Okay, so I was just doing some research and I found out that compared to Canada and the US other countries are so flexible when it comes to degrees.
So what I mean by that is, once you've done BSc life scii in Canada.. you aren't left with that many options. It's almost like do or die.
I am graduating from Bsc Life Sci (honours) and if I don't end up going to med school then I have an option of doing masters in limited areas (which don't interest me). But then if I decide that I wanna do something else like Neuroscience.. I'd have to go back to university and re-do my bachelors in Neuroscience and then apply for a masters program in neuroscience and so on.
But with other places such as the UK, you can easily go for a post-graduate diploma or masters in neuroscience/microbiology etc straight from Bsc Life Science.

Why is it so inflexible in Canada? I don't get that :S It gets annoying, especially when "people" don't tell you the whole picture of university and EXACTLY what you're getting into. I have heard atleast 30 life science students complain about their future (no exaggeration there!)
I honestly wish things weren't so stiff here!

We just have different standards, I guess. :shrugs: Don't you love being Canadian? Srs. I love being Canadian.

I don't really know the answer to your question (I'm wondering why as well...) but when I was deciding on what program I should go into inmy second year, most people gave me the same advice.

"If you want to go into a professional school, go into Honours Life Science. If you want to do a Master's go into a more specific program."

^Not sure how true this is but its what most upper years told me.

BTW what were the limited Master's that you could go into?

I've always thought that a Life Science Degree is very generic and basically a gateway to Medical School, Pharmacy, Optometry etc..

They seem to be useless without any grad studies. I think you can go into teaching or research after acquiring a B.Sc

Originally Posted by doppelganger

I don't really know the answer to your question (I'm wondering why as well...) but when I was deciding on what program I should go into inmy second year, most people gave me the same advice.

"If you want to go into a professional school, go into Honours Life Science. If you want to do a Master's go into a more specific program."

^Not sure how true this is but its what most upper years told me.

BTW what were the limited Master's that you could go into?

That's not completely true. You can get into a professional school with ANY degree, as long as you score good on LSAT, MCAT etc.
and ofcourse have a high cGPA. Program doesn't really matter.

I was told the same thing when I was getting into university, that IF YOU WANNA GO TO MEDSCHOOL APPLY FOR LIFE SCIENCE AND HEALTH SCIENCE.. they almost made it seem as if with any other degree you wont get in. I don't get why there's no clarity. It's a waste of time and money esp if 17/18 year olds are basing their future on some false advice. Plus how many people actually wanna go to medschool by the time they're in 3rd year for one reason or the other. I am still gonna apply for medschool but I am much more interested in other stuffl.. but inorder to do masters in something specific.. i have to drag my ass back to undergrad and spend another 2/3 years there!

Originally Posted by doppelganger

I don't really know the answer to your question (I'm wondering why as well...) but when I was deciding on what program I should go into inmy second year, most people gave me the same advice.

"If you want to go into a professional school, go into Honours Life Science. If you want to do a Master's go into a more specific program."

^Not sure how true this is but its what most upper years told me.

BTW what were the limited Master's that you could go into?

That's such a terrible advice. It's true you'll have more electives but would you choose Life Science as your back up to professional school? Even before university I planned on going to professional school, however I choose to get into genetics because it interests me. If I don't get into professional school I have my back up plan ready. Sure it takes a lot of work to get good grades but that's all it is, work. The question is, did I limit myself to getting into professional school? I really doubt it. I applied to Waterloo at the beginning of third year just for the hell of it. I managed to get an interview and ended up less than 10th on the contingency list. So I was pretty close, not to mention that every year they have <10% of their entrants who don't have a degree (which I would have been).

So, do what you want to do and put in the work.

Originally Posted by xFLY

I've always thought that a Life Science Degree is very generic and basically a gateway to Medical School, Pharmacy, Optometry etc..

They seem to be useless without any grad studies. I think you can go into teaching or research after acquiring a B.Sc

I would if I was even slightly interested in one of those. I can't picture myself doing that stuff for even the next 5 years. And the stuff that I wanna do.. they require specific degrees so w.e the case, I'd have to go back to doing bachelors in w.e that is i am interested in OR Medschool ofcourse!

It's almost like ..you wasted 4 years!

Originally Posted by ishk33

That's not completely true. You can get into a professional school with ANY degree, as long as you score good on LSAT, MCAT etc.
and ofcourse have a high cGPA. Program doesn't really matter.

I was told the same thing when I was getting into university, that IF YOU WANNA GO TO MEDSCHOOL APPLY FOR LIFE SCIENCE AND HEALTH SCIENCE.. they almost made it seem as if with any other degree you wont get in. I don't get why there's no clarity. It's a waste of time and money esp if 17/18 year olds are basing their future on some false advice. Plus how many people actually wanna go to medschool by the time they're in 3rd year for one reason or the other. I am still gonna apply for medschool but I am much more interested in other stuffl.. but inorder to do masters in something specific.. i have to drag my ass back to undergrad and spend another 2/3 years there!

