thinkingmed Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 Hello, Here's another (law) graduate who has a few years work experience, and who is now thinking about a career change to medicine. (thinkingmed or thinkingmad?!) I have a rather basic question: where are those premed courses offered that are available for people who are no longer students? I did a bit research but hasn't found the answer yet. Part-time courses would be good, to try how it goes while keeping a job. Any info/suggestions/tips are greatly appreciated. I'm in Toronto by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satsuma Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 I think that you have to register as a student in a degree program at whatever university you choose. There maybe be others that have gone back to complete prereqs that can give you a more definitive answer. I don`t know how many prereqs you need. There is someone in our class who made the law to medicine switch and just took the prereqs full-time to get it done. Also, if you want these courses to count in your GPA some schools will only consider those courses taken as part of a degree program (eg Ottawa). Just a heads up. You don`t actually have to finish the degree...they just have to be toward a degree. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 If you wanna work, Athabasca University (athabascau.ca) is probably your best choice. You can take practically any pre-med pre-req there, the only course they don't offer that SOME med schools require is 2nd semester of biochem - they only offer 1 3-credit biochem course. You can work at your own pace (within limits, of course). Courses with labs such as physics or organic chemistry will either have home labs or on-campus labs. For home labs, they will send you the required equipment. The on-campus labs are on a condensed schedule and generally run over the weekend (at least partially), so you won't need to take too much time off work to complete them. The only downside is that most labs take place in Alberta, so if you are not from here, you'll have to pay for accomodations while in the lab. However, there are always hostels - I stayed in one for my Orgo II labs in Edmonton - and AU offers a limited # of scholarships for lab travel, which are awarded based on your grade in the lab course. I received the in-province lab travel award last year for my Orgo I labs. The IP awards are $500 and OOP are $1000, regardless of how much it cost you to travel to the lab. I.e. my orgo I lab expenses were at maybe $300, which included food (for which I would've paid something even at home, anyway), but the award was still $500, so technically I actually got paid to attend the lab, lol. Another option is to find a regular uni which allows you take the lab component only and then transfer that lab credit to your AU course to fulfill the lab requirement, but then you're gonna be attending labs for a semester, usually in the middle of the day, so it doesn't work too well for those who are employed full-time. You can ask me more questions about AU here if you want (I don't like to be PMed with Qs, just because then only 1 person benefits from my response). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rach Posted October 7, 2008 Report Share Posted October 7, 2008 I returned to university for my pre-reqs in 2007. I am at the university of Guelph at the moment and am only taking 3 courses right now (although I did take a full-time semester when I first got in). They have me as a "mature student/non-degree student" so as long as I pay tuition, I can pretty much take whatever courses I want. I would think most schools allow for non-trad people to come in and take whatever pre-reqs they might need.... I did have to put in a regular application through OUAC before being accepted. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
webshy Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Another option for prerequisite courses might be Ryerson University. They allow you to register in courses as a continuing education student, ie: without registering in a program. Most courses are offered during the evenings one night a week. The course calendar can be found at http://www.ryerson.ca/ce. If you do decide to stay courses at Ryerson, I *strongly* recommend you take CBLG 010, Human Anatomy and Physiology. The course is taught by Charlotte Youngson, my all time favourite professor. She is fantastic! Best wishes to you. Elaine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinkingmed Posted October 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Thank You so much EVERYONE for your reply! Very helpful info. For UoT, I would need to take this: "two full-course equivalents (FCE) in any life science". Havne't checked many other universities. It seems some schools (MacMaster?) don't require premed courses, but thought I'd take a few anyway just to test the water, and test my interests. Is a "full-course equivalent" one that lasts one full academic year? I'm very glad that I found this site 3 days after I started to seriously thinking about medicine school It's a great place to share experiences/confusions!/info/ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinkingmed Posted October 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Another option for prerequisite courses might be Ryerson University. They allow you to register in courses as a continuing education student, ie: without registering in a program. Most courses are offered during the evenings one night a week. The course calendar can be found at http://www.ryerson.ca/ce. If you do decide to stay courses at Ryerson, I *strongly* recommend you take CBLG 010, Human Anatomy and Physiology. The course is taught by Charlotte Youngson, my all time favourite professor. She is fantastic! Best wishes to you. Elaine Thanks a lot Elaine. I will definitely consider this option. Looks like the next courses available are spring/summer 2009. It's good as I'm still relatively new in Canada and that spring/summer is a nice season to go back to school! