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Switching from accounting to medicine. How do I get prereqs? Improve grades?


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Hi all,

I'm currently a 4th year undergrad student at York University in business, specializing in accounting. For the past year or so I've been unhappy where I am, and after 4 months working at an accounting firm for the summer, I knew I did NOT want to keep going on this path.

 

Recently I've had alot of interest in medicine, but I feel so lost! It feels really tough to try and figure out where to go from here, seeing as how I didn't plan on this right from highschool.

 

I have grade 11 bio, chem, and grade 12 (but not OAC - I was the last of the OAC students, btw) physics, and OAC calculus. I took the calculus through correspondance 2 years ago, and I'm thinking I should do the same to upgrade the 3 sciences.

 

I am wondering if I have to go through a new 4 year degree program or if there are post-bac programs? I'm really only interested in going to York or U of T. The thing is, I don't think the GPA of my undergrad will be high enough, unless I'm getting straight A's in all my 4th year courses, which is possible but I haven't gotten straight A's in any of my previous 3 years! I've also taken 2 summer courses, and my 1st year I had 4 courses instead of 5, so I know that factors into the weighting of the GPA but I don't know how.

 

Anyways, any starting advice would be great. I'm someone who's still trying to find their direction...

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The first thing you should do is figure out exactly what you need to do to get an interview at Ontario schools or other schools you are considering attending. Pretty much all the schools are quite explicit about what you need to be admitted: particular MCAT scores, particular grades, particular courses, etc. It takes a bit of time to sift through all the requirements, but the nice thing that for the most part there isn't much guesswork: you can find out exactly what you need to do before applying, and that will help you judge what you need. Just go to the websites of each medical school.

 

If you aren't very far away from making the requirements, you might considering delaying your graduation by a year and doing an extra year of courses within your current degree, which lets you stay in the regular undergrad pool and can sometimes help.

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I'm not aware of any schools in Canada that offer "post-bac" programs the way it gets often talked about...(if there are any, someone please let me know!)

 

My experience, with a BA under my belt, is that you need to find out whether or not you can take classes as a non-degree student at University X (or Universities X, Y, Z since it sounds like you're in the Toronto area and therefore have the luxury of choice). There are sometimes restrictions, i.e. if you're not in an official degree program there may be limits to the number of classes you can take per semester or per year, you may be the last choice if you're trying to get into popular classes that fill up quickly (and bio, chem, orgo, etc, are classes that DO fill up quickly). Look into it before you decide, because it may be worth trying to do your pre-requisites while officially a student (business) at the school you're at right now. Summer school, electives, they can all help!

 

Good luck!

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Well first of all, since you may have to take 1st year bio and chem, you'll probably need oac/grade 12 chem under your belt. If you haven't taken that yet, i think York offers introductory courses (i know they do for physics at least) that would basically teach you grade 12 chem and give you the prerequisites to take these courses

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