I know there are already a bunch of second year science threads out there, but I had general questions regarding what people have heard about the specializations. I'm really considering bio physiology atm, so these questions won't really affect my decision but I'm just curious about the others so:

1. Which specialization/program for 2nd year have you heard to be the easiest/most GPA friendly?
2. Which one has the most/least people in? (apart from Honors Life sci for most)
3. Is there ONE program you'd say most people go into and apply to/get into med school from or is that generally spread out among the programs?
4. Which ones require you to research and generate your own thesis from as a major component of your mark?
5. Is it common for students in bio physiology to apply to/get into med school?
6. Is bio chem as hardcore as it is sounds?

sorry if these may seem dumb, thanks again though!

Originally Posted by Christ

I know there are already a bunch of second year science threads out there, but I had general questions regarding what people have heard about the specializations. I'm really considering bio physiology atm, so these questions won't really affect my decision but I'm just curious about the others so:

1. Which specialization/program for 2nd year have you heard to be the easiest/most GPA friendly?
2. Which one has the most/least people in? (apart from Honors Life sci for most)
3. Is there ONE program you'd say most people go into and apply to/get into med school from or is that generally spread out among the programs?
4. Which ones require you to research and generate your own thesis from as a major component of your mark?
5. Is it common for students in bio physiology to apply to/get into med school?
6. Is bio chem as hardcore as it is sounds?

sorry if these may seem dumb, thanks again though!

1. None of them.
2. Most (other than Life Sci) = Honours Bio (General)
3. Health Sci (ba-dum-tishh) and General (non-specialized programs with lots of electives - i.e. Honours Life Sci) - Otherwise, it's pretty spread out
4. Any Honours Specializations (as in, not just Honours Bio, but something like Honours Bio Mol Bio Spec)
5. I have no idea.
6. Does it even sound hardcore? It's okay. It's about on the same level as most programs. It's just different subjects you focus on...

Please hit that Thanks button, btw.

Originally Posted by Christ

I know there are already a bunch of second year science threads out there, but I had general questions regarding what people have heard about the specializations. I'm really considering bio physiology atm, so these questions won't really affect my decision but I'm just curious about the others so:

1. Which specialization/program for 2nd year have you heard to be the easiest/most GPA friendly?
2. Which one has the most/least people in? (apart from Honors Life sci for most)
3. Is there ONE program you'd say most people go into and apply to/get into med school from or is that generally spread out among the programs?
4. Which ones require you to research and generate your own thesis from as a major component of your mark?
5. Is it common for students in bio physiology to apply to/get into med school?
6. Is bio chem as hardcore as it is sounds?

sorry if these may seem dumb, thanks again though!

1) none are easy, if you want easy go into life sci or normal biology (no offence) but the specializations are hard in their own ways, i.e. physiology is lab intensive and the labs are ... intense..., mol bio and genetics is content heavy, pharm is highly competitive and long.... what makes the specializations different from normal bio or life sci, and hard, is that you have less room to take electives, and you are required to take almost all of the hardest courses in those specific areas.

2) from what i head this year; biology had 50 ish, and physiology had 34 ish, and everything else was in between. (but if your considering the other things like biocehm, chem bio, etc...then i think biochem has the lowest)

3) if you desire medschool, specialization is probably not the best idea. from what i know most people desiring med school are in life sci, (EDIT; as the poster above me said, health sci) and then less so in bio, and even less in the specializations. but there are benefits to taking the "harder" road. from life sci to bio to spec it gets harder to get easy marks (mostly cus you dont have all that many electives) but at the same time you really get concentrated in a specific field which is good if you want to do grad school and go for phd..... but in the end none of that matters it all comes down to MARKS

4) all specializations require you to do a 9 unit thesis course in fourth year. i am not sure how much the final paper is worth (probably the majority of the mark) but there are check points along the way that you get marks for as well. this may sound daunting now but if you think about it a lot of the course you need to take in specialization are lab based and have a lot of lab work, writing, and researching associated with them. you end up getting a lot of practice by the time fourth year comes around. but thats not to say it will be easy, i am already starting to plan out fourth year and strategize over which courses i should leave till then and how i want to play my cards so that i have as much time to spend on the research as possible.

5) people tend to go into the specialization because they want to go into research. that is the plain and simple truth. if your main goal is to go to med school, then i would recommend sticking to normal biology or life sci. the 4th year thesis adds a lot of strain and could make or break your overall cgpa because of how much it is weighted. but thats not to say everyone wants to do research. i bunch of people that will apply to med school too but are taking a specialization so that they can get the research experiences and have a potential back up in research. - also i dont think you can find out if its common for physio people or those in any other specialization to get into med school (i would say less so because of what i said above, 1) they are in the program because they want to specialize 2) the program is hard and there aren't all that many chances to get easy marks)

6) um not sure but i have a few friends in it and some are planning to switch out, and their courses sound intense, .... so yea?

Originally Posted by Chevalier

6) um not sure but i have a few friends in it and some are planning to switch out, and their courses sound intense, .... so yea?

Aww...who's leaving? :(

I forgot to say that Chem Bio is the smallest program in general, while Bio Physio is the smallest specialization out of all Science specializations, as far as I'm aware.

Originally Posted by Chevalier

1

2) from what i head this year; biology had 50 ish, and physiology had 34 ish, and everything else was in between. (but if your considering the other things like biocehm, chem bio, etc...then i think biochem has the lowest)

...

