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Hughsam wrote:accepted with a 95.3 or something like that :P
trying so hard to decide between mac health or mac life D: or western biomed with AEO
any advice from current healthscis?
i love writing and researching and presenting to an extent, and absolutely dont mind subjectivity (english was my favorite class), but im not extremely confident of my ability to succeed in the program :/ med school isnt my dream, but some sort of graduate program is... agh so confused
You definitely don't have to be a pre-med wannabe to fit in. Med school was never my dream either but I felt at ease with all the other pre-meds. If anything, it made me feel more comfortable because I was in an environment where everyone was similar in terms of work ethic/high standards, but I wasn't in direct competition with any of them since I had no intention of applying to med school. There are health scis who want to be speech pathologists, dentists, optometrists, professors, PT/OTs, go to grad school/public health/epidemiology etc. lesson1 wrote:also,, how does suite-style rooming work? is each suite all girls / all guys, or co-ed? Each suite is same sex (all girls/guys) but the floors are co-ed (ie. will have both all girls and all guys suites). McMaster Bachelor of Health Sciences 2011
U of Guelph-OVC Doctor of Veterinary Medicine 2015
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Rank: Senior Student  Joined: 1/27/2011 Posts: 131
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I just came back from May at Mac. To summarize what happened... A tour guide showed us around the Health Sciences building and the MGCL (centre for learning/discovery - the glass building). Most Health Sciences courses will take place there. We also saw some microbiology labs and got a general idea of where lectures/group meetings will take place. After that, we went to a presentation by the assistant dean of Health Sciences (Del). I thought this was very insightful. He basically explained the learning philosophy of Health Sciences. He started by distributing a series of virology books/journals around the room. He asked people to flip through them and see how dense the material was. His point was that a LOT new material on virology is released on a regular basis, and it's almost impossible to keep up with it. So the philosophy of health sciences isn't necessarily to learn as much knowledge as possible but to learn how to think about and apply that knowledge...I guess. He also talked about a experiment where a class of 3000 was tested on material at the end of the course. Class average on the exam was 68%. Then they were tested three months later and the class average dropped to 40%. So to him there isn't much point in trying to accumulate as much knowledge as possible because you'll eventually forget a lot of it. He also mentioned that marks aren't significant in Health Sci simply because people learn better when they are given feedback without being given a mark (very interesting). I can't remember much more key things but overall the presentation was really interesting. I for sure want to go now :P. Bachelor of Health Sciences '16
McMaster University
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Rank: Senior Student  Joined: 1/27/2011 Posts: 218
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CyanicSparrow wrote:I just came back from May at Mac. To summarize what happened...
A tour guide showed us around the Health Sciences building and the MGCL (centre for learning/discovery - the glass building). Most Health Sciences courses will take place there. We also saw some microbiology labs and got a general idea of where lectures/group meetings will take place.
After that, we went to a presentation by the assistant dean of Health Sciences (Del). I thought this was very insightful.
He basically explained the learning philosophy of Health Sciences. He started by distributing a series of virology books/journals around the room. He asked people to flip through them and see how dense the material was. His point was that a LOT new material on virology is released on a regular basis, and it's almost impossible to keep up with it. So the philosophy of health sciences isn't necessarily to learn as much knowledge as possible but to learn how to think about and apply that knowledge...I guess.
He also talked about a experiment where a class of 3000 was tested on material at the end of the course. Class average on the exam was 68%. Then they were tested three months later and the class average dropped to 40%. So to him there isn't much point in trying to accumulate as much knowledge as possible because you'll eventually forget a lot of it. He also mentioned that marks aren't significant in Health Sci simply because people learn better when they are given feedback without being given a mark (very interesting).
I can't remember much more key things but overall the presentation was really interesting. I for sure want to go now :P.
MDCL** :P McMaster University Bachelor of Health Sciences 2015
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Rank: Senior Student Joined: 1/27/2011 Posts: 131
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futuredoc wrote:CyanicSparrow wrote:I just came back from May at Mac. To summarize what happened...
A tour guide showed us around the Health Sciences building and the MGCL (centre for learning/discovery - the glass building). Most Health Sciences courses will take place there. We also saw some microbiology labs and got a general idea of where lectures/group meetings will take place.
After that, we went to a presentation by the assistant dean of Health Sciences (Del). I thought this was very insightful.
He basically explained the learning philosophy of Health Sciences. He started by distributing a series of virology books/journals around the room. He asked people to flip through them and see how dense the material was. His point was that a LOT new material on virology is released on a regular basis, and it's almost impossible to keep up with it. So the philosophy of health sciences isn't necessarily to learn as much knowledge as possible but to learn how to think about and apply that knowledge...I guess.
