Originally Posted by Maria Daniel

In terms of a free ticket to med school, well I'm not sure if Mac Med gives preference to mac healthscis or not, but if you get good grades and MCAT scores, and have stellar extracurriculars, i'm sure you will be a good candidate. Get involved in school and dedicate your time to activities you love and are passionate about!

Preference, maybe, but I know several well-qualified health scis who got rejected from Mac Med. One of them told me he was cocky and thought that being in health sci gave him a definite in, but that's didn't turn out to be the case at all.

Hey! I didnt apply to health sci, but I went to mac for life sci. After first year I transfered to engineering, bbut my friend transfer to health sci. So you can still get into! You just have to keep your marks above a 9 average.

In life sci you will learn alot more subject like work (ie chem bio physics math, very direct work with the field of study) In health sci you will not have courses split into such categories. In these classes (much smaller) you do group projects ( so they have no quizzes or tests or exam [seriously! but jokes for them]) so in the group projects they will learn various things from it but its applicable to a medical field. So its not theoritical (life sci) but its very health oriented. I hope I didnt ramble too much. But in life sci, second year you apply for majors (biochem, chem bio, chem, bio... etc) or you can apply for transfer (you dont start over you get to continue to second year... unless like me you pick engineering). But you def learn more in life sci... so if you dont get into med school... you can actually do something other than teach! Good luck!!

Originally Posted by terrafirma

1. No, health sci is not easy. It's difficult to compare across faculties unless you've done multiple degrees and have that experience, A lot of health scis live in the library, have looong group meetings well past midnight, do research for fun, study 24/7... then again so do a lot of other students. So it may not necessarily be harder, but it is definitely not easier.
2. Yes, there are a lot of overachievers. Yes, you won't feel "special" that you are the "smart one" anymore, but do you want the recognition or do you want motivation to work harder?
3. No, not EVERYONE in health sci is a pompous windbag. There are some, unfortunately, but they are in the minority. Most people are helpful and there is an emphasis on collaboration. Plus, there are arrogant people in every program, don't generalize.
4. No, you are not limited to mac med when you graduate. People get into diff med schools or pursue other interests: http://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/bhsc/docu...GRADS09-10.pdf You also get a lot of elective space and can take a wide range of courses, definitely not limited to "health".


If you get rejected the first time, you can always apply as a transfer. and if not, life sci does have some awesome second year specializations.

I never said that everyone in the HS program is a pompous windbag. I know some really nice Health Sciences students. But, I've also come across some HS students who've been really, well, cold and socially awkward. Mind you, they get along fine with other HS students. Now, I've never really noticed this with students from other faculties. Maybe this was just my own rotten experience, but I do believe one can assume that these students are a bit full of themselves because they managed to get a seat in McMaster's most prestigious undergrad program and perhaps even a ticket to Mac medical school.

Originally Posted by hyvaa

Lastly, health sci does NOT limit your future. It is not JUST for med school. There are people who went into research, law, densitry, etc. There are many many people. Health sci is there to give opportunities not to withdraw them from you. It gives you all the tools that you can use in any fields. I personally do not feel limited in the lab that I am currently working in. As an undergrad, there is a limit as to how much you can learn from courses. For future students - the lack of 'specializations' should not deter you from choosing health sci if you get accepted (not to mention, there are two specializations - though a bit broad compared to the ones life sci has to offer- we have biomed and global health - biomed is more biochemistry and global health is more of social science-y specialization where you get to go to other countries and analyze their health systems)


We, health scis, are also Mac students. It is totally unnecessary to bash us like that. Please have some respect.

You can get into dentistry and law with any undergrad degree. The HS program is primarily for students interested in the healthcare field. The good thing about first year Life Science is that after it's over, you can choose anything from Math to Psychology. And, you can spice up your degree by taking something like Bio and Math together or even Bio and Philosophy together. Then there is the Life Science degree which allows you to study a variety of sciences. The OP should be glad that they'll be in Life Science!

Originally Posted by Revolution1

You can get into dentistry and law with any undergrad degree.

