Best Undergrad University before getting in Medical School?

[Guest mcortex88]

Hopefully, this thread will have a lot of input from students of various universities. People often say "the best university is the one that appeals to you", but lets face it....that's complete bogus just to make you feel good about deciding where you go. All major universities are exactly the same except for the number of students attending it.

 

I have to choose between these universities:

(currently, in abc order)

 

McGill - Science

McMaster - Science

Queens - Science

Toronto - Science

Western - Biological & Medical Sciences

 

Anyways, in terms of getting a high GPA, getting lab research experience, and interaction between students, what is the best undergrad university for students wishing to go to medical school?

[Guest richmond604]

:x

oh, you missed UBC in that list

[Guest linkinpark]

The Most Prestigious University is Concordia University and York University.

 

York University has 90 Noble Prizes over the Last 120 Years of their History.

Go to York University Biology for the most "best" and brightest students from all across the globe. Most of Harvard, Caltech, Penn State, Berkeley all go to York for an unparalleled educational experience

[Guest mcortex88]

Thanks to richmond604 and linkinpark for your responses. Unfortuantely, I have already applied to those 5 universities, and its too late to apply to UBC and York. I kinda regret it, lol

 

Anyways, the I got accepted into all 5 university. Now, I have to choose which one is the best undergrad university for those pursuing medicine.

[Guest peachy]

mcortex, YOU have asked the SAME question in several earlier threads. Go back and reread them if you like. You are not going to get a different answer this time.

 

Please everyone, let's not feed the trolls! :rolleyes

 

For example, mcortex's identical question was posted, by mcortex, in:

p084.ezboard.com/fpremed1...=239.topic

[Guest 0T6]

I must say though, it's amusing seeing trolls reply to other trolls. It's like a mini, under the bridge [RHCP] trollfest! :rollin

[Guest UWOMED2005]

lol OT6.

 

The great thing about this question is that the responses are often entertaining.

[Guest mcortex88]

wow....this website is truly useless

[Guest PanjabiMD]

wow....this website is truly useless

wow....this guy is truly ignorant

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Please play nice.

 

Considering this thread isn't likely to provide any discussion of relevant* - let's just all ignore it and let it sink to the backpages, where it belongs.

 

mcortex88 - to answer your original question, all of your options are great. You can't make a bad choice. But none of them are going to give you an 'edge' to getting into medicine over the others. . . I'd go with whatever option made the most sense to you on a PERSONAL level.

 

*I do not intend any offence to you mcortex, but this question tends to be inflammatory as often every undergrad student makes claims as to why THEIR school is 'the best' AND as Peachy has said there's tons of threads addressing this issue.

[Guest FungManX]

Hey mccortex88,

The best pre-med university doesn't exist. Simple as that.

 

I guess if you want a better shot at med school, you could go to smaller 'less-competitive' universities.. like community colleges that allow transfer credits or something.

 

If you are a Real keener and want to start prepping for the actual med school and post MD stuff, just go to any decent university and get a undergrad degree in physiology or pharmacology. That will help you out during med school so you can compete better for a residency? (correct me if I'm wrong)

 

Hope this helps a bit.

[Guest Braveheart]

mccortex88,

 

I think that you are really over analyzing the situation. It IS true, there REALLY IS no best pre-med university to go to to help you into medicine. People from undergrad get into which ever med school they want not based on which school they got their undergrad degree in but how well they accomplished their marks, got involved, etc. It's like this: was there the best high school that helped you make it into university? No. It depended on what marks you got in that school you went to. Same thing with university. Yeah you could try your best to look for universities that are "less competitive" but how are you going to measure that? All schools have competition, all schools have research opportunities, all schools have good and bad profs, etc.

 

So all that I am saying is just pick the school that you feel is best for you for your current situation NOT on which you think will help you make it into med school. Like is the school close to home, do you want to be close to home, the cost of the school you are going to, where your friends are going, which school's program you find to be most appealing, which city you want to live in.

[Guest Koppertone]

I would suggest that you go to a school with the smallest class sizes. This has nothing to do with the medicine, but smaller class sizes make it easier to know profs and the classroom dynamic is a little better.

[Guest 0T6]

mcortex.. if you have nothing to do over the next few days.. you COULD try doing this.. go read student opinions on the courses you'd be taking in 1st year (and maybe 2nd year) at the universities you've listed. Where can you get student opinion?

 

1) www.ratemyprofessors.com/canada/

Just remember that someone has to feel pretty strongly about a prof (positively or negatively) to make the effort to make a comment

 

2) Find "anti-calendars" for various schools.

Here's the link for UofT's:

assu.sa.utoronto.ca/antic...s.php?id=0

 

 

I think anything you gain from those resources is a lot greater than something you'd get here. I'd be defending UofT cause I love it, other people at UofT hate it, and other people at a different school would be defending their own.. you wouldn't get any general concensus.

[Guest aneliz]

For my purposes, Guelph was the best pre-med university. Good diversity of people, medium sized campus, good EC's, lots of exposure to medicine (through the vet college), lots of bio courses, biomed undergrad program... good times. Not to mention pretty campus, great residences and truly excellent food. And I got into 100% of the med schools I applied for on the first time I applied. Who could ask for more.

 

Having never attended your other choices as an undergrad, I can't really tell you which is better. However, I did chose Guelph over all of them myself.

 

Good luck with your choice.

[Guest 4shattered4]

Large classes might be bad if you need extra help since you have to really make the extra effort to get it, especially if you're a commuter. However, there are advantages, such as mark boosts in certain subjects when everyone does bad (though it doesn't happen that bad). And also, I kind of liked being annoymonous for a while and having everything marked objectively and fairly (for the most part). However, large classes are bad for getting reference letters though.

 

About the cut-throat/dog-eat-dog competition in U of T, I think it's just a bunch of rumours. True, there is ACADEMIC competition in the sense that there are a lot of smart people here, but I haven't come across anyone sabotaging others or on purposely trying to hide/shield information. Quite the opposite, people are usually helpful. Hmm, just my two cents.

 

I'm not sure about other universities, but I don't think a smaller university is necessarily "better". It really depends what type of learner and what suits you best personally.

[Guest noncestvrai]

I would go for the city, Victoria, Vancouver, Mtl or Quebec city. I you like to enjoy your life of course, since you learn the same $hit everywhere more or less.

 

noncestvrai

[Guest doctorped]

I'm just a newbie and everything, not to mention furthest away from being allowed into med school but I had a suggestion. I'm not sure if it's plausible but McMaster, Western and UofT, at least, is of reasonable driving distance to each other. You could try going to each campus and check it out. Sit in on a lecture at each campus and obtain an impression. I'm not sure if that's a good idea but I have read about that suggestion someplace for choosing a university.

 

Aneliz, I hope to go back to school and I pray that I have a chance to be accepted to Guelph. *crosses fingers*

[Guest aneliz]

Good luck with Guelph.. I loved it there!

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Sit in on a lecture at each campus and obtain an impression. I'm not sure if that's a good idea but I have read about that suggestion someplace for choosing a university.

 

Hmm - I can think of a few lecturers who, if you attended their lecture, you might get the wrong impression about the school. . . good or bad!

 

One lecture does not a med school make.

 

(sorry - I know I'm not helping with the decision with that comment.)

[Guest thambipi]

What subject did you tale in high school

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