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pre-med majors


Guest peachy

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Hey,

 

The meds2006 page is very interesting and helpful. Thanks!

 

I was wondering about the "pre-med majors" list:

 

77 Biol/Life Sci

9 Health-related

8 Arts/Humanities

3 Engineering

2 Education

1 Physical Sciences

 

There's a distinct lack of science majors other than life sciences. Do you think there is a reason for that, other than reflecting the applicant pool? I was surprised not to see even one person in chemistry, computer science, earth science, environmental science, geography, or math, unless they are for some reason swallowed up by a different category.

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Hey peachy,

 

Can't think of any particular reason why, your programme doesn't factor in the selection criteria. (Maybe those non-life sci majors have something against putting a checkmark on a survey under their major when I was compiling the stats? Those numbers are in percentages converted from the number of checkmarks.) Off the top of my head though, we do have at least one "computer engineering" grad as one of the 3 engineerings. There are also a few who've done two or more degrees and might've just picked one on the list.

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Guest UWOMED2005

Those seem like the same undergrad major distribution we have in the 2005 class at UWO. I think the reason is not due to bias, but to the composition of the applicant pool. I think many students, if they're thinking of medicine down the road, do end up choosing life sciences type majors, either because they think it will improve their chances or that they're genuinely interested in the life sciences. Alternatively, I think there still are a lot people who might be interested in studying medicine but dismiss it because they don't realize that med schools take people from ANY undergrad background.

 

There may be an additional screening effect through the MCAT (BS and PS sections only) towards life science students but I don't think that's significant. There are NO biases against physical science, arts, or engineering students. . . actually, my impression is that many of the surgeons (particularly orthopods) here love engineering and physics/biophysics grads as they're more likely to have a better grasp of the biomechanical approach to things, and understand new technologies such as robotic surgery.

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Guess we could set up a poll right here to see if the applicant pool really has that strong of a life sci/bio sci bent... looking back, me personally I might've majored in Political Science and a minor in Immunology instead of the other way around. Oh well, no regrets. =)

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Guest Ian Wong

What categories would you like in the poll? I'm not sure what the upper limit for the number of different categories I could put in, so it might have to be something structured like:

 

Physical Sciences (Chem, Physics, etc)

Biological Sciences (Bio, Biochem, Microbi, etc)

Life Sciences (Psych, Soc, Kines, etc)

Humanities (Eng, Phil, etc)

Business

Engineering...

....

 

Anyways, let me know what categories you'd like, and I can try to set a poll up in the Med Student's forum.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

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You should have the health sciences people (PT, OT, nursing, kinesiology,...)

It would be interesting to see the number of people with more than one degree, Ms, PhD, and how many years of undergrad and grad school each person has.

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I'd love math/compsci as a category separate from physical sciences or engineering. Or if there aren't enough categories available please specify which category it fits into..

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Guest Ian Wong

I just checked. I think this software will only allow a total of 5 options.

 

In the Med Student's forum, we could therefore do one poll with a question:

What degree's did you accomplish before medical school?

1) 3 years, no Bachelors

2) 4 years, Bachelors

3) Masters degree

4) PhD degree

5) ??? (Greater than 1 undergrad degree?)

 

And a second question:

What subject did you study in undergrad:?

1) ?

2) ?

3) ?

4) ?

5) ?

 

Give me some ideas people, and I'll put the poll together. Keep in mind that we can only have 5 options at the moment.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 4

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Guest Kirsteen

Hi Ian,

 

For option 5 of the first question, how about polling for different degree combinations. Examples: >1 graduate/professional degree, or >1 degree in two different fields? That would cover all the MBA/LLBs, etc. out there, and it would be interesting to know how many are about. Also, I seem to be running into a fair number of interesting doctors these days who have all sorts of funky degree combos, e.g., MA Philosophy, M.Sc. Epidemiology, MD; or MA Anthropology, MD. It's interesting to see what those unconventional backgrounds are comprised of, and what they're doing with them. (Not that your poll could cover that at this time, but it's interesting nonetheless!)

