Hello! I am a highschool student looking to apply for both Life Sciences and Health Sciences.

I have a few questions.

1. What was the admission average into Life Sciences this year?

2. What makes a good supplementary application for admission into Health Sciences?

3. What extra-curriculars are favoured when applying to Health Sciences?

4. Which program is more fulfilling and what is the availability of Health Science courses to a life sciences student?

5. Does McMaster take students in for winter term (January - April)?

Just in case this is asked, so far my Grade 12 marks are as follows:
Physics 12 - 80
Calculus - 60
Chemistry 12 - 90
English 12 - 91
World History - 89
Advanced Functions - 86

I know that realistically my calculus and physics marks won't be included in my top six, and I am taking three other courses this semester - Biology, Exercise Science & Earth and Space Science.

I'd appreciate any help that I can get - McMaster is my dream school, and I'd love to be in Health Sciences. I know my marks are basically at cut-off for Health Sciences, and my biology + elective marks should push up my average to making cut off since Biology is my fortè. I just want to know what the chances of being accepted are, since I'm so passionate about the program.

Not a healthsci, but hey.

1. "High 80s" but usually upper-middle 80s will probably cut it.

2. and 3. Anything anyone will tell you will probably just be guesswork. At most, current/former health science students can tell you about what they wrote, but nothing really "makes" a good application and no one here is involved in the admission process. No one knows for certain what they're looking for. "Good" is always subjective.

4. On the McMaster website, they list every course offered along with prerequisites. Many health science courses have "Registration in Level __ of health science" as a prereq but some Health Science courses are open to others (e.g. Health Sci 3I03).

5. By "take students in", do you mean offer a conditional acceptance? If so, then yes.

Originally Posted by Quiver

Not a healthsci, but hey.

1. "High 80s" but usually upper-middle 80s will probably cut it.

2. and 3. Anything anyone will tell you will probably just be guesswork. At most, current/former health science students can tell you about what they wrote, but nothing really "makes" a good application and no one here is involved in the admission process. No one knows for certain what they're looking for. "Good" is always subjective.

4. On the McMaster website, they list every course offered along with prerequisites. Many health science courses have "Registration in Level __ of health science" as a prereq but some Health Science courses are open to others (e.g. Health Sci 3I03).

5. By "take students in", do you mean offer a conditional acceptance? If so, then yes.

I think for #5, he means, do people get accepted such that they start in Jan instead of September? And as far as I can tell I think the answer is no, if you applied you would get in for Sept 2013, not Jan 2013.

(LINK: http://future.mcmaster.ca/admission/...-requirements/)
Life Science:
Required Courses: At least six Grade 12 U/M level courses, including:
ENG4U
One of: MHF4U, MCV4U
SBI4U
One of: MHF4U, MCV4U, SCH4U, SPH4U
Note: Calculus and Vectors (MCV4U) is recommended

Anticipated Admission Range - September 2012 (Subject to Change): high 80s
(In my year the "listed average" was 88%)

Health Sciences:
Required Courses: At least six Grade 12 U/M level courses, including:

ENG4U
One of: MHF4U, MCV4U, MDM4U
SBI4U
SCH4U
One non-math; non-science; non-technology 4U/M credit*

Supplementary Documents/Applications: Mandatory supplementary application due February 1, 2012. To be completed on-line: http://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/bhsc/

Anticipated Admission Range- September 2012 (subject to change): A minimum of 90% is required for consideration. Admission is by selection.
(In my year it a was a 92% listed cutoff)

So use the required courses first, then your remaining top marks to see which you will have the marks for


There are some course life scis can take and some they cant (and vice versa)--look at the program requirements (the ones you are forced to take) and see which courselist you think you would prefer as a better indication.

Originally Posted by Quiver

Not a healthsci, but hey.

1. "High 80s" but usually upper-middle 80s will probably cut it.

2. and 3. Anything anyone will tell you will probably just be guesswork. At most, current/former health science students can tell you about what they wrote, but nothing really "makes" a good application and no one here is involved in the admission process. No one knows for certain what they're looking for. "Good" is always subjective.

4. On the McMaster website, they list every course offered along with prerequisites. Many health science courses have "Registration in Level __ of health science" as a prereq but some Health Science courses are open to others (e.g. Health Sci 3I03).

5. By "take students in", do you mean offer a conditional acceptance? If so, then yes.

4th year BHSc students are involved in the admissions process.

Originally Posted by apples12

4th year BHSc students are involved in the admissions process.

Are they? My bad.

At the same time, I doubt anyone actively involved in that process will give anything away. That seems a bit ... unfair?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

2. What makes a good supplementary application for admission into Health Sciences?

I really don't know what makes a good supp. application, but my advice is to be sincere.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

3. What extra-curriculars are favoured when applying to Health Sciences?

No one EC is favoured over another, and that probably goes for any program you apply to. The best extra-curricular activity is the one that you're passionate about.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

4. Which program is more fulfilling and what is the availability of Health Science courses to a life sciences student?

The program that's the most fulfilling depends on you.

BHSc is a very specific program - right from the beginning, you know you will be studying health and its various aspects. If you don't like studying health, you may find that it's not the best program for you. However, BHSc does have lots of elective space for you to pursue other interests, and there are a few specializations you can enter if you really like something (biomed, global health, child health).

Life Sciences I is more general and less restrictive. You have the opportunity to experience the many areas of science and find what fields interest you the most. Then, in second year, you have a plethora of options available to you. If you found after first year that you liked physics, you can go into physics; if you liked math, you can go into that; if you're interested in biochemistry, you can go into that. A lot of upper year science programs also have co-op, which BHSc does not.

To answer your second question, each program will have a set of courses that are restricted to only students in that program. But there will likely be courses in each Faculty that are open to everyone. For example, courses like Psychobiology, Epidemiology, and Immunology are Health Sci courses that are open to all students.

Anyway, hope this helped.

on my letter of acceptance they said my average should be no less than 85% I am in life science...