Current 1st-year McGill student - apply for French med schools or finish Bachelor?

[Ellennn]

Hi everyone,

 

I just finished my first year at McGill, I'm a management (B.Comm) student but I managed to get all of the first year science courses done (MATH140+141, PHYS101+102, BIOL111+112, CHEM 110+120). I will be doing Organic Chem 1 in September.

 

By the end of this year, I will have done all of the pre-requisites for the 3 French med schools (Montreal, Laval, Sherbrooke), except the "Physics 301 Ondes et physique moderne", which I'm not sure of its equivalent course at McGill. Does anyone know which course should I take to satisfy this pre-requisite at McGill?

 

I finished my high school in Ontario, although I grew up and did a big part of my education in Quebec. So my original plan was to do an undergraduate degree like all my Ontario friends, and then apply to med school, until I found out that it might be possible to get there earlier.

 

So I have 3 options, and I want to hear your opinion about them:

1. Direct-entry to a French med school without completing my undergraduate degree

If there is an equivalent course at McGill for that "Ondes et physique moderne" course, I could finish all the pre-requisites for the next application cycle. In this way, I may be accepted directly to med

 

2. Annee Preparatoire

All 3 French med schools have "annee preparatoire" program, which I can apply even without an undergraduate degree, unlike McGill med school or most other English med schools. From what I understand, I could be accepted to the annee preparatoire without completing all of the pre-requisites.

 

3. Finish my undergraduate degree, then apply widely to both English and French med schools.

 

Ideally, I wanted to go to McGill med school after my undergraduate. But then I thought, if I apply in the next application cycle to the French ones, if I'm lucky enough to get in, why not?

- is it a disadvantage to NOT have an undergraduate degree?

- if they don't let me go to med school directly when I apply in my 2nd year (with org chem 1 and that "onde&physique moderne" in progress), and want me to do the annee preparatoire, I believe it would be almost a repeat of my first year at McGill (eg. calculus, integrals, basic sciences - biology, general chemistry, physics mechanics, electricity & magnetism...). In that case, is it worth it to waste a year? Or should I hang on for 2 more years to complete my undergraduate - which will be in Accounting - so I'll have a back up plan.

 

I don't know if I told my situation clear enough ... Tell me what you think. Anything. I don't know if I should apply to French med school this year....

[Arztin]

Go get your facts right first.

For starters, Laval and Sherbrooke don't require a pre med year.

[Ellennn]

Go get your facts right first.

For starters, Laval and Sherbrooke don't require a pre med year.

 

You are absolutely right! They don't require a pre-med year per se, but they have the same cours prealables as Montreal, and if they think you don't have enough of the pre-requisites, they will make you do the preparatory year I believe.

 

Thanks!

[AlexMD]

Nope. There's just no Prep year at Laval and Sherbrooke . If you don't have the prealables, and you can't get them done by the end of the summer, you can't enter med school because they gonna give a conditional offer stating you have to get the prereqs done by the start of med school in august .

 

There's only a med-prep year at Montreal, but I'm not sure about the delay they give you to complete all prereqs.

[Ellennn]

Nope. There's just no Prep year at Laval and Sherbrooke . If you don't have the prealables, and you can't get them done by the end of the summer, you can't enter med school because they gonna give a conditional offer stating you have to get the prereqs done by the start of med school in august .

 

There's only a med-prep year at Montreal, but I'm not sure about the delay they give you to complete all prereqs.

 

Ohh I see. Sorry, I just assumed they would treat it the same way as Montreal does as soon as I saw the same pre-req courses.

 

So do you know anything about that Physics course? Ondes et physique moderne?

[AlexMD]

Ohh I see. Sorry, I just assumed they would treat it the same way as Montreal does as soon as I saw the same pre-req courses.

 

So do you know anything about that Physics course? Ondes et physique moderne?

 

Unfortunately I have no idea what would be the equivalent.

[FreddyHeff]

You should check with McGill which course is like Ondes et physique moderne (back in the day, it was called physique optique, so any intro to optical physics should do the tricks)... if not at McGill, try to do it at a CEGEP or with an online course...

[Little mermaid]

Hi everyone,

 

I just finished my first year at McGill, I'm a management (B.Comm) student but I managed to get all of the first year science courses done (MATH140+141, PHYS101+102, BIOL111+112, CHEM 110+120). I will be doing Organic Chem 1 in September.

 

By the end of this year, I will have done all of the pre-requisites for the 3 French med schools (Montreal, Laval, Sherbrooke), except the "Physics 301 Ondes et physique moderne", which I'm not sure of its equivalent course at McGill. Does anyone know which course should I take to satisfy this pre-requisite at McGill?

 

I finished my high school in Ontario, although I grew up and did a big part of my education in Quebec. So my original plan was to do an undergraduate degree like all my Ontario friends, and then apply to med school, until I found out that it might be possible to get there earlier.

 

So I have 3 options, and I want to hear your opinion about them:

1. Direct-entry to a French med school without completing my undergraduate degree

If there is an equivalent course at McGill for that "Ondes et physique moderne" course, I could finish all the pre-requisites for the next application cycle. In this way, I may be accepted directly to med

 

2. Annee Preparatoire

All 3 French med schools have "annee preparatoire" program, which I can apply even without an undergraduate degree, unlike McGill med school or most other English med schools. From what I understand, I could be accepted to the annee preparatoire without completing all of the pre-requisites.

 

3. Finish my undergraduate degree, then apply widely to both English and French med schools.

 

Ideally, I wanted to go to McGill med school after my undergraduate. But then I thought, if I apply in the next application cycle to the French ones, if I'm lucky enough to get in, why not?

