Hi. I'm in grade 12 and I'm wondering what marks do i need to get to get into a life sciences program at MAC. The Website says 82 to 85, but I was wondering what marks did you get to get in and what courses did you take.

Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

Hi Patel,

An 85% would most probably get you in. The idea behind life science is not getting in as much as it is staying in though. But remember, the higher your average, the better it is for you.

yeah anything like around an 84 and you're good. I'd try and get over like 85 though so you get a free $1000 instead of like $750 or something

I'm the 4th brown person to post in this thread!!!

hey guys. This website's really awesome, really swayed me towards mac. I was wondering if i could ask you guys a few questions though. The typical ones =$. How hard is the program really, compared to other schools for example(if u know other people at diff. univ of course)? I'm getting a low-90s average as of now, so i obviously work hard. and i guess my school is moderate not too difficult n not too easy either. Also, how were your first year classes? =)
Thanks ahead of time

Originally Posted by sara_h216

hey guys. This website's really awesome, really swayed me towards mac. I was wondering if i could ask you guys a few questions though. The typical ones =$. How hard is the program really, compared to other schools for example(if u know other people at diff. univ of course)? I'm getting a low-90s average as of now, so i obviously work hard. and i guess my school is moderate not too difficult n not too easy either. Also, how were your first year classes? =)
Thanks ahead of time

Hey, hope you come to Mac, it's great :]

I'm not in life sciences, but I can tell you that if you are getting 90s now and you do work hard for it, then you will be okay in first year. Don't freak out if your average drops a little bit, but once you on top of things it's okay. 80s are golden in university :].

From what I know, from my program and other programs that I've heard about from friends, first year classes tend to be very general, they cover a lot but it's not focused. Some of the time it will feel like a review of grade 12 or earlier, but a little but more indepth. 2nd year is when you get into the meat of things, more specialized.

The people I know in life sci say that it's not a cake walk, but if you work hard enough, you're fine. My friends at UofT life sci are.. well, some of them are freaking out and having meltdowns, and some of them are doing fine. It goes to show that it depends somewhat on the person too if you find it difficult.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

Hey, hope you come to Mac, it's great :]

I'm not in life sciences, but I can tell you that if you are getting 90s now and you do work hard for it, then you will be okay in first year. Don't freak out if your average drops a little bit, but once you on top of things it's okay. 80s are golden in university :].

From what I know, from my program and other programs that I've heard about from friends, first year classes tend to be very general, they cover a lot but it's not focused. Some of the time it will feel like a review of grade 12 or earlier, but a little but more indepth. 2nd year is when you get into the meat of things, more specialized.

The people I know in life sci say that it's not a cake walk, but if you work hard enough, you're fine. My friends at UofT life sci are.. well, some of them are freaking out and having meltdowns, and some of them are doing fine. It goes to show that it depends somewhat on the person too if you find it difficult.

Thanks so much for your reply! I know! it's definitely nerve-wracking, I hate this stage in life .. I think i'm only freaking out cuz of grad school/prof school. and so far im prob. 90% mac. but hearing the difficulty i'm getting scared too (same reason as u of t, although i know there's prob a big difference between their levels.)
I'm hoping for an 85+ avg next yr.. i know if i worked as hard as i can this yr i would've prob gotten a 95+, but you know high school. SO hopefully it'll be manageable especially since it'll be in a balanced atmosphere as well, at least i hope so. Thanks for your comment though, helps a lot to hear from people with experience

Hey, I also hope that end up coming to Mac. Perhaps I'll see you at the science faculty events during Welcome Week. I just completed Life Science I. As mentioned, the program is what you put into it. If you're on top of your readings, quizzes and assignments, then you have nothing to worry about. Time management is key though to be able to achieve decent grades in the courses. The first term will definitely be challenging because you're still getting used to the whole university idea. You will feel like everything is moving fast and you might even fall a little behind with some of your readings. Just try your best not to fall behind because when it gets to a certain point, it will be extremely difficult to catch up. To be honest, during my first term, all I did was go out with friends, watch movies on DC++ (can be your enemy when it comes to studying) and party. I always thought that I would be able to catch up and boy was I ever wrong. Everything piled up and it became more difficult to catch up. My grades immediately dropped and I realized the consequences of my actions. It should generally get easier during second term though because you will realize all the mistakes you have made during the first term and hopefully by then, you'll be used to the whole university thing. I'm not saying you can't hang out with friends or party, but do it all it in moderation. Also, if you find anything challenging or you're having trouble understanding something, drop by a prof's office during their office times and ask them. They will try their best to help you understand. I would also advise that when you set up your timetable, try to set it up so that you don't have early morning classes. That was another issue for me. I found it very difficult to wake up for my early classes sometimes and as a result, I ended up sleeping in a few times. So yeah, just make sure you're on top of things and there shouldn't be a problem hopefully. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

ps - I agree with you, Sara. This is definitely an amazing and very helpful website. It also played a major role in my decision of coming to McMaster rather than go to Western.

i know this thread is about the school marks, but i still want to ask Nino a question. Do you think learning life science in Mac is a good choice? Mac is good at engineering and health science, how about life science?

