Health Science vs. Human Kinetics

[Kiiiwiii]

I was accepted into Honours Bachelors of Health Science and Honours Bachelor of Science in Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. I'm considering these two programs for viable pre-med options so I was wondering if anyone who is a current student is willing to share their experience and opinion on their program. I also have a set of questions that I’d like to ask privately if anyone is willing to reach out. Thank you so much!

[medhopeful02]

Hey, little late but I am a first year human kinetics student at the university of ottawa. It's funny because last year I was in the exact same situation as you, got into both health science and HK and was super conflicted for a long time. I ended up choosing human kinetics because I am also on a varsity team and I liked the physical activity/movement and link to sports that you got with kinesiology. I can't speak much to how the programs are during normal (non-covid) times, but during online HK has been crazy tough. The HK courses are much harder than health science in first year at least.

In HK you take organism biology (really hard course), chem, anatomy, english, cell biology, anatomy/physiology, organic chemistry (really hard), a sociology elective, and two more electives. In health science you take anatomy/physiology 1 and 2, chem, english, determinants of health, psychology, cell bio, microbio/immunology, sociology, and an elective. So in health science you get to avoid two really hard GPA killers (organismal bio and orgo chem), and also the anatomy lab bell-ringers in HK destroy your mark in the course. I also hated the sport sociology elective for HK, terrible prof and sooo much work. 

Also, something to consider is that HK has more labs in upper years and is more practical/theory, whereas health has a lot more essays in third and fourth year. So it depends on what you like more and what you think you can do well in. For me I know that I will enjoy the HK program in future years because I find a lot of the health science courses boring, idk if the interesting program is worth my lower GPA in first year though. But then again a lot of med schools will drop your first year if you apply in fourth year

I know that for med school in Canada that GPA is huge, so in that regard health science is better. But it really depends on you. Honestly I am starting to have regrets about choosing HK because the organismal bio and orgo chem are really dragging down my GPA. 

I think there are some great profs in HK but also some of them are absolutely terrible and heartless. I don't know much about the health science profs. If you look on rate my prof and ask around about the their reputation and make an informed decision, you should be fine either way though.

 

Feel free to message me if you have any specific questions. I am only in first year but I would be happy to help however I can.