Help me find the right graduate program

[dreamformed]

Hi everyone,

 

I am in my last year of undergraduate studies and I have decided that I am going to do a masters before going into medical school. Medicine has always been my passion and that is something I truly want to do.

 

Now, I am in my 4th year and I have not yet written the MCAT. I am planning on writing it next summer. I have really thought about it and I think that right now, doing the masters is the right choice for me. I really don’t want to waste another year (write the MCAT next summer and apply in October and not have anything else to do in between).

 

I really don’t want to go back to do another year and I would like to move onto doing something else. I am really interested in doing a masters that is more clinical in nature (maybe requires interaction with patients and other health care professionals, something that is closely related to med and will help me in the long run in terms of being a physician. I am open to doing either a 1 year or 2 year masters. Also, I am from Ontario but I am open to moving pretty much anywhere in Canada for my masters.

 

I would like to know if you guys know of any grad programs or have done any grad programs similar to what I have explained or if you guys know about any other cool grad programs (even if they are not clinical/med related), let me know since I would like to keep my options open at this point. Please help me with my search for a masters program.

 

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

dreamformed

[future_doc]

McGill has a professional M.Sc. in PT or OT, with a 1 yr QY, qualifying year, first. For the QY in PT you need 50 hours of having worked with a physio. I believe the courses can start in the summer and the Masters Program is a year and a half after the QY.

 

And then there are the MPH, some of which are one year.

[jaym3]

University of Toronto has a great Master programs with tons of funding. One choice would be to apply to the Institute of Medical Science (IMS) for MSc. They have great clinical research opportunities. You would be most likely working in a hospital, probably working with patients. If you want more benchwork/basic research opportunities, apply to different departments such as physiology or pharmcology/toxicology, etc. If you don't want to waste 2 years doing plain research, you could search for a 1 year position or something doing clinical research at a hospital to gain experience and apply to MD the following year.

 

Good luck

[dreamformed]

Yeah, I am not really interested in basic science/lab or bench research. I have been doing that for the past 3 years and now I am really bored of that. I rather do something more clinical and something where I get to interact with people.

 

Also, I forgot to mention this, but I would really prefer programs that have funding available.

 

Thanks.

[jaym3]

Yeah, I am not really interested in basic science/lab or bench research. I have been doing that for the past 3 years and now I am really bored of that. I rather do something more clinical and something where I get to interact with people.

 

Also, I forgot to mention this, but I would really prefer programs that have funding available.

 

Thanks.

 

In that case, definitely check out the IMS program at U of T. Although i can't speak for other schools...

[dreamformed]

Thanks Jaym3!!! I looked into the IMS program and it definitely sounds pretty cool and exactly what I was looking for. However, I will have to double check with them if I am eligible for it though...its says 3.7/4.0 in best 3 years. I should be able to meet that if they looked at last 90 credits (including summer courses) and also, I don't know how they would convert the GPA to a 4.0 scale since the GPA at my school is not on a 4.0 scale. Are you a graduate student at IMS by any chance? (Maybe I can PM you with some other questions about the program. Let me know.)

 

Thanks future_doc!!! I will look into McGill as well.

 

Any other recommendations anyone? (I would like to apply to a couple of grad programs just to keep my options open).

 

Thanks again!!!

[Andie]

I'd suggest having a look at Medical Biophysics(MBP) at U of T, all the grad programs within the faculty of Medicine have a guaranteed funding base for students. MBP has 3 streams - Cell and molecular biology, biophysics, and structural biology, so there is a really big choice of fields to choose from. Most of the labs are very new at either Princess Margaret Hospital or at the Mars research centre.

[cryptic.living]

I would definitely recommend Physiology at UofT. The requirements for entry into the program are really lenient. The department is probably the largest in North America due to its various cross-appointments - thus, making it easy to find a supervisor who does the same kind of research that you want to do.

 

The positions are fully funded and the stipend is good, about 24.5K. You can easily also get TAships and external funding to augment your income.

[dreamformed]

Thanks Andie!!! I looked at the Medical Biophysics program and since I have a background in biological sciences and will most likely end up applying into the biology stream (if I do apply to that program), it would be mandatory for me to participate in rotations through the labs. I am not sure if I want to do that at this point....I rather stay in one professors' lab for the duration of my masters and work on a given project since I feel that it would allow for sufficient time for the professor to get to know me and provide me with a great reference letter at the end. Also, I feel that staying in one lab will allow me to focus extensively on my project and possibly a few other side projects, allowing for publications. Those are just my views.....I am not sure if it is generally considered a good thing if one is to rotate through labs during their masters degree. Any comments on that Andie or can anyone else can also add to that??

 

Thanks cryptic.living!!! I looked into the physiology program and it sounds pretty cool. I looked through the list of researchers in the department but could not really find any that are doing clinical type research (i.e. dealing with people or patients etc)....most seem to be doing basic science research (eg. with mice models etc)...I did find a couple that I am considering to contact but do you have any ideas of researchers doing clinical research in that department (maybe I missed those or something).

 

Any other recommendations anyone? (preferably clinical research)

 

Thanks a lot everyone...this is really helpful in my search for graduate programs.