HalfBaked

Laval prend toujours plus de temps que les autres à créer le groupe, parce que les initiations prennent un peu plus de temps à organiser et on commence 2-3 semaines plus tard que les autres! Mais ça va surement arriver fin juillet/début août et tu pourras stalk les têtes que tu verras pour les 4-5 prochaines années

Hey, changer d'université en cours de doctorat est impossible. Mais tu peux appliquer aux programme de résidence où tu veux, donc si après ton doctorat tu désires aller à McGill pour ta résidence, cela sera très faisable selon le programme de résidence et la « compétitivité » de ton dossier.

Durant mes années de cégep, j'ai participé à un projet qui avaient pour but de sensibiliser les élèves du secondaire à leur réussite en sciences de la santé. Je me rappelle que le premier questionnement que mes co-présentatrices et moi avions eu était de savoir si l'IFG des cégeps changeait quoi que ce soit à l'obtention d'une bonne côte R ou bien si certains cégep étaient un meilleur tremplin pour médecine. On en avait parlé avec un conseiller d'orientation de notre cégep. Il a été assez gentil pour nous laisser voir les statistiques d'admission qui sont compilées par le MELS. Ce sont des informations qui ne sont jamais partagées avec le public pour des raisons x. Mais le fait est que peu importe le cégep le taux d'étudiants admis en médecine était plutôt constant. Dans les cégep de Montréal (maisonneuve, bois de boulogne, ahuntsic, dawson, mariannapolis) le nombre d'étudiants admis semblaient varier de +/- 3 étudiants entre les cégep. Et chaque année les chiffres changeait un peu, par exemple parfois bois de boulogne avait 1-2 étudiante de plus que maisonneuve et l'année d'après c'était maisonneuve qui en avait 1-2 de plus. En bref, selon les données que j'ai pu analyser, le cégep semblait avoir une influence non-significative sur les possibilités d'entrer en médecine. C'est de cette observation que je conclue que la côte R ne dépend que très peu du cégep en soi. En bou de ligne, si ces statistiques nous apprennent une seule chose, c'est que l'essentiel est le travail que l'étudiant fourni et que les éléments externes influencent que très peu sa réussite. Le seul élément extrinsèque à l'étudiant qui peut le favoriser/défavoriser à mon avis, et sa provenance du secondaire, puisque certains secondaires forment beaucoup mieux leurs étudiants pour les sciences de la santé que d'autres, malheureusement.

I agree with snowmen, your first priority is the proximity of the cegep. Sure some cegep will have higher IFG that can raise the R score, but it will also be more difficult to be above average. Anyway R score is there to factor in differences you can find between cegeps, it's not perfect, but it's good enough so you don't have to worry about which cégep will get you the best R Score. What really matters is : 1. Proximity (don't waste time with transport you can use to study) 2. Resources offered (tutors, special rooms where you can work and ask question about a certain subject, libraries, clubs, other support tools) Visit the cegeps, talk to the students and ask about teachers, exams, ambiance, if the library is study friendly (some libs are never quiet), the resources they offer and if they ever used them. Like seriously, go find students and ask, dont get sucked in tours, director speeches, and cute booths about dissecting frogs/cats. Find the students and ask all the crunchy questions: bad experiences? what were they? And I want to say Maisonneuve is an amazing cegep. It is truly disheartening to see their reputation tarnish this way. I went there like 7 years ago, and just recently, I still talked to some of their administration members and professors. I have never seen people that devoted to make their students succeed. They will literally do all that is necessary. We have locals open 8 hours a day with at every minute a teacher there so you can ask every question possible. The students are amazing, not competitive to the point where you can no longer be helped or help others. Maisonneuve is a great cegep, but it's too far from you. In your situation, I suggest Dawson. Even with a lot of students, you can make meaningful interactions with your teachers. My first semester philosophy teacher and I still talk over coffee sometimes and my cegep was filled with 6000 students. Just be motivated and curious!

I tried with prep101 and I'm very glad I did!! I want to say I am in no way affiliated with them. I don't work for them, know no one working for them. I just had an amazing experience with them. Reason 1: Their repeat policy For many reasons, I ended up taking my Mcat 3 times and being with prep 101 really saved me a lot of stress because of their repeat-policy. You can retake their classes as much as you want and they wont charge you anything. I was afraid the first year that they would find a way or a loophole to make me pay more but they never did and it was very simple. I just sent an email saying I wanted to do the prep classes again and they added me on the list. That was a blessing because when I started it cost around 1200$ now it's around 2200$, so their repeat policy saved me a lot of money and stress! I bought the books again, but they didn't ask me to do it, I did it on my own free will. Reason 2: The material provided They make their own material and their price cover all the EK books and NS full length exams. And since they are not a "brand name" company like Kaplan or TPR, they aren't afraid of telling you to go look for other resources than EK and NS and they recommend them based on your needs. They offer classroom notes that are truly a blessing because they are very succinct, they have loads of schemas/table (which is my way of studying) and they offer a lot of tips to memorize things. I did my own resumes based a lot on their notes. I tried other companies for reading material and I always found EK to be the most helpful and easy to read/understand. Also tried a lot of companies for full length tests and NS was the most representative of the real Mcat. So for me prep101 offered everything I needed. Reason 3: They have amazing teachers Their teachers are assessed by students before they are employed. And I come from a city where the Mcat is not all that popular (not mandatory to apply in med). So I was scared my teachers wouldn't be as good as in other city where the Mcat is more of a thing. But, no, I had the most amazing teachers ever. They were soooo great. I never thought I could understand organic chemistry so easily. And the thing is, if there is a teacher you and your group find difficult to follow or dont like for a reason, you can just email them and they will find an experienced teacher with good reviews in another city and fly him/her right over your city to give you the classes. Never had to happen, but for me, knowing they could do it, that was really reassuring. Teachers will also complete your material by giving you their own advices, some will make resumes of the class than can hold on a single page at the end. They will give you advices that transcends the mcat and go to personal hygiene (sleep pattern, eating behaviour, etc) to follow to be on top for the mcat or their tips for when you'll be applying for medschool. Reason 4: they offer amazing flexibility Each class is offered twice per week (one in the evening on week days, the other on the week-end). For me it was a life saver because sometimes I couldn't make it to a class and still had the option of going to the other. Also, my first year i was doing a lot of research so my schedule was a bit hectic, so their flexibility was very helpful. So yeah, those were my principal reasons for loving my experience with prep 101. I also appreciated the structure it offered and having a teacher I could ask questions to. Having done all my science classes in french, I was a bit stressed of how this would affect my performance. But they were very helpful through it all. Hope this helps, good luck!