4) all specializations require you to do a 9 unit thesis course in fourth year. i am not sure how much the final paper is worth (probably the majority of the mark) but there are check points along the way that you get marks for as well. this may sound daunting now but if you think about it a lot of the course you need to take in specialization are lab based and have a lot of lab work, writing, and researching associated with them. you end up getting a lot of practice by the time fourth year comes around. but thats not to say it will be easy, i am already starting to plan out fourth year and strategize over which courses i should leave till then and how i want to play my cards so that i have as much time to spend on the research as possible.

5) people tend to go into the specialization because they want to go into research. that is the plain and simple truth. if your main goal is to go to med school, then i would recommend sticking to normal biology or life sci. the 4th year thesis adds a lot of strain and could make or break your overall cgpa because of how much it is weighted. but thats not to say everyone wants to do research. i bunch of people that will apply to med school too but are taking a specialization so that they can get the research experiences and have a potential back up in research. - also i dont think you can find out if its common for physio people or those in any other specialization to get into med school (i would say less so because of what i said above, 1) they are in the program because they want to specialize 2) the program is hard and there aren't all that many chances to get easy marks)

Biochem is definitely not the smallest program. Not by a long shot--there's about 120 people in it each year.
I'm in chembio and my year has about 14 people. The second-year chembio class has nearly 40 though.

Also, not all specializations require a 9-unit thesis. Many programs have 3-unit, one-term project options, and you have to do either a thesis or a project.

A lot of people go into specializations because they're interested in them, or because they want something to set them apart from the general bio/life sci degrees. Many people do not want to do research as their end life goal.

People can get into med school from any program, from chembio to hth sci to music. It doesn't matter.

Originally Posted by Christ

I know there are already a bunch of second year science threads out there, but I had general questions regarding what people have heard about the specializations. I'm really considering bio physiology atm, so these questions won't really affect my decision but I'm just curious about the others so:

1. Which specialization/program for 2nd year have you heard to be the easiest/most GPA friendly?
2. Which one has the most/least people in? (apart from Honors Life sci for most)
3. Is there ONE program you'd say most people go into and apply to/get into med school from or is that generally spread out among the programs?
4. Which ones require you to research and generate your own thesis from as a major component of your mark?
5. Is it common for students in bio physiology to apply to/get into med school?
6. Is bio chem as hardcore as it is sounds?

sorry if these may seem dumb, thanks again though!

1. Probably Life Sci or Health Sci
2. Most people? Probably bio/biochem... Least people? Any physics or chemistry related program (physics specializations probably have the least)
3. Health Sci wins
4. Most majors have a thesis requirement now, check the undergrad calendar
5. Yes
6. No, but it depends what you're comparing it to.

Originally Posted by justinsftw

Aww...who's leaving? :(

I forgot to say that Chem Bio is the smallest program in general, while Bio Physio is the smallest specialization out of all Science specializations, as far as I'm aware.

There are smaller programs in science.

All of physics (7 specializations in total) combined have less than 30 people each year. Medical physics program, before the revision, had about 2-10 people each yr.

It would be nice to see the official numbers anyway.

Oh no :( I've heard that it's good to specialize because honors life sci or the general path is too open and if you don't get into med school there really isn't much you could do. I also DO NOT want to go into research (that isn't my main goal) but wouldn't specializing be helpful in the long run?

I'm just stumped because I know health sci is completely out of the picture, the chances of getting in 2nd year are so tiny, at the same time I do want to specialize but if it means jeopardizing my marks then idk :(

Originally Posted by Christ

Oh no :( I've heard that it's good to specialize because honors life sci or the general path is too open and if you don't get into med school there really isn't much you could do. I also DO NOT want to go into research (that isn't my main goal) but wouldn't specializing be helpful in the long run?

I'm just stumped because I know health sci is completely out of the picture, the chances of getting in 2nd year are so tiny, at the same time I do want to specialize but if it means jeopardizing my marks then idk :(

Plenty of people get good marks and can get into med school from specializations. This is true for any specialization, no matter how much you've heard how "hard" it is.

There's also nothing wrong with doing a specialization if you don't want to go into research. Again, plenty of people do.

Do whatever program you're interested in.

Originally Posted by Christ

Oh no :( I've heard that it's good to specialize because honors life sci or the general path is too open and if you don't get into med school there really isn't much you could do. I also DO NOT want to go into research (that isn't my main goal) but wouldn't specializing be helpful in the long run?

I'm just stumped because I know health sci is completely out of the picture, the chances of getting in 2nd year are so tiny, at the same time I do want to specialize but if it means jeopardizing my marks then idk :(

right now whats important isnt whether your going to get into med or not and what youll do after, heck you may completely change your mind for applying to med school in a years time, it happens.

the thing which is important is taking what you love and are genuinely interested in. if you do that then no matter what you end up doing in the future you will most likely like it because you will be doing something which you are interested in.

take me for example; my plan is to take the MCAT see how i do, but that doesnt mean im set on med school, med school is just another option that im considering. all in all i have 5 potential things i want to do after grad, med school or working towards Phd are 2 of them, but none the less im taking things which i love not looking at whether they are hard or easy and not really "caring" all that much about my grades. as long as i work hard and do what i like theres no going wrong and itll work out.

^ This guy know whats up.

Originally Posted by macsci

There are smaller programs in science.

All of physics (7 specializations in total) combined have less than 30 people each year. Medical physics program, before the revision, had about 2-10 people each yr.

It would be nice to see the official numbers anyway.

Physics and Math totally skipped my mind. Thanks. I was aware of this, but just didn't think of it at the time.