McMaster MMI: Medicine Interview Guide 2027

McMaster MMI: Medicine Interview Guide 2027

At McMaster, the Multiple Mini Interview is 70% of the formula that decides offers. GPA and MCAT CARS make up the other 15% each, and Casper, which carries 32% of the invitation formula, is not in the offer formula at all. McMaster publishes these weights as graphics with no cycle year on them.

That one published fact should set your preparation. Once you hold an interview invitation, nothing else you control moves the outcome as much as the MMI does. And McMaster, which pioneered the format, tells you what its stations cover: six themes, one of them "Awareness of Social Health Issues in Canada". A question list built for US schools will not practise that one.

Every McMaster, Acuity Insights and Government of Canada page quoted below was checked on November 7, 2026. McMaster's page lists the 2027 virtual MMI dates as "To be announced", so watch your email and the After You Apply page for them.

The numbers McMaster publishes

McMaster's MD is a three-year program that "admits 217 students annually, distributed as 153 to the Hamilton Campus, and 32 each to the regional campuses" (Admissions). Its selection formulae are published as two graphics with no cycle year printed on them (the image files sit in an April 2024 upload folder). We read the percentages from the images on November 7, 2026:

"Approximately 570 applicants will be invited for an interview in March of the year of entry." Against 217 seats, that is about 38 seats per 100 interviewees (our arithmetic). Offers can exceed seats when people decline, and McMaster does not publish its offer count.

The rest of the published calendar, from McMaster's How to Apply page:

• Late January/Early February: "Interview decisions sent."
• March: "MMI Interviews."
• Second Tuesday of May: "Admissions decisions are sent by email to all interviewees." For 2027, the second Tuesday of May is May 11 (our calendar count).

Two rules for after the decision: "No appeal procedure is available", but an applicant who believes a decision is incorrect "may, within one week of receiving the decision" ask for a review in writing to the MD Admission Office. McMaster is also "unable to provide individualized feedback regarding the assessment of your file."

Who is in the room with you matters too. McMaster's Who Should Apply page says: "Effective July 1, 2025, all publicly assisted universities in Ontario are required to reserve no less than 95% of their annual admissions to medical health education programs for Ontario residents and the remaining 5% for Canadian citizens, permanent residents or protected persons/convention refugees."

Casper's place in McMaster selection

McMaster's Before You Apply page says "All applicants to the UGME program are required to complete Casper to be eligible for admission." It describes the test as "Made up of two sections, typed and video responses", "Made up of 11 scenarios", "65-85 minutes in length, with breaks" and "Scored by a group of human raters". You reserve "Casper 2 (CSP-10211)", and "Applicants are not required to complete Duet."

Acuity Insights' Casper page gives the split: video responses for "4 scenarios" and typed responses for "7 scenarios", each typed scenario with "2 open-ended questions per scenario, presented on the same page" and "3.5 minutes total to respond to both questions".

Our view: Casper gets you into the room and then leaves the formula, so do not keep practising Casper after your invitation arrives. The habits overlap (explain your reasoning, consider other people's views), but the MMI is spoken, live and scored on its own. For typed and video Casper practice, see Casper test examples, typed and video.

What McMaster's stations cover

McMaster's description, from the After You Apply page: "During the MMI, applicants will move between interview "stations" in a circuit. The stations deal with a variety of issues, which may include but are not limited to:"

1. Communication
2. Critical Thinking
3. Ethical Decision Making
4. Awareness of Social Health Issues in Canada
5. Personal Qualities
6. Current Topics

And: "Applicants are not assessed on their scientific knowledge."

McMaster explains why it built the format: "Researchers at McMaster University hypothesized that increasing the number of encounters for each interviewed applicant would lead to a more reliable assessment of the individual." Each station is a separate encounter, so one weak station is one reading among several.

Unknown: McMaster's page does not publish the number of stations, the time per station or the scoring scale for 2027. Do not trust a prep page that states them as McMaster's.

The Canadian content you need

Theme 4 needs Canadian content. Start with two primary sources.

• The Canada Health Act. Section 7 of the Act sets the criteria a provincial plan must meet for full federal cash contributions: "(a) public administration; (b) comprehensiveness; (c) universality; (d) portability; and (e) accessibility." Know what each word means before you argue about wait times or private payment.
• Indigenous health. McMaster's own FAQ ties its Facilitated Indigenous Admissions Program to "the goals set forth in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada's Calls to Action". Our sibling page on Canadian health care and Indigenous health interview questions covers that ground.

Three constructed practice stations

None of these is a real McMaster station; McMaster does not publish its stations. Each is built on one of the six published themes.

Constructed station 1: resource allocation in Ontario

Constructed example, written by us, not a real McMaster station or a real applicant's answer.