Je pense pas qu'ils aient reçu leur CRU mais leur gpa était autour de 3.7-3.9

Je sais pas, mais je suis bouche-bée. J'ai eu plein d'amis en nutrition qui ont appliqué cette année et aucun n'a été convoqué aux MEM à udem/sherbrooke mais plusieurs à Ulaval parce que le programme semble mieux côté là-bas. Je tombe des nues et c'est plutôt frustrant parce que garder une gpa en haut de 3,7 en nutrition c'est pas facilement gagné.

Si ça peut en guider certains, ma CRU UdeM était de 32,8 pour une gpa de 3,75 en nutrition (bac complété, donc oui, ça comprend le bonus Je suis comme légèrement un peu choquée parce que selon le premier post 3,7 en physio donne 34 et au niveau difficulté c'est équivalent. On a quand même 1600 heures de stages noté et deux sessions condensées à 17 crédits. Je ne veux pas ranimer un débat de quel programme est plus difficile, mais est-ce que c'est moi ou pour un programme en santé c'est vraiment pas avantageux comme conversion gpa-CRU?

Regarde quand même la structure des deux programmes et les cours dans chaque. Prend le programme avec lequel tu te sens le plus à l'aise. Pour avoir des ami(e)s en réadaptation (ergo/physio), le rythme et la charge de travail sont très lourds et intenses. Le programme de biochimie a surement se propres challenges aussi (plus de laboratoires). Même si physio semble plus stable en terme de CRU, je pense que le mieux est de choisir un programme où tu sens que tu as les meilleures chances d'avoir les meilleures notes, selon tes intérêts, tes forces et tes faiblesses. Si tu penses que biochimie est un programme où tu es plus à l'aise avec les notions et les types de cours, alors biochimie serait un meilleur choix que physio. Si les cours en physio t'inspirent plus, prend physio. La facilité et l'intérêt que tu auras plus tes cours risquent d'être plus déterminants de ta CRU que les différences potentiellement minimes de conversion de CRU entre biochimie et physio.

Everything Arztin said is just gold on this matter. The only nuance I'd like to add to other comments is the idea helping in Canada or helping elsewhere is not mutually exclusive. You can both help our indigenous communities as well as go in another country to help other communities. But wherever you go, you need a strong background and formation before going and it has to be supervised and lead by more experienced local professionals. Also very important, you need an extensive formation on the country you are headed to, to really understand their reality and become very culturally sensitive to their perspectives on health. Your actions have to be ethical no matter what your environment is. You wouldn't just go in just any Toronto hospital and start helping out surgeons, because you know you would be endangering patients with your lack of knowledge and competency. Then why take the risk elsewhere? Are their lives less important? I'm pretty sure no one is thinking that while volunteering abroad, but that is the underlying message I perceive unfortunately. And even if you just stand there and watch. You're telling me a patient may have to sit through one of the worst moments of his life, where he'll feel the most vulnerable and scared... being observed by a group of kids who probably won't understand much more of what is happening than him? All of that just so they can write in their personal essay and gush in their interview of how this experience completely transformed them and opened their eyes on some medical realities in other parts of the world? I'm really sorry for how harsh this may sound, I really don't want to judge people doing it, but I find their actions careless and thoughtless nonetheless. I remember in some of my internships at the hospital, where I would follow and observe a dietitian, I noticed how a couple of patients were at first uncomfortable by my presence. But they understood why I was there, they knew my presence was required so I could learn and become a RD myself. But why should patients in other countries suffer the presence of unexperienced students if it is not to form professionals that will help their own society? When I finished my dietetics/nutrition degree, some of my fellow classmates went to Benin to give nutrition classes to other health professionals there. The whole program was based on a long-lasting partnership between our two universities. It was overseen by a RD and they had classes/activities all year to learn the local culture and food customs. When I asked them for feedback on the experience thinking of doing something similar myself, they told me that they felt awkward most of the time because they were giving them advices and knowledge based on their experiences and studies in Canada, that did not really apply to the local realities. This taught me that with all the care we may take when trying to avoid a paternalist approach of humanitarian help, the risks are still present for us perpetuating neocolonialist stereotypes. And I believe in humanitarian help. I think international collaboration in health can be crucial, mostly when dealing with "acute health crisis" like what Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross are doing. But I also believe we have to thoroughly think our approach so it can be helpful, adapted and anchored in a perspective of knowledge transfer rather of than this sort of dominant-dominee relationship where one country is almighty with knowledge and resources, and the other just passively waiting to be helped. Many sociologues, doctors and other professionals are working on it. And I'm pretty sure premeds students paying 3k to shadow in the morning, sunbath in the afternoon, are not what they have in mind.