UBC is a great place to study medicine! The medical school has a 50-year history of facilitating learning - learning that is student centered, evidence-based, innovative, and relevant for the 21st century. Our mission is to advance the knowledge, understanding, and health of our society through education, scholarship, and health care. In all these things, we strive for excellence. If you are intelligent, mature and highly motivated, have integrity, common sense, and are dedicated to life-long learning and service, then this may be the program for you.

The UBC medical school seeks applicants with a variety of undergraduate concentrations and diverse backgrounds. All applications are given careful consideration, without regard to age, gender, race, religion, and marital or economic status. All applicants must complete a minimum of three years at any accredited university or college. The MD program consists of a further four years of study.

The UBC Faculty of Medicine offers expert specializations in cancer research; cardiovascular research; child, maternal and women's health; health care research, genetics; immunology, infectious diseases; neurosciences; protein structure and engineering; and pulmonary research.

The UBC Housing Department - http://www.housing.ubc.ca - offers everything from shared dormitory rooms to four-bedroom townhouses.

Fall Orientation takes place every August for incoming graduate students.

The UBC Faculty of Medicine hosts an information page for the Health Professions Education Research Network at http://www.med.ubc.ca/communities/hpern.htm

UBC's athletics and sport services administer one of Canada's most successful inter-university athletic programs. UBC has won 50 Canadian Inter-University Sport (CIS) Championships. UBC's intramural sports and recreation program is the largest in Canada, offering students an opportunity to participate in everything from martial arts to marathons, with popular annual traditions such as Day of the Longboat and Storm the Wall. Facilities include the Winter Sports Centre, the War Memorial Gymnasium, Aquatic Centre, and the new Student Recreation Centre, one of the country's finest university fitness centres.

UBC's Alma Mater Society maintains over 250 student run clubs, which cater to a wide variety of academic and social interests, including ethnic and cultural clubs, student resource groups, athletic clubs, political clubs, academic/departmental clubs, recreational/special interest clubs, and religious clubs.

UBC Library offers students free direct access to the Internet. Most on-campus residences have access to the Internet over phone lines and both first- and second-year undergraduate residences have Ethernet connection to the Internet. Today, the UBC campus provides students, faculty, and staff at UBC with one of the largest wireless computer networks in North America, which means a seamless connection to the Web, instant e-mail, and constant access to the growing resources of the UBC network. Wireless access now covers the majority of campus with more areas being added all the time.

Facilities include the Asian Centre, Botanical Gardens, the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, the Herbarium, the Museum of Anthropology, the M.Y. Williams Geological Museum, Norman MacKenzie Centre for the Arts, the North East Pacific Culture Collection, the UBC Fine Arts Gallery, and the Zoological Museum.

The University strives to be accessible to all members of society and provides support for students with special needs through the Disability Resource Centre (DRC), which offers services such as interpreting, captioning, note taking, reading, peer tutoring, book retrieval, equipment provision, and mobility assistance for students, faculty, and staff with disabilities. Other support units include the First Nations House of Learning, which aims to provide a quality post-secondary education determined by the philosophies and values of British Columbia's First People, the Rick Hansen National Fellow Program, the Equity Office, and the Women Students' Office (offering counseling, advocacy, safer campus programs, etc.).

UBC is committed to internationalization and has forged numerous international linkages for research and scholarly endeavours. Through International Student Services and International House, the University provides a full range of reception, advising, and social cultural services to more than 2,300 international students whose presence contributes to the stimulating intellectual environment of the University. Established student exchange programs with more than 150 partner universities in 40 countries enable UBC students to obtain transfer credit for two terms of course work taken at one of UBC's partner universities. Canadian exchanges with other universities in Canada are also available.