New high school scholarship which seems to be guaranteeing MD admission

[happytobehere]

I'm curious, what do you guys think about this new scholarship at the U of C?

 

http://www.ucalgary.ca/studentfinance/awards/choose/prospective/hs/lhs

 

The description is

 

"Leader in Health Sciences Scholarships are prestigious awards offered to high school students entering the Bachelor of Health Sciences degree program in the Faculty of Medicine.

 

Recipients are assured admission to the Faculty of Medicine, MD program at the University of Calgary provided that they meet additional criteria upon completion of the Bachelor of Health Sciences degree."

 

:eek:

 

Personally, I believe that everyone should suffer through writing the Top 10, it's a right of passage no?

[bighopes100]

Wow that's ridiculously stupid of them. I know sooooo many people that did amazing in high school (95%+) but were just average (80ish%) in university. If someone from UCal reads this, seriously reconsider what you guys are doing haha.

[Vidhya]

Wow that's ridiculously stupid of them. I know sooooo many people that did amazing in high school (95%+) but were just average (80ish%) in university. If someone from UCal reads this, seriously reconsider what you guys are doing haha.

 

 

Yeah I'm not sure how well this will work, plus I'm not usually a fan of this type of recruiting. The requirements are quite steep (90% + high school average to start with) then you need to maintain a full course load (10 courses per year) with a GPA of 3.40 annually to maintain the scholarship. That's asking a lot and one screw-up means you lose the scholarship and guaranteed entrance to medicine. (Not to mention, what if someone had these exact same stats but decided to go into engineering or neuroscience, why the push for this particular program?)

 

My guess is that it's a recruitment tool to try to attract students across the country. So one of two things could happen. They may attract so many A+ students to the program that they end up having 40 or more guaranteed spots to the MD program, or the expectations are too high and we might only see a handful of students gain entry this way. It seems highly variable.

 

But...interesting to see what happens in four years!

[NeuroPreMed]

I give it one cycle before it ends. They'll have to offer it to find out how bad it is.

[Hyperalgesia]

Definitely a strange move from a school that generally values age and life-experience. I don't really know how this is supposed to work, and am very curious as to what 'provided that they meet additional criteria upon completion of the Bachelor of Health Sciences degree`means. What are the additional criteria? Do they have to take the MCAT? What scores do they need? Are they guaranteed acceptance with the bare minimum GPA of 3.4? Its all very confusing.. would love to hear from Dr. Walker on this one for sure.

[NeuroPreMed]

You only need to maintain a 3.4?! Guaranteed entry for high schoolers?! I thought Calgary was all about maturity over academics. Now they dont care about academic excellence or maturity. Do they even interview these ppl? If this is legit then I don't want to go to calgary anymore. Maybe I'll move to Saskatchewan or something.

 

I don't believe so, unless you show exceptional ECs

[zizo5]

What about MCAT? Is it fair that these people can just skip what some believe is the most difficult part of the admissions process?

[Vidhya]

I would hope they would at least interview them. What if you had multiple "guaranteed" applicants with absolutely no people skills. It's like doing a complete 180 on UofC's philosophy.

 

I'm starting to wonder if this award has some sort of error in it. Perhaps it's guaranteed entry into Graduate studies not the MD program? It just seems so odd....

[TheBoss]

I feel like the actual med school and med admissions office had nothing to with this, and it was just some admin staff who wrote it without realizing that MD admissions is a competitive process (i.e. meeting requirements does not come close to assuring admission).

 

If not, I would've expected a lot more fanfare, like there was for Queen's thing. Guaranteed med school (outside quebec) after high school is a huge deal.

[MicroMo]

I feel like the actual med school and med admissions office had nothing to with this, and it was just some admin staff who wrote it without realizing that MD admissions is a competitive process (i.e. meeting requirements does not come close to assuring admission).

 

If not, I would've expected a lot more fanfare, like there was for Queen's thing. Guaranteed med school (outside quebec) after high school is a huge deal.

 

I don't think a scholarship like this would ever go forward without the med school/admissions knowing about it. They likely know about it and were involved in designing this scholarship as were many others who have been a part of UME for a long time. Any time a major change/scholarship is put into place there are usually committees who go over it at length. UME and the BHSc likely worked together on this. I am sure they knew this would be controversial and that eyebrows would be raised. The only way to know if something like this will work or not is to try it and see. I think this might loosely modelled on the Leaders in Medicine program a bit (the name is Leaders in BHSc afterall). Also there are true premed programs in the USA so trying this in Canada isn't to be unexpected. UC just did it first I guess...wait and see!

[TheBoss]

I don't think a scholarship like this would ever go forward without the med school/admissions knowing about it. They likely know about it and were involved in designing this scholarship as were many others who have been a part of UME for a long time. Any time a major change/scholarship is put into place there are usually committees who go over it at length. UME and the BHSc likely worked together on this. I am sure they knew this would be controversial and that eyebrows would be raised. The only way to know if something like this will work or not is to try it and see. I think this might loosely modelled on the Leaders in Medicine program a bit (the name is Leaders in BHSc afterall). Also there are true premed programs in the USA so trying this in Canada isn't to be unexpected. UC just did it first I guess...wait and see!

 

Queen's did it first in Canada...

 

And what I mean is

"Recipients are assured admission to the Faculty of Medicine, MD program at the University of Calgary provided that they meet additional criteria upon completion of the Bachelor of Health Sciences degree."

might've just been put in by someone who thought, "meet the criteria to get into med upon graduation as with any other degree", without understanding how things work.