Originally Posted by nino

Hey, I also hope that end up coming to Mac. Perhaps I'll see you at the science faculty events during Welcome Week. I just completed Life Science I. As mentioned, the program is what you put into it. If you're on top of your readings, quizzes and assignments, then you have nothing to worry about. Time management is key though to be able to achieve decent grades in the courses. The first term will definitely be challenging because you're still getting used to the whole university idea. You will feel like everything is moving fast and you might even fall a little behind with some of your readings. Just try your best not to fall behind because when it gets to a certain point, it will be extremely difficult to catch up. To be honest, during my first term, all I did was go out with friends, watch movies on DC++ (can be your enemy when it comes to studying) and party. I always thought that I would be able to catch up and boy was I ever wrong. Everything piled up and it became more difficult to catch up. My grades immediately dropped and I realized the consequences of my actions. It should generally get easier during second term though because you will realize all the mistakes you have made during the first term and hopefully by then, you'll be used to the whole university thing. I'm not saying you can't hang out with friends or party, but do it all it in moderation. Also, if you find anything challenging or you're having trouble understanding something, drop by a prof's office during their office times and ask them. They will try their best to help you understand. I would also advise that when you set up your timetable, try to set it up so that you don't have early morning classes. That was another issue for me. I found it very difficult to wake up for my early classes sometimes and as a result, I ended up sleeping in a few times. So yeah, just make sure you're on top of things and there shouldn't be a problem hopefully. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

ps - I agree with you, Sara. This is definitely an amazing and very helpful website. It also played a major role in my decision of coming to McMaster rather than go to Western.

Thank you so much Nino/Fadil and feonateresa, you're just pursuading me to come by how nice people are . Oh woww. I'm stuck between Western n Mac too! only due to the MedSci program, but overall Mac sounds so much better in my opinion of course. Thanks so much for the advice. I'm gonna try to do that for sure, but of course u cant help it, after all you're finally free for once in ur life .. Lol kidding, i'm planning to control myself anyway, my parents wouldn't let me do otherwise Lol. i guess it's an arab thing - not too bad in my opinion, I at least know my limits . N it would definitely be awesome to see some of you guys during Welcome week - hear it's always amazing btw .
Ahh definitely i have trouble waking up for high school, let alone university and i guess no more procrastination then :( (thank GOD )
By the way, may i ask how you organized your timetable for first year? in terms of what course in first sem. and which ones in second.
Oh another aspect, is it easy to volunteer and/or work on campus, i think it would definitely make like mmore enjoyable .
Thanks so much again!

yeah! How to orgnize the first year? Any insights?

Well, many courses are only offered one term, so those are easy to fit into your timetable. For example, Psych 1X03 is only offered Term 1 and Psych 1XX3 is only offered Term 2. Math 1A03 is only offered Term 1, but Math 1LS3 is offered both terms. You'll want to pick your electives to make sure you have 5 courses each semester (15 units).

During Welcome Week, there's a big Clubsfest, where many of the clubs at Mac set up a booth at the centre of campus and you can learn more about them. You can learn more about volunteer opportunities at Mac and around Hamilton during Clubsfest.

