Originally Posted by teedee

So I don't have to work my butt off for a 95? A 90 is just as good? Thank goodnesssssss and thank you! I will try my best on the application.

Im not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but this is what I remember.

They take your average (CA) and add that to a mark they assign for your application, but the application is weighted as being worth way more. So then they assign you a weighted average between the two. But get the best grades you can (Scholarships!)

I don't know... i think its a pretty bullshit system, because health sci kids are baby fed beyond belief with their PBL based learning, it sickens me.

Environmental Sciences!!!

Take a science but keep your courses more general so that you can go into pretty much anything you want year two. That way you pretty much ended up with another year to decide which courses you like.

I'm in life sci. But more courses are set up so I can transfer into Enviro Sci, Anthro, or continue with any second year specialization I want. I know it seems daunting to you right now but university isn't nearly as bad as the preparation for it makes it seem

Originally Posted by Arrogant

Im not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but this is what I remember.

They take your average (CA) and add that to a mark they assign for your application, but the application is weighted as being worth way more. So then they assign you a weighted average between the two. But get the best grades you can (Scholarships!)

I don't know... i think its a pretty bullshit system, because health sci kids are baby fed beyond belief with their PBL based learning, it sickens me.

No, I wasn't being sarcastic... but thanks for the info.

Originally Posted by Replekia

Take a science but keep your courses more general so that you can go into pretty much anything you want year two. That way you pretty much ended up with another year to decide which courses you like.

I'm in life sci. But more courses are set up so I can transfer into Enviro Sci, Anthro, or continue with any second year specialization I want. I know it seems daunting to you right now but university isn't nearly as bad as the preparation for it makes it seem

Is it possible to switch from life sciences to health sciences in year 2?

Originally Posted by teedee

Is it possible to switch from life sciences to health sciences in year 2?

There are a few exceptions where the specialized programs will not let you switch in. I believe these are health sci, Integrated sci, and arts & sci. If you want to get into med school, health sci isn't actually any better than life sci, but life sci will be a bit more bearable and with your marks you can probably obtain guaranteed admission without having to deal with an supplementary application. The main difference between life sci and health sci is really just class size. Life sci is like 800 people or something while health sci is around 50. This really doesn't affect the quality of education at all though.

the reason they don't let you switch in is because of class size and they do their own specialized curriculum so transfering in/out is doesn't work very well.

edit: you CAN transfer into these courses 2nd year, but you transfer into year 1 of that course.

Originally Posted by Replekia

There are a few exceptions where the specialized programs will not let you switch in. I believe these are health sci, Integrated sci, and arts & sci. If you want to get into med school, health sci isn't actually any better than life sci, but life sci will be a bit more bearable and with your marks you can probably obtain guaranteed admission without having to deal with an supplementary application. The main difference between life sci and health sci is really just class size. Life sci is like 800 people or something while health sci is around 50. This really doesn't affect the quality of education at all though.

the reason they don't let you switch in is because of class size and they do their own specialized curriculum so transfering in/out is doesn't work very well.

edit: you CAN transfer into these courses 2nd year, but you transfer into year 1 of that course.

Oooh, life sciences sounds pretty good, thanks for the info!

You should look into engineering. I'm in 3rd year engineering physics, the work and exams are the most brutal things ever, but it is the most fun program I know. Even though its physics, its got A LOT of interesting stuff, not that boring crap they teach you back in high school. plus lasers and nuclear material is fun to play with (I'm a disaster waiting to happen lol)

Originally Posted by teedee

Oooh, life sciences sounds pretty good, thanks for the info!

I'm in life sci myself. My original goal was actually integrated sciences, but my grade 12 chem prof didn't believe in 100%. She admits I got the highest average in her class in 7 years; I had an 85% which was my lowest mark ever. That was the only reason I didn't get into integrated sciences. My second choice was life sci, and I got a guaranteed admittance, and quite frankly I'm loving it so far. One of the advantages to having a large faculty is the possibility to make more friends. The small faculties like health sci, arts & sci, and integrated sci, tend to form groups of friends only within themselves since everyone knows everyone else by the end of frosh week and your classes are specific to your faculty. In a large faculty you'll get a better chance to make friends with people from all sorts of different faculties and it makes your social group way more interesting since your classes will have people from all sorts of faculties in there.

Make sure you have a back up plan if you do not get accepted into medical school. My plan B is to do my HSM MBA at Mac.

Originally Posted by healthsci1

My plan B is to do my HSM MBA at Mac.

what is that?

Originally Posted by Eximious

You should look into engineering. I'm in 3rd year engineering physics, the work and exams are the most brutal things ever, but it is the most fun program I know. Even though its physics, its got A LOT of interesting stuff, not that boring crap they teach you back in high school. plus lasers and nuclear material is fun to play with (I'm a disaster waiting to happen lol)

Yeah, I've always been interested in engineering for some reason. Physics amazes me. I think I'm going to take the 3-4 hour drive to Hamilton on Oct 30, for the open house just to get more info on all the programs

I'm in ChemBio, and I love it!
I started off in Life Sci, with the intention of doing something bio-related...but then I decided in first year that I don't like the bio dept at Mac (More on an administrative level/how the courses are run), and most of the bio courses didn't seem THAT appealing to me. On the other hand, I loved first-year chem, and did well in it, and I still had an interest in bio, so chembio was perfect!
I love that it's a super-small program (there are 16 kids in my year), and I'm in the 2nd year it's being run, so the profs are all really involved and really care about making it a good program. They take our feedback seriously. I LOVE that it's so small...such a nice change after first-year life sci, which is ginormous. Like, there's 2500 kids in chem 1A03/1E03...that's insane! With the exception of my elective, none of my classes this year are even big enough to be held in a lecture hall.
Since we're so small, we also get access to tons of cool equipment, that they wouldn't be able to afford if the program was bigger (ie more than 30ish).
A lot of people think they shouldn't do chembio if they want to go to med school because their marks won't be good enough, but 3-4 people in the year above me (currently in 4th year) left the program early to go to med school, so it's definitely possible.

Health Services Management is what the acronym stands for. These individuals basically plan, direct, and supervise the delivery of health care. Mcmaster is the only school that offers a co-op varient of the program. If you want to learn more about it i suggest taking a look at this http://www.degroote.mcmaster .ca/mb...lizations.html or going to the Degroote APO.

Originally Posted by teedee

Yeah, I've always been interested in engineering for some reason. Physics amazes me. I think I'm going to take the 3-4 hour drive to Hamilton on Oct 30, for the open house just to get more info on all the programs

I find the open houses to be.... not so helpful. I went to every single one that was held last year. My father is a MAC alumni and dragged me to every single one, despite a 3.5 hour drive because he did NOT want me going to western like my mom wanted me to.

The open house programs are mainly common sense. I suggest just taking the time to get a feel for campus, it's probably more beneficial. We can answer most questions you have here on MI.