Advanced Stuff

[Guest HE43]

Hey, I was at the pre-registration thing a few days ago and it seemed as if there were lots of people in IB and AP programmes. Will I be at a total disadvantage if I just attended a regular high school in the "standard" programme?

 

Are there any people out there who did really good in first year without having been through these advanced programmes?

 

Any reply would be greatly appreciated.

[Guest clinicalchief]

There are more *regulars* than not who get accepted to medical school. I don't have any numbers to back this up but I know only one medical student who did an advanced program in high school. There is no need to rush through high school, they are usually the best years of your life! Once you start medical school, you will wish you have as much free time that you did back then. Don't worry, take the courses that are the *norm* (and some easy ones too). Good Luck.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I think maybe a few of my classmates at UWO meds might have done AP or IB. . . but it's not many. There's not many schools at all that offer it! I know Ottawa has maybe 2 or 3 (at most) and I think NS has one for the whole province. . . possibly 2. Don't worry about doing the regular stream of High School - it's adequate prep for University.

[Guest mying]

My high school only rarely offered AP (and, at least when I was there, never IB). I was one of very very very few people (ie, one) who did an AP credit my year: French. It's not a grade I'm going to brag about, and I can guarantee it hasn't changed my life in any way.

 

(Why french? Because I'd already done both OACs and had nothing better to do. Why not anything else? Because I had enough trouble getting university-admission grades in what I had, thankyouverymuch.)

 

High school grades and credits have NO bearing on your medical school application. But since you can go back to when you were 14 to talk about work and volunteer experience, what you do OUTSIDE of high school can have a bearing -- but even then, only a little, compared to what you can do while in university.

[Guest Liana]

A lot of schools don't offer IB or AP. I've honestly only met one Canadian who has even had the opportunity to take these courses (from all of the - mostly Ontarian - students I've met at Guelph).

 

Bottom line is - IB or AP isn't something that will add any depth to your med school resume, so you should take these courses based on your own motivation only. If you're looking for a challenge (which is a personality trait that WILL help you for a career in medicine), if you think these courses will help you succeed in university, you want to meet students with similar intellectual levels; whatever reason, make sure it's your own. No one will ever care if you *didn't* take IB/AP courses, even if the opportunity was available to you, so if you don't think you'll get a lot out of it, and think that pursuing this route may interfere with your ability to enjoy your high school years - whether interfering with your ability to join clubs, sports, or even enjoy your courses, then perhaps it's not worth it.

[Guest BC guy]

My sibling had many classmates who took AP in high school, but only one individual actually made use of it i.e. he/she went onto the 2nd yr level university after high school. This person was able to finish their BSc in 3 years time, but then this person also did alot of studying. This person just studied and studied. The focus was to get into medicine and everything done was with this purpose in mind. This person applied all over the continent, especially to the more prestigious schools in the US. He/she had a few offers for interview but only 1 offer of admission from UT; well deserved as this person had worked really really hard. But it all came at a price, no social life to speak of in the high school years and pre-med years. I understand that this person has re-invented themselves (new city, no one knows you) and is trying hard now to have some fun. Think he/she is happy and while this person might not have good social skills now, the years at med school can probably teach him/her, and time should take care of the rest.

[Guest jules]

IB is good for personal challenge. Actually at the interview I've been asked to talk about the extended essay in wrote in IB. Thanks to IB i was able to skip 1 year of Uni and it helped me a lot to get the uni pace. Most of my 2nd year courses were review of what I studied during my 2 years of IB. I my case, IB was really an advantage.

[Guest Jennifer Y]

While IB prepares you very well for the load at university, you will work quite hard at the high school level. My parents were against this, and as they had said, if you can not enjoy your high school senior years when can you take things this easy again. So, I was not enrolled in the IB program. At university many of my classmates were from the IB program, and they are good students, but the ones with the highest GPAs in my faculty were not the ones from the IB program. I have no regrets and did the 4.0 GPA thing without the IB.

[Guest dubliner]

I took AP in high school, and now teach IB to high school students. My personal experience was that I learned more in high school (relatively speaking) than I did in university (better teachers, smaller classes, more discussion, etc.). I really enjoyed my advanced classes, and was extremely bored and frustrated with much of undergrad. That being said, it by no means is a necessity - as a previous poster indicated, many more "regulars" get accepted (but perhaps that's because there's just many more "regulars" out there...just a thought...) than advanced students. Realistically, though, your high school experience will not add significantly to your med resume, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. Take whatever you find interesting, and don't burn yourself out too early. There'll be plenty of opportunity for that later !!

 

HTH,

dc