Medical Sciences or Health Sciences or Science

[newbie_01]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm helping a friend pick which undergraduate program they should pursue at UWO. Does anyone have any feedback or recommendations? We're deciding among Medical Sciences, Health Sciences or Science?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

[LupeFiasco]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm helping a friend pick which undergraduate program they should pursue at UWO. Does anyone have any feedback or recommendations? We're deciding among Medical Sciences, Health Sciences or Science?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks,

 

Depends what he's looking for. If your friend thinks that the UWO Health Sciences program is like the Mac heath sciences, then your friend is mistaken. They are very different.

 

The majority of the pre-meds (over 95%) I know at UWO are in Medical Sciences or some variation of the Sciences like Biology, Biochemistry and anything else offered by the Faculty of Science. Health Sciences at UWO is a completely different faculty.

 

- Lupe

[BigM]

People go into medical school from a variety of undergraduate programs and there are many undergrad programs that can adequately prepare you. I was a UWO medical sciences student myself so I can give you my take on this. If you are 100% sure you want to go into medicine instead of a master/PhD route than a honours medical sciences degree without specialization is a great choice. I did a specialization in my 3rd and 4th years which went further indepth in specific areas than we will cover in medical school and are required by people outside of those specialities. I often wish I took more general medical sciences covering a greater breadth (i.e. I was all physiology/pharmacology and had no microbiology, immunology, histology or anatomy).

 

Health sciences at UWO is a strong program as well but I would argue that the material that you focus on is not as abundant in medical school. In health sciences your first two years will be similar to medical sciences then they will diverge more in your third and fourth years. You will get higher volumes of some aspects that are important in medicine i.e. health promotion, the healthcare system, etc. When you are in medical school you will cover these subjects and having background will be advantageous, but your major content will be your physiology, pharmacology, anatomy, histology, psychology (psychiatry), etc.

 

So basically, to each their own. But if I were to redo my undergrad I would have done a general honours medical science degree and taken 2nd and 3rd year courses from the various branches of medical sciences. However, keep mindful of Schulich's rule that you need 3.0/5.0 credits matching your year of study.