Hi everyone! I'm a high school student going into grade 12 and I just had a couple questions about a few of the undergrad programs. My goal is to go to med school (like so many others). My first and second choices are Health Sci at Mac and BioMed (Scholars Electives) at Western, but if not I'm having trouble deciding what else to do. I'd definitely want to go to Mac but I'm having trouble choosing between Life Sciences or Kinesiology as my third choice.

I'm aware that you can get into med school with any degree as long as you have the prerequisites but I was hoping to find out
- the workload and if I would have enough electives to take the courses I need to prepare for the MCAT
- which is easier to maintain a high GPA ( i have a 90+ average right now)
- which program would be more likely to provide job opportunities if I don't get into med school after the first time applying.
- any other tips or insight you may be able to provide

Thank you in advance! Cheers!

Hi,

I was in Life Science last year, the workload was supermanageable and I was able to maintain a good GPA in all of the mandatory courses, also having come into the program with a 90+ average. I transferred to Health Science this year, and my class has about 25 transfer students, of which around 21ish kids are from the McMaster Life Sci program. Kinesiology is a great program as it stresses anatomy courses and whatnot, which will be nice background knowledge for med school. The only downside I see in kinesiology is that on top of your mandatory courses, you'll have to take med school prerequisites such as general bio and general chem, while these courses are mandatory in life sci. This would mean that your kin elective space is being used for serious science courses instead of exploring your interests. Also, i'm not too sure on this, but there might be more second year major options available through life science to customize your learning.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.

Originally Posted by RachDin

Hi everyone! I'm a high school student going into grade 12 and I just had a couple questions about a few of the undergrad programs. My goal is to go to med school (like so many others). My first and second choices are Health Sci at Mac and BioMed (Scholars Electives) at Western, but if not I'm having trouble deciding what else to do. I'd definitely want to go to Mac but I'm having trouble choosing between Life Sciences or Kinesiology as my third choice.

I'm aware that you can get into med school with any degree as long as you have the prerequisites but I was hoping to find out
- the workload and if I would have enough electives to take the courses I need to prepare for the MCAT
- which is easier to maintain a high GPA ( i have a 90+ average right now)
- which program would be more likely to provide job opportunities if I don't get into med school after the first time applying.
- any other tips or insight you may be able to provide

Thank you in advance! Cheers!

If your goal is med school, life sci probably makes it a little bit easier than kin, because many of the required courses in life sci are med school prereqs, but you should go for whatever you're more interested in because med school prereqs and a good gpa are possible from either program. In life sci you can also choose to specialize after first year.
The workload in life sci and kin in first year is relatively similar, it depends on what you take as your electives too I guess.
The program you are more interested in will be easier to maintain a higher gpa.
Kin probably has more job opportunities if you don't get into med school, but certain specializations that you could pick after doing 1st year life sci also have decent job opportunities.

I just wanna stress a possible relationship b/w "90+ average from gr 12" and "supermanageable" from dumbconsumer's post (what up Anmol ). You interpret that info. A possible good way to see how you will do in uni versus high school is to find a person who graduated from your high school who took the same courses as you (at least some of them), who is now in the program you want to be in, at the uni you want to be in. Ask that person You mark will drop, maintain, or go up depending on which high school you came from (considering your academic habits remain the same). That's just a fact.

Go for what you love and you well excel. Good luck!

Thanks everybody! In response to what you were saying, if I were to take Life Science, what specializations would lead to an environment working with others in a health care setting if I don't get into med school the first time? I'm not particularly interested in doing research full time after my undergrad.

Hopefully I get into HealthSci and won't have to worry about that though (I know it's a lot of work but I've already done a good bit of my supp app to improve it throughout the year).

Also, what do you think of Biomed as a second choice? Have any of you heard good reviews about the program?

Thanks for taking the time to respond btw, I really appreciate it!

Originally Posted by RachDin

Hi everyone! I'm a high school student going into grade 12 and I just had a couple questions about a few of the undergrad programs. My goal is to go to med school (like so many others). My first and second choices are Health Sci at Mac and BioMed (Scholars Electives) at Western, but if not I'm having trouble deciding what else to do. I'd definitely want to go to Mac but I'm having trouble choosing between Life Sciences or Kinesiology as my third choice.

I'm aware that you can get into med school with any degree as long as you have the prerequisites but I was hoping to find out
- the workload and if I would have enough electives to take the courses I need to prepare for the MCAT
- which is easier to maintain a high GPA ( i have a 90+ average right now)
- which program would be more likely to provide job opportunities if I don't get into med school after the first time applying.
- any other tips or insight you may be able to provide

Thank you in advance! Cheers!

First of all, any program you choose will have enough space to fulfill your med school prereqs, provided you don't go for a double major or something.

