Hi, i'm an international student. It's likely to say that i'll be a member at Mcmaster this Sep, but i still don't know which university is better for me. My major will be life science 1--biochemistry at McMaster. In two years, i want to go to pharmacy school, so i need a high mark. Is it very difficult to get a high GPA in this university(biochemist ry)? Is Mcmaster very well known for it's life science program? I'm also enrolled in Mcgill university(biochemist ry). A lot of people say that Mcgill has a better reputation than Mcmaster. Since i need a high mark, should i choose Mcmaster?Is it that difficult to get a high mark at Mcgill? There're small classes in Mcmaster,so is it a great help for your study? Can you tell me which university should i choose?

Originally Posted by lbqjenny

Can you tell me which university should i choose?

As you are posting this question in a McMaster students-run forum, you will get biased answers to this question. I suggest you go to a more neutral-based forum. Other than that, no one can tell you which university you should choose as it is your own future...

But I can tell you McMaster is an awesome university with alot of things to do to let yourself grow and learn outside the classroom. And also, it is certainly not easier than McGill...

yea

Originally Posted by mumbojumbo

As you are posting this question in a McMaster students-run forum, you will get biased answers to this question. I suggest you go to a more neutral-based forum. Other than that, no one can tell you which university you should choose as it is your own future...

But I can tell you McMaster is an awesome university with alot of things to do to let yourself grow and learn outside the classroom. And also, it is certainly not easier than McGill...

yeah i think so, but i really appreciate small classes in Mcmaster. Is it really a good help?

small classes at mcmaster? where have you heard this from? in science (not health science) classes don't go below 150 until 4th year.
First year bio has like 1500 students and 5 sections each with 300 students.

Originally Posted by FireDragoonX

small classes at mcmaster? where have you heard this from? in science (not health science) classes don't go below 150 until 4th year.
First year bio has like 1500 students and 5 sections each with 300 students.

how about the education quality? if you have some questions, can you solve them immediately by asking your prof? is this university well known for its life science?

Well, McMaster is well known for health sciences, and I'm assuming life sciences falls under that bracket.

In my experience it's very easy to approach your prof whether it be after class, in their office hours or by e-mail. Most of the time they encourage you to come to their office hours if you have questions, and if you can't make it, by e-mail. They usually respond quickly. However, I've only had a handful of professors so far so take that advice with a grain a salt.

None of us can say whether it's easier to achieve higher marks at McMaster because most likely none of us have attended McGill. Even so though, the difficulty of a school and more specifically it's departments and courses, really really depends on the person and their perception of difficult. You will have a wide range of grades in a class 99 percent of the time.

I can tell you though, that I have friends from different departments and courses are not a picnic or a cake walk. You gotta work hard and stay on top of things. Both McMaster and McGill are internationally known, but if you want to go to a school based solely on prestige, that is up to you.

Physics classes go under 45 after 1st year 2nd semester, not all science courses have huge classes

If you work hard, you'll succeed anywhere. Up to you where you decide to go.

Originally Posted by thedog123123

Physics classes go under 45 after 1st year 2nd semester, not all science courses have huge classes

that's true
but bio and psych have large class sizes up until 3rd and 4th year.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

Well, McMaster is well known for health sciences, and I'm assuming life sciences falls under that bracket.

In my experience it's very easy to approach your prof whether it be after class, in their office hours or by e-mail. Most of the time they encourage you to come to their office hours if you have questions, and if you can't make it, by e-mail. They usually respond quickly. However, I've only had a handful of professors so far so take that advice with a grain a salt.

None of us can say whether it's easier to achieve higher marks at McMaster because most likely none of us have attended McGill. Even so though, the difficulty of a school and more specifically it's departments and courses, really really depends on the person and their perception of difficult. You will have a wide range of grades in a class 99 percent of the time.

I can tell you though, that I have friends from different departments and courses are not a picnic or a cake walk. You gotta work hard and stay on top of things. Both McMaster and McGill are internationally known, but if you want to go to a school based solely on prestige, that is up to you.

Thank you sooooooooooooooooo much!! It's really really a great help!!! Of course i'll work hard!!
You mentioned you can find your prof easily, but if there are soooo many students in one class you won't get a chance to talk to prof. So i want to know how many students are there in one classroom in 1th and 2nd year if my future major is biochemistry?
Could you tell me why you choose Mcmaster but not Mcgill,what are the advantages in Mcmaster over Mcgill?