It's true.

Proof (except for Med school):
http://www.fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/do...lassof2013.pdf

Just sayin'.

Remember that you may not even be interested in medicine - there's a whole world of academics out there which you haven't been exposed to in high school. While health science may be an excellent program, it's definitely not as general as life science is in your first year.

In your first year of life science, you'll be able to scope out the sciences, social sciences and humanities and figure out what you're really interested in, rather than proceeding towards med school with blinders on. You may well realize that you are indeed interested in pursuing medicine; however, you may also discover a field you never knew about before, and find that you really enjoy that particular area of study.

You don't need to feel like a loser for not getting in, I got rejected to and I'm also going into life sci as well, life sci programs are also pretty academically awesome so don't worry about it. Don't let you get it down, health sci is just pretty hard to get into. It's not that you don't meet the min reqs, it's also the fact that they only have a few spots for a hell lot of students who apply

I feel like I'm going to be attacked any second if I post here >.>

To the OP, honestly, don't worry about not getting in. If you're truly determined to be in health sci, just transfer after your first year at life sci; that's exactly what I did. As long as you maintain an overall GPA of 10 or over, all that matters is your supplementary application. If you have any questions about transferring, feel free to message me

Good luck with your first year!

Originally Posted by tacobits

as the title mentioned, I just got rejected to health sci...
guess im going to accept mac's life sci now

still, i feel like such a loser atm
anyone want to make me feel better by stating the pros of going into life sci?
as in, personal experiences?

that's exactly what happened to me a year ago!
i applied to 6 programs, and got accepted to everything except hsci. that bummed me out to the point where i almost ruled out mac life sci, just because i felt like i'd be settling for second place or something. but i did end up picking mac life sci.

things didn't get better right away. i lived in les prince, and there were health scis EVERYWHERE. not sure if it's cause high marks guaranteed them first choice and they all wanted washrooms...? lol. but anyway. the point is, i felt even more like a loser during frosh, when everyone i met was a hsci, and everyone talked about going to those exclusive hsci frosh activities, etc..

eventually things get better, and you realize, wait, why health sci anyway? there's a whole other world out there. and mac has a ton of awesome level 2 programs so you can say bye to life sci after a year if you want. i did apply to transfer into hsci but i can be totally honest, i would have been perfectly fine settling with my "second" choice (PNB w/ music cog... I still think that program sounds absolutely fantastic, and I plan on minoring in psych). What I'm saying is, after you get over the initial I-feel-like-a-loser hump, I trust you're bound to find a program that truly interests you, and you'll stop moping over hsci

tl;dr
everything's gonna be alright

Do not worry about the program. Look at the intakes for med school (assuming thats the direction you wanna go) for last fall
http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/mdprog/documents/Classof2013.pdf
Its not the same number of students every year but more students from any science program get in than from health sci. Keep your chin up, work hard, and you may still get to where you wanna go.

Aww, hey! Don't despair! I know of someone who didn't get into HealthSci either and did his first year in LifeSci. He just recently transferred into HealthSci. Mind you, they have steep grade cut offs for those transferring between programs (the exact figure, I can't be sure of) so I'm sure he had to work pretty hard.

What I can tell you about the program is that it is tough; not for the faint of heart!! However, that's university in general. Things that are worth doing seldom come easy. Best word of advice I can give for LifeSci is: stay HIGHLY organized, make as many friends as possible (they come in handy when you can't get a hold of a prof or a TA for help...and for moral support - trust me, you need it!), and if you're not understanding your TA in your tutorial go to another tutorial at another time (did wonders for me in chem). Also, if you're not understanding your prof try collaborating with your friends or better yet, if you can try attending the lecture of another prof for the same course. You are able to do this depending on your schedule but be aware that you'll still have to attend your assigned prof's lectures b/c of iclickers (you'll find out what those oh-so-joyous things are eventually).

Finally, if you don't like something, CHANGE IT! It won't always be easy to do that but just know that it can be done! (PS. I know all of this b/c I used to be in LifeSci as well )