So most medschools in ontario are looking for a full year course in humanities/ sociology. I personally HATE writing essays. So if some of the upper years could shed their wisdom that would be great! I'm looking for something easy because I'm in the Honours Chem program, I don't have enough room nor do I have time to read tons of articles and books.

The stupid Mcat has a essay part to it too, so are there any courses I can take that will be easy and not involve too much essay writing and yet help me improve writing essays?

I sucked at physics, got a bad grade in it. Would you suggest redoing the course to help with the Mcat/ getting into medschool?

Thanks a lot for your help in advance.

I never took any english/essay writing courses in university. Nor did I take any physics in university. I pretty much learned everything during my 2 month Kaplan MCAT course from May-June. To tell you the truth, even the courses I did take like organic chemistry and biology, helped only with the basics compared to what I learned in the preparation course. I'm not saying you shouldn't take these courses, because they are really helpful. I'm just saying that it's possible to learn everything you need to know for the MCAT in the prep courses.

As for the prerequisite, humanities/sociology is defined different by university. I had to personally call up each university to ask which, if any, courses I took fit into this category. It ended up that the Health Psychology course I took was fine. Also sports in society and the history of kinesiology worked as well. So I'm not exactly sure what courses you could take, but you should make sure that the universities will consider them in that category.

As for the essay in the MCAT, good luck. Haha. Yuck. That was no fun.

Oh wow! I figured any courses that started with SOCIOLOGY would do :S
Thanks for the tip.

Originally Posted by mitch

I never took any english/essay writing courses in university. Nor did I take any physics in university. I pretty much learned everything during my 2 month Kaplan MCAT course from May-June. To tell you the truth, even the courses I did take like organic chemistry and biology, helped only with the basics compared to what I learned in the preparation course. I'm not saying you shouldn't take these courses, because they are really helpful. I'm just saying that it's possible to learn everything you need to know for the MCAT in the prep courses.

As for the prerequisite, humanities/sociology is defined different by university. I had to personally call up each university to ask which, if any, courses I took fit into this category. It ended up that the Health Psychology course I took was fine. Also sports in society and the history of kinesiology worked as well. So I'm not exactly sure what courses you could take, but you should make sure that the universities will consider them in that category.

As for the essay in the MCAT, good luck. Haha. Yuck. That was no fun.

You didn't take Physics in university?? But isn't Physics (a full year of Physics) required for med school. I mean, don't they check if you've done a full year of Physics?

Actually most universities in Ontario do not require you to have a certain "Pre-med courses" with the exception of Ottawa, Queen's and Toronto. With that being said, they don't say that you are required to have Physics in particular, as long as you have a year of physical sciences which could be interpreted as full first year Chem then you're fine.
http://www.ouac.on.ca/omsas/pdf/b_omsas_e.pdf

Now the pre-reqs in the States/Carribean is another story.

That is correct. Here in Canada, we have a variety of medschools, each with their own specific prereq courses. Some, like UBC need physics and english. Others like the Ontario medschools don't. All medical schools (or just about all of them) require physics and english though. I don't mind because I don't want to go there. I know people and have worked with people who have done their med degree there and have so much trouble getting to work here.

What do you mean ..." know people and have worked with people who have done their med degree there and have so much trouble getting to work here."

Lol, sorry where is here and there? I have another question now, so I blew my first year pretty bad. My best chances are probably Ottawa and Queens because Ottawa weights upper year courses higher and Queens only uses the latest two years. Are there any others in Canada at all?

Sorry. There's so much to do I'm typing very fast!

I meant that during my travels in work and volunteering, I've talked to a lot of people. Some people got their doctorate in the US and tried to come back here to be a doctor. Some went through 2 additional years of schooling with many tests and still have trouble getting a job. It's just not good if you want to work here.

I didn't do too amazing my first year as well. Ottawa and Toronto's scoring really helps me. Toronto drops your lowest full year equivalent course each year. MAC is a lot of luck. You never know if you'll get into Mac. I knew one of the people who is on McMaster's board to accept medical students. She said it's a really messed up system and it's a lot of luck. Like they kinda just choose some at random cause everyone's so qualified. Maybe that's why the questions for MAC changed this year. I would say to apply wherever you can. You never know what might happen. I think anything around a 3.5 and above you can apply for. I even see in some statistics that some students with 3.2 got in. However, the average for most matriculants (people who got accepted) is around 3.85 ish area. UofT last year was 3.91. Ottawa wouldn't look at your application if you didn't reach 3.85 cut off. So yeah, it's hard, but don't quit just cause you think it's not good enough

Hey everyone - I'm also planning to go to Med school (if they take me! lol)
I've checked Queens, Toronto and Ottawa (they're the only ones that need prereqs out of the 7 Med schools in Ontario)
and Toronto is the only one that needs Physics.