He also talked about a experiment where a class of 3000 was tested on material at the end of the course. Class average on the exam was 68%. Then they were tested three months later and the class average dropped to 40%. So to him there isn't much point in trying to accumulate as much knowledge as possible because you'll eventually forget a lot of it. He also mentioned that marks aren't significant in Health Sci simply because people learn better when they are given feedback without being given a mark (very interesting).
I can't remember much more key things but overall the presentation was really interesting. I for sure want to go now :P.
MDCL** :P Oops. For those interested, 3000 people applied and 2400 made the 90% cutoff. And nobody got 7/7 on their essay (Del talked about the ranking system). Bachelor of Health Sciences '16
McMaster University
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Rank: Frosh
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CyanicSparrow wrote:futuredoc wrote:CyanicSparrow wrote:I just came back from May at Mac. To summarize what happened...
A tour guide showed us around the Health Sciences building and the MGCL (centre for learning/discovery - the glass building). Most Health Sciences courses will take place there. We also saw some microbiology labs and got a general idea of where lectures/group meetings will take place.
After that, we went to a presentation by the assistant dean of Health Sciences (Del). I thought this was very insightful.
He basically explained the learning philosophy of Health Sciences. He started by distributing a series of virology books/journals around the room. He asked people to flip through them and see how dense the material was. His point was that a LOT new material on virology is released on a regular basis, and it's almost impossible to keep up with it. So the philosophy of health sciences isn't necessarily to learn as much knowledge as possible but to learn how to think about and apply that knowledge...I guess.
He also talked about a experiment where a class of 3000 was tested on material at the end of the course. Class average on the exam was 68%. Then they were tested three months later and the class average dropped to 40%. So to him there isn't much point in trying to accumulate as much knowledge as possible because you'll eventually forget a lot of it. He also mentioned that marks aren't significant in Health Sci simply because people learn better when they are given feedback without being given a mark (very interesting).
I can't remember much more key things but overall the presentation was really interesting. I for sure want to go now :P.
MDCL** :P Oops. For those interested, 3000 people applied and 2400 made the 90% cutoff. And nobody got 7/7 on their essay (Del talked about the ranking system). I think they should raise the cut off to 95 so that less people can take part in the lottery. Come on, if you don't even get 95, you don't deserve to get a ticket :D but then the odds would be higher and that would reduce the hype. BTW, looks like Del put on the same show as he did in the fall. He was the one who told us that ECs do not matter but as it turns out, if you weave in a lot of bragging of ECs your are in.
Western BioMed 2016
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Rank: Frosh
Joined: 4/26/2012
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stordz wrote:To my fellow rejects, are any of you going to McGill chemical engineering? Oooooh I'm considering...I kinda want to do Nano at UW, co-op means more opportunities to research and get working experience. But I also want to go to McGill too.. Accepted:
Mcgill Biology, Biomed, LifeSciences group
Mcgill Chem Engineering
UW Nano Engineering
UW LifeSci
UT LifeSci
UWO Bio Med / no SE :'(
Rejected
Mac HealthSci -_-# screw Mac
Deciding between Mcgill and UW Nano...gaaah
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Rank: Senior Student  Joined: 4/24/2011 Posts: 108
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WKHC wrote:
BTW, looks like Del put on the same show as he did in the fall. He was the one who told us that ECs do not matter but as it turns out, if you weave in a lot of bragging of ECs your are in.
Where did you get that idea from? I barely included 2 EC's in all three paragraphs and they were merely backdrops to introduce the situation, not fleshed out completely. I've read many others (who were accepted) where not even a single EC is mentioned McMaster Health Science
Bleeding Blue with the Wolf Pack
Class of 2016
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Rank: Frosh  Joined: 4/24/2011 Posts: 48
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true i can attest to that, i didnt mention a single EC McGill | Biological, Biomedical and Life Sciences
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Rank: Frosh
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Based on what I saw,especially the one that I quoted by accident, which I deleted upon request, her first essay was basically a show off of all her ECs. I guess I should not generalize since it is all "subjective" anyway. BTW Del also said they don't give any consideration to IB students but that is just not right. One girl from our IB class dropped out because she was getting a 69 grade but when she is back to regular grade 12, she was back to the 90s. Just to show much much harder IB program is. But hey, it is HSci so they would just take in anybody over 90 and have a draw :D
Western BioMed 2016
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CyanicSparrow wrote:futuredoc wrote:CyanicSparrow wrote:I just came back from May at Mac. To summarize what happened...
A tour guide showed us around the Health Sciences building and the MGCL (centre for learning/discovery - the glass building). Most Health Sciences courses will take place there. We also saw some microbiology labs and got a general idea of where lectures/group meetings will take place.
After that, we went to a presentation by the assistant dean of Health Sciences (Del). I thought this was very insightful.
