High Schoolers READ!!

[Guest Thewonderer]

Let me stir up the pot here....

 

It is a known fact that U of T has the hardest life science ONLY among the few U of T posters here! But honestly, there is a huge bias here for U of T because this board does seem to be dominated by Ontario students.

 

Well, the toughest school should be Cornell University in Ithaca where the school only accepts 25-30% of its applicants and 85-90% of its students are ranked within the top 10% of their highschool graduating class. And once the hopeful premeds enter Cornell, it slaps them with intro bio and intro chem whose mean grades are C+/B-, thereby weeding half of them out and sweeping them out of competition immediately.

 

Now, of course, there is some personal bias

[Guest cheech10]

Hey, not all of us UofT students thought it was that hard. Some of us found it alright.

[Guest JD]

Pick your university based on factors like location, scholarship money, whether it offers the program you are interested in, etc. and not by perceived difficulty. Med schools don't favour particular undergrad institutions or programs so go into what you enjoy most (and will thus more likely do well in). Undergrad will most definitely be harder and more work than high school, but you can survive (and hopefully even thrive!) if you make a solid effort to stay on top of things. Don't be intimidated by everything you hear, as people naturally like to say (maybe even embellish...) what a challenge their own program is.

 

If you do find that you're having trouble, there is definitely help to be found in the form of TA's, profs, etc., even at seemingly "impersonal" places like U of T. Just don't be expecting a miracle if you've been skipping class all term and start reading the material for the first time the night before the test . Good luck with your decision.

[Guest UofT]

Hey, Cornell sounds just like UofT. jj

[Guest me]

Bravo, Cheech10.

 

Thanks for adding a voice of moderation to this conversation, which is becoming a cry-fest for U of T students to blame their bad marks on the school.

 

Grow up and study, people, instead of whining... Or if you *really* hate U of T that much, just leave!

[Guest UofT Student]

Actually, I think the policy at U of T is that in classes with over 60 people, 20% have to get As. Of course, with smaller classes, anything goes. So its really not the difficulty of the course that's the issue.. its the average strength of the student population you take the class with. There's alot of bell-curving at U of T, for sure in STA220, Biochem, BIO150, and many other courses. And there's alot of 'adjustments' that nobody really knows about, such as in orgo. Who really knows, since your mark on the final exam is strictly guarded in many of these science courses.

[Guest Curious]

Could you please point out in what document where it states that 20% of the students need to get As, or did you just pull this out of your a**.

[Guest scalpel]

The official policy is: In classes with over 30 people, the following needs to be adhered to:

1. Grade "A": between 5% and 25%

2. Grades "A" and "B" combined: not over 75%

3. Grades "E" and "F" combined: not over 20%

 

Sounds pretty standard to me...

[Guest Stallion]

Of course, this is a lot harder than it sounds, but you get the picture. As others have already mentioned, that means live in a city that you would LIKE to for 3 years, pick a courses (and a career path) that you will LIKE, go to a school with the social/ethnic breakdown that you would LIKE. NEVER, EVER do something just because you think it'll look good on you resume. If you are truly interested medicine, you'll naturally end up taking health related EC's. If you dread volunteering at a hospital....errrrr.....good luck! Take it as sign that medicine is not the field for you (of course, I already know that you're smart enough to do it, the real question is, do you really want to do it?). Are you someone that says, "Sorry, can't go out tonite. I have to volunteer and I can't wait to get there. I may even go early today because Dr. X is really cool!" Anyone who says they've wanted to be a doctor since high school either have misconceptions about the career due to lack of exposure, or external pressure from others who also don't have any idea about what being a doctor is really like. When I was in high school, I wanted to be an actor, rock star or play for the Leafs....I still do. What does an 18 year old know about medicine, anyways? What an 18 year old should know is where he'll most likely be happy for the next couple of years.

[Guest Sundin]

Good Points

 

But being a leaf isn't all that great....for one getting pucks shot at your wrist at a 100Km/hr kinda sucks.....thats why I'm trying to go to med school!

 

Sundin

[Guest Curious]

Scalpel, where did you get this "official" information from?

[Guest scalpel]

It's not just "official". Its straight from the horse's mouth, aka. the U of T website in the section where they outline policies that professors should adhere to. You just hafta filter through all the other legal mumbo jumbo. Its not hard to find if you're at least semi-competent.