Prompt (constructed): A community health centre in a mid-sized Ontario city receives one-time funding for a single new program. The board must choose between a diabetes foot-care clinic for older adults and a mental health walk-in service for youth. You are advising the board. What do you recommend, and why?

Answer (constructed, 158 words): "I'd start by asking what the board knows about need in its own population, because the right answer depends on who is going without care now. I'd want three things: how many people each program would reach, what happens to them if the program doesn't exist, and whether anyone else in the city already offers either service. Either way, one group goes without: older adults whose foot problems go unchecked, or young people in crisis with nowhere to walk in. If I had to choose without data, I'd lean toward whichever service has no alternative in the city, because the Canada Health Act's accessibility criterion is about reasonable access to care. But I'd also tell the board that a one-time grant can start a program it can't sustain, so I'd ask which option could keep running after the money ends. Finally, I'd want the people affected, older adults and young people, asked before the board votes."

Why it works against McMaster's themes: it reasons before it decides (Critical Thinking), names the harm on both sides (Ethical Decision Making), uses one accurate Canadian principle without lecturing (Awareness of Social Health Issues in Canada), and ends with the people affected. It never claims a statistic it cannot source.

Constructed station 2: a communication station

Constructed example, written by us, not a real McMaster station.

Prompt (constructed): You are a medical student on a team project. A classmate has missed two meetings and the presentation is in three days. They message you saying they are "fine" and will catch up. You are about to meet them.

Answer outline (constructed): open by asking how they are, not about the project; name the deadline once and plainly; offer one concrete split of the remaining work; agree what you will both tell the supervisor if the date cannot be met. The skill tested is Communication: getting the facts and the person's state into the same conversation.

Constructed station 3: a current topic

Constructed example, written by us, not a real McMaster station.

Prompt (constructed): Some people argue that patients should be able to pay privately for faster diagnostic imaging. Discuss.

Answer outline (constructed): define the question before taking a side; use the Act's universality and accessibility criteria to frame what is at stake; give the strongest argument on each side; say where you land and what evidence would change your mind. Do not cite wait-time numbers you have not read on a government page.

A two-week plan once your invitation arrives

1. Day 1: read the After You Apply page again, note the accommodation rule (requests "at least one month prior to the first interview date") and check your email for the 2027 dates.
2. Days 2–4: read section 7 of the Canada Health Act and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's health-related Calls to Action in the original.
3. Days 5–9: do two timed practice stations a day, one per theme, rotating through all six. Use the MMI questions and sample answers bank for non-Canadian themes.
4. Days 10–12: run a full virtual mock with a friend on the device and room you will use.
5. Days 13–14: stop adding content. Rehearse your opening sentences and sleep.

Questions about the McMaster MMI

Is the 2027 McMaster MMI virtual?

McMaster's page heads its date line "2027 Virtual MMI Dates" and lists them as "To be announced".

Does Casper matter after I'm invited?

Not in the published offer formula. Formula 2 is MMI 70%, GPA 15% and MCAT CARS 15%.

Do I need to know medical science?

No. McMaster says: "Applicants are not assessed on their scientific knowledge."

Can I get feedback if I'm not admitted?

McMaster says it is "unable to provide individualized feedback regarding the assessment of your file". You can request a review within one week if you believe the decision is incorrect.

How is this different from the U of T interview?

U of T uses its own format, the Modified Personal Interview. See U of T medicine MPI format and examples.

Review the writing you send next

If May brings a refusal or a waitlist that does not move, your next writing is a new OMSAS application, which McMaster says opens in early July. Get a free Quick Review of your OMSAS Autobiographical Sketch entries against GradPilot's OMSAS ABS rubric; it checks that each entry shows your own part, backs its claim with specific evidence and fits its field.

More Ontario medicine guides:

• OMSAS Autobiographical Sketch guide for 2027: what the ABS asks and how entries are read.
• Canadian medical school interview dates and formats for 2027: McMaster beside the other schools.
• Medical schools that use the MMI: the format beyond Canada.
• All medical school essay guides. McMaster sends results on the second Tuesday in May; the Canadian medical school waitlist and offers 2027 page covers what happens next.

Sources

Retrieved November 7, 2026, except where noted.

• McMaster University, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, Admissions: program length and seats by campus.
• McMaster University, After You Apply (selection formula graphics carry no cycle year; 2027 MMI dates "To be announced"): formulae, interview count, MMI themes, offers, review rule, feedback.
• McMaster University, How to Apply: application cycle timeline.
• McMaster University, Before You Apply: Casper requirement and format as McMaster describes it.
• McMaster University, Who Should Apply: Ontario 95% residency rule effective July 1, 2025.
• McMaster University, FAQ: Facilitated Indigenous Admissions Program and the TRC Calls to Action.
• Acuity Insights, Casper: sections, scenarios and typed-response timing.
• Government of Canada, Justice Laws, Canada Health Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-6: section 7 program criteria.