Hi, I plan on coming to McMaster for first year life science studies. My career plan is to become a doctor or a dentist. I just wanted to know what courses I should take in my first and second year in order to stay on the right track. I plan on specializing in the Honours Biology program in my second year. I have been on the McMaster Life Science website but the information there is too confusing. If anyone could just summarize the courses I will need to take (in first and second year) in a way that is easy for me to comprehend, it will be very helpful. Thank You.

Level 1 (Recommended route for MCAT/DAT):
Bio 1A03 + Bio 1M03
Chem 1A03 + Chem 1AA3
Math 1LS3 or Math 1A03
Physics 1A03 (and Physics 1AA3 depending on where you're applying)
One of Psych 1F03 (Online), Psych 1X03 (Same thing but with lectures and tutorials), Psych 1XX3 (More neuroscience, Psych 1F and 1X are more social psych) You can take both if you actually like Psych stuff
2 individual semester courses / 1 full year course for electives

Total: 30 Units

You can find it a bit easier to read in the Undergraduate Calendar for Life Sciences I

Decide your level 2 courses later when you're actually in the middle of completing level 1, so you have a better idea of what your interests are. Most people take the two Organic Chems, but tbh the MCAT organic section seems really different from what we learned, so i don't know. Fill the rest with mostly biology/psych/molbiol/biochem courses since you want to do a biology program.

I don't know about dentistry but I do know that medical schools in Canada will accept you from any program and their requirements are very simple so you can do any program you want. You don't need to go into biology if you do not think that's what you like! For example, I started out in Life Sciences I, thinking biology was cool and all, but as you have probably noticed level I life sci is really really general and you do math, physics, chem and electives and only 2 bio courses and that's where I developed an interest for problem solving and critical thinking instead of pure memorization. Then when I specialized in second year instead of specializing in Math, I decided to specialize in Mol Bio since I was scared of asking "what if" if I didn't try at all. Now Im in mol bio and i hate my life and im switching to math next year. Theres always a lot of courses you can take without actually being enrolled in a bio program, so just keep that in mind!

Oh yeah also forgot to mention, Bio 1A03, Chem 1A03, Physics 1A03, Psych 1F/1X, Psych 1XX have online modules which are like online lectures that are a pain in the ass (in my opinion). Bio has this system in place where it's 1-2 modules a week with a review lecture and an applied lecture. The purpose of modules was to "reduce time spent introducing material and more time working through examples". But it doesn't work for bio because you still need to memorize a shit ton. It doesn't work for Chem cuz it's pretty much all math and Physics has the modules cuz they recently combined the course for people with and without the Grade 12 Physics credit so the modules are meant to kind of get people up to speed.

Alright, thanks for the info as its very valuable. Now the thing is that I did not take Calculus in grade 12, so I need to take Math 1F03, so will that be in first semester and then Math 1A03 / 1LS3 in the second semester? Also, which math is easier? And I am going to stick to Physics 1A03 as I absolutely hate physics with a passion lol. I don't want a hard physics course for no reason.

Also, how is first year in general? timetable / schedule? workload? what courses did u choose, including electives and courses from the Life Sciences 1 course list? I just want a general idea of what to expect.

I was also considering U of T life sciences ( specifically UTM life science) so if you have any feedback on UTM life science vs. Mac Life Science, that would be great!

Math 1LS3 is the Life Science math and is kind of like a review of grade 12 math with specific applications to life sciences and an introduction to integration. Tests are full solution. This is the math if you just want to satisfy the requirement.
Math 1A03 is kind of more chemical/physical science/engineering calculus, kind of more pure math and more application towards engineering. Tests are multiple choice. Math 1A03 is usually the choice if you're planning on doing more math in the future.
First year first semester was pretty light for me but second semester definitely got a bit heavier.

The courses I took in first year were
Bio 1A + 1M
Psych 1X
Math 1A + 1AA
Physics 1B (This was the old one if you had a grade 12 credit)
Chem 1A + 1AA
French 1A06

I found many of the courses with online modules to have a pretty heavy work load just because it took quite a while to take notes from them and understand the material. Especially biology because they seemed to enjoy to shove as much content as possible in one module. Like you certainly have less class than other people but you have a lot more work to do outside of class.

alright, cool, im guessing im set then, so the online modules are something I shud watch out for in first year.