He basically explained the learning philosophy of Health Sciences. He started by distributing a series of virology books/journals around the room. He asked people to flip through them and see how dense the material was. His point was that a LOT new material on virology is released on a regular basis, and it's almost impossible to keep up with it. So the philosophy of health sciences isn't necessarily to learn as much knowledge as possible but to learn how to think about and apply that knowledge...I guess.
He also talked about a experiment where a class of 3000 was tested on material at the end of the course. Class average on the exam was 68%. Then they were tested three months later and the class average dropped to 40%. So to him there isn't much point in trying to accumulate as much knowledge as possible because you'll eventually forget a lot of it. He also mentioned that marks aren't significant in Health Sci simply because people learn better when they are given feedback without being given a mark (very interesting).
I can't remember much more key things but overall the presentation was really interesting. I for sure want to go now :P.
MDCL** :P Oops. For those interested, 3000 people applied and 2400 made the 90% cutoff. And nobody got 7/7 on their essay (Del talked about the ranking system). Also, a few more stats from Del's (assuming I heard it correctly): - 230 offers were sent out this year, expecting about 170 to accept - Last year there were 204 accepted the offers - 50%-60% of HSci students went to med schools
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Rank: Student Body President
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WKHC wrote:
BTW Del also said they don't give any consideration to IB students but that is just not right. One girl from our IB class dropped out because she was getting a 69 grade but when she is back to regular grade 12, she was back to the 90s. Just to show much much harder IB program is. But hey, it is HSci so they would just take in anybody over 90 and have a draw :D
Well it wouldn't be fair if IBers were given special consideration and other students weren't because some applicants may not have had the opportunity to go to an IB school. Speaking as an IB graduate btw. McMaster Bachelor of Health Sciences 2011
U of Guelph-OVC Doctor of Veterinary Medicine 2015
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Rank: Senior Student Joined: 4/24/2011 Posts: 108
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WKHC wrote:Based on what I saw,especially the one that I quoted by accident, which I deleted upon request, her first essay was basically a show off of all her ECs. I guess I should not generalize since it is all "subjective" anyway.
Well, the first essay may have been full of EC's, but maybe the second and third were much more thought out and well written. You also have to look at this person's entering top six average - perhaps this person's essay in total got an average of about 5.5/7 but because of a higher top six (which may have broken many ties), he or she got an offer. WKHC wrote:
BTW Del also said they don't give any consideration to IB students but that is just not right. One girl from our IB class dropped out because she was getting a 69 grade but when she is back to regular grade 12, she was back to the 90s. Just to show much much harder IB program is. But hey, it is HSci so they would just take in anybody over 90 and have a draw :D
I'm in the IB program myself, so just my two cents. Yes, pre-IB in grades 9 and 10 (especially grade 11 functions which we had to take in grade 10) could be a little difficult. I remember the class average for the functions class was high sixties/low seventies at one point. However, the reward comes in grade 11/12 when you stick with the program. The final exam for Standard Level math (basically Advanced Functions + Calculus and Vectors put together) is well-known to be relatively easy. If you receive a level 7 (which is the highest mark you can get in IB), and most people I know did, this automatically converts to somewhere between 96-99%. This is where the reward for IB comes in. In the regular academic program, getting a 99 in math is truly difficult (from what I've heard) but many people I know in IB who stuck with the program and worked hard got that 99% - which they may not have gotten if they were in an academic program. So yes, the IB program can hold a heavier workload, but that's not to say that IB's should be given any special consideration because in my opinion they already have a small advantage. Many (that work hard at least) typically have on average, higher marks simply because of the conversion scale. If you look at the highest graduating average for the past couple of years, the student is usually an IB student with a 99%-100% graduating top six average. Not to say that these students don't work hard because they truly spend many hours studying, but I believe the IB program holds many rewards - perhaps even slightly more than a regular academic program - if the student is willing to work and put in the effort. So to give IB students extra consideration on top of their extremely generous conversion scale would be a little unfair - and this is coming from an IB graduate. McMaster Health Science
Bleeding Blue with the Wolf Pack
Class of 2016
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Rank: Senior Student  Joined: 1/28/2012 Posts: 64
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Hey, can anyone explain to me what the group B reduced meal plan is? I know it's only available to keyes and bates students but is the meal plan discounted or do they just give you less food? McMaster Health Science 2016
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Rank: Frosh  Joined: 10/23/2011 Posts: 22
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tonY2dC wrote:stordz wrote:To my fellow rejects, are any of you going to McGill chemical engineering? Oooooh I'm considering...I kinda want to do Nano at UW, co-op means more opportunities to research and get working experience. But I also want to go to McGill too.. I just came back from a McGill presentation and I'm basically convinced. The most students you have in an engineering class would be 200 but that's just first year. Co-op would certainly be worth it too though, but if you do internships through McGill it also pays very well (however you aren't guaranteed it like UW). I still have to wait on Life Science, but even if I get accepted into it I'm pretty sure I'll stick with chemical engineering. If I do decide to apply to grad school and don't get in it is a better fallback than a science degree. McGill University - Chemical Engineering '16
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Rank: Student Body President
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l3asketball wrote:Hey, can anyone explain to me what the group B reduced meal plan is? I know it's only available to keyes and bates students but is the meal plan discounted or do they just give you less food? You just have a lighter meal plan (aka less $ to spend). I don't know what the group B reduced meal plan is now but in 2008 (when I lived in Keyes), I had that meal plan and it was something like $1850 for Sept-April. I highly suggest getting this if you're living in Keyes/Bates, plan on cooking regularly, and/or will be going home regularly on weekends because I pretty much bought lunch on campus M-F and still had lots of money left over in April. I ended up having to buy a bunch of random snacks from the Mini Mac convenience store in Keyes. McMaster Bachelor of Health Sciences 2011
U of Guelph-OVC Doctor of Veterinary Medicine 2015
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@CyanicSparrow
Hey :) what else did they say about the ranking/marking of the applications at May at Mac?