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 8, 2008 Report Share Posted October 8, 2008 Thank You so much EVERYONE for your reply! Very helpful info. For UoT, I would need to take this: "two full-course equivalents (FCE) in any life science". Havne't checked many other universities. It seems some schools (MacMaster?) don't require premed courses, but thought I'd take a few anyway just to test the water, and test my interests. Is a "full-course equivalent" one that lasts one full academic year? I'm very glad that I found this site 3 days after I started to seriously thinking about medicine school It's a great place to share experiences/confusions!/info/ideas. Yeah, full course lasts a year (6 credits or 1 credit, depending on how your uni marks credits). So it'd be 2 years' (or 4 semester's) worth of life science courses. If you take 1) 1 year of English 2) 1 year of physics 3) 1 year of general chem 4) 1 year of organic chem 5) 1 year of bio 6) 1 year of biochem 7) a stats class You should be good for practically any school in Canada. If you take a calculus class, you'll also be good for almost any school in the US. It sounds like a lot, but it translates into 13 semester-length courses, or about 1.5 years of FT school. Plus you can apply BEFORE all pre-reqs are done, as long as you finish them by May of entrance year, so really, you could buckle down and do like 7-8 courses before you apply and the remaining the year that you apply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thinkingmed Posted October 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2008 Thanks Jochi for the info. It does sound like a lot! I thought it's just two courses but it's good to know that you can submit application before you finish them all. Thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BluePin Posted October 10, 2008 Report Share Posted October 10, 2008 the only course they don't offer that SOME med schools require is 2nd semester of biochem - they only offer 1 3-credit biochem course. From UBC via email: From U of A we accept BIOCH 200 & 330. From U of C BCEM 393 or 341 plus 443. From Athabasca the best combination we have come up with as being closest to UBC's BIOC 300 is CHEM 301 & BIOL 341. Hope that helps. MD Undergraduate Admissions UBC Faculty of Medicine 317-2194 Health Sciences Mall Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3 URL: http://www.med.ubc.ca/admissionsmd /jm -----Original Message----- From: Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 7:59 PM To: admissions.md@ubc.ca Subject: Alberta or distance ed BioChem equivalents Dear Sir / Madame, Can you provide any guidance as to appropriate equivalents for the 6 credit biochem requirement from Alberta universities or distance learning courses? The structure of the alberta courses is oriented to half year courses at the basic level (Intro to BioChem at both UofC and AthabascaU are 1/2 year courses). Thanks for your time, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 11, 2008 Report Share Posted October 11, 2008 From UBC via email: From U of A we accept BIOCH 200 & 330. From U of C BCEM 393 or 341 plus 443. From Athabasca the best combination we have come up with as being closest to UBC's BIOC 300 is CHEM 301 & BIOL 341. Hope that helps. MD Undergraduate Admissions UBC Faculty of Medicine 317-2194 Health Sciences Mall Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z3 URL: http://www.med.ubc.ca/admissionsmd /jm -----Original Message----- From: Sent: Monday, September 08, 2008 7:59 PM To: admissions.md@ubc.ca Subject: Alberta or distance ed BioChem equivalents Dear Sir / Madame, Can you provide any guidance as to appropriate equivalents for the 6 credit biochem requirement from Alberta universities or distance learning courses? The structure of the alberta courses is oriented to half year courses at the basic level (Intro to BioChem at both UofC and AthabascaU are 1/2 year courses). Thanks for your time, Cool, there's also Manitoba who requires a full year, though, and the webpage they just put up with biochem equivalents from other unis doesn't include Athabasca (it does, however, include the non-Canadian university of Cincinnati...wtf?), so I don't know if they accept any AU combo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jochi1543 Posted October 11, 2008 Report Share Posted October 11, 2008 Thanks Jochi for the info. It does sound like a lot! I thought it's just two courses but it's good to know that you can submit application before you finish them all. Thank you! Some schools don't have pre-reqs. I think McMaster doesn't have any (but you need a very high GPA for them). University of Calgary doesn't have pre-requisites, but it has a list of "recommended courses" and if you apply without ANY of those courses (there's a pretty long list), you probably won't get in unless you had insane stats, as you get extra points for having those courses. Manitoba only has the biochem pre-reqs, but to take biochem, you usually need bio and/or organic chem (at least a semester, depending on school), to take which you need general chem (at least a semester, depending on school), etc - you get the drift. Physics is a pre-req only at U of A (recommended at U of C) and, I THINK, UBC, but don't quote me on that one. So you can get around without physics, but you'll need it for the MCAT unless you are very comfortable with physics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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