[Hyperalgesia]

I think this might loosely modelled on the Leaders in Medicine program a bit (the name is Leaders in BHSc afterall).

 

 

The Leaders in Medicine program is totally different. You have to apply and be accepted into both programs (MD & MSc/MBA/PhD) on your own merits, and then you can join LIM. There are no special considerations for people who are interested in LIM when they apply for medical school. LIM just provides you with a joint degree (among a few other benefits once you`ve been accepted), not a guaranteed acceptance like this scholarship seems to be giving out.

[bighopes100]

Does Queen's already have something similar to this? What's it called (I've never heard of it, so curious).

 

I hope other schools don't do this. I really enjoyed high school and this is going to make things a hell of a lot more competitive.

[TheBoss]

Does Queen's already have something similar to this? What's it called (I've never heard of it, so curious).

 

I hope other schools don't do this. I really enjoyed high school and this is going to make things a hell of a lot more competitive.

 

Queen's University Accelerated Route to Medical School (QuARMS)

[bighopes100]

Queen's University Accelerated Route to Medical School (QuARMS)

 

ah I see. Thanks. This seems more sensible seeing as they want the student to make the dean's honour roll (I'm assuming that requires at least 85) in undergrad.

[happytobehere]

The only logical explanation that I can come up with is that a very generous donor championed this scholarship. I won't be very surprised if the first recipient of this scholarship's last name is O'Brien, Taylor, Hotchkiss, etc.

 

Furthermore, why do they call it "leaders in health science"? High grades in high school do not make you a leader... perhaps a leader in the sense that you have the highest grades in your school / Alberta??? :confused:

[bighopes100]

The only logical explanation that I can come up with is that a very generous donor championed this scholarship. I won't be very surprised if the first recipient of this scholarship's last name is O'Brien, Taylor, Hotchkiss, etc.

 

Furthermore, why do they call it "leaders in health science"? High grades in high school do not make you a leader... perhaps a leader in the sense that you have the highest grades in your school / Alberta??? :confused:

 

lol never even considered that but you're probably right. Sad thing is, money still runs things

[farmin]

The only logical explanation that I can come up with is that a very generous donor championed this scholarship. I won't be very surprised if the first recipient of this scholarship's last name is O'Brien, Taylor, Hotchkiss, etc.

 

Furthermore, why do they call it "leaders in health science"? High grades in high school do not make you a leader... perhaps a leader in the sense that you have the highest grades in your school / Alberta??? :confused:

 

Wat is this orbrien taylor hotchkiss u speak of? Do they donate a lot of cash or something?

[Orcamute]

How the hell do you get a 95%+ average? I could barely maintain a 90. And I was a 3.9GPA uni student

[Sarvish]

How the hell do you get a 95%+ average? I could barely maintain a 90. And I was a 3.9GPA uni student

 

It depends on the courses, I've always been a very good math and physics student. If you can manage 99 or 100 in those than getting lower marks in other courses will get you above 95. I graduated with a high school average around 96-97 because a majority of my Grade 12 courses were math, physics, and computer science related.

 

Still, I don't think a good high school average should be enough to get you an easier route to medical school. I did not have the same difficulty that many people seem to have in 1st year but that's about as far as my high school preparation got me.

[HarryPotter]

this seems weird. if i had to pick one school in ab, i would've thought that u of a would do this, not calgary since they love older/mature applicants.

[Hyperalgesia]

Looks like Dr. Walker will be doing a blog post about this scholarship sometime in the future. Here was a short comment he posted about it on the blog:

 

Sure. I will post on it later today. That said, a one page blurb does not do justice to the full selection process, which definitely mirrors the process used for all applicants to the MD program.

 

He also says this in another comment:

 

It is also important to keep in mind that this is a BHSc scholarship primarily. It is not really “about” recruiting people into the MD program

 

Interested to see the post when it comes up!

[broom]

I think Calgary is doing a commendable job in increasing their university's research aptitude. I mean from what it seems like LIM is a really great program (which hopefully I'll be joining next year). In that context, this does make some sense. I really just hope they are as ruthless with those kids as they are with us new applicants. I am glad that they need to write the MCAT, and I hope that they have to at least get >30, maybe even higher. If this is the cream-of-the-crop, they shouldn't have problems being in the top 10% of medical applicants.

[Vidhya]

Looks like Dr. Walker will be doing a blog post about this scholarship sometime in the future. Here was a short comment he posted about it on the blog:

 

 

He also says this in another comment:It is also important to keep in mind that this is a BHSc scholarship primarily. It is not really “about” recruiting people into the MD program

 

 

Interested to see the post when it comes up!

 

 

Yeah I found that to be an interesting comment. I certainly think that is probably the intention since the BHSc has already had a research focus. However, we all know how premeds (and premed parents) think. Any program/scholarship that gives you an almost guaranteed admission into medical school will automatically become the default "premed program" to be admitted too.

 

I'm not sure how admissions will be able to focus in on high school students with a genuine research interest. If they can, then this could work well for the clinician/researcher program. Otherwise it's going to be a circus of high performing students from across the country applying when they really have no genuine intentions to do actual research. People will do just about anything for a seat. I know I sold my soul years ago.

[drpousoajs]

Hi, are you currently the health science program of u of c? If so, how are you liking the program? Is it difficult to maintain a high GPA and ec's/leadership roles while enrolled in the program? Is your marks mainly determined by your research, or test scores? Is it difficult to commute back and forth from the main campus to the Health Science Building?