- is it a disadvantage to NOT have an undergraduate degree?

- if they don't let me go to med school directly when I apply in my 2nd year (with org chem 1 and that "onde&physique moderne" in progress), and want me to do the annee preparatoire, I believe it would be almost a repeat of my first year at McGill (eg. calculus, integrals, basic sciences - biology, general chemistry, physics mechanics, electricity & magnetism...). In that case, is it worth it to waste a year? Or should I hang on for 2 more years to complete my undergraduate - which will be in Accounting - so I'll have a back up plan.

 

I don't know if I told my situation clear enough ... Tell me what you think. Anything. I don't know if I should apply to French med school this year....

 

You can try but honestly you don't have a lot of chances, for UdeM you need a 35.5 R score or more because you are in the middle of your degree (they take only 8 ppl in this category and you're not in a program that gives high r scores), for ULaval you can't apply with less than 75 CR, so you only have sherbrook left...

[Sceptical]

From the course description, seems like PHYS 101 covers the "ondes" part of "ondes et physique moderne" for sure. I don't see modern physics / physique moderne (atomic theory, BB radiation, photoelectric effect, quantum mechanics) in the course description, though I can't confirm unless I got hold of the detailed course outline.

 

Sceptical

[Ellennn]

From the course description, seems like PHYS 101 covers the "ondes" part of "ondes et physique moderne" for sure. I don't see modern physics / physique moderne (atomic theory, BB radiation, photoelectric effect, quantum mechanics) in the course description, though I can't confirm unless I got hold of the detailed course outline.

 

Sceptical

 

We did cover waves in PHYS 101. We learned what you described as modern physics (atomic theory, BB radiation, photoelectric effect, quantum mechanics) in CHEM 110, how can I prove that? They don't describe it in details on the e-calendar, http://www.mcgill.ca/study/2014-2015/courses/chem-110

Will the admission office know that we covered it in CHEM 110?

 

Thanks!

[Ellennn]

You can try but honestly you don't have a lot of chances, for UdeM you need a 35.5 R score or more because you are in the middle of your degree (they take only 8 ppl in this category and you're not in a program that gives high r scores), for ULaval you can't apply with less than 75 CR, so you only have sherbrook left...

 

Could you tell me how can I calculate the R-score from GPA? I can't seem to find this information.

-Where can I see how many people they take for each category by education background? I could only find that they reserve 60% of the spots to cegep graduates.

 

So even just for Sherbrooke, is it worth a shot to apply? Or should I apply in 3 years after completing my undergraduate?

[Micro_med]

Do you have a CEGEP diploma (DEC) ? If not, even if you finish all your prereq during your first year at Mcgill, you gonna have to finish your undergrad to apply to the french schools.

[Sceptical]

I suggest contact the McGill academic advisors first, as a McGill student applying to UdeM/Laval/Sherbrooke med should be a fairly common scenario they encounter. Also keep a record of your course outlines (i.e. the one that details the lecture-to-lecture topic) if they exist.

 

If all else fails, you can always contact the course coordinator to write you a letter attesting to the material covered in that course. The folks especially in chemistry are super chill and reasonable. I can attest to that.

 

Sceptical

 

 

We did cover waves in PHYS 101. We learned what you described as modern physics (atomic theory, BB radiation, photoelectric effect, quantum mechanics) in CHEM 110, how can I prove that? They don't describe it in details on the e-calendar, http://www.mcgill.ca/study/2014-2015/courses/chem-110

Will the admission office know that we covered it in CHEM 110?

 

Thanks!

[Ellennn]

Do you have a CEGEP diploma (DEC) ? If not, even if you finish all your prereq during your first year at Mcgill, you gonna have to finish your undergrad to apply to the french schools.

 

I don't have a DEC, I have Ontario Secondary School Diploma... But don't they have a category called something like university students with baccalaureat in progress?

[Ellennn]

I suggest contact the McGill academic advisors first, as a McGill student applying to UdeM/Laval/Sherbrooke med should be a fairly common scenario they encounter. Also keep a record of your course outlines (i.e. the one that details the lecture-to-lecture topic) if they exist.

 

If all else fails, you can always contact the course coordinator to write you a letter attesting to the material covered in that course. The folks especially in chemistry are super chill and reasonable. I can attest to that.

 

Sceptical

 

I agree that this should be a common scenario. Just that science advisors don't usually appreciate it when I try to use their time as a management student lol. Nonetheless I shall try again! Thank you so much!

[a1b1]

Ulaval you need 75 credits before you can apply unless you are from ulaval.

Udem only takes 8 people en cour de bacc

Sherbrooke you can apply to

[Little mermaid]

Could you tell me how can I calculate the R-score from GPA? I can't seem to find this information.

-Where can I see how many people they take for each category by education background? I could only find that they reserve 60% of the spots to cegep graduates.

 

So even just for Sherbrooke, is it worth a shot to apply? Or should I apply in 3 years after completing my undergraduate?

 

• Each university has its own way to calculate it and we only have access to ulaval's : https://www2.ulaval.ca/admission/decouvrez-les-exigences-/programmes-a-capacite-daccueil-limitee/cote-laval.html
   
  
• For sherbrooke here's the list of how many people they take for each category: http://www.usherbrooke.ca/doctorat-medecine/admission/questions-en-rafale/inscriptions/
  but you should call them to make sure of the category you fall in.
  

 

You could try, you have nothing to lose (except 70$ ), but you will probably have to finish your undergrad.

[Ellennn]

Thanks everyone!

I think I should finish my undergrad before applying.

[MD2015]

For the French speaking medical schools, whenever you apply, as you did not graduate from a French h.s., be prepared to write the French exam.