Also - did anyone get in with a repeated prerequisite course/summer school prerequisite course?
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Rank: Frosh
Joined: 5/16/2012
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WKHC wrote:Based on what I saw,especially the one that I quoted by accident, which I deleted upon request, her first essay was basically a show off of all her ECs. I guess I should not generalize since it is all "subjective" anyway.
BTW Del also said they don't give any consideration to IB students but that is just not right. One girl from our IB class dropped out because she was getting a 69 grade but when she is back to regular grade 12, she was back to the 90s. Just to show much much harder IB program is. But hey, it is HSci so they would just take in anybody over 90 and have a draw :D I agree.
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anotherxnight wrote:cuteshorty73 wrote:anotherxnight wrote:
I hate to b!tch about it on here, but I feel like mine and the ones you mentioned's apps actually had substance. I refused to write something that was empty and filled with bs. Ha. My biggest concern was that, considering some of the others I've seen get in, the markers preferred that. This is going to sound awful, but I printscreened somebody who now had gotten in's app and showed them to my friends. My friends are all pretty intelligent(gifted and at UTS) and they all thought they were pretty bad. We all agreed that if that person got in, Mac HSci was a bit bs. So, I dunnnnnno.
Ah. I'm bitter, not gonna lie.
I do agree that your supp app had some substance, but I personally thought it was a bit too pretentious. Maybe the admissions committee thought this as well. Ok. Every single word I used in my supp I use on a regular basis. I wrote like how I spoke. There was one supp that was posted that got in that honestly sounded like they changed every other word with a thesaurus. And even if you thought mine were pretentious, the others mentioned didn't have pretentious supps. Their supps had substance and they still didn't get in. There appears to be some unknow factors that goes into admissions at MAC.
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LJustin wrote:rosegold wrote:Those who got rejected should not feel bad at all. The people on this forum are making healthsci seem like the only program that will prepare its students for med school, but that is honestly not the case. With the way the program is designed, many students who are healthsci graduates and are currently attending medschool actually feel unprepared and ill-trained. Also, McMaster is virtually unknown in the US, so if your plan is to head south for med school, you are FAR better off going to an internationally renowned university like McGill or UofT. Ivy Leagues would much rather accept a student with a lower GPA from McGill than a student with a 4.0 from McMaster...
And anyway, there is something about McMaster that turns me off. There is a sort of exclusivity that surrounds the people in the healthsci program...perhaps it is an air of arrogance, as if getting into healthsci is a guarantee of getting into medschool. Anyway congrats on everyone who got in, I'm sure you deserved it; but to everyone who got rejected, you're seriously better off without the subjectivity.
Please don't think I'm "mad", I got in... I take it you're not going to go? PS: Any relation between your forum name and a Laptop colour ... XDD HealthSci @ MAC is world class!!!! and that is why it is tough to get in. Congrats to those who are in.
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thekelvster wrote:kimmmmp... How did she get rejected?! That supp app was by far the best one I have read!
This stuff is outrageous.
RachDin, yours was well beyond amazing.
anotherxnight's response was also very thought-provoking.
Why can't the admissions people see the potential that we all have. There's something more than just being good at the art of writing or, in some cases, lying or fabricating... Some of us have talents and capabilities that cannot be tested by a mere three paragraphs, hence we are applying to B.HSc and not B.English or B.Art. I felt like this just needed to be said.
And for the record, I have a 97 average, and I got rejected. I think it's safe to say that admission barely has to do with marks. WOW 97% is better than most. So what when wrong in your opinion? I did not get in because of low grades.
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