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McMaster Health Science vs. Queen's new Health Science + scholarship


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1 minute ago, COMMANDO said:

Queens could give me a full ride with cost of living with all the free money in the world. If my goal is to get into medical school with the least effort possible - you cannot go wrong with Mac. Stats show that all applicants are successful within a year or two from graduation. Many get in after 3rd year (esp at Toronto and Mac), most get in after 4th year and the remaining that didn't get in after a gap year or masters. If youre in Mac BHSc you have to TRY to not get into med school

Well that being said, medical school will be a lot of work, I'm not afraid of having to try to succeed.  

I'm mainly curious if anyone can try and compare the style of learning and anything else really of the new Health Science program at Queens to McMaster's program

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We all know McMaster health sci has an incredibly high success rate of getting students into med (not all are successful, of course, but they seem to be the exception). Why not go to a place with a proven record?

With respect to funding, this is hard to say. If you are financially dependent, OSAP will cover much of your tuition and some of your living expenses (undergrads find shared living spaces for 400-500/month). There are lots of bursaries for financial-need students as well. Otherwise, you go into debt (dont worry, med school will also place you into debt :D, so get used to it!!) for the sake of getting a strong chance of getting into med. Totally worth it 

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The financial benefits of getting into medical school in earlier, or getting into medical school vs not at all will likely outweigh any benefits of a scholarship. A lot of schools have "health science" degrees, but as we all know they are not all the same. Western has a Health Science program but it is very different in scope, intention and goals than the McMaster one. 

I would choose McMaster Health Sci in a heartbeat. Do not underestimate as well the value of the connections and networks you will build by being a Mac Health Sci grad. Mac Health Scis who go to medical school essentially have twice the network of someone who went to a different program and this network will remain useful for your entire career.

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On 4/7/2019 at 10:25 PM, Meridian said:

If you are accepted to MAC HealthSci - go there.   Do not think twice about it if your goal is medical school.     

The Queens program is brand new and an unknown entity at this point.  Don't intentionally be the Guinea Pig.

agree, though sometimes being a guinea pig works out. for example, Mac's new BDC program (biomed discovery & commercialization) basically curved/curves everything when students don't do well because they want program stats to look good (surprise, it is also a BHSc program) 

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On 4/9/2019 at 11:34 AM, waifu4laifu said:

agree, though sometimes being a guinea pig works out. for example, Mac's new BDC program (biomed discovery & commercialization) basically curved/curves everything when students don't do well because they want program stats to look good (surprise, it is also a BHSc program) 

there has to come a point when Mac stops getting away with shit like this.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 4/12/2019 at 4:22 PM, ilikebirds said:

I feel like I’m the only mac health sci student who’s never going to get into med school.

If it helps, I know a couple of perfect GPAers and 99.9% MCATers from Mac Health Sci who also didnt secure a position after multiple years of interviews. The sampling in this forum isnt that great. Keep trying! Im certain it'll eventually work out for you. 

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Coming from a Queen's Life Sciences Grad, I would say that Mac Health Sci may be a better bet if your sole goal is to get into med.

 

Queen's Life Sci was not a very supportive program. Love the school's community (a vast majority of my friends were not in my program), hated the Life Scie/ Biomedical sciences faculty, and the community was odd (a lot of people had a competitive edge but weren't even well off enough to do med). I also know that this new Health Sci program at QU integrates a lot of online learning classes. If you don't like that, then reconsider. I personally found my online classes easy to fall behind in, especially since Queen's is a very social/fun oriented school.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

from the head of the Queen's Health Program himself...that Queen's health program is meant to almost rival that Mac program...and with how competitive it was this first round (thousands of applications and what 200 spots?) it's likely that it will also churn out a competitive set of pre-med applicants. If they gave you 40k as well...I'd go to Queen's

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My sibling is the same predicament and she is going to choose Queens Health Sci. The $ helps and the program on paper seems very similar to Health Sci. Also Queens took 100 vs Mac (220 now) so becoming close with professors seems also easier as well. And honestly at the end of the day, if you were hardworking in HS, this will most likely translate into university and you will be fine either way. 

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On 4/10/2019 at 9:08 PM, nsrdude said:

there has to come a point when Mac stops getting away with shit like this.

Race to the bottom of the barrel. I am actually surprised more schools haven't caught on and made their own health sci degrees like mac does since theyve been so successful with it in the past 13 years. The easier the grades, the more competition, and just let the application money just roll in. Though I guess if there were more programs like mac health sci, the success rate of getting into med would also drop proportionally since theres a bigger pool of health sci grads.

There is one thing I liked that Mac health sci has done and that is bring attention to the fact that 99% of the stuff we learn in undergrad probably isn't that useful to most people and putting that time and energy into networking and doing what health scis do is likely more beneficial.

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