Course Selection Strategy for Med Hopeful’s

Posted by Joshua
August 15, 2008

There are lots of things to consider when choosing university courses in general. As a student applying to a professional school, however, your strategy for choosing course electives should be much different than say a student who hopes to work right after finishing his undergraduate degree.

Let me preface the article by first saying that there will be students who disagree with my viewpoint on the issue of course selection. I’m going to share with you my opinion on course selection, under the assumption that you are serious about maximize your chances for getting into medical school. If you aren’t, that’s fine, and you may very well disagree with some of my suggestions.

You have to take prerequisite courses for some medical schools

Like with your compulsory courses, some medical schools have prerequisite courses that you must take by the time of your admission to their school. For example, the University of Toronto’s medical school requires: “One of Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; two Life Sciences”.

It is important that you find out what these prerequisite courses are, and make sure you complete them by the end of your application year.

Fortunately, there aren’t too many prerequisite courses in general. Most of them are usually part of the basic science undergraduate program, and tend to overlap with prerequisites of other medical schools. There are also some schools (e.g. McMaster and Western) that do not have any prerequisite courses.

But assuming you are applying to a reasonable number of medical schools, I advise you to fulfill all of the prerequisites.

Let’s face it, your marks matter

There’s really no other way to say it. All medical schools take your GPA into account, whether that be through a cutoff or using your exact GPA in the evaluation process. If you want to maximize your chances of getting into a medical school, then attaining the highest marks you are capable of can only help. Sure a 3.85 is a good GPA, but if you think you can bump it up to a 3.90 with some hard work, why not go for it?

Of course, if you are only planning to apply to medical schools with GPA cutoffs (e.g. Western and Queen’s), then by all means, you may not need to work/study as hard, and your goal is to aim for that 3.7+ (or whatever the cutoff is). But if you’re like me, and you want to be as competitive as possible at all other medical schools as well (where GPA cutoffs are not used), it makes sense to aim for the highest grades possible.

So knowing this, it makes sense to pick courses that you believe you will get the highest marks in. But how do you figure this out?

Pick subjects and professors that match your learning and performance style

Everyone is different, and everyone has their own type of subject they do best in. Much of this is based on what your optimal learning style is, and what evaluation style you tend to prepare best for and perform on.

Personally, I have trouble working hard at things I don’t like to do, and this extends to my study habits. I dislike excessive memorizing so I try to avoid courses that require a lot of rote memorization (e.g. human anatomy, animal biology, history, physical geography, etc.). I am a biology major, and biology courses are especially known for being heavily content/details based. To tackle this, I research all of my courses and possible professors beforehand, and pick the biology courses that I learn are less memorization based.

Conversely, I enjoy thinking and problem solving, so I prefer courses that are more about concepts and less about facts (e.g. chemistry, genetics, mathematics, etc.). Now, you might not be the same way. Maybe you are great at memorizing facts and dislike concept-based courses. Or maybe you are an excellent essay writer. Perhaps you should pick some electives in English or philosophy, where you are primarily marked on essays and assignments. Whatever the case is, choose courses you know fit you best.

In addition, this depends not on just the type of course, but also the professor delivering the course. I know that in my program, there are some biology professors that test heavily on memorization while others test heavily on application and problem solving, even for similar subjects.

There are lots of courses with more than one section and different professors. Talk to other students who have taken those courses. Older students are great resources, and in my experience, are only more than happy to provide advice and share their experiences – just ask! If you find a general consensus that one professor’s teaching style would fit you better, definitely take that into consideration.

Pick courses you know you can ace

In the York University grading system, A+’s (4.0) are given to final course grades of 90-100, and A’s (3.8) are given to final course grades of 80-89. For me, I like to pick courses I know I could potentially ace and get an A+.

Although it also depends on your interests and skill set, aceable courses tend to be those where answers are either right or wrong. So courses evaluated based on multiple choice, calculations, problem-solving, etc. tend to be aceable courses. Conversely, essay-based courses are not aceable (at least not for me) because there is no absolute right or wrong way to write an essay, and thus, evaluation is somewhat subjective.

For example, I took a philosophy course last year. It was my easiest course of the year in terms of workload because it only required one test, one exam, one essay, and showing up for weekly tutorials. It was an easy A but an impossible A+. As a result, I had no motivation to work hard in the course.

You may be placing a disadvantage on your grades by choosing courses that you have almost no shot at acing.

