is it realisitic?
will i have the oppurtunity to take things like english, orgo, biochem and physics?
what part of kin is considered a physical science and what part is considered life science?

You can get into med school no matter what your degree so long as you take the right courses.

You may not have space within the regular school year to take all the courses required for med school, but you can take them during the summer if you want.

Check out these two articles on med school.

Physical sciences refers to chemistry (including organic chem) and physics, while life sciences refers to biology, biochemistry, and possibly psychology. Some kin courses may fall under life sciences, while most kin courses would not fall under physical sciences, but biomechanics might...You'd have to check with the admissions office of the schools you are considering.

As lorend said, you can get into medical school with any program. I would suggest that you plan ahead to make sure you include the minimum prereqs as part of your program.

It is totally do-able!
If you choose to stay in the Kin B.Sc stream you will be required to fulfill a number of units by taking regular science courses, so you can use these units to take first year bio, chem, math, physics etc. as well, in third and fourth year, kin students are required to take 36 units of kin courses, and they are free to take whatever electives they choose for the other 24 units, so you can squeeze english and orgo in here if they didn't fit into year 1 and 2.

also, many med schools require a full year of "biological sciences" ie: anatomy/physiology/biology/etc... and your kin courses fulfill that requirement.

good luck!!

A lot of applicants to med school are kinesiology students.

Physical science = chem, physics (you'll likely need it for biomechanics anyways).

You don't need to take English as a prereq unless you plan on going to the US or the Caribbean. And the other courses you can take as your electives if you wish.

Hi there,

I just graduated from mcmaster kinesiology and I'm going into med school! So I guess it's doable then If you have any questions about what courses to take or the application process (Canadian, US, and international) I can answer them.

Good luck!

Originally Posted by mitch

Hi there,

I just graduated from mcmaster kinesiology and I'm going into med school! So I guess it's doable then If you have any questions about what courses to take or the application process (Canadian, US, and international) I can answer them.

Good luck!

Hey (this is my first post! lol) i'm going to mac for kinesiology this september. i'm the first born in my family so i get the joy of figuring out university first before my sister gets there so.... anyways lol, i'm wondering what electives you took and how you got a minor in biology while still getting the requirements for med school

Also, I took physics in grade 12 and I'm not sure if I should take it in university. I know physics isn't a requirement for some med schools but would it be helpful for the MCAT?

Thanks alot

Yes, it would be helpful for MCAT according to the professor I had. She gave us a chart about topics that the MCAT could cover. It's Physics 1B03 and Physics 1BB3. I didn't find them hard at all. In fact I found most of Physics 1B03 review. We did go somewhat further into the material I already knew and then one chapter was completely new. Physics 1BB3 required more work, but the labs were more interesting and boosted my mark up quite a bit.

See attachments for the MCAT thing I was talking about.

blue15,

First off, I never took physics in university

I took the Kaplan mcat course and they teach you everything you need to know there. I highly suggest taking an mcat course. Because I consider myself a fast learner, I was able to learn everything from scratch and I achieved the highest mark of my mcat in the physical science section. So you don't need to take university physics if it will be a hamper on your gpa. However, it would help quite a bit if you did, and not all students are able to learn from scratch like I can. So the choice is up to you. Physics is not a requirement for most Candiant medical schools, but it's required in basically all the United States schools, and Carribbean if you're thinking about that. Getting into a Canadian medical school is extremely difficult (most have admittance scores similar to Harvard, it's due to the high demand and low ratio of schools to applicants). Unless you're confidant you'll get into one, it's always good to have a backup. If international schools are ok with you, then not taking physics is fine. But lots of people I know apply to the US as a backup, and you need physics for that.

I was first born in my family too, yay! high five! ......

Yeah, so I was in kin as you can see. What electives I took eh? Well, you can take pretty much anything after 2nd year. The first 2 years have a lot of mandatory courses. In essence, I completed all the requirements for medical school in the first 2 years: 1 year bio, 1 year g-chem, 1 course of calculus, 1 course of statistics, 1 year of o-chem. So the requirements never affected my choosing electives. I chose 2 types of electives: those that were interesting, and those that were easy. You need to keep up your gpa, so you'll need to take some easier courses, because kin courses are not a walk in the park. The easy courses I took in 3rd and 4th year include, gemstones, natural disasters, water, explorers and adventurers, indoeuropean myth, and body mind spirit. A lot of them ended up being very interesting. Some of the electives I took that were harder to get a better knowledge of science were: Cell biology, animal histology, growth and development, neurology, vertebrate anatomy, nucleus, paediatric exercise science, etc. So these mix of bio and kin courses helped give me a better knowledge of what I wanted to do.

The bio minor was an afterthought. I ended up taking 3 bios in 4th year to get it because I thought I might as well. Now that I realize it doesn't show up on my degree, only on my transcripts, it wasn't really worth it. It won't help you get into med school, all it would do is perhaps help get into grad school if you wanted that. Since I don't, it wasn't necessary.

Hope that helps, sorry it was so long Ask anything else if you want. I'll be here

-Mitch

What med school are you going into? How hard was it to get in?

I'm not sure what you mean by hard. I had a bunch of interviews at different schools and I could tell you the interview process for each one. Each interview was difficult in its own way. The application process was also difficult, and different schools had different methods of applying. But how hard was it to get in? That's very subjective.

hey mitch, congrats on getting into medicine. which med school are you going to? if you don't mind telling, but what would be a good gpa to aim for? i'm in kin as well, and i did well in the first year courses, especially in anatomy and physiology, are there more upper year kin courses geared towards the "anatomy/ physiology" aspect of the human body?

if i never take bio, am i screwing myself over for the mcat, or will the kin courses give me enough background for the biological sciences part?

also, let's say for u of t, it requires 2 full life sciences. im taking chem for sure cause i like it, but can i get a combination of 2 full life sciences if i only take gen chem, orgo and kin courses? or do i have to take bio again to combine with one of the chems for 2?

Originally Posted by amir.k

if i never take bio, am i screwing myself over for the mcat, or will the kin courses give me enough background for the biological sciences part?

also, let's say for u of t, it requires 2 full life sciences. im taking chem for sure cause i like it, but can i get a combination of 2 full life sciences if i only take gen chem, orgo and kin courses? or do i have to take bio again to combine with one of the chems for 2?

Unfortunately, "life sciences" does not include courses such as general chem, organic chem or physics =(

I was wondering that if courses such as Organic Chemistry and Biology are taken during the summer at another university, how are those looked at by med school's? Do they care about the gpa scores from summer school courses, or are they just simply counted as credit/completion?

Also, what's a good gpa to aim for when it comes to med schools (Canadian and U.S.)?