What helps with PhD admission in Canada?

[tramar]

I'm into my first year of masters in medical physics and wondering what criteria do schools look at most when considering applicants? I know for MSc they mostly look at grades (I got rejected at two schools for having a 78 average despite having a lot of research experience). What matters most for PhD? I don't have any publications but I'm hoping to have one within the next year.

 

[fatra2]

A professor that will accept you as his/her student.

 

[maverick_starstrider]

I'd have to disagree a bit with fatra2. The professor/student dichotomy is certainly of fundamental importance in physics but in my observation MEDICAL physics tends to run a bit more like med school and a fair bit less like normal physics. From my understanding most PhD degree granters for med phys tend to be kinda production mills like med schools so I'd imagine a lot of the same criteria that applied for your MSc applied for PhD. But then again, that's just my observation. I'm not actually in med physics (although I've worked with quite a few).

 

[Choppy]

To a certain degree it depends on your school, but generally it's not too different from the M.Sc.

In the program I went through, getting into a Ph.D. program was strongly influenced by your performance in the M.Sc. program. Some students even transferred directly without completing the M.Sc., but this had to be done with the approval of the supervisory committee.

Marks in your graduate courses will generally count for a lot. An excellent performance in your M.Sc. courses can offset a mediocre performance in undergrad. Because the Ph.D. is more research intensive, publications will have an increased importance, especially those in Med Phys or PMB.