Jenny, my answer would be biased as I go to McMaster but I can tell you why I chose McMaster over my other option, Western. I'll try my best not to influence your decision in any way. I chose McMaster over Western for a number of reasons. First of all, McMaster is much closer to where I live compared to Western. Another reason is that it's much cheaper to travel back to Toronto from McMaster since the Go Transit offers its services on campus. As for Western, it only offers a Greyhound service and a ticket to Toronto costs around $26 whereas a Go ticket to Toronto costs around $11 or so.
Furthermore, McMaster is a smaller campus than Western so it isn't much of a pain to walk around on campus. The campus is not small nor big, it's an appropriate size to get to classes within a considerable amount of time, especially if you're rushing to classes.
The fact that McMaster is smaller also means that you get to meet a lot of people which was also important for me. The community at the university is amazing and I've made a lot of amazing friends.
McMaster also has a great reputation and an excellent med school that does not require you to write an MCAT to be considered. As difficult as it may be, it has been my dream for quite a while to enroll in McMaster's medical school. I also heard a lot of good things about the Life Science program at McMaster University.
Another reason I chose McMaster was that most of my friends chose Western. I knew that if I went to Western, I would end up spending most of my time with them and wouldn't end up getting to know a lot of people. I only knew about two or three people coming to McMaster so I knew that I would be forced into meeting new people. That way, I would meet new people and still be able to visit my friends at Western.
Additionally, I felt that McMaster is the best option for me if I want to balance out my academics with extacurriculars. I knew that I would want to get involved with a bunch of extracurriculars in university and thought that McMaster would be the best option for me to do so. At first, I was a little nervous about getting involved at the university but various people helped me overcome that by offering me advice, help and answers to any questions I had. Pretty soon, I found it quite easy and lots of fun to get involved at the university.
Finally, as I mentioned in my other post, while still attending my high school, I happened to discover this great website. People on MacInsiders were very helpful and answered any questions that I had. Soon enough, I found answers to all my questions about McMaster and any doubts I had about coming to the university were cleared up. I felt that I would be comfortable going to McMaster due to this great community that welcomed me and assisted me. I would certainly be lost about a lot of things had I not stumbled upon this fabolous website. I encourage you to explore it and check out the many threads here because a lot of them may contain answers to your question. Not to mention that you can find quite a number of interesting information on the website.
So yes, I am very happy that I chose McMaster. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you shouldn't choose Western. These are just things that made me decide that McMaster is the university I want to go to. You may feel differently about the points I brought up. Western also has a good reputation and my friends also love it. I assure you though that wherever you go, you will be welcomed and university is really what you make of it. I am not trying to influence your choice in any way because I know the whole decision process is very difficult since I went through it myself.

As for the Life Science program, like I said, I heard a lot of good things about it before I enrolled in it. To be honest, it can be tough throughout the year but as long as you're on top of the work, you ask your profs/TAs for help when you need it, and go to all your lectures and tutorials, it should not be a problem. Take it from someone who slacked off a lot during first term...You don't want to fall behind because unlike high school, the work can pile up and you may not be able to catch up. This goes for any program at any university. You won't find an easy program at any university. The grades you end up with in the end depict the effort you put into the courses. I felt that the Life Science program at McMaster was the right program for me, and I still feel that way. Go Science!
As for the timetable, there are certain courses that you have to take during the first semester because they are prerequisites for other courses that you will take during the second semester. For example, I had to take Biology 1M03, Chemistry 1A03 and Psychology 1X03 during the first semester to be able to take Biology 1A03, Chemistry 1AA3 and Psychology 1XX3 during the second semester. Physics 1B03 and Math 1A03 are offered during the first semester. Physics 1L03 and Math 1LS3 are offered during both semesters. Electives can also be during first or second semester and it's up to you to choose those. I'm not too sure about the courses you will have to take during your first year because it might have changed. Generally, you want to end up with five courses per semester if you're enrolled in the Life Science program. You can take more courses per semester but I wouldn't recommend it as the load may be difficult to handle, especially since it's your first year. So keeping that in mind, set up your timetables with the electives you want to take and post them on MacInsiders. People will post and suggest to you what courses to move around so that you can possibly have a well constructed timetable.
I know this is a long post and I would be amazed if you made it this far through it haha. In a nutshell, there are many things to take into consideration when deciding which university you want to go to. Some factors to consider are distance, quality of education, housing, community, extracurriculars and finally, costs. You want to go somewhere that you'll feel comfortable being in, especially if you're living away from home. An ideal university environment is one where you can study and pull off decent grades yet still be able to make friends and have a lot of fun. Of course, this combination is very possible as long as you work hard and manage your time well. Something that can help you with the decision process is making a "pros and cons list". That way you can determine which university is the better choice for you.
Remember to think of all the factors I mentioned and any other factors that may be involved. You will most likely be attending the university of your choice for four years, maybe even more, so you want to make a wise decision. So finally, I would like to wish you good luck with your upcoming high school exams and the university decision process. Hope to see you at Mac this fall, perhaps during Welcome Week. Oh and if you do decide to accept the offer from Mac, make sure you go to Horizons. It's a great chance to meet other prospective students and also upper year students that attend the university. It's an excellent experience and a lot of fun. This year it starts on August 14 and ends on the 16th. Here's a link on MacInsiders for information about last year's Horizons conference: http://www.macinsiders.com/showthread.php?t=1881 3
You should receive more information about Horizons over the summer in a mailed package I believe.

Thank you for reading this ridiculously long post. If you have further questions, ask away! I'll be more than glad to answer any more of your questions.

Originally Posted by nino

McMaster also has a great reputation and an excellent med school that does not require you to write an MCAT to be considered.

Unfortunately, Senate decided a couple months ago that Mac Med would now require the MCAT. They'll only look at the verbal part though.