Rejects ‘r us
One student’s story about not getting into his dream program
Microscopes. Lab coats. Dead bodies. What’s not to love? Yes, I’m talking about the perfect pre-med program—in this case, health sciences at McMaster University.
In my last year of high school, when filling out university applications, health sciences at McMaster seemed like a perfect fit. I knew that after my undergraduate degree, I wanted to study medicine, and McMaster’s program has all the prerequisites built in. It gives students lab experience, and it’s focused on biology, my favourite subject area.
The more I read about the program, the more I wanted in. Health sciences at McMaster was my first-choice program. But I knew the odds. A minimum 90 per cent average is required for consideration, but in order to be competitive you need to be in the low 90s at the very least.
Med schools across Canada claim they’ll consider any undergraduate degree—meaning, it doesn’t matter if you have a degree in biology, anthropology, engineering or drama. It’s your GPA that really counts. Most med schools still have prerequisite courses, like organic chemistry, microbiology and physics. You can apply to med school with a music degree, but you still need to have all of those mandatory courses. The beauty of McMaster’s health sciences: after completing the program, you have all the necessary prerequisites to apply to any med school across Canada.
Oh, there’s also the fact that Mac students get to experiment with cadavers. Seriously.
A 90+ average isn’t the only thing you need to get in. There’s also the mandatory supplementary application—essays and personal questions, including a few, well, odd ones. One asks, “What’s one extracurricular activity that’s important to your sense of self and why?” There’s only one thing worse than a meandering, open-ended, self-exploration kind of question like that. And that’s question No. 2: “What is the one question that shouldn’t be asked and why?” (I knew instinctively not to write, “Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour?”)
Unlike with real estate, when it comes to choosing a university, location isn’t the most important criteria. Sure, it matters. But when I decided health sciences at McMaster was my first-choice program, it wasn’t because it had the most convenient location. After all, I live within 15 minutes of the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier. But health sciences at McMaster was still number one. It was meant to be.
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While it’s true that many in Mac Health Sciences go on to med school, it’s of course not any kind of guarantee. It sounds like you’ve done well for your experience so far. At the risk of sounding like Calvin’s dad, a “failure” such as this builds character. And, of course, marks, MCAT, extracurriculars, and the interview matter way more than the particular program when it comes to med admissions. Enjoy undergrad for the time being – the cadavers will come in time and they get old pretty quick. Formalin is not one of the more pleasant smells around.
Anyway, as the song says, you can’t always get what you want, but it sounds like you got what you needed.
I found it odd that you did not mention the integrative and interdisciplinary approach, the promotion of self-directed, problem-based “inquiry” learning, small class size, etc., which are the real strengths of the BHSc program at McMaster.
When you write “It gives students lab experience, and it’s focused on biology, my favourite subject area.”, you seem to be describing any life sciences or biology program. In the Health Sciences program at McMaster, there is a distinct focus on health, wellness, and illness, in HTHSCI courses, rather than biology or chemistry.
One more thing: “…after completing the program, you have all the necessary prerequisites to apply to any med school across Canada.” In fact, many prerequisite courses for medical schools such as organic chemistry, biochemistry, physics, and English, are not part of the McMaster Health Sciences curriculum, and have to be taken as electives.
maybe now you can learn how to be a good writer. thanks for that non-meaningful tip. “i really wanted university A and i got university B”. well there is an epic story of hardship and character building if i ever heard one! did i mention how heartwrenching and compelling it was? thank you writers at uwaterloo.ca for teaching me what it means to feel once again!!
It’s only been a few years since you went through the application process, so it is still a bit fresh. Hopefully you have also come to appreciate that first and foremost an undergraduate degree is about getting intellectual training and developing critical thinking skills. It is not primarily intended as a prerequisite for training in trade school (i.e., medical school). Really, all Canadian universities are quite equivalent, we are lucky that we do not have the hierarchy that there is in the US or the UK. Your life (and education) are what you make them. AND there is MUCH more to life than being a doctor or experimenting on cadavers.
In the health sciences program, you don’t “experiment” on cadavers. You study specimens that are already prosected. So, you observe them.
Mac isn’t the be-all-end-all that the author made it seem. He completely neglected to mention the University of Guelph’s undergrad Human Kinetics program. I just completed the Anatomy class last year in which I dissected a cadaver along with my group members. There are also many pre-med courses available. And it’s possible to get in to the program without a 90 average.
Guelph is an amazing school in a beautiful community that close enough to Toronto to make commuting possible and far away enough to separate ourselves from all the negative big city qualities.
Guelph’s Biomed, Human Kinetics, and Nutritional Sciences programs are outstanding and definitely worth looking into if you have any desire to go into the medical field. You will undoubtably be exposed to all aspects of a pre-medical education, don’t be mislead by all our other amazing biology programs (vet, molecular genetics, developmental biology and zoology), just because there’s isn’t a Med school here doesn’t mean we can’t compete with other Med schools.
Again! Can’t you find a webpage designer who’s not apostrophe challenged? On your home page the title of this EDUCATION piece reads “One students story …”
Sorry about that. It’s not the home page, it’s the front page of the Macleans.ca Storyline Newsletter.