics as a course. Applicants who discover mid-application that they are missing a required course face an unpleasant choice between delaying their application by a year to complete the missing prerequisite or narrowing their list of target programs. Doing the research early, ideally in first year of undergraduate studies, protects you from that scenario entirely.
The most reliable approach for any pre-med student navigating Canadian med school requirements is to compile a requirements list for every school you are seriously considering, identify the overlap in prerequisites, and build a course schedule that satisfies the most comprehensive version of those requirements. Physics almost always makes that list.
What Physics Actually Teaches You That Medicine Uses
This is a question worth sitting with, because the answer is more practical than you might expect. Physics teaches you how to think quantitatively about physical systems, and medicine is full of physical systems. Blood pressure is a fluid mechanics problem. The mechanics of breathing involve pressure and volume relationships straight out of a physics course. Cardiac electrical activity involves concepts from electrostatics. Imaging modalities including X-ray, MRI, and ultrasound are built on physics principles that are far more intuitive if you have studied them formally.
You do not need to remember every equation from a first-year physics course to become a good physician. But the reasoning skills and quantitative comfort that physics builds are exactly the kind of thinking that med school curricula assume you have when they throw you into anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology in first year.
Medical students who skipped quantitative science courses before med school often describe feeling underprepared not because they lack intelligence, but because they never built the habit of working through problems that require precise, step-by-step physical reasoning. Physics builds that habit. It is not a pleasant course for everyone, but very few medical students look back and wish they had skipped it.
Planning Your Pre-Med Schedule Around Physics
If you are in your first year and building your undergraduate schedule, here is a direct recommendation: take physics in your second year at the latest, so you have the content covered well before you write the MCAT. Pairing it with general chemistry in the same year is common and manageable for most students.
If you are in third year and have not taken physics yet, you still have time, but it is worth moving deliberately. Register for a physics sequence that fits within your remaining undergraduate timeline and plan your MCAT date for after you have completed it. Rushing physics content review alongside full MCAT preparation is harder than most students anticipate.
If you are in a medical residency program and reflecting back on your pre-med preparation, you likely already know whether physics served you well in your training. Many residents report that the quantitative reasoning skills from undergraduate science courses surfaced in unexpected ways throughout med school and into clinical training, reinforcing why that foundation matters even when the connection is not immediately obvious.
For detailed and up-to-date information on prerequisites across Canadian medical schools, the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada is the most reliable national source and is worth bookmarking early in your pre-med journey.
Final Thoughts
Do you need physics for med school? In most cases, yes, and even where it is not formally required, the practical case for taking it remains strong. The MCAT tests it, the clinical reasoning it builds is genuinely useful, and skipping it to save yourself one undergraduate course is rarely the time-saving move it appears to be.
Plan ahead, take the course, and give yourself the strongest possible foundation going into one of the most demanding educational experiences of your life.
If you are preparing for med school in Canada and want structured support at every stage of your journey, from MCAT preparation to application strategy and beyond, MDconsultants Prep offers expert resources designed specifically for future Canadian physicians.
