Hi dr. Jay, i read almost all of your posts. I'm a grade 12 high school student. I have a very high passion and interest in biology and more specifically working with human body. I mean like biology/ chrmistry is something that i love a lot, i cant explain it in words. I got admissions from a few universities. And i finally decided to choose york kinesiology which i found out is easier to get a higher GPA, even though getting a higher GPA depends on how hard you work and how much passion you have towards what ur doing. What courses do you recommend me to take for the first year? Other than chem/ bio/ physics. I dont want the first year to be so much stressful. What other more like fun courses should i take, i know medicine is a serious career but i want to have something fun to do beside all those courses, where do you recommend me to do volunteering? I also have a lot of aknowledge about evolution. I have begun doing extensive research regarding evolution as i believe there is someone controlling all the changes that occur in nature. May that be useful gor university? I am also writing a book related to my research ( with the help of one my friends), would that be fosidered as a research, i know it sounds kind of funny for a grade 12 to be doung such stuff.

I think it's great you are taking a lot of initiative in your own learning and writing a book - that's really cool.

Honestly, it's hard for me to tell you what courses to take beyond the ones you already mentioned. What will you find fun? It's hard for me to guess - what I think is fun may not be the same as you. Do you like writing? Music? Psychology? Economics? There are so many interesting courses in university, you really just need to reflect on what you personally find interesting. I assure you there is some course that fits your personality.

As for volunteering, I would try to get some leadership opportunities in things that interest you. And also something at a hospital or health care institution to give you a better understanding of health care.

I've written articles about this too on my blog, I can't link them, but I would check those out. I just don't want to copy and paste long articles from there onto here, but we've written a lot about your questions on the blog.

No problem :)

The MCAT consists of reading. However, it will no longer have a writing portion starting this year ("The largest changes will consist of testing in biochemistry, multicultural/behavioral concepts, and critical analysis/reasoning from the humanities.")

Taking English in university is by no means necessary. Would taking some arts courses help you with verbal reasoning section on the MCAT? Sure I guess. But most students in science don't take any English and do OK. It really depends on how comfortable you are with reading comprehension.

As for your question about the Kin courses, that will help with the physiology questions on the MCAT, but the MCAT still covers core biology concepts (e.g. biochemistry) that you would learn in a regular biology course. You don't "have" to take biology, but certainly taking it will make the MCAT a bit easier for you. You can always just study the biology on your own.

Hi Dr. Jay

I had another question on behalf of my friend as he wasnt fimiliar with the website but he wanted to know your opinion. He has been admitted to U of T= Life sciences, Western: kinesiology/Health sciences, York: kinesiology/Biomedical Sciences, And McMaster Lifescinces.
Which university do you think could be the best option for him? He wants to get a high GPA and get well-prepared for the MCAT.

It's not really a question I can accurately answer. They will all provide the courses that will help for the MCAT.

Anecdotally UofT sounds like it would be harder, but I have no evidence to back that up. If anecdotes are enough to sway him, then I guess he could avoid UofT. I would guess the other 3 are pretty similar though I don't really know. Among the other 3, I'd pick the ones where he thinks he'll enjoy the location and campus life the most.

Hey DrJay quick question..so after a lot of thinkingg ive decided to do business instead of science but i was just wondering if maybe 3 or 4 years down the road i wanna apply to med school...what exactly are my chances of doing well on the mcat if i also take the prep course? since i really wudnt have any uni knowledge on science courses (other than what i learned in high school) how many ppl do u know actually get into med school with degrees not related to science at all? thanks!

So its all about GPA right?

A 3.8 in york humanties will get me into med school over a 3.7 in uoft Eng Sci?

Hey Dr Jay

I know I've read on many forums that universities only care about GPA and not your schools rep or the difficulty of the degree, but it just doesn't make logical sense that someone with a 3.9 in, say a music degree who took bird course electives at a small name university could get in to med school over an engineering student from a big name school with a 3.7 GPA.

Is there any universities that take difficulty of the undergrad into consideration, or that weigh your acceptance heavily on the MCAT?

I'm just wondering because I've decided to do chem engineering and I'm slowly seeing my hopes of med school drift away because of how difficult it is to even have a GPA above 3.0.

How could you objectively decide that a music degree at X university is easier than an engineering degree at Y university? In fact, chances are if the students switched places, they would both do quite poorly. Therein lies the problem: it is difficult to objectively decide whether one program is "harder" than another. As such, it is easier for medical schools to just say the absolute value of the GPA matters most.

UofT prides itself on having a hollistic approach to the application, so perhaps they will look more into which courses you took, but there is no publicly available information how they take courses/program into account.

Hey Dr Jay,

Are you a founder of any groups or clubs? I know that I am going to need to have lots of ec's but I'm worried because forming a group or club is something that I feel that I just can't do.

Also, do you know if physics is a prerequisite for any med school in Ontario?

Thanks!