Queens Science (Life science) undergrad .. any comments?

[Guest Alastriss]

High, I'm a high school student who is strongly considering studying Science, with my major interest being Life sciences, at Queens university.

I would like to know more about class sizes, teaching styles, and all about the lab courses that you have to take.

[Guest 007]

Hey,

I just finished 3rd year Life Sci at Queen's...

 

Personally I love it, but it is a lot of work.

 

Class sizes...big in first year for the most part. I think the biggest auditorium is for about 3-400 people, but you really do get used to that sort of size (or at least I did). However, my 1st year English class was only 45 people. This past year, I still had several large classes but more classes in the 40-80 person range. I don't find the large classes to be a problem because usually for those classes you have labs associated with them, so you do get to work in smaller groups and get to know profs or TAs and classmates. Also, by 3rd year, you do know most of the 200 people in your program so that aspect isn't really overwhelming anymore.

 

Teaching styles...yeah, there are some crummy profs, but that's a subjective thing and usually you don't have a bad prof for more than a few weeks. Most of them are great. Usually they either have powerpoint presentations with courseware notes (preprinted) or the info online for you to print out and follow along with OR they have overheads that they either write on or have prepared for you to copy from. Then for my English and 2nd year anatomy courses they just talk and it's up to you to write down what you feel is relevant.

 

Lab courses...I'm not sure if this is true, but apparently we graduate with something like upto 800 hours of lab time. Personally, I love labs and don't mind the write ups, but a lot of my friends do....and we do have a lot of them. They changed the first year bio course though after my year so now you only have labs in second semester. Ultimately, you'll have labs in 1st year bio, chem (these ones are a joke), and physics. 2nd year you have labs in anatomy (no write ups), physiology (not mandatory, but super fun and really help with the mcat and there are no write ups), organic chem, genetics (essentially the labs are a course on their own :x ), and microbiology (only 3 write ups). By 3rd and 4th year, with the exception of pharmacology, labs really depend on what courses you take. I find there are fewer labs, but more group projects.

 

Feel free to ask me more questions or send me an email.

 

007

[Guest knifeparty43]

watch out for Dino Bill...the man lacks basic hygiene...

[Guest Gunz4Sale]

Yeah man, Dino Bill (first year Bio) looks like he may smell funky and up close...HE DOES SMELL FUNKY!

 

On the bright side, he might just lace you a dime sac or take you to Shaker's Lounge between classes.

 

Queen's Life Sci is a lot of work but it'll prepare you well for med school - if you can get in after getting GPA gang-banged by orgo and biochem. Those who do get in find they are better prepared than most for Meds.

 

Just make sure you study your notes and don't make friends with this guy named Jack.........................Daniels.

[Guest knifeparty43]

Oh yeah,

 

and try not to get distracted by all da poontang lying around

[Guest californicator]

dinobill is such a nice guy. i hate to see him ravaged here

[Guest knifeparty43]

Dr. MacKenzie looks like Dr. Zoidberg from futurama...

 

woob woob woob woob woob woob woob!

[Guest Gunz4Sale]

He has also been described as the "Hulkster", what with his balding blonde/white mullet, his handlebar goatee and his country grammar.

 

Seriously though, one thing I have to say about Mac (who was actually one of my favorite Queen's instructors) and the rest of the Anatomy department at Queen's is that they are some of the nicest, student-friendly teachers we've ever had. If you are into Anatomy, do think of Queen's - great museum too.

[Guest Ian Wong]

Floating to the top...

 

Ian