Program Freakout!!

[Guest snowpea]

I went to talk to my family doctor the other day, and was discussing how difficult it is to get into med school. When I told her I was considering cell bio or microbiology as my major, she immediately told me to consider something else, such as an honours program like biochem, pharmacology or physiology. She told me that statistically, few microbi students get in to med, and only if their marks were outstanding. She told me she did the honours Physio program, and almost anyone who applied from physio got in. (This is refering to UBC) This totally freaked me out because I kept hearing that one's major doesn't really matter. I told her that med schools accept anyone who is suitable, regardless of major (ie history would work) but then she pointed out that very few out-of-science students get in. She also said that med schools like students from honours programs because they know that the students are able to handle a heavy course load. This really freaked me out, because just the week before registration, I changed my courses that were originally geared to biochem to microbiology. Now I don't have all the proper re-reqs to get into the "better programs". It is too late for me to change over now because almost all the classes are full. My doctor just freaked me out so much! (Granted, I freak out easily :rolleyes ) I was wondering what people thought about this. My doctor is in her late 30's/early 40's, so that may be a factor with what she told me, but I don't know. Help!

[Guest Ian Wong]

That's garbage. Pick the major that you think you'll enjoy most, because that will help your motivation level to study. Then do really, really well in it.

 

I was told by several med students back when I was in undergrad that doing honours isn't necessary. I believe it. Doing an honours degree is great ONLY if you think you can handle the workload and still get great grades. However, I honestly think that a person who just does a major and gets great grades will have a better application than someone who does an honours and gets decent grades. Honours plus good grades versus no honours and great grades would probably be a toss-up.

 

The risk is that if your grades with an honours are "just-ok", then numerically, you look academically less-strong than someone who kicked butt in their major program.

 

There are a large number of med students, myself included, who didn't do an honours degree and still got in.

 

Don't forget that you need to work on all those other areas of the application such as job shadowing and hospital volunteering. Clinical exposure will be easier to get if you aren't also busting yourself on writing a 100 page thesis in your final year when you are also applying to med schools and trying to maintain high grades in your courses. I'm sure there will be others who disagree with me, but that's my point of view.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest MEDCOMPSCI]

I totally agree with Ian...I know of at least 3 people who also got in by doing only a major. Myself, I was doing an honours (double major, as my name indicates) but once I got in I dropped one major so that I could convocate with a degree.

[Guest YongQ]

Yep, your doctor is <font color="#B80000">wrong</font>, there's no discrimination based on degree type, including the "honours/major" aspect of it.

[Guest Katie]

Snowpea, that's so funny. I hear continually that microbi majors have the highest acceptance rate into med school of all majors! While that's probably not true, its a total 180 of what your doctor is telling you! And my microbi advisor advised me NOT to go for honours because grades are more important than course load to med schools.

 

There are too many opinions out there. It's annoying. :lol

[Guest not rex morgan]

I'm with the rest. I think the honours degree is a big waste of your time if your heart's not in it. If you think about it, people who enter honours programs are generally pretty smart and motivated. Good grades get you into med. I think this is the reason behind the correlation. You might want to consider doing a directed studies with a professor. You can take whatever program you want, but you get invaluable lab experience. It would be nice to see more doctors and med students with a greater appreciation for basic science. To be honest with you, you usually have a good shot at a pretty good grade too. I wish I'd done one. I worked in a lab after I graduated and that helped me, b/c an interviewer asked me what lab experience I had. Not necessary, but think about it.

[Guest MEDCOMPSCI]

Acutally, I have heard that computer sci. majors have the highest placement rate in medical school (roughly 60% of comp sci. majors get in) or so I have heard.

[Guest strider2004]

I didn't even think that the admissions committees looked at the major. The coputer goes through and makes sure you have the prerequisite courses and that should be it. It MIGHT come up during an interview but only if YOU think it's a strength(you have control over your interview). MEDCOMPSCI, I once read(US source) that philosophy students had the highest admissions rate. Of course, only about 300 are philosophy out of 48,000 applicants, but that's another story.

 

In UWO, I think basically every 4 year degree is considered an 'honours' degree because you can get a BSc in 3 years in Ontario. So there are probably more honours students in my class because there are more 4th year graduates than 3rd year graduates.

[Guest Snowpea]

Thanks everyone. It is so much better to hear from people who are currently in med school, as (I assume) you have better knowledge on how the admission process is now, compared to my doctor. I was so freaked out, that I spent all day yesterday trying to find a way to get the proper prereqs for physio.

 

However, there is something my doctor pointed out that makes sense. A lot of the profs for physio classes also teach some of the med school classes. By doing an honours program, you get to know these profs better, and it will be better to get references from people who are actually part of the med school falculty. There may also be a chance that they are on the admissions committee as well. These are some of the things that really made me consider physio.

 

But thanks for putting things into persepective.

[Guest gucio93]

Snowpea!

I don't think it really matters if the prof that writes your reference letter teaches in the med faculty or not. As long as you have a good relationship with him/her and know him long enough to get a good personal reference that stands out as much as it can, who cares in what faculty they teach. Also, if a prof knows you and is on the admission committee, ethically he/she needs to admit to a conflict of interest and should not review your application or serve as an interviewer for you. I don't know, maybe I'm naive, but I truly believe that most profs are honourable enough to admit to such a conflict of interest. Then again there may be some that do not. Either way, I'm with the rest of the people who answered your question - do not focus on physio unless it's something you have a passion for and will enjoy studying. As so many have pointed out, otherwise you will probably not be as motivated to get the great grades. Three years is a long time to spend studying something you are not interested in. All the best.

[Guest Sarah371]

Snowpea,

I think that it is important to do an honours degree if you can. I f you should not get into to medicine right off or decide two years from now that medicine is not what you want to do, you have somethin to fall back on.

 

What I mean by that is that most graduate programs prefer you to have and honours degree and most will make you do an extra year of courses if you don't have one.

 

Don't close any doors for yourself, if you can do an honours degree do one.

[Guest RAK2005]

Just so you know, I was in the same boat as you... I did an undergraduate degree in Physio (AND a MSc in Physio-Neuroscience) and was very involved with the faculty... however, when it comes to medical school ADMISSIONS it is a very different ballgame. I am certain that your marks will be much more important than the faculty you associate with. Some interviewers at certain schools know NOTHING about you in the actual interview, so knowing the faculty may be of less value. The only benefit I found was that I had patient and clinical examples to draw from during the interview (e.g. relating to patients etc.).

 

Furthermore, physiotherapy has a LOT of class (especially at UWO). You take 7-8 courses in your first and second year (with 10-15 exams at both Xmas and April!!), and do placement in summers, which makes MCAT writing a toughie. I also know that some PT profs are less than happy to lose their students to another profession. You may also note that many schools are switching to MPT (PT clincial Masters degrees) which means you may need a degree to even get considered for PT... one more hurdle!

 

 

If you are like me, you will find PT VERRRRRRY frustrating... we cannot diagnose pathology of any kind, and when we find something interesting (e.g. Fractures, tendon avulsions, neurological symptoms, tumours etc.) we refer onto physicians. I found that we (as PTs) could "patch up" the problem, but never get to the meat of the problem, especially when further investigations were nec. That being said, it is still a great job, but if I were to do it again, I would have taken a bio degree, with only five courses per term.

 

If you've got more questions about PT vs. medicine e-mail me at :

kuchinad@hotmail.com

 

Later.