Wow.. I haven't been on this website since forever.. and the minute I log back in I see this thread! As an alumni.. all I can say is that McMaster is one of the best schools I have been to. I can't say anything but that the best years of my life were spent there! I met awesome people and it really helped me become a better, more mature person. I am so thankful for McMaster and I would still pick McMaster over all the other schools that accepted me back in 2009! (and yes that includes UWO, UofT and all the other "big" schools) Hamilton is way too cute and close to everything! London is gross during the winter!

PM me (hopefully I get an email notification..) if you have any questions!

Wow so much hate on Mac. I've been to both Mac and Western (4 years of Kin at mac with Biochem minor and 1 year so far of med school at Western)

1) Both universities seem to have some deferred maintenance needs and both seem to have a mix of older and newer facilities. I will say that I prefer Thode and Health Sci library at Mac over Taylor and Weldon libraries at Western. (I'm fortunate to be able to avoid the later for the most part because Meds and Dents have a lot of our own facilities).

2) Medical Sci at Western is more of a comparison to Health Science at mac in terms of subject matter. Life Sci is oriented more towards the biology side of things. I would look at what specializations and majors you can do out of each and what sort of courses you think would appeal to you.

3) Prestige and all that doesn't matter when it comes to med school admissions. Get as high of a GPA as you possibly can, get an MCAT comfortably above any med school cut offs, volunteer your butt off and try and get a publication or research experience. Then prep for your interviews. That's what it takes to get into med school. It's not your program (unless it provides you with more or less opportunities to do the above).

4) Western certainly has more of a reputation as a party school. That said you can have a lot of fun at mac as well. I would suspect that the biggest limitation on your partying would be having to dedicate time to make yourself a good candidate.

5) Recreation facilitates are nicer and larger at Western but just as crowded (if not more so)

Hope this helps.