Pre-med programs in Canada - rank/advice

[kanapatski]

Good day everyone.

I am a senior Ontario student. Of course, as most people here I am pursuing a career of a doctor. I just applied to

McMaster Health Science

UofT Life Science

McGill biomed

Western biomed

Queens Science

Ottawa Health Science (early accepted)

Ottawa Biomed (early accepted)

and several schools in the usa

As you see I applied to a lot of schools. My dream is to attend a Tier 1 Medical school in USA, otherwise in Canada. Soon I ll be working on my GPA, MCAT, research, and extra curriculars. The question is. Which programs would prepare me best to ace MCATs and help me to enroll a great medical school. Also since I am planning to spend 4 years doing undergrad it'd be nice to stay somewhere with good atmosphere.

I have heard that UofT lowers your GPA and medschools chances decrease, I'veheard that hamilton sucks, I have heard that ottawa is not recognizable, I have heard western you do not learn a lot, I have heard queens is boring. And of course I've heard good things. So, back to the question: rank them in terms of quality of preparation for mcats/med-school, atmosphere, and GPA possibility. So, where to go? Thanks everyone.

[mattg]

dude, firstly, no one is going to / is able to 'rank' those programs/schools... secondly, all that you heard were huge generalizations, and a couple just sound foolish (i.e. you don't learn anything at western and queens is boring?)

 

it would be very difficult to find a university in north america that did not adequately prepare you for the mcat... the mcat is fairly basic sciences + verbal reasoning + writing critically, and it doesn't take a harvard degree to prepare you for that... all of the programs/schools your mentioned will be more than enough to lay the groundwork for studying for the mcat.... likewise, there is likely no significant difference in how those programs will prepare you for med school...

 

with regards to GPA possibility, there is probably some differences in program difficulty between those listed... it would be impossible for anyone to rank them though, because no one has taken more than one of the programs... all that i will say is, based on my experiences, there is a very good chance that mac health sci has the best "gpa possibility", and is probably the best vehicle to med school, if you get in

[)oooo>]

1. Mcmaster Health Science

2. All the rest

 

Simply because health sci at mac is a program made specifically to get people into med school. They have a lot of courses where absolute knowledge is not even tested, the students grade themselves and so on. It's the easiest program to get good grades from all those that you listed. And grades are 99% of what matters.

Yeah hamilton may suck but who cares. If you want to go to med school you'll be on campus studying 90% of the time.

[bpp]

Good day everyone.

I am a senior Ontario student. Of course, as most people here I am pursuing a career of a doctor. I just applied to

McMaster Health Science

UofT Life Science

McGill biomed

Western biomed

Queens Science

Ottawa Health Science (early accepted)

Ottawa Biomed (early accepted)

and several schools in the usa

As you see I applied to a lot of schools. My dream is to attend a Tier 1 Medical school in USA, otherwise in Canada. Soon I ll be working on my GPA, MCAT, research, and extra curriculars. The question is. Which programs would prepare me best to ace MCATs and help me to enroll a great medical school. Also since I am planning to spend 4 years doing undergrad it'd be nice to stay somewhere with good atmosphere.

I have heard that UofT lowers your GPA and medschools chances decrease, I'veheard that hamilton sucks, I have heard that ottawa is not recognizable, I have heard western you do not learn a lot, I have heard queens is boring. And of course I've heard good things. So, back to the question: rank them in terms of quality of preparation for mcats/med-school, atmosphere, and GPA possibility. So, where to go? Thanks everyone.

 

what you have heard about these schools is the absolute truth(except whatever good things you have heard). don't even consider american schools because everyone knows you will either become obese or get shot. so here is what you do:

 

1. create your own school

2.????

3.profit

[future_doc]

I trust you have consulted your parents b/c deliberately deciding upfront to go to a US med school as a priority, if accepted, and spend all that money compared to planning first to go to a Canadian med school, all being excellent and highly cost effective, is foolishness in my opinion.

 

There is no substitute for a high work ethic, good time management skills, study smart and taking courses that interest you to maximize your chances for a high GPA. You will not be working on MCAT any time soon, nor should you and the same to other items you listed. Regardless of how you do in h.s., this is no indication of success in undergrad and your focus in your first semester wherever you go should be academics. Once you have your academics/GPA under control, then spread your wings.

[champ]

1. Mcmaster Health Science

2. All the rest

 

Simply because health sci at mac is a program made specifically to get people into med school. They have a lot of courses where absolute knowledge is not even tested' date=' the students grade themselves and so on. It's the easiest program to get good grades from all those that you listed. And grades are 99% of what matters.

Yeah hamilton may suck but who cares. If you want to go to med school you'll be on campus studying 90% of the time.[/quote']

 

I totally agree with you on that choice.

[obi]

All of you guys who replied forgot 1 very important detail in his original post..

 

Its his DREAM (so you can't hate on that) to go to a Top10 US medschool first and foremost, and that being said here's my 2 cents:

 

I personally go to Western and that's where i'm telling you that you should go. Of course this is not because i'm all like weeoo go western, but i thought i should let you know so you can make your own judgements from my post

 

When applying to medical schools in the US, any mark over an 80% from Western converts into a 4.0 GPA (states only, get 85's to stay hot for Canada) This is important because this scale is not the same for all Ontario universities.

 

The university you go to will have no impact on your MCAT score, i killed my mcat, i know a kid from western who got a 45, but i also know another kid from western who got a 26. It all depends on how much work your put into it and how lucky you are with the topics that show up on your exam day. That being said, joining Western pre-med got me 200 bucks off my kaplan review classes (i'm sure every premed club has this deal though)

 

The atmosphere at Western is amazing! 2 vids in 1 semester with over 100k views? You know the people are legit Also voted top student experience in Canada for a million years in a row..

 

(this is the only western propaganda in this post i swear)

 

 

And what you heard about western not teaching you anything just depends on the class i guess.. One of my friends at UoT said my second year genetics course covered more material than his did.

 

So there you have it. Based on student experience and your GPA possibilities for your top10 US school dreams i'd give Western a big 10/10. MCAT prep is not based on school but based on you. Anyways good luck future-froshling! It honestly doesn't matter which school you choose. In the end you'll have the best time of your life. If i had gone to Queen's im sure i'd proudly be trashing UWO left, right, and center

 

 

Ps. When they say if you want to go to medschool you're going to be on campus studying 90% of the time that's BS.. your uni experience will be whatever you want it to be. Keeping up your marks is based solely on how much homework YOU need to do and after that all your time is free to do fun EC's, research, and of course unwind with your city's nightlife.