Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

Med Schools that require Full Course Load


firesinx

Recommended Posts

I understand a Full Course Load is 10 courses per year, not including courses taken in the summer. I'm just wondering which schools require a Full Course Load per year. This is what I know so far...

 

UWO- Must have a full course load, takes best 2 years

Mac- Don't need

Queens- ???

Ottawa- You can take 4 courses for winter and fall terms, but 2 credits must be taken in summer to cover the workload.

Northern- ???

UofT- ??? (Drop lowest course in gpa calculation if full course load taken)

 

Also, is it true you must have atleast 8/10 courses per year (not including summer) inorder to apply to ontario medical schools?

 

Thanks, hopefully this will help everyone out too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Extenuating circumstances aside (where exceptions are permitted), which med schools do not require a full course load during the normal acacemic year?

 

The reason for this requirement is to ensure that an applicant has demonstrated the capability to handle the intensive and rigourous study of medicine, i.e., if carrying less than a full course load and doing well, this does not demonstrate preparedness for medicine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm also in a similar dilemma. 3rd year, and there was one course I decided to drop leaving me doing 9/10 credits, one course away from a full course load. I checked Ontario and it seems as though Western requires it if you apply with your 2 best years. U of T requires it if they use the special weighing formula. Queens requires 3/5 or I guess 6/10?

 

Ottawa I'm a little confused about. On the site, it states,

 

A full-time academic year where the equivalent of four (4) full-year courses is taken is accepted and counted in the WGPA calculation only if the missing course/credit is completed either as an additional course within another academic year or as a summer course.

 

Does this mean that if you do 4 coures per semester, you must complete 2 courses in the following summer, or does 4 count as a full course load and thereby allowing you to apply with the WGPA? Could anyone clarify?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ottawa I'm a little confused about. On the site, it states,

 

A full-time academic year where the equivalent of four (4) full-year courses is taken is accepted and counted in the WGPA calculation only if the missing course/credit is completed either as an additional course within another academic year or as a summer course.

 

Yes, ottawa requires you to have atleast 4 full year courses.

 

In ontario, only uwo has the full course load requirement (i.e. 30 credits/5 full year courses a year)!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Extenuating circumstances aside (where exceptions are permitted), which med schools do not require a full course load during the normal acacemic year?

 

The reason for this requirement is to ensure that an applicant has demonstrated the capability to handle the intensive and rigourous study of medicine, i.e., if carrying less than a full course load and doing well, this does not demonstrate preparedness for medicine.

 

I still don't get their reasoning. A person could be doing full time school (3 or 4 full year courses) and a full time job at the same time. Does that not show that the applicant could handle the work load. Why don't any of the US medschools have this requirement? Don't tell me the work load of canadian medschools is a lot more than the US medschools.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It totally makes sense. In pre-clinical you spend 30-40 hours a week in classes/small group learning and in clerkship you spend 50-100 hours a week in the hospital or clinic. People rarely hold a job in medical school. Plus work doesn't equal the same amount of effort you need for academics. Sure if someone works 20 hours a week and has 20 hours of class will spend has the same technical number of hours as someone in class 40 hours a week but you have to study for those extra 20 hours of academics... I think if you can't cut 5 courses a semester, med school will be an extremely rude awakening.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to ask a somewhat related question. I'm in 4th year and if I don't get into med school, I was just planning on working the next year. There's no school that requires you to be in school the year you apply right?

I was talking to someone who was looking at dentistry and said that for one of the dent schools you needed to be in school..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It totally makes sense. In pre-clinical you spend 30-40 hours a week in classes/small group learning and in clerkship you spend 50-100 hours a week in the hospital or clinic. People rarely hold a job in medical school. Plus work doesn't equal the same amount of effort you need for academics. Sure if someone works 20 hours a week and has 20 hours of class will spend has the same technical number of hours as someone in class 40 hours a week but you have to study for those extra 20 hours of academics... I think if you can't cut 5 courses a semester, med school will be an extremely rude awakening.

 

How come your logic doesnt not apply to the rest of the world? Its only schools in Canada that have a full course load requirement. Medschools in many countries just require a high school diploma. People adapt to the work load in medschool.

 

btw I was talking about someone who take 24 credits and works 5 days a week. And we all know people who take bird courses to fill up their timetable. Just cuz they have 30 credits doesn't mean their course load is the same as some one who takes difficult courses or courses with a lab component that require lab reports.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just to ask a somewhat related question. I'm in 4th year and if I don't get into med school, I was just planning on working the next year. There's no school that requires you to be in school the year you apply right?

I was talking to someone who was looking at dentistry and said that for one of the dent schools you needed to be in school..

For the english speaking canadian schools, you don't have to actually currently be in school to apply for medicine.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ottawa- You can have 1 year that is not full couse load, as long as you make up the missing credits in the summer that was directly before or directly after that particular year. All other years must have a full course load.

 

Where does it say you can only do that for 1 year? I went to the website and didn't read the part that it can only be done for 1 year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where does it say you can only do that for 1 year? I went to the website and didn't read the part that it can only be done for 1 year.
I've had several discussions with people from admissions, including the Dean (one of the advantages of working in the same building as them) and this is what they've told me. Though it's kind of unclear since they stress that they don't really like to do this (they actually want you to take 5 courses per semester) but people started arguing that they weren't eligible for the weighting formula, so they had to come up with some type of solution.

 

However, I got this info based on what they did last year for admissions. They may change their rules for this current cycle.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...