Is it wrong to be choosing courses I will do well in? Shouldn’t I be choosing courses on topics I will enjoy more?

There are many students who say I am wrong, and that would tell you to simply study the topics you enjoy, and worry about the marks later.

It really is my ultimate hope for you that the courses you are most interested in will also be the ones you do best in. Lots of times they are. But lots of times they also aren’t. Personally, I take a heavy biology course load, so it’s nice to have some courses where I don’t need to go full speed ahead.

There are also students who will say: “If you can’t handle a tough course load in undergrad, then you won’t be able to handle medical school.” I don’t want to waste too much time on this, but this type of thinking is illogical. Comparing the content and type of education at undergrad programs to medical school is not fair at all. In addition, from my point of view, preparing for medical school by taking an excessively tough course load, while nice for the ego, doesn’t help if it’s the cause of a less than stellar GPA.

Success is all about adjusting to the situation. Just because you choose not to take an overly tough course load in your undergrad, does not mean you are incapable of adjusting to a tougher course load in medical school.

I love philosophy and think it is super fascinating. I know that I can easily get an A in philosophy with relatively little effort, but that it is nearly impossible for me to get an A+. Subjectivity plays a significant role, and my essay writing is probably not on par with the best writers in the class.

But that’s okay because I can always read and learn about philosophy anywhere outside of university. Just because you aren’t taking a course on a topic, doesn’t mean you can’t learn it at the same level somewhere else for free.

Of course, in the end, it comes down to your values

I’m not saying it’s wrong or right to be more premed strategic in the courses you take. You might value more interesting but much tougher courses. All that matters is you understand how that affects your grades, and thus your probability of getting into medical school in the long term.

Related Posts:

Getting The Grade, Undergrad

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Comments

Hey Joshua, I am a little confused about the whole process of applying to a first year university program. Would it be best for me if I applied to a life science program in order to maximize my chances of getting into med school? In addition, I noted that some universities require additional prerequisites like social studies. Are these included in the Life science program or are they additional courses I can choose?

Comment by Bill on January 29, 2009 @ 7:31 pm

Hey Bill,

Medical schools don’t care which undergraduate program you attend, but the two things that I think are important are: (1) Making sure you can still get all of the prerequisite courses, and (2) Being able to do well academically, so you can have a competitive GPA.

The reason why life sciences is often chosen by students interested in medicine is because the program itself contains a lot of the prerequisites for medical school, such as organic chemistry, biology, etc. That’s not to say you couldn’t try and take those prerequisites as electives within another program.

Prerequisites like social studies, you can take those as elective courses if your program doesn’t require them.

Comment by Joshua on January 29, 2009 @ 9:40 pm

Hey Joshua,

I was wondering, for York, will i get to choose electives from first year? or will first year be mostly given courses. Im in the bio med program at york. When researching for courses, how do you know which courses are more content based vs concept without actually taking them or talking to a senior student (i cant ask a senior student cause im still in High school,, so i dont know anyone)

from what i hear, university is more about making friends and using them to your advantages.. like profs or TAs, is this true? Ive heard that rules in university are broken if the prof wants them to be..

also this is a bit off topic, but have you though about applying to American schools? Do you think they will be easier because the cut offs are lower, or harder cause we are Canadians?

thanks for your help.

Comment by Gj on May 4, 2009 @ 2:47 pm

Hi Gj,

I”m not exactly sure how many electives you will have in first year – that’s something you should ask your science counsellor when you go for your course enrollment. I think it’s maybe one or two half courses, but I’m not exactly sure.

In terms of researching courses, unfortunately it’s hard to know what a course is like without talking to older students. Are there any courses you have in mind? Maybe I have taken some of them.

As for making friends, I definitely wouldn’t suggest using them for advantages… I have met people like that, and I know I don’t want to be around them, and lots of people don’t like them either. I also wouldn’t suggest making friends with TAs or Profs to get anything – I don’t do stuff like this, and so I’m not going to really bother saying whether you should or not. In general, I wouldn’t suggest being friendly with anything because I don’t advocate taking advantage of people.

As for applying to American medical schools, the process is different, so it’s hard to compare. From what I’ve seen, American schools place a much greater focus on MCAT scores, research, and clinical experience, where as Canadian schools tend to place a higher focus on general well-roundedness and GPA. So it’s really hard to say.