Well, to keep your options for med school open you should go into life science in first year. You don't have to STAY in life science though. But it'll be a lot easier to get all the prerequisites for med schools in the States. Although if you REALLY wanted to go to Med School but was more interested in Humanities or Social Sciences, I'm sure you would put in the time to figure out how to get all your prerequisites done.

Originally Posted by jhan523

That's such a terrible advice. It's true you'll have more electives but would you choose Life Science as your back up to professional school? Even before university I planned on going to professional school, however I choose to get into genetics because it interests me. If I don't get into professional school I have my back up plan ready. Sure it takes a lot of work to get good grades but that's all it is, work. The question is, did I limit myself to getting into professional school? I really doubt it. I applied to Waterloo at the beginning of third year just for the hell of it. I managed to get an interview and ended up less than 10th on the contingency list. So I was pretty close, not to mention that every year they have <10% of their entrants who don't have a degree (which I would have been).

So, do what you want to do and put in the work.

THAT IS SOOO TRUE! I honestly wish someone told me this when I was graduating from highschool OR even in first year. Why don't we get any clarity from counselors? It's their job! All I've ever really gotten from a counselor is "how many courses I need to do for the semester/year TO GRADUATE" -_-

...like really?

Originally Posted by ishk33

THAT IS SOOO TRUE! I honestly wish someone told me this when I was graduating from highschool OR even in first year. Why don't we get any clarity from counselors? It's their job! All I've ever really gotten from a counselor is "how many courses I need to do for the semester/year TO GRADUATE" -_-

...like really?

i dont get why you're blaming other people....i dont understand why you expect someone to spoon feed you about your future.... It is your job to research what you are getting yourself into and to talk to as many people as possibly about courses and programs...

I am not blaming anyone. All i am saying is that there are a bunch of people who are getting paid for nothing! Why are there even counselors? We can all just do our own research

Plus i am now least concerned with what happened.. This is why i looked at other options and moved on. I was just curious as to why canada has to be so stiff with everything.

Originally Posted by ishk33

I am not blaming anyone. All i am saying is that there are a bunch of people who are getting paid for nothing! Why are there even counselors? We can all just do our own research

Plus i am now least concerned with what happened.. This is why i looked at other options and moved on. I was just curious as to why canada has to be so stiff with everything.

Some people just don't do their research :\ Just look around...

Maybe it's just the schools you checked out. All the Master's programs I've looked into, I can apply for with just a few pre-req courses required for each, or even none at all. I never really ran into this problem. Have you checked out different schools. Also, I'm not sure what schools you looked into, but all the ones I've seen so far have Neuroscience as a collaborative program taken in conjuction with another topic e.g. Molecular Bio , or Physiology, etc. Besides that, you just need some background in the discipline, i.e. some intro courses and just pure interest in the subject matter. Overall though, I think you just need to do a little more research. I know some programs are a little restricted in Canada, but I don't think it's really that bad at all. I mean, I have yet to see a grad/professional program that requires a specific undergrad degree and that itself is really an advantage.
For e.g. Dalhousie's NeuroSci. http://neuroscience.dal.ca/neuro_3042.html
Western: http://neuroscience.mcmaster .ca/Gr...icatio n.html
Just to name a few...
Also, here's a link to other NeuroSci grad programs: http://www.canadian-universities.net...sc ience.html

Originally Posted by jhan523

So, do what you want to do and put in the work.

really good advice !!!

Originally Posted by ishk33

Okay, so I was just doing some research and I found out that compared to Canada and the US other countries are so flexible when it comes to degrees.
So what I mean by that is, once you've done BSc life scii in Canada.. you aren't left with that many options. It's almost like do or die.
I am graduating from Bsc Life Sci (honours) and if I don't end up going to med school then I have an option of doing masters in limited areas (which don't interest me). But then if I decide that I wanna do something else like Neuroscience.. I'd have to go back to university and re-do my bachelors in Neuroscience and then apply for a masters program in neuroscience and so on.
But with other places such as the UK, you can easily go for a post-graduate diploma or masters in neuroscience/microbiology etc straight from Bsc Life Science.

Why is it so inflexible in Canada? I don't get that :S It gets annoying, especially when "people" don't tell you the whole picture of university and EXACTLY what you're getting into. I have heard atleast 30 life science students complain about their future (no exaggeration there!)
I honestly wish things weren't so stiff here!

Have you looked into mac's med sci grad program?

http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/medsci/

They say you need a strong background in biological sciences, but that is easily done with a degree in life sci, or better yet you could just do an honors bio degree which is not much different from life sci anyway.

also you might want to look into course based masters programs, these are a good way to give yourself an edge when applying to med schools (esp uoft).