For professional school, do you think it would be better if one completed his/her honour's degree and then turned their minor into another degree? Or just went to graduate school before applying to professional school?

Careful with that. I have been screwed twice now that the University will not accept "credits used towards the attainment of another degree" towards its own degree.

Let me give an example:

I get an honours BA in X. With all my electives throughout that degree I would only need a few more courses to complete all of the required for ANOTHER degree. While they will count the credits, they will require you to take the same amount of units regardless, even if its completely irrelevant.

So if you got a degree in sociology, and minored in computer science, in theory you could do the "computer science as a second degree" in only one year instead of two, since you could fulfill the 30 units needed for first year of that program. However, they will count the credits but force you to take 60 units regardless towards your credit hours.

I have, disappointingly learned that a university degree does not reflect knowledge attained, instead, it represents the amount of time registered in courses. Biggest BS of my year.

/rant

It depends on the professional school, a bit of specificity would help. I know some schools (ex Clinical Psychology Programs) prefer that you work in the field and gain experience and look at a masters in another field as "a lack of focus." While some other schools will bump up your undergrad GPA or put you in a different pool of applicants if you have a masters (I think Queens Medschool does the latter, while U of T does the Former).

For Professional Schools (I know for Medical School) it depends on the school you are applying to.

I have contacted all of the medical schools in Canada for my own situation, and the replies are a mixed pot.

Some schools will look ONLY at the marks AND SUBJECTS from your second degree, some will continue to look at both degrees equally.

Contact the schools you are interested prior to making this decision.

For my situation I completed a 3-year BSc before starting the accelerated BScN program.

For professional schools, taking a second degree should ONLY be for the purpose of increasing your GPA.

You should contemplate a 5th year first as taking a 5th year is easier than completing a second degree, and will avoid some schools rejecting your first degree (and therefore any prerequisites that you've already taken once, because as mentioned by someone else McMaster often won't let you retake courses if they've been completed for one degree already)

Not sure if that was helpful, or more confusing...

-Ash.
BSc (Life Sciences)
Nursing III

As most have said (but perhaps a bit more to the point), it depends on the relevance to the professional school.

If I did my undergrad in math, then did a 2nd degree in biology hypothetically, it would probably top doing a masters in math, when applying to a med school.

If you plan on doing a second bachelor's you can't declare your minor. This is a good option if you need a GPA boost.

If you have a good GPA, some schools such as U of T, Mac, and NOSM (I think) give you a minor point advantage if you have a Masters. You need to finish your degree before attending med school though - for most science programs it is 2 years. Western/Queens/Ottawa don't consider your grades from your masters, only your undergrad.

Originally Posted by Jay

If you plan on doing a second bachelor's you can't declare your minor. This is a good option if you need a GPA boost.

The one alternative is declaring your minor, then going back and completing a major. You'll need to take additional courses though, since one course cannot count for two degrees and so forth.

So just to make the correction, it's not necessarily that you can't declare the minor...it's more that you probably shouldn't.

Be careful what you're applying to professional school. A lot of Masters degrees offer you no better chance at employment than an undergrad.

Almost universally med schools do not count grad school GPAs. A small number give a relatively small boost for having completed one.

If your problem is undergrad GPA, the only way to fix it is more undergrad with better grades.

If your GPA is fine but you didn't get in and need a few years to mature, do some research, find time to volunteer a bit, and want to do something which may give you a small boost in admissions then a Masters might be right for you.