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

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Ian:

 

I would suggest you use the following options:

 

1. Life sci degree (bio, pharm, physiology, biochem, molec bio genetics, zoology, micro and immuno, etc)

 

2. Physical sci degree (chem, math, physics, engineering, computers)

 

3. Health sci degree (nursing, medical science, health sci, OT, PT, dentistry, chiropractic)

 

4. Business and Professional degrees (B Comm, MBA, law, media and information tech, journalism)

 

5. Arts and Social Sci (music, english, psych, philosophy, anthropology, soc, geography, french, fine art, religion....)

 

That should work!

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Guest Kirsteen

Hi there,

 

I too, like aneliz' suggestions but you may wish to refine them a bit to try to reduce any potential confusion and increase their exhaustiveness. Some ideas: many people may have completed a Human Bio major so include that in option 1 and remove "health sci." from option 3; exclude "computers" from physical science (if it's computer engineering, then it'll fall under that bailiwick, but if it's graphics or IT, it'll fall under options 5 and 4, respectively; option 3 I'd think of renaming to "professional health degrees". The rest looks fabbo!

 

Should be an interesting poll...

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

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I'd leave "computer science" under physical sciences, I think as a science it's closer to the other physical sciences than to professional or arts degrees. (I'm in CS :) )

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Guest strider2004

I actually know many people in the 2006 class with non-life sci/bio degrees. However, the survey just lumped them all into the bio-life sci category. There actually is more variety in their class that it appears in those statistics; it's just hidden.

 

Also, my major would still straddle two categories - biophysics :P

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Hey Strider,

 

Took a look again at my original tick sheet from September with the pre-med major survey, still get the huge biol/life sci majority... so maybe it's shy non-biol/life scis? I don't know - but as any good CHE prof will tell us, statistics are just like bikinis, what they reveal might be suggestive, but they conceal what you're really after. =) How are the stats in the '04 class?

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I think engineering fits far better with physical sciences - because it's an undergraduate degree with a science focus as opposed to the other things in that list. Engineers I know tend to identify far more with CS or Physics or Math majors (the things they're taking at school) than with MBA's or lawyers..)

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Guest strider2004

I'm actually not sure what the stats are in my class. I do know a fair chunk of people did bio/biochem/microbio. There are about 5 or so people who did life sci degrees at Queens and there also are classmates who did things like kinesiology, phys ed, fine art, psychology. When you count MSc degrees, you get things like epidemiology, pathology, etc. It's quite a mix. I think we only have one engineer though I might be wrong.

 

QM6, I haven't looked at the survey sheet. All I know is my friend did biochem and that wasn't an option on the sheet. Wow, that's the best quote ever! I love CHE!!

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Guest UWOMED2005

Strider: Wow - only 5 Life Sci? There's probably at least double that in my class at Western!

 

I like:

 

1) Biological sciences (include Biology, Biochem, Micro, Life Sci, Human Bio, Physiology, biophysics :) , etc)

 

2) Physical Sciences (include Physics, Chem, Math, Earth Sciences)

 

3) Bachelor of Arts or Fine Arts (include Humanities, Social Sciences, Fine Arts, etc)

 

4) Engineering or Computer Science

 

5) Other - Please list below

 

Professional Degrees (incl LLB, DDS, Nursing, OT, PT) could be included under other, and would also be mentioned in the BSc/3year/Grad/Professional/Other Option

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Guest strider2004

I believe that there are more Queens people in UWO than there are at Queens and vice versa. I still think my major straddles 2 categories. Maybe that's the way I like it. :P

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Guest UWOMED2005

Is that better?

 

Yeah, it was kind of freaky when I got hear to see how many people at UWO did Life Sci at Queen's before Med School. I was almost like Queen's was a feeder school for UWO meds. Of course, I'd also always wondered where all the UWO premeds went. . . there aren't that many of them still in London.

 

So, the purple seems to be mixing with the red, yellow and Blue. Add a few ex-University of Miami Hurricanes to either of our schools, and you'd have a whole rainbow!

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