Need Help With The Undergrad Options

[W0lfgang]

Have you and your daughter considered moving out of province? Med schools from western provinces strongly favor their own, with lower cutoffs than Ontario schools.

 

When I was going through, Ontario med schools were arguably THE toughest province/state in all of North America in which to gain admission.  It doesn't look like things have improved.  I don't think your daughter will have much of a problem if her high school average is 95+, but the process is easier out west with the same quality of medical education.

[none]

Have you and your daughter considered moving out of province?

You mean all of us together, the entire family? This is not an option.

[_ _]

You mean all of us together, the entire family? This is not an option.

It's an absurd suggestion for someone to make. Getting into ON medical schools is not at all impossible.

 

That said, what your daughter should consider, is that the acceptance rates in ON are 12%ish, and that most people do get rejected, many of whom have high GPAs and lots of involvement.  There are far, far too many qualified applicants than seats. Therefore, she should pick the program she won't regret if she is in the majority of people who are not successful in this process, at least not right away

[W0lfgang]

You mean all of us together, the entire family? This is not an option.

 

No. She move to Alberta. You stay where you are.

[none]

*** BUMP ***

 

My daughter got an interview at Waterloo CAP (Conditional Acceptance to Pharmacy). If she ends up with an offer, her undergrad options will look as follows:

 

Option 1

- decline CAP offer

- do regular undergrad at McGill or Western

- start applying to med schools after the 3rd year etc etc etc

- move on to something else if med doesn't work out

 

Option 2

- accept CAP offer

- graduate in 6 years with a PharmD degree

- apply to med schools while working as a pharmacist, if the desire to go into medicine is still there 6 years from now.

 

I'd like to get some general feedback on the second option. Is it a crazy idea to do PharmD before trying med? Would she gravely jeopardize her chances to get into medical school if she does PharmD first? Would she place herself at a distinct disadvantage compared to younger med candidates who follow the traditional route?

 

Thank you.

[freewheeler]

She should really just go to university and get some life experience before making any of these decisions to be honest.

 

Not sure how flexible the CAP program is if someone decides later down the line that it's not where their interests genuinely lie.

 

If she can't see herself honestly doing pharmacy then she shouldn't waste her time or squander a spot for someone who would actually love to be in that program.

 

Just let her go to any random university and live a little...it really doesn't matter and anyone can apply from any university to get into med or pharmacy as long as they have the GPA/ECs/Standardized test scores.

 

She really doesn't have to be making these decisions right now. Just encourage her to choose a university she feels comfortable at and a program of study that she enjoys.

 

I didn't even decide on medicine until AFTER I finished my 3rd year of undergrad and here I am accepted to med school.

 

Seriously, just take a deep breath and remember that A LOT can change from now until whenever she is done her undergraduate degree and that she shouldn't feel any need to pigeon-hole herself into one career path or another.

 

Have you asked her what she wants to do? What she likes? What she is genuinely interested in? Where she wants to go?

 

Who cares what a bunch of anonymous people on an internet forum think about "prospective chances" when it comes to your daughter's education and well-being.

 

Not to mention that med/pharmacy school admissions requirements can always change in the meantime.

[none]

Thank you for your feedback.

 

She is absolutely going to make her own decisions. I have next to zero say in the process, not that I want to have any say. It's her life.

 

All I am trying to do is gather some basic facts so I can answer her questions.

[freewheeler]

Thank you for clarifying that.

 

My final suggestion is that she should really just base her decision of where to go on the university/program she likes best and not to be too concerned with "getting into med/pharm, etc." as having the GPA/ECs/MCAT or PCAT that one needs is a grind and she would likely benefit greatly from enjoying the process as much as possible, rather than living her life in a way so as to appease medical school admissions committees, which may end up being all for naught.

[_ _]

Thank you for your feedback.

 

She is absolutely going to make her own decisions. I have next to zero say in the process, not that I want to have any say. It's her life.

 

All I am trying to do is gather some basic facts so I can answer her questions.

Here's my opinion;

 

What 'plan' she takes won't realistically make any difference. If she has the grades to get into ontario medical schools, she has the grades to get into pharmacy. IF she decides then she wants to be a pharmacist. 

 

Spending huge amounts of time and money training to be a pharmacist is pointless if she doesn't want to be one. Pharmacy school isn't just another undergrad option-it's hard. From what I've seen friends go through. 

 

The only thing that matters in terms of undergrad is that she is happy and comfortable where she is. And that **she** wants to be there. If she has her own questions, then why is she not asking them? You doing things for her is going to hurt, not help, from this point on. Med schools aren't looking for someone who was coddled and pushed into it, they are looking for someone who, on their own accord, has realized and confirmed this is what they want to do with their lives.And like mentioned above, you literally do not do anything different until 2/3rd year when you might write the MCAT. Medical schools do not need/want/expect people to plan their lives around getting into medical school from the age of 17 when they have (often) had little to no exposure to the field-and other careers. 

 

There's a very, very, high chance she realistically doesn't even know this yet herself, truly. Not the assumption that 90% of entering sciences students make-that med is the only/best choice. She'll learn this over the next few years, on her own,naturally. 

[none]

Thank you. Good feedback.

 

Just to clarify how CAP program works:

 

You don't commit to pharmacy right off the bat. Getting a CAP offer means that you have a spot reserved for you in the pharmacy school. That spot becomes available after 2 years of regular science undergrad. The only commitment she would have to make right away is Waterloo. You lose your CAP spot if you do undergrad at another university.

[NotASerialKiller]

That said, what your daughter should consider, is that the acceptance rates in ON are 12%ish, and that most people do get rejected

 

~12% of actual applicants, or premeds? Where did you find this? Not saying I don't believe you, it's just an interesting stat that I want to check out.

 

As for the pharmacy idea, I think it's hard for any of us to say. It really depends on how seriously she would consider pharmacy, or medicine for that matter. And on top of that as we all know the things you're serious about going into undergrad can and often will completely change after your first year/semester. It sounds reasonable to explore other things than just gunning for medicine though.

[_ _]

~12% of actual applicants, or premeds? Where did you find this? Not saying I don't believe you, it's just an interesting stat that I want to check out.

 

As for the pharmacy idea, I think it's hard for any of us to say. It really depends on how seriously she would consider pharmacy, or medicine for that matter. And on top of that as we all know the things you're serious about going into undergrad can and often will completely change after your first year/semester. It sounds reasonable to explore other things than just gunning for medicine though.

Applicants, it's somewhere on the OMSAS pages on OUAC. I think that was just a mental math approx. though, some number I remember. Totally not an absolute statistic, hence the approx thing