meena36366 wrote:hey thanks
but umm now i m hearing tht mc health sci is not tht good anymore cuz all the unis kno tht its easy to get a high gpa in tht program ?
is tht tru i mean do unis look at where yu got yur undergrad from wen yu apply to med schools?
Honestly, it doesn't matter where you get your undergrad degree from, or (in most cases) what your degree is even in as long as you have the pre-reqs for med school. Your GPA will be important, as will your extracurriculars and MCAT score.
Health Sciences might give you a bit of an edge preparation wise for med school in the sense that the courses are designed to give you a strong foundation for what you will learn in med school. The teaching style is also very similar to medical school. You'll also receive a lot of support through the faculty for your med school application, and with such small classes you'll get to know your profs, and will have no problem getting the letters of reference, etc that you need. That said, it can be very competitive in the classes as pretty much everyone in the program wants to be the top of their class to increase their chances of getting in. One of my close friends transferred out of Macs health sci program because he couldn't handle the competitiveness of his peers and how the program was designed-he wanted to 'enjoy' his undergrad before med school (that was how he put it-once again, only second hand info here!).
Don't make the mistake of picking the program because you think it'll give you the best chance for getting into med school. If all the courses genuinely sound interesting, go for it. But if you'd be just as happy in a science program, or a different undergrad program, keep your options open. You don't have the same competition between peers in other programs, and as long as you attend classes and put a bit of effort in, it's not hard to get a stellar GPA in other programs. And still have the free time to have a social life and get involved.
Your GPA will be very important for getting into med school, so make sure you pick a program you'll think you'll excel at. And enjoy-interest goes a long way at university. I've taken classes that I thought I would increase my chances of getting into med school (up until last year I was set on going to med school) only to find I was completely bored, and didn't do as well because I simply wasn't interested.
Your MCAT score will also be very important, so make sure you get in classes that will prepare you for that. Namely, biology, physics, and chemistry. Some of these will already be pre-reqs for certain med schools, but it's important to keep that in mind when you're picking classes. It's also important to know what the pre-reqs are for the schools that interest you so that you can get them all in. Before you write the MCAT it'll probably be a good idea to do an MCAT prep course if you can afford it.
Your extracurriculars are also hugely important, which is why I laugh when highschool students complain that you shouldn't need ECs to get into the health sci program, which is basically a pre-med program. You're going to need ECs when you apply to med school too, and you'll need to show that you can be in a leadership role. I would recommend getting involved in at least a small role on campus (or off campus at a club/organization that interests you) starting in your first year, otherwise before you know it you'll be in your fourth year trying to cram in a bunch of ECs and pull off a great GPA, prepare for the MCATs and get your med school application together.
My cousin just graduated a year ago from Macs med school. She did her undergrad in zoology at the University of Guelph, and had a bunch of ECs throughout uni. She had an amazing GPA (almost a 4.0), and she didn't get in to any med schools the first time she applied because her ECs weren't diverse enough. At least that's the conclusion she came to, because she took a year off, did some more serious volunteering in a leadership capacity, and reapplied. She got in to all but one of the schools she applied to at that point, and picked Mac.
If you guys have any more questions about med school let me know (or the process of getting there). I have a few family members that have finished med school now, and since up until a year ago everything I did at uni was in the hopes of getting into med school, I basically took notes on what my family members did!
4th Year Mac Science Student.
Mac Psych Society Executive Member 2008/2009
Mac Community Standards Assistant 2008/2009
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