That being said, overall, the United States have a much wider range of medical schools, in terms of difficulty of getting in – whereas Canadian schools tend to be very competitive across the board. If you have a 3.8+ GPA and 30+ MCAT, I would say that you are pretty much guaranteed to get into an American school, though it may not be a good one. You won’t find such guarantees in Canada.

Comment by Joshua on May 6, 2009 @ 6:10 pm

Hi Joshua,

I am a biology student at York university going into my third year of study and currently, I am in the process of picking my classes for next year. I am done with all the prerequisites (biology, chemistry, physics, biochemistry). I do realize that grades matter the most and that’s why I am trying to pick my classes really carefully this time.

I have not done Organic chemistry and I am really scared of taking it at this point due to the comments and feedback I have received from other people. Do you suggest that its an absolute necessity for me to take that course or would it still be possible for me to get into medical school without it.

Any other suggestions/advise you can give about what classes I should I enroll in for the upcoming year would be great. (Note: I am done my 12 credit general education requirements but still have room left for some elective courses).

Comment by Anna on July 1, 2009 @ 9:01 am

Hi Anna,

Most medical schools don’t require organic chemistry, but you might find taking it helpful when taking the MCAT. Otherwise, I guess you could avoid it.

Yah, I agree you should pick classes you think you will do well in but also still hopefully enjoy. I’m not really sure what to suggest because everyone’s personal preferences are a bit different.

I might be able to suggest some courses if you tell me what stuff interests you. Like if you enjoy philosophy, I might be able to recommend some stuff.

Comment by Joshua on July 3, 2009 @ 6:15 pm

Hi Joshua,

It’s Anna here.

Yes, I do enjoy things like philosophy, political science, psychology etc. I also took a philosophy courses last year and got an A…no problem but when I read your article, I came to realize that even though those kinds of courses are easy for me to get an A in, it is also close to impossible to get an A+ due to the subjective markings etc.

Now, I do not like things like chemistry and that’s why I would prefer to avoid organic if possible.

I was also thinking about taking an English course since some out of province and American medical schools require that. It would be great if you could share your suggestions on that.

Any other suggestions and recommendations would be greatly appreciated as well.

Regards.

Comment by Anna on July 12, 2009 @ 7:04 pm

Hey Anna,

Well, for philosophy courses, I highly suggest anything taught by Michael Giudice or Estev Morera. Both of them are fantastic professors and their lectures are always very well taught and interesting.

As for English courses, I never took one, so the only piece of advice I have is to take them the year you apply to those medical schools that require them so that they don’t see that mark on your application (assuming it would be lower than your other marks, or at least not one of your higher marks).

If you like memorizing, I think psych courses are your best bet, because those are “aceable” if you study hard.

Comment by Joshua on July 12, 2009 @ 9:02 pm

Hi Joshua,

I am interested in going to medical school at UWO and I just wanted to know that if I apply when I am in 4th year, they would not have my fourth year marks and given that they only take the GPA for the last years, how would they be calculating it in my case. Would they only look at the third year marks and give a conditional offer or would they look at all the other years to decide, I am confused.I tried to e-mail them but got no response so I thought to ask you. Any help would be great.

I also wanted to know your thoughts on getting into medical schools outside of Ontario. I am an Ontario student and I was also considering to apply to medical schools out of the provinces. From your experience, would it be wise to give those a shot?

Can you also give me some ideas about doing EC’s etc. I am currently volunteering in a hospital, I have tons of work experience, I also have some research experience as a summer student and I am a member of a club at my university. Is there anything else I could do to make my application better?

Thanks ;)

Comment by Alina on July 17, 2009 @ 9:51 pm

Hey Joshua,

This is Anna here. Are there any psychology courses in specific that you can recommend (preferably some upper year level courses)?

Thanks.

Comment by Anna on July 17, 2009 @ 10:04 pm

Hi Alina,

Don’t take my word on this, but I believe that if your 3rd year marks meet the cutoff but your 1st/2nd years don’t then they would give you a conditional offer, on the basis that your 4th year marks end up meeting the cutoff. Again I’m not sure though, so I would suggest calling them directly.

I think applying outside of Ontario is a perfectly reasonable option, so long as you don’t mind spending your 3 or 4 years there far from home. There are many good medical schools outside Ontario, and are definitely good options if you don’t mind traveling.

As for EC’s, as I wrote in another article, I don’t think what you do matters as much as how you use those experiences in your application essays/interviews. Though I would definitely suggest getting some leadership experience if you don’t have that much already, as well as perhaps shadowing a physician or two if you can.