Also, I'd just like to dispel the notion that if you go into a certain program, it'll be easier to maintain a certain GPA. Like Steven said (what up Steven ), go for what you enjoy and you will do well. If you enjoy kin, you won't find it tedious to learn about all of the different systems in the body and you'll end up doing better than someone who's just memorizing all the facts because he has to.

About job opportunities, I would say that if you're not 100% about med school, then the life sci path would be good. There's a lot of different options you can choose from after first year and you can see what you like. Either way, you can always get into med school from life sci.

Hope that helped, if you have any other questions, feel free to PM!

Hey! I like you also debated for a really long time what program to go into. My top 2 choices were McMaster Life Sci and Western BioMed. I never applied for health sci or Kin at Mac as I felt they were too specific and Life Sci was more towards my interests. I also plan on going to Med School (if all goes well ) and had a 90+ average in high school, and I can honestly say life sci at Mac is a great program! It's not hard to maintain a high GPA if you put in the effort and the program provides you with lots of opportunities. You will be able to get the courses you need for Med school but also take courses that interest you Health sci and Kin I've heard are also great programs but they are very specific; health sci is specifically geared towards Med School and Kin requires lots of anatomy courses, not leaving much room for courses you need for Med school. Though Kin does give you more options of finding other jobs if Med School doesn't work out, while with a Life Sci degree other then research there's not much you can do.
Western BioMed is also a great program and similar to life sci at Mac I would say, so you have to see what school and program works best for you and interests you, not necessarily where you'll easily get a high GPA. You can get high marks anywhere if you're interested in what you're doing and put the time in! I choose Mac life sci in the end for the good things I heard about the program and the fact Mac is closer to home, so in the end other factors play in till you make your final decision.
Hope this helps!

If you're planning to take kin, you can always take 2 bios or 2 chems during summer school
that way, you'll still have 2 spaces open for your bird/ interested courses

i've also struggled to decide whether i should take kin/ life sci
however, in the end, i chose kin b/c
1. more spaces for optional courses (flexible)
2. LOVED the anatomy section when i took grade 12 bio
3. wants to be a physical/ occupational therapist in case i dont get into med school
4. don't want to take the required physics & psych in life sci
5. smaller class size, therefore, more interactions with the profs?

I'm really appreciating all this advice! I'm not too worried about the high GPA because I realize that both programs are similar and if I apply myself I'll be fine.

@Jovana, haha I totally understand that debate. Based on any research about the program at Western, do you have any more insight about that? If I'm unable to get scholar's electives I'm going to do go to Mac for sure as it's closer and would be relatively the same as the normal program at uwo.

@MacJk, I also thought about OT as a back up until reapplying to med school. However, after thinking about it, it'd probably work out better to do Life Science for me? I figure that I can meet all the prereqs and also have electives to take a couple kin courses that interest me? Ideally I could do some research lab stuff during the summer, instead of summer school

Thanks again veryone!

Just a quick question around this same topic

It seems a lot of people who plan to go to med school go between kin, health sci or life sci. Im gonna do med rad sci... for anyone to answer, was that a bad decision for a posible future in med school??

The other day I was really considering this program as well. However, after looking around at forums and such, I learned that there is not much room for electives to fulfill the courses for the MCAT and such. I was particularly enticed by the job security if med school doesn't work out the first time around and the radiation therapy seems pretty interesting.

I'm sure it's doable but it may be more difficult, especially when it comes time to write the MCAT. Again, I don't have any experienc, just sharing what I read. Hope it helps

@RachDin
if you do go into life sci with kins as your elective
it might be a lot harder 'cause you'll be having all these labs from bio, chem, and kin
which, if im correct, is every other week?
this was the advice given to me from several Mac graduates

of course, if the courses really do appeal to you
then i guess it wont seem that stressful?

That's a good point, I never really considered that. I know it is much too early, but do you have any suggestions for easier kin courses or something like that. I now recognize that it would be a lot of work, regardless of how interested I am. Any other bird courses that would still be interesting? I don't mind physics and maths too

Originally Posted by RachDin

Thanks everybody! In response to what you were saying, if I were to take Life Science, what specializations would lead to an environment working with others in a health care setting if I don't get into med school the first time? I'm not particularly interested in doing research full time after my undergrad.

Thanks for taking the time to respond btw, I really appreciate it!

I'd actually really like to know this too. I'm thinking of taking the Molecular Bio and Genetics Specialization, but is physio better? Or is there no difference? (I think both degrees do cover med school pre-reqs, or at least, m. bio & genetics does!)

that seems pretty interesting! Genetics, from what I've done so far (which I'm sure is not even scratching the surface) really intrigued me. What electives did you take first year?

btw, nice quote, haha