Requirements for Medecine (McGill)

[Jacky Wang]

Hi everyone,

I just finished my first year at Marianopolis College in Health Sciences. My dream is to go into medecine, but I worry that I haven't done enough extracurricular activities. As of now, I've done about 50+ hours of volunteer at math and english tutoring center and large conventions. However, my friends told me that those volunteers jobs aren't "valuable" for medecine application. Can you guys suggest me what kind of volunteers or activities I should get involved into: hospital, child care center, etc.?

Alternatively, if things doesn't work out, I am considering Pharmacy at UdeM too. Does this program require an interview like medecine and what is the average R Score requirements for this one. Do I need also need to volunteer at health care center like in medecine?

Thank you everyone!

[Bambi]

If you don't make it from cégep, you will make it from undergrad. However, if you are deadest on pharmacy from cegep if not selected for me, then being so early in the game, you really don't want med badly, which is fine. Settling so early on would be like giving up. Yes, there is risk in everything, however, taking your Plan B so early is not giving yourself a chance to achieve your full potential. Just saying. From pharmacy, which is tough, you may not have the grades to apply to med afterwards. Think hard of what you really want and then let nothing stand in your way. 

[lulu95]

I'm not sure how things work on the CEGEP entry level, since I didn't go through it, but as long as your volunteering experience is meaningful and something you've learned from, any experience can be valuable. However, if you're concerned about not having medicine-related activities (and it would be good to do some to see how interested you are in pursuing medicine as a career), there are many hospitals in Montreal that you can volunteer at (friendly visiting, book cart, etc), affiliated with either McGill or UdeM, depending on whether you want to communicate primarily in English or French (I say primarily, because there's always bound to be crossovers). Some also have programs intended for CEGEP students (like the Jewish General Hospital summer program, where you get to do a combination of volunteering and shadowing, which would be a great experience); I think the application time for that has passed for this summer, but you can check and see. You can also look into doing first-aid volunteering, which could give you a taste of interacting and communicating with patients (and also maybe see some cool events).

[Bambi]

And there is the EMS volunteering at the City of Cote St. Luc. Upon acceptance, you take a Red Cross course, pass the exam and become a trainee to start with,  going out on calls in the ambulance. These could be auto accidents, suffering a stroke or heart attack, really anything.