Alvi Posted May 17, 2009 Report Share Posted May 17, 2009 Hi, I'm currently a grade 12 student who cannot decide whether to accept health sciences or biomed at ottawa u. ive heard that health sciences is much easier and that biomed is a lot of extra work...but i wanted to make sure from someone who has taken these programs. my eventual goal is to apply to medical school but i dont know whether biomed would be preferred since its a more prestigious program than health sciences. if someone could give me feedback about the 2 courses id really appreciate it. thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
premed_d Posted May 17, 2009 Report Share Posted May 17, 2009 If you're dead set on med school, pick health sci I hear biomed is much harder. I regret not picking health sci myself actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
future_doc Posted May 17, 2009 Report Share Posted May 17, 2009 Premed d makes sense. I do not go to U/O but to a university in Quebec where I study health sciences. It is certainly not a walk in the park, I work my *** of and have no social life, as studies are my no.1 priority and involve very considerable work. Having said that, I feel no pain as I love my course of studies. I am achieving academic success with high marks that increase every year. I have studied emergency care, research methods, biomedical ethics, musco-skeletal anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, neurophysiology, adapted physical activity, the cardiovascular and respiratory system plus the usual electives in random courses like econ, relgion, etc. I take internship courses working with chronic patients having Parkinson's, strokes, MS. I not only love this course of study, it also gives me a Plan B for a professional Masters degree in either P.T. or O.T. to allow me to continue with rehabilitation in the healthcare arena. I supplement this with hospital volunteering involving patient contact and as an EMS volunteer. My course of study is interesting, prepares me for medicine and for an alternative professional future. Biomed, for me, would not only be tougher in terms of achieving academic excellence (which affects your competiveness as a candidate to med school), but does not nearly prepare one as well for an alternative career at least that coincides with my interests. And remember, there is no time to slack off when commencing university. Generally speaking, grades suffer during the transition period and you cannot allow this to happen as it will follow you forever. Also, you need to create a history of ECs and volunteering, and I encourage you to do things you are passionate about and to pick activities for long duration where you will be a high achiever. U/Ottawa in health science has a School of Rehabilitation Sciences that can expose you to O.T., physiotherapy, speach-language pathology and audiology, and you can follow your interests. Any of these directions will lead to a Masters, prepare you for a professional career in healthcare and at every step, make you a more interesting and competitive candidate for med school while increasing your knowledge and skills along the way. To me, your decision is not whether to study biomed, but to figure out a course of study in health sciences that will lead to an alternative professional career if need be. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In_Valid Posted May 17, 2009 Report Share Posted May 17, 2009 Hi, I'm currently a grade 12 student who cannot decide whether to accept health sciences or biomed at ottawa u. ive heard that health sciences is much easier and that biomed is a lot of extra work...but i wanted to make sure from someone who has taken these programs. my eventual goal is to apply to medical school but i dont know whether biomed would be preferred since its a more prestigious program than health sciences. if someone could give me feedback about the 2 courses id really appreciate it. thanks Just as a preface, there is no 'official' preference for programs, so it should be OK to choose either program. I am of the opinion that we really shouldn't be trying to take the path of lowest resistance. Take something that you find enjoyable. If it so happens that it is more difficulty than other programs, perhaps that difficulty will allow you to grow as a person. To use a tired expression, expand your horizons. I took Chemistry as my undergrad. It certainly wasn't the easiest program. Other people have taken engineering. That certainly isn't easy either. Sometimes the benefit of taking more difficult subjects is that it is difficult and that it challenges you to expand your intellect. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted May 17, 2009 Report Share Posted May 17, 2009 Hi, I'm currently a grade 12 student who cannot decide whether to accept health sciences or biomed at ottawa u. ive heard that health sciences is much easier and that biomed is a lot of extra work...but i wanted to make sure from someone who has taken these programs. my eventual goal is to apply to medical school but i dont know whether biomed would be preferred since its a more prestigious program than health sciences. if someone could give me feedback about the 2 courses id really appreciate it. thanksFor medical school, they don't care what program you took. There is no "prestige" factor. All that matters is the you have the pre-requisites, a high GPA (and the MCAT for some schools). You can get your pre-reqs in both health sci and biomed. I don't go to UofO, but I live in Ottawa & have a lot of friends at that school. They all love health sci, so I think it's a good program. