Rawroo Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 I'm a prospective BSC student at UBC and my goal is to get into medschool. Would anyone look over my current timetable and give me some pointers? I took all the prerequisites but I'm not sure if I need more for the MCAT. My timetable: http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c76/Rawroo/RawroosTT.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAdlCruz Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 Looks good. I like how you have half-days M,W,F in term 2. This will give you plenty of time to pursue other interests/volunteer. As for pointers, your schedule looks good. When you work/volunteer/do any extracurricular activity, do them well and try to get names of people who will be willing to verify these activities. It is best if these are supervisors. Keep a list/diary. This will help immensely when you write your application. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawroo Posted June 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 Thanks! I am a little worried about the workload of these courses though because grade 12 has been extremely relaxed for me. Will I have trouble easing into this schedule and life in university in general? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAdlCruz Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 32 credits is a touch heavy, but doable. Expect to be spending at least twice as many hours studying outside of class (if your classes are 15 hours a week, then you need to study at least 30 hours outside of class). Labs also take up a lot of time (writing prelabs, lab reports, and the longer formal reports). If you are able to dispense with a summer income, maybe you can think about spreading the course load a bit by taking summer courses. UBC Med doesn't mind summer courses, but some other universities do (I think Calgary and Ottawa, can't remember for sure). Also, you might want to consider taking a light "fun" course in lieu of one of the "heavy" courses you have (defer that course to another semester). This can save your sanity. I think it's a good idea to have a balance of serious/fun courses every semester. I once had a heavy course load one term, and there was only one class that I really looked forward to. Because of that one class, I was able to force myself to plod through the other courses. There's my four cents and more. Good luck to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawroo Posted June 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 32 credits is heavy? But don't I need 120 credits in order to get my BSC? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAdlCruz Posted June 8, 2008 Report Share Posted June 8, 2008 32 credits is heavy? But don't I need 120 credits in order to get my BSC? The usual load is 30 credits/2 terms. Over 4 years, this will take you to 120. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
celeron_266 Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 you cant really do just 30 each year now to get a science degree at ubc...32/year is considered normal i think..it also depends on the major that you are going to take... for sure you can take a bit less...but it means that you will have to take the remaining courses in the summer....which i personally not recommend it...as summer courses are much shorter (longest is 8 weeks i think)...meaning that you have to spend more time every day doing the same thing...also...they are usually taught by less senior staffs with less teaching experience...meaning that you may have a hard time understanding the material unless you can study well on your own Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VitaminC Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 I took 32 credits this year and it was manageable...I had actually registered for 35, but THAT was definitely too heavy so I did drop a course. I agree, 32 (or even the full 35 for those who can do it) is considered normal for 1st years at UBC with the standard bio/chem/phys/math/eng. Good choice with the Math 184 instead of 180...I hear 184 is much much easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerseycream Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 The courses you have chosen are typical first year science and put you on a good path to get the pre-reqs. But from what i can see from your schedule you have 6 classes first semester and 4 classes the second semester. You have 19 credits the first semester and only 13 the second semester. 19 is an extremely high amount to take in one semester, 5 courses is usually around 14-16 credits per semester. Six classes in one semester plus labs is heavy, most people take 5 as the normal amount. Six is doable, but it would be better to start with the 4 classes and then do the six in the second semester so you can adjust better. You can solve this uneven split by moving one of your english classes to the second semester. Then you will have a 5 and 5 class split. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adversary Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 For those who have not taken first year in a while, UBC started giving out 1 credit more for courses that have a lab component to reflect the additional time or in my opinion, the additional amount of cost. Hence, 32-credits is the 30-credits year of our past. Typically, most students take a full courseload, 32-credits, and is in fact required by some medical schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jigga5 Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 What physics sequence is required for med school? is it phys 100 and 101? Also what INORGANIC and ORGANIC chem sequences are required?