Guest tappety tap Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Anyone who has had offers to their backup plan (masters) before hearing from med schools, what did you do? I was accepted to a MSC in epidemiology with a deadline of April 15 to accept. Since I won't hear from med school until June 1 or so (from Ont schools), and the other two epid programs until beginning of May, is it acceptable to ask for an extension? I would really appreciate advice from people who have been in this boat. THANKS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UOMeds05 Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Hey Tappety, This is the worst situation to be in, and the worst part of the admissions process; that you have to secure a plan b even before you know about a plan a. I was exactly in the same boat as you 2 years ago, finishing my honors degree, waiting to hear from med school, apps out to masters programs and other professional schools and as Murphey's Law states, you will hear back from every other program before you will hear from the one that you want the most! I was accepted into a MSc program at Queen's with a really great prof and an OGS. I was pretty pumped about it, but knew that if Meds came along, i was outta there. I was faced with either telling my prof about my app to medicine or keeping quiet and screwing her over come June/July/or Aug if i got in. I was really caught up in this decision, and finally decided to put it all on the line by telling her the truth, and telling her that i had applied to medicine (I threw in that i thought that i was a long-shot but none-the-less I wanted to be upfront with her). I am really happy i did. she was super understanding, held my spot and i felt a lot better about telling her. When i got into Ottawa off the wait-list mid-July (the day after getting an apartment in Kingston - Murphey's Law 102) and called her, she wasn't the happiest woman and i felt terrible, but at least i was truthful all along, and at that point was sure happy that i was. I know of others that have done differently and it has worked for them... this is just my 2 cents... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tappety tap Posted March 17, 2003 Report Share Posted March 17, 2003 Thanks for your advice...if I do accept this MSc offer, I will have to either lie to a supervisor or be upfront and hope for the best. It's such a bad system! Anyways, I think that I will most likely have to be honest like you did to my possible supervisor, however the risk of copping out half way through the summer is defintely a bad feeling. But...I guess that's what wait lists are designed for right?!? Thanks again for your input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest medicator007 Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Tappety, Basically same story for me.. got accepted to my MSc. at McGill before having heard from Med. Really great supervisor, interesting project, fantastic funding... but I wanted Med. I was honest with my supervisor up-front... told him that I had applied to medicine as well and that I couldnt commit to the MSc until after i had heard from Med. He was totally understanding and agreed to hold the spot until i heard in may at which point he managed to find another student so it worked out. I know of people who have played this situation in both manners, personally, i opted for being open from the get-go. For one, it felt like the right thing to do and secondly, who knows what bridges you might need later on in life no sense in randomly going around burning them! just my opinion though.... Medicator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Hi tappety tap, Congratulations on having some options! Do you mind if I ask to which Epi programs you applied? (If you applied to UT, typically they don't send out their M.Sc. acceptances until a little later, e.g., a lot of my classmates received theirs in June.) Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest med2006McGill Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 tappety tap, I was in the same boat as you last year. I, however, informed all the potential supervisors I interviewed with (up front!) that I was applying to med school at the same time. When I got an offer from a prof I liked, I accepted it but again reminded him about the med school business. Since I was honest with him, he seemed more understanding and interviewed other candidates for backups. If you have your own funding (ie OGS/NSERC), then your supervisor should be more understanding since you'd be like a "freebie". I wish you the best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tappety tap Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Hi Kirsteen, I applied to Ottawa, McGill for epi and UofT for public health (behavioural health or something like that). I received a great offer from Ottawa last week with full scholarship and funding. But U of T is my first choice....do I accept Ottawa then decline it in June if I get into U of T? I think Peter (Mayflower) told me you are studying epi...is that correct? If so, at what school? Do you know about the differences in programs/reputations etc between Ottawa, McGill and U of T? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest peachy Posted March 18, 2003 Report Share Posted March 18, 2003 Tappety -- Grad school admissions aren't (usually) rigid the way that med school is - If I were you, I'd call up U of T and tell them that U of T is your first choice but you've got this great offer from Ottawa, can they give you any idea where you stand? Now that NSERC PGS decisions are out, I think that grad schools that have been waiting on them should be quicker with their decisions, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted March 19, 2003 Report Share Posted March 19, 2003 Hi there tappety tap, Yep, I am in the M.Sc. Epi program (thesis) at UofT. Regarding the differences between Ottawa, McGill and UT, I believe, for one, that Ottawa does not offer a PhD in Epi, but I'm not as sure for fields like Social Science & Health. The McGill program is supposed to be quite good (for Epi. anyway) but again, I'm not too versed on SS&H. As to UofT, I'm enjoying my experience there and benefiting from the sheer size of the facilities and the resources contained within. Many of the courses are taught by national authorities in each area and the diversity of courses is outstanding compared to most Canadian schools that offer public health programs. Also, unlike some other UT departments, the Dept. of Public Health Sciences does allow its graduate students to have keys to the department building. As to admissions, I sit on a couple of committees within the department and I believe that they are just beginning to review the applications to make selections from the short list now. Again though, although each program may be slightly different, offers of acceptance are not generally released until later in the spring, or sometime in the summer. If you have any other questions, please do let me know; I'd be happy to help. Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bcdentalgirl Posted March 22, 2003 Report Share Posted March 22, 2003 Just to add to what has already been said: I had pretty much been offered a graduate position in the lab I'm currently in. I thought it was great that I had this option but in the end, I turned it down, BEFORE finding out if I was going to dental school. The reason? Dental school was my primary goal. If I didn't get in this year, I would apply next year, which could be even messier if I was in the middle of a grad program. I told all this to my supervisor - that I didn't want to screw him over, but I still wanted to work in the lab. I asked him if he had any ideas. In the end, I was offered a paid RA position, where I could continue my research on a month-by-month basis. This gave me the option of applying the research to a MSc at a later date. I could even take some of the grad courses as an unclassified student! There are lots of options out there, if your first plan doesn't come to fruition. It pays to be honest about your goals. Just my story... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DrSahsi Posted March 24, 2003 Report Share Posted March 24, 2003 I did my first set of applications/interviews in my final year of my B.Sc., and was lining up my back up plans of going on to do an M.Sc in Pharmacology the following year. The professor I was going to work with/for was just an awesome guy, so I felt the need to be straight up with him about my plans to go to med school. A lot of the profs in that department were known for scowling at med-keeners, but he was surprisingly supportive. He *ENCOURAGED* me to run to medicine and not look back, since he was certain that was what I wanted to do. I guess I was a little transparent. It's a total @#%$ shoot. Completely dependent on the specific professor, project, and so on. Best of luck to you in making a decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tappety tap Posted March 24, 2003 Report Share Posted March 24, 2003 Thanks guys for all your advice. I haven't chosen a supervisor yet and I was able to "buy some time" by being granted a 1 month extension on my acceptance. Soooo as "they" (whoever they are :\ ) say, time will tell. Thanks again for your kindness and help!!!! This message board is such a great service, Ian, wherever you are, hope you realize how appreciative we all are for all your hard work and dedication to this site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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