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest a097 Posted May 17, 2009 Report Share Posted May 17, 2009 I'm in Health Sci at uOttawa and I'm 99.99% sure I made the right choice. Most of my friends in biomed have switched to Health Sci. The course material is so ...well rounded. If you're interested in pure, hard sciences then go for biomed. If you'd like courses like Communication in Health, Sociology of Health, Biological Basis of Disease, Dev. and Eval. of Health Care Programs...then go for Health Sci. I think Health Sci. would expose you to more aspects of health care...so you would have more ideas about what your options are.. in terms of applying to grad schools that aren't med/dent. Keep in mind that you can do Health Science and take a medical stream that would allow you to get all your hard science pre-reqs. ...But I'm fairly sure you can also do a Health Sci. minor in biomed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pzero Posted May 17, 2009 Report Share Posted May 17, 2009 uOttawa health sciences is not really any more or less "prestigious" than biomed. Health sciences however does have less of research (within their own faculty that is) and no co-op (I can't remember if biomed does though). Either way, health sciences does have suggested "medical" course streams that will give you all your pre-reqs by 3rd year (essentially only for the Ontario Medical Schools though). It's not necessarily an "easier" program unless the electives you choose in 3rd/4th year are meaningless. I don't know about alternative career paths for biomed (I'm assuming research, lab etc?), but health sciences as an undergrad almost requires you get something else before working (which is why your 4th year is essentially a blank slate of electives), be it a masters or whatever. Note, if you do plan on physiotherapy for instance, Ottawa only has that for francophones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alvi Posted May 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 Well i do like pure, hard sciences...but i'm not sure how "hard" the sciences would be...like would i have time to do other EC activities or volunteering. Where would you suggest it would be easier to keep a higher GPA? Like there are some courses in health sciences that i dislike...for example the philosophy courses( puke )...but if you were to give a percentage of science courses in health sciences...how much would it be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thatonekid Posted May 18, 2009 Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 Well i do like pure, hard sciences...but i'm not sure how "hard" the sciences would be...like would i have time to do other EC activities or volunteering. Where would you suggest it would be easier to keep a higher GPA? Like there are some courses in health sciences that i dislike...for example the philosophy courses( puke )...but if you were to give a percentage of science courses in health sciences...how much would it be?The % of science courses can be whatever you want it to be, if you fulfill all the pre-reqs for your degree. You don't have to take philosophy if you don't want to. You could (potentially) take all your electives as science classes. Because I'm bored & feeling nice, I did some research for you: http://www.health.uottawa.ca/pdf/bss-seq-08-09_eng.pdf http://www.science.uottawa.ca/fac/seq_bim_specanglais_120cr.html The first link is the suggested course sequence for health sci. The second link is the suggested course sequence for biomed. As you can see, for both programs, there's quite a bit of elective spots to fill in 3rd and 4th year. You can fill these with science courses. You should compare the mandatory courses for the 2 programs and see which courses look more interesting to you. I find that if I'm taking a course that I'm interested in, I tend to do well in it. Hope this helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbene085 Posted May 18, 2009 Report Share Posted May 18, 2009 I started out in Biomed at U of O. It's a tougher program; my two semesters in first year had 5 and 6 courses. I ended up switching out in third year because of an issue when it came to doing my Honour's project (we were only the second class of biomeds and they messed up some details that have since been sorted out), into Honour's Physiology. Which was pretty much what I was doing anyway (I was in Biomed but just took every physiology course available to me). Biomed is a science program. Health science is not. I had to take some classes alongside health sci students, and believe me, they have an easier ride. So it comes down to personal preference...do you want a science degree and the extra work and post-grad options that come along with it? Or do you want a more human-centered, non-science program? I was always a science student at heart, and wouldn't have been happy in any faculty other than Science, but that was my personal preference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merry Posted May 24, 2009 Report Share Posted May 24, 2009 i am in the same situation, i got accepted in health science and in biomedical, i chose biomed but what you just said make doubt, i want to go to medschool and nothing else.. do you think i made the right choice.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rla_z Posted May 24, 2009 Report Share Posted May 24, 2009 This depends on how smart you are and how hard you're willing to work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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