Hello everyone,
I have been reading some of the posts and replies and I have to say that I am glad that I found this community. I have some questions regarding the process and the options that are open to me, so hopefully there will be someone here that can answer them.
I am currently a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at McGill. I have two undergraduate degrees (one in Math and the other in Aerospace Engineering) and a MASc degree. I should finish my PhD by the end of 2009 and I would like to go into medicine as soon as possible after that. My current problem is that I still need to take a few of the courses that are required. Since I am a PhD student my school will not let me take introductory undergraduate courses (I am missing the Biology, and Organic Chemistry requirements) and I do not know of a place in Montreal where I can take these courses unless I am enrolled in a full-time degree program. I have the advantage of a very flexible schedule so I could take one course every term starting now until the time that I graduate with my PhD for a total of 4 terms. I just can’t seem to find information of WHERE I can do that.
Any ideas? Has anyone been in a similar situation?
Sorry about the long post, and thanks in advanced for the suggestions.
Cheers!
Welcome!! Nice to hear from someone else in Canada. A couple of questions:
- As you are going to school in Montreal, do you speak French? I know McGill is English, but I believe all the other Univerisities are French.
- Are you applying to just Canadian schools or US schools as well?
Lynda
- LJSimpson Said:
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Lynda
From what I remember, even though McGill is English one ultimately has to learn French to survive in Quebec. It can be very hampering if sticks to English only.
Hey Lynda,
Thanks for the quick reply. My French is average and it is getting better. I am originally from South America so I speak Spanish and that makes learning French much easier.
I plan to apply to several schools in Canada, and I have not decided if I would apply to places in the US. Although I don’t think I ultimately will.
I did find out today that I can take some courses in CEGEPs in Montreal without too much trouble, but does anyone know if these courses are accepted by the med schools? I am not sure it is clear to me exactly what the deal is with this.
Thanks again!
I would check in with a few Canadian Med Schools about CGEP courses. I was also going to suggest if you are looking at Canadian Med Schools to really do some digging. I have found that the Canadian schools are quite different in that they don’t necessarily look at the GPA for all years, some give “credit” for grad school and virtually none of them require “retaking old science credits” although that may be a good idea to prepare for the MCAT. Unfortunately a lot of the schools here do have very limited quotas for out of province students. For the Ontario schools there is a central application service. Check out their website (www.ouac.on.ca/omsas/). Also look at the OMSAS Instruction Booklet as it gives a good overview of the ON med schools and what their selection criteria are. I also ordered “The Black Book on Canadian Medical Schools” from Chapters/Indigo. It gives a pretty good overview of all Canadian shcools but you should back it up with research on the web and by trying to talk to the admissions offices (although many are not too helpful). If you can be considered bilingual, U of Ottawa might be an option.
Lynda
http://www.premed101.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f…
At the risk of losing you to another website, there is one that appears to have a fairly large thread not-trads in canada. I looked into this a few years ago with a french woman who was planning to move to montreal and we kind of ran into a wall. Should be at least a few people on the above thread who can help point you in some general direction on this.
Keep us informed