Originally Posted by LauraV

As someone who goes to McMaster, I would 100% say go to Mac. Obviously choose the school that is best for you, but McMaster is an AMAZING school both academically and socially. Its smaller than Western so you get the opportunity to connect with people more so than you would at Western. McMaster's campus is BEAUTIFUL and is compact enough that walks between classes never go above 10 minutes, while Western can take 25-30 minutes. The people at McMaster are great and are so helpful. Everyone wants you to succeed here! Obviously choose the program that is best for you, but McMaster Life Sci is an incredible program and there are so many areas that you can go into. you don't HAVE to specialize after 1st year (I am going into my third year and am only now specializing into Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour.) First year is really building off of high school knowledge and while it CAN be difficult, there is no reason why you can not meet the requirements to stay in Honours Life Sciences, and i can tell you that second year, at least for me, was MUCH EASIER. My average went up significantly. Honestly, go to whatever school you think is the best for you, but i can PROMISE YOU, what you put into Mac, you will get back 10-fold. Some people don't get involved and only focus on one aspect of the university, and don't even realize what Mac really has to offer. I was literally in the same position as you, choosing between those two programs, and I chose Mac. No regrets whatsoever

My god. What are you on? "What you put into Mac,you will get back 10-fold" applies to any school and not just Mac.

These threads asking people where they go to are kinda stupid. There isn't much to the whole decision process except looking at the courses you will have to take each year, the electives that you have, and visiting the campus and the city to get a feeling. But of course, people complicate things and make it seem like there is a science to all of the decision making process.

As someone who goes to McMaster,
Don't go to McMaster.

Everything is old and falling apart. The undergrad professors are extremely lazy. Just to give you an example, we barely have a working past exams bank. You know why its barely working? Because the professors keep their past exams hidden so that they can reuse questions and don't have to think of new one. UoW on the other hand, like many modern Universities, have a proper working past exams bank (UoT especially is amazing, they give you like 10+ years past exams).

Equipment at the libraries and labs are extremely dated. Western is known as a party school because students actually find their time there enjoyable unlike the decaying Mac.

Speaking of libraries, we have one of the worst. Good luck finding a usable space to study for your exam. They had to start using restaurants on campus as study space. The actual contents of libraries are laughable too. They do not stock the latest textbooks so you don't even have the option of obtaining one as a reference. Schools that has money always have a copy at hand, regardless of edition.

Oh, I forgot how horrible our course registration system is. Have fun waiting for the page to refresh just to be greeted with unresponsive webpage.

We do have MSAF though, which is the best part of McMaster.
You can use it magically make all tests and assignments disappear for a week. Seriously, that's suicide prevention right there.

Originally Posted by Freija

We do have MSAF though, which is the best part of McMaster.
You can use it magically make all tests and assignments disappear for a week. Seriously, that's suicide prevention right there.

McMaster is pretty lenient on students who performs poorly through MSAF and reinstatements. Other Universities won't re-accept you at all if you fail out of their program, and yet McMaster are willing to open up the arms and hug you back.

What does that say about McMaster? Pretty badly, look through the forum and you will see many rejects asking help on how to get back to their program, or stay in due to poor marks. Do you want these type of students to be your colleagues?

MSAF is useful but every single University has their own method of granting academic reliefs. My friend at Western never had a problem obtaining one, just have to get a doctor note. Might as well get used to the standard process of obtaining documentations to support your reason.

Can I vote twice for Western? Registrations is coming up. I'm definitely not going to miss SOLAR. Shitty On-Line Academic Registration system.

Who needs documentation when you have ~*~MSAF~*~

MSAF is love, MSAF is life.

I just realize that Nabeel is a brown name. McMaster has become a brown school lately due to a lot of students from Brampton/Mississauga region going here. If you like to socialize with people of similar culture, then I guess that is a advance of going to McMaster over Western (which is predominately white/chinese).

I think SOLAR alone would be a good enough reason to go to Western, the course selection is not only painful but often you do not even get the elective courses you want. The biology department here is so disorganized that sometimes the exam questions could be wrong and you will be overshadowed by the health science students here who receive better opportunities, more fundings, better marks and are generally much closer to each other and their faculty members than life sciences students.
Personally, I do not find first year hard at all, but it is clearly a fact that UWO biomed students get into medical schools more often than mac students.

^i dont even get why health sci is still a program

Originally Posted by Silver

^i dont even get why health sci is still a program

cash grab. 3000 applicants a year...multiplied by I think $43 per application.

Mac is really nothing without the health sci program. The only thing going for it by that point would be the med school.

Originally Posted by Phoneup

cash grab. 3000 applicants a year...multiplied by I think $43 per application.

Mac is really nothing without the health sci program. The only thing going for it by that point would be the med school.

oh i get that. i just meant that its a joke of a program lol.

Originally Posted by Silver

oh i get that. i just meant that its a joke of a program lol.

Health science purpose is to be premed. It does a pretty good job so far. Anything before medical school is a joke anyway, who the hell care. Just go in, get your marks and network so you can get into med school. I think you just hate the program caused you didn't get in. If its life science though, then you can go anywhere but here and probably get the same education. Gluck

Originally Posted by jenrox

Health science purpose is to be premed. It does a pretty good job so far. Anything before medical school is a joke anyway, who the hell care. Just go in, get your marks and network so you can get into med school. I think you just hate the program caused you didn't get in. If its life science though, then you can go anywhere but here and probably get the same education. Gluck

baller deduction skills

Originally Posted by jenrox

Health science purpose is to be premed. It does a pretty good job so far. Anything before medical school is a joke anyway, who the hell care. Just go in, get your marks and network so you can get into med school. I think you just hate the program caused you didn't get in. If its life science though, then you can go anywhere but here and probably get the same education. Gluck

rant rant rant rant

Apologies for late reply. I did H.Biology here at Mac. I know people who finished their UWO Med sci degrees and are in medical school currently. Anecdotally speaking, UWO seems to prepare you more for medical school because it is geared to be a pre-medical program. You sometimes have the same basic science professors as those in faculty of medicine and cover a wider background. In general, they were more prepared for medical school. Two things, though. ONE, this is based on my experience. I picked and chose my courses here. It is likely that I could have simulated UWO med sci if I wanted to here at Mac though I don't have enough knowledge to say that. SECOND, while the background prepares you, medical schools don't care about your degree. Any edge you will have from your undergrad will only come into play early into medical school. Then, you will move on to more clinical things and it is a whole different game from there on. I can't comment on the difficulty of either university. I think McMaster might be more flexible, but that also means you have to be more careful when choosing. I would suggest that you do your research. Pick a specialization that interests you at Mac and compare it with what UWO has to offer. In the end, you are the best judge. Good luck!