Comment by Joshua on July 18, 2009 @ 1:48 pm

Hi Anna,

Unfortunately, I didn’t take any upper year Psych courses, so I honestly wouldn’t know what to recommend. :S

Comment by Joshua on July 18, 2009 @ 1:48 pm

Hi Joshua,

I was just wondering what your thoughts are on getting into medical school with Graduate (MSc) degree. I have recently completed my Honours Bachelor’s with an average GPA of around 3.65 (excluding my poor first year – so I am taking this average only from second year onwards and it was pretty much consistent across the three years). I have not yet done the MCAT but given my grades – I am still deciding whether to write the MCAT now and take a chance with applying to medical schools or should I just do a Master’s before even trying for the admissions. Do you think that by having a Master’s degree, it would help me get in? I would like to do a Master’s only if it makes it easier for me to get in and will be beneficial for me in the long run. Please advise and share your thoughts about this matter.

Comment by Andrea on July 22, 2009 @ 10:44 pm

Hey Andrea,

In all honesty, I know very little about applying as a graduate student, so I think you’re best off asking this question on something like http://premed101.com/forums/index.php where there are students who applied to medical school with a similar background as yourself.

I’m not sure how graduate students are evaluated, but I think there are some schools that don’t even look at graduate school grades. I think most people would suggest you pursue another two years of undergrad and aim for a 3.70+ GPA over those two years so you can apply to Western and Queen’s, unless you really want to do the Masters personally – but that doesn’t sound like it would be the case.

Again, I’m not a good person to ask, and I suggest you ask your question on that forum.

Best of luck!

Comment by Joshua on July 23, 2009 @ 2:36 pm

Hi Joshua! I’ve been reading your blog for some time now, and it very informative. Thanks! I’m in Gr.12 and I plan to attending York in Fall 2010. It would be very appreciative if you can help me out on these questions:

1. In terms of difficulty, how would these programs compare? Biomedical Science, Chemistry, Biology, Kinesiology. I’m in the process of choosing a program, and other than my interests, I would also like to consider the difficulty (because I would like to do well in uni as well XD)

2. Would it a good idea to go into the Undeclared Science program? Are the first year courses the same? How would this affect me if I choose this path (ie: missing out on info, opportunities, courses, etc…)?

3. In terms of difficulty, how would Ryerson’s Science programs compare with York’s? If you have any info or have heard about from friends experience, please let me know! It will be of great help!

Thanks for your time Joshua!

Comment by Mark on January 2, 2010 @ 1:42 am

Hi Mark,

Thanks! Glad you are finding the blog helpful. As for your questions…

1. I would guess chemistry is the toughest, biology/biomedical sciences are in the middle, and kinesiology would be the easiest – but it depends on what your personal strengths are, of course. That’s what it would be for me.

2. I don’t really know anything about the undeclared science program to be honest.

3. Hey again, sorry, I don’t know anything about Ryerson’s program

Best of luck!

Comment by Joshua on January 3, 2010 @ 10:58 pm

Hi Joshua,

I have tried searching for an answer for so long but I just couldn’t find an answer to this. Since this blog was so helpful I figured I could perhaps ask you and you might know something.
My son recently got into UofT medicine, and his conditional offer is based on him finishing his 4th year degree. He has the required amount of credits to finish his degree and will have completed it in time.

However, one of the elective course he has taken, a friend of his has copied his work and as a result the office decided to fail both of them in the course with a notation on their transcript. I know this is bad, and he is trying to appeal it because he feels he was treated unfairly, however the appeal is going to occur in september and will definitely be very late

I was wondering if you knew, if my son has completed all the required credits and the offer of condition, will this notation (which occurred in his final 4th year), be enough to revoke his acceptance? and since he has been given an acceptance based on his 3 year marks + EC’s
I have tried searching the policy on their website but there was no mentioning of it anywhere.

Anyone who could give me some advice would be greatly appreciated. I am really stressed out about all this, and I just need someone to give me advice on how to go about handling this situation.

Comment by Terry on June 7, 2010 @ 4:45 pm

Hi Terry,

The offer is contingent on your son receiving getting his degree. If he gets his degree, then the notation may not matter, but I have no idea whatsoever.

Best of luck.

Comment by Joshua on June 8, 2010 @ 5:58 pm
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