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adversary Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 http://www.med.ubc.ca/education/md_ugrad/MD_Undergraduate_Admissions/Admission_Requirements.htm#Prerequisite1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAdlCruz Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 For those who have not taken first year in a while, UBC started giving out 1 credit more for courses that have a lab component to reflect the additional time or in my opinion, the additional amount of cost. Hence, 32-credits is the 30-credits year of our past. Typically, most students take a full courseload, 32-credits, and is in fact required by some medical schools. Looks like I just dated myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawroo Posted June 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 I took 32 credits this year and it was manageable...I had actually registered for 35, but THAT was definitely too heavy so I did drop a course. I agree, 32 (or even the full 35 for those who can do it) is considered normal for 1st years at UBC with the standard bio/chem/phys/math/eng. Good choice with the Math 184 instead of 180...I hear 184 is much much easier. I actually don't really know if I should take 180 or 184. Under course descriptions it says that 180 is Differential Calculus with Physical Applications and 184 is Differential Calculus for Social Science and Commerce. Which one is better for science and medschool? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
methylethyl Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Can anyone take a look at my Timetable as well? I'm in the same boat as Rawroo. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VitaminC Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 I actually don't really know if I should take 180 or 184. Under course descriptions it says that 180 is Differential Calculus with Physical Applications and 184 is Differential Calculus for Social Science and Commerce. Which one is better for science and medschool? Which one is better for science? Math 180/100. I took Math 100 and some of it was surprisingly sort of applicable to my Phys 101/102 courses. Which one's better for medschool? Doesn't really matter...but I hear 184/104 is much easier because the commerce concepts are easier to grasp. With 180/100, some of it was totally mind-blowing that I just had to start memorizing the math behind the concepts, and I hate doing that with math. You also take it with the commerce kids, who usually aren't pre-med keeners so you get scaled up with them. I'm also assuming you didn't take high school calculus..that's why you're taking 180 or 184. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rawroo Posted June 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Which one is better for science? Math 180/100. I took Math 100 and some of it was surprisingly sort of applicable to my Phys 101/102 courses. Which one's better for medschool? Doesn't really matter...but I hear 184/104 is much easier because the commerce concepts are easier to grasp. With 180/100, some of it was totally mind-blowing that I just had to start memorizing the math behind the concepts, and I hate doing that with math. You also take it with the commerce kids, who usually aren't pre-med keeners so you get scaled up with them. I'm also assuming you didn't take high school calculus..that's why you're taking 180 or 184. Thanks in that case I'll stick with 184. I dropped out of calculus at the end of 2nd term with ~80% because I tired of my Persian teacher and her heavy accent and terrible writing. I understand that in university this may be the norm so I'll work on my comprehension of various English accents during the summer...joke by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VitaminC Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Can anyone take a look at my Timetable as well? I'm in the same boat as Rawroo. Thanks! Seems like I like talking about math lol It's probably not the best idea to take Math 184 then 101 but rather 184/105 or 180/101, because although 180/184 are interchangeable, a lot of the things you learn in 101 continue off from what you learned in 180/100. For example, a whole chapter on Taylor's Series was done with lots of depth in 100 and even moreso in 101, and I think the 184/104 guys didn't even talk about it in first term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jerseycream Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 Can anyone take a look at my Timetable as well? I'm in the same boat as Rawroo. Thanks! It looks like you aren't taking Phys 101. Typical first year science students take 6 credits of first year physics (100 and 101, or if you have physics 12 101 and 102). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jigga5 Posted June 9, 2008 Report Share Posted June 9, 2008 http://www.med.ubc.ca/education/md_ugrad/MD_Undergraduate_Admissions/Admission_Requirements.htm#Prerequisite1 THANks, how come they dont have physics as a prereq? EDIT: nevermind, not required .. but reccomended Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iwh333 Posted June 20, 2008 Report Share Posted June 20, 2008 anything in 1st year calculus that has to do with commerce or more artsy type courses are in my opinion, easier than the math 101s which is engineering math Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Krnuckfan Posted June 20, 2008 Report Share Posted June 20, 2008 Your schedule looks fine. IMO first year wasn't that hard. I didn't have to do any pre-reading, review, did the 3 days studing for a test thing and still ended up with a pretty decent average. The hardest course for me was bio 112, you really have to know the material for that course. Our class midterm average was like 60%. Also, if english isn't your strong point, I'd recommend taking english 111 rather than 110. It will save you from reading a couple of 400 page novels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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