Should I wait a year?

[Gravy3000]

I have a dilemma that has been on my mind and have been needing to talk to someone for sometime now. I got accepted into wilfred laurier university for a Health Studies program (not to be confused with health sciences) that gives me my Bachelor of Arts and doesn't prepare me for the MCAT at all. My career choice is to to be a GP and hopefully in the future specialize in Anesthesia. I know that not all schools require the MCAT such as NSOM or Mcmasters, but is this really a safe path to go for? Is it also better to attend a school if it has its own med school? I was thinking of waiting another year to attend University of Calgary for its health science program and go from there but I want to get into Uni this year. If anyone can give me some guidance it would be perfect, feel like i am at the crossroads here .

[astudentis]

I dont think your undergrad school has much influence on your admissions, however GPA and your place of residence does play a big role. (i.e. i met a person from mcmaster health sciences, who did not even get an interview for mcmaster med)

 

McMaster now needs Verbal from MCAT, only schools that dont need it now are Ottawa (but they have many science pre-reqs, and out of prov. students usually need a higher gpa cut off ~3.89) and NOSM (out of province seats are about 5 out of the 55 seats they have)+ if you are a quebec resident wanting to apply to quebec school, they will not need mcat.

[Gravy3000]

the health studies course at laurier doesn't have any science courses to take for that, therefore it doesn't prepare me at all for the MCAT. Going from what your telling me, i should wait another year?

[future_doc]

yah, WLU program does not prepare you for MCAT, what about starting there and switching programs during first 2 weeks or next year? Why lose a year? You could even change university and program for next year. To mw, you need strong sceinces for MCAT, so you write it 3 summers deom now, no big deal. Just do well in whatever you study as high GPA is one of the keys.

[djmackj]

why not take an MCAT prep course? some courses out there are quite comprehensive and cost no more than the tuition of two or three university courses.

[Rayven]

You're just starting university anyways. You have at least 3 years before you'd even write the MCAT (assuming you want to apply before 4th year). You'd be better off studying the MCAT yourself with the many prep books (~$200-$300) or even splurging on prep courses (~$1,000-$2,000).

 

I found university-level physics went way beyond what's needed for the MCAT. The only useful course in university for me was probably organic chem.

[future_doc]

You're just starting university anyways. You have at least 3 years before you'd even write the MCAT (assuming you want to apply before 4th year). You'd be better off studying the MCAT yourself with the many prep books (~$200-$300) or even splurging on prep courses (~$1,000-$2,000).

 

I found university-level physics went way beyond what's needed for the MCAT. The only useful course in university for me was probably organic chem.

 

The prep courses are a HUGE waste of money, e.g., Kaplan, and they prey on the vulnerable who think this is ncessary (but it isn't)

[Gravy3000]

yah, WLU program does not prepare you for MCAT, what about starting there and switching programs during first 2 weeks or next year? Why lose a year? You could even change university and program for next year. To mw, you need strong sceinces for MCAT, so you write it 3 summers deom now, no big deal. Just do well in whatever you study as high GPA is one of the keys.

Problem with changing universities, is that my credits might not transfer over if they don't have the same program i am studying, as well as i don't wanna spend money for this year if it cannot help me towards my career (preparing me for MCAT mainly).

[Rayven]

And thus why I said it was splurging.

 

But then again, you'll have some people advocate for the prep courses because it provides the studying "structure" for them.

[future_doc]

Yah, yah the "structure" is pure b.s., they just take advantage of us kids who are vulnerable and don't know what to do, and so, we convince our parents to spend tjis money for our future - lambs led to the slaughter

[Gravy3000]

so waiting and reapplying for fall 2011 would probably be the best thing to do right now, so i can avoid unnecessasry debt or wasted year on a program that won't help me otherwise. However, the MCAT prep books that you guys were talking about seems like a solid idea in the meantime, true i have 3-4 years down to write it but i would love to get use to the material. Any of you think its a bad idea? Thanks for the help

[future_doc]

You really don't want to start too soon, you'll lose interest. It becomes a 2-3 mo. effort once you have the background. Starting UG won't, I believe, be a waste, you can get one yr of UG behind you and as I said before, switch to another program. So, why not move ahead?