Hope I helped!

Ayeza is correct about the prerequisites. Western has none except they have the highest cut offs for MCAT. Craziness. By the way, I think you mean 6 medical schools in Ontario, not 7. McMaster, Toronto, Queens, Western, Northern, and Ottawa.

Oh HAHAH I don't know. Doesn't Northern include (I can't think of a good word right now) Lakehead and Laurentian? and aren't they two different schools? I don't know much about the Canadian universities so yeah I don't know.

Okay, it's fun to talk about pre-med stuff to people who are doing it/ will be doing it.

Um Mitch, I think you're applying to Medicine (this is just what I got from the posts) so is it really important to be involved in school? My parents and I were talking about it, and they were saying marks would be more important, but being involved would also be more important, but not as much compared to the marks.

Also, is Ottawa easier to get in compared to the other universities? Because Ottawa doesn't really require high averages for their undergrad programs - at least, compared to Mac - so would it be easier? Or maybe not because it'll be all the smart med people applying so it doesn't really matter, right? (hahah, i have a habit of kinda answering my own questions sortof. lol)

AND - would it be possible to study for MCAT by yourself (though this would probably be difficult)? And is Kaplan the best study book (or whatever its called)? Because I took the SATs and I borrowed Kaplan, McGraw-Hill, and Princeton Review.. Kaplan was better, I'm just not sure if it applies to MCAT as well.

-woah that was long hahah

Hey Ayeza,

I'm taking time out of writing up my medical school application to answer your questions! It's ok though.

Check the OMSAS instruction manual out: http://www.ouac.on.ca/omsas/pdf/b_omsas_e.pdf

There's 6 med schools in Ontario, the one you were thinking of was Northern school of Medicine. No Laurentian or Lakehead.

I can't stress enough how important it is to have great volunteer or research type experience. You need to distinguish yourself from the other 3000 people applying. A student with a 3.85 with amazing experience as head of organizations and volunteer experience to 3rd world countries will be greatly favoured over someone with a 3.95 average with little to no experience. Of course, you need the high grades. Usually something around a 3.85 is good enough. People get in with lower though.

Medical schools are really switching to favour students with rich backgrounds in healthcare related volunteer or work acitivites. This is why the questions they ask in the applications are "What is your greatest contribution in your life", and "Name a time you solved an ethical dilemma and what you learned from it". Sometimes the question will be "How have your experiences in life prepared you to help people on a personal level" or something like that. Marks are good, but unless you are close to perfect 4.0 gpa all three years, you will need some interesting experience.

Everyone applying to medical schools have really high marks. I wouldn't say there is one school easier to get into than the others. Even though Ottawa has a good scoring system, remember, every person recieves that scoring system. If it's good for you, it's probably good for a lot of other people. Ottawa wouldn't look at your application unless you got a 3.85 average. So all medical schools are pretty much the same in that regard. But each one focuses on different aspects. Eg, McMaster looks a lot at your experience compared to your marks (still has to be high though). Ottawa looks to see if you're French, which is a big plus. Northern looks at your postal code. They only take like 2 people a year outside of northern ontario. Western has crazy high mcat cutoffs, but if you make those, you have a good chance of getting an interview. So basically, they all want the same things, but slightly switch their focuses.

I took Kaplan, my friend took Princeton. I found it really good. I don't know if it's better. I would say that unless you've taken a test like the MCAT before, you'll need to take a prep course. You've taken the SAT, so I'm not sure how similar it is. I knew almost everything in each subject, but when I did the practice test the first time, i failed badly. It's not cause I didn't know it, it's cause it's a crazy test. 5 hours straight, I could hardly finish the section because I didn't have enough time. The questions are made so you have to read paragraphs for most of them and infer the answers from the paragraph. It's different. The course definetly helped me with getting used to it. My score from my first practice test before the course, to my real MCAT after the course, went up by 15 points. Since the test is out of 45, that's a lot.

Hoped that helped. THAT was a lot!

It TOTALLY was I feel like I have to work harder now lol.. but I don't know LOL. THANK YOUUU and all the best in your applications!! I'm pretty sure you'll do an amazing job and blow them all away! yay

Much luck with the application process