McGill vs U of T Life Sciences

[thelostgrade12]

Greetings all,

I am new here as a lost grade 12 (thus my username ). I currently have offers from McGill Biochemistry and U of T Life Sciences. With the ultimate goal of getting accepted into U of T Medical School, which one of these two choices is better for me? More specifically, which one offers me the greatest chance of acceptance? As subjective as that is, I still decided to ask the powerful online community. I'm asking these questions based on two conflicting observations I made while searching online:

1. McGill undergrads tend to have higher GPAs. U of T is notorious online for giving low GPAs, but most of the posts aren't from someone who's actually in medical school.

BUT

2. U of T Med School takes almost the same number of students from U of T undergrad as the number of people from the rest of the country. Which means I have statistically less chance of getting in, even with higher GPAs, unless of course fewer people apply from out-of-province (i.e. McGill) than from U of T's own undergrad programs.

So I hereby kindly ask for some input from those who have been through either of these programs (or similar) and offer me, the lost grade 12, some insight. Thank you!

[wishcalculator]

Neither. Go for an easier university, both UofT and McGill are notorious for being hard on the GPA, which is king for med school admissions. 4.0 from Trent= 4.0 from UofT, but the latter is a lot harder to achieve.

I went to Trent and I had interviews at 4 medical schools including U of T. 

[BernieMac]

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[metacarpal]

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[Edict]

If you got into mac health sci go there, if you didn't, i'd probably recommend mcgill over uoft. UofT is harder on grades than McGill is. 

[Instagrammar]

Have you applied to other Universities and been accepted to their programs as well? Is there any particular reason you want to attend McGill or UofT? If it's purely based on international rank, you're in for a bad time. If you fell in love with the program, campus and city, then by all means choose a place where you see yourself being happiest. If school selection is based purely off international rank, I would reconsider your options. Don't get me wrong, UofT and McGill have amazing programs, but there are incredible programs at other places too including Mac LifeSci, Western Med Sci, Guelph Biomed, Queens Life Sci, etc.... every University in Ontario (and Canada) has a reputable science program and will get you where you need to be. 

If you only have those two as options, and are ignoring other considerations (cost of living, distance from family, opportunities for involvement) I would go with McGill for an undergraduate degree. 

 

 

[thelostgrade12]

Thank you all for your responses so far! One question still remains though.

The statistics for the Med School admission shows around the same number of admissions from U of T as the rest of Canada excluding Ontario. The graph I'm referring to is here: http://applymd.utoronto.ca/admission-stats

Does this mean that I have less chance of admission from McGill (i.e. 13 admissions / 200 applicants from all over Canada VS 13 admissions / 50 applicants from U of T itself) or does it only mean that roughly the same number of people apply from the rest of Canada as just U of T itself (i.e. 13 admissions / 50 applicants from all over Canada VS 13 admissions / 50 applicants from U of T itself)? If it's the former, isn't it holistically better to attend U of T just based on what the Med School admission stats say.

If fact, the same trend is here at McGill: https://www.mcgill.ca/medadmissions/prospective/class-profiles. 180 admissions, 166 Quebec residents.

Do these Med Schools favor in-province applicants or is it just because people tend to not want to move to a different city for Med School?

[robclem21]

This has a lot more to do with applicant preferences rather than chances of admission from the medical school. Those who attend UofT likely live close by, have connections and family in the area and therefore want to remain in Toronto, whereas those who live in Quebec are more likely to stay close to home in Montreal.

Medical schools don't discriminate based on where you complete your undergraduate degree so go somewhere where you can be happy, do well academically, and have some good social support.

[thelostgrade12]

6 hours ago, robclem21 said:

This has a lot more to do with applicant preferences rather than chances of admission from the medical school. Those who attend UofT likely live close by, have connections and family in the area and therefore want to remain in Toronto, whereas those who live in Quebec are more likely to stay close to home in Montreal.

Medical schools don't discriminate based on where you complete your undergraduate degree so go somewhere where you can be happy, do well academically, and have some good social support.

Beautiful! Exactly what I need to know. Thank you! This pretty much finalized the decision for me.

Any more opinions are, of course, still welcomed!