Aerospace Engineer Wanting to Pursue Oncology

[aob]

Hello all,

 

I just recently graduated from my program in Aerospace Engineering. For a quite awhile now, I have been interested in pursuing a career in oncology. Overall I am a fairly competent student with an OMSAS GPA of 3.77 with the following yearly breakdown...

 

Year 1: 3.88

Year 2: 3.8

Year 3: 3.95

Year 4: 3.49

 

I didn't have a very good final year, which I realize will probably reflect poorly on my application. I took on two teaching assistant jobs with 6 courses a semester and found myself overwhelmed, resulting in a series of poorly written final exams.

 

As it stands now I am beginning a Master's program at U of T in September. If possible I was thinking about picking up the prereqs that I need while there. I think I am capable of doing better than I have in the past, so I see it as an opportunity to hopefully make-up for my weak 4th year in undergrad.

 

My EC record primarily includes teaching assistantships, working for my schools student success center as a mentor/tutor and research with one publication and another currently in the works. Nothing really health related yet, but I'm currently seeking some possible volunteer work while in Toronto.

 

Is trying to do prerequisite courses while doing a Masters a good idea, or should I pick them up as a special student at my current school and forget the Masters? Also, any advice on where I should focus my extracurricular acitivities would be much appreciated!

[dentopia11]

its not exactly rocket science, is it haha sorry dont have your answer but this seemed like a perfect spot for the phrase.

on a side note though, doing undergrad courses during masters may require special permission from uoft so you'd have to check that first.

[bored]

pretty good chance id say, Write the mcat and aim for a good mark on it.

[ondansetron]

University of Alberta and Calgary will both love you if you can get a decent MCAT score.

[aob]

Thanks guys, after speaking with the U of T registrar office today it seems as though I can take the courses so long as it is cleared with my faculty first (I haven't been able to get through to them today). I hope this works out since my Masters is completely paid for through scholarships, however I will do whatever I must to pursue my dream!

 

So I guess the next step is to try and land a volunteer position with the Cancer Agency!

 

As I also understand it, not all schools will factor in graduate course marks into their GPA calculations, however I would presume that if I take undergraduate courses as a special student, those marks will be. It would be a fairly light undergrad course load however, so I'm not sure if it would qualify as a "year".

[robinre]

Only thing about masters vs special year is that if you decide on a masters you're stuck at it for 2 years before you can apply, whereas you could apply next year after writing the mcat next summer if you do a special year. Based on your marks it seems like you would have a decent shot and qualify for the u oft weighting formula as well which will boost your gpa. I'd suggest coaching some sport you're good at and doing intramurals this next year or more for extracurriculars. It's good to have a nice assortment of extracurriculars in different areas (ie show that you're not just an academic nerd)

[aob]

Only thing about masters vs special year is that if you decide on a masters you're stuck at it for 2 years before you can apply, whereas you could apply next year after writing the mcat next summer if you do a special year. Based on your marks it seems like you would have a decent shot and qualify for the u oft weighting formula as well which will boost your gpa. I'd suggest coaching some sport you're good at and doing intramurals this next year or more for extracurriculars. It's good to have a nice assortment of extracurriculars in different areas (ie show that you're not just an academic nerd)

 

That's true, I also believe I made a mistake in my OMSAS GPA calculation since I only counted the two full year courses that I've taken as one course, but I just read that those courses are actually double weighted in the calculation. So I'm a bit higher than the numbers above.

 

I guess I have lots to think about in regards to whether or not I want to do this Masters or not. I worry a little bit that doing a special year might be seen as a really light academic load, but I guess that would mean more time to beef up my volunteer and community involvement EC's.

 

Thank you all for your input.

[bored]

hows arospace engineering? what do you learn about in those 4 years?

[aob]

hows arospace engineering? what do you learn about in those 4 years?

 

It's good, it really is just mechanical engineering with an aerospace theme, although a lot more focus on fluids courses, orbital mechanics etc (depending on your stream).