Originally Posted by thedog123123

Physics classes go under 45 after 1st year 2nd semester, not all science courses have huge classes

How about other classes? if my major is life science, are there more small classes than huge classes in the 1th and the 2nd year? Some of my friends say that the education quality is not very good if the classes are so huge, and my friend in toronto university think Mcmaster is great cause there are small classes there! is that true?

Originally Posted by lbqjenny

Thank you sooooooooooooooooo much!! It's really really a great help!!! Of course i'll work hard!!
You mentioned you can find your prof easily, but if there are soooo many students in one class you won't get a chance to talk to prof. So i want to know how many students are there in one classroom in 1th and 2nd year if my future major is biochemistry?
Could you tell me why you choose Mcmaster but not Mcgill,what are the advantages in Mcmaster over Mcgill?

I don't know much about biochemistry, but from my experience classes don't usually exceed 600 students, but second term, a lot of students start not showing up and the amount of students goes down. If you're going to May @ Mac on May 9th, you can ask your faculty what the class sizes are like specifically for biochemistry.

It's easy to talk to your prof because it's usually only a handful of students who stay after class to ask questions, and most profs are nice enough to stay and help everyone. If not that, go to their office hours -- it's really good because they'll know who you are and that's good for reference letters and things like that.

If after that you can't reach your prof, which is a very small chance, you can always ask your TA. Your TA will always help you and you can reach them by e-mail as well, or you can visit them if they have office hours. TA's seem more approachable because most of the time they're only a few years older than us. I asked my TA about advice for a program I wanted to do, and she was helpful in that area too, so don't hesitate.

I didn't apply to McGill, but if I had, I would've probably gone to McMaster -- probably because it's 45 minutes away from my hometown whereas McGill isn't. McMaster has an amazing campus, nice profs, and has cool programs, and has a nice reputation. It's not huge and overwhelming like U of T either, it's medium sized and contained and feels like a community.

If one university is more reputable for biochemistry over the other, or clearly has better course options or more opportunities, than maybe you should go for that one, but it's upto you to decide where you want to go.

Haha I kinda rambled there but hope it helps.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

If one university is more reputable for biochemistry over the other, or clearly has better course options or more opportunities, than maybe you should go for that one, but it's upto you to decide where you want to go.

haha of course it really does help!!! Sometimes i think Mcgill is better if i wanna get master degree, cause it's a good place to do some research. For bachelor degree, i think it's better to go to a medium sized campus other than a overwhelming campus cause it's more closed and sometimes it's helpful for your study. Do you agree?

If I were accepted into McGill (wish I had applied) I would've gone for sure. That's not to say that I'm unhappy where I am. I'm so glad I didn't apply to McGill. Who cares where the degree comes from (as long as it's not Ryerson or York -- no offense). McMaster still is a great school. I love the sense of community here. My professors all know me and the competition isn't unbearable. It's not a university that is solely focused on academics. I find that McMaster strikes the perfect balance. However, if you choose a university solely based on reputation instead of the little things (which make up a lot) then you might as well go to Harvard, Yale or Princeton.

I'm going to go completely against the grain here.

You are trying to get into pharmacy school, and in today's day and age, you need to have very high grades for that. I personally don't believe McMaster's program would be the best choice for that considering that you wish to enter Pharmacy school after 2 years.

McGill's program is a straight biochem, as opposed to McMaster's broader Life Sciences program. This would allow you to concentrate more on the Biochemistry courses at McGill, as opposed to the broader McMaster Science approach to it.

Since you are very strict on what you want to do, I feel as if the broader program would be a detriment, and as an international student, it should be your main goal to do the things that help you get the best schooling in the shortest time possible as you pay a much higher tuition than the rest of us.

More than that, McGill's requirements are extremely tough to move on with Biochemistry. Since you need a 3.2 GPA to move forward, which is equivalent to a mark in the high 70s. This means that the program itself would be full of people attempting to get much higher, and this would help your grades out by forcing you to get higher marks at McGill than you would at Mac.

The final thing to consider is the contingency. Which school would be better for you internationally if you did not manage to get into Pharmacy school in Canada and had to go elsewhere. Unfortunately for us Mac students, McGill has a better international reputation, and McGill grads tend to have a slightly easier time getting into international programs of repute. Case in point: McGill has a much higher population of graduates who become Rhodes scholars.

Contrary to the erroneous argument presented by someone else, reputation does matter, and the marketability of your degree in an international environment will come down to the perceived reputation of it.

Until you decide to broaden your potential educational field, it would be advisable for you to go with the more strict curriculum of a school with a better international reputation: McGill.