<p>I've been admitted to the very prestigious McMaster BHSc program in Canada. It's extremely well known here in Eastern Canada, but I don't think its as well known anywhere else. Beyond this, I was accepted to Penn, Berkeley, USC, and Cornell. If I do go to an American school, I'd choose Penn. My dilemma right now is this:</p>
<p>I'm going into premed and know for sure that I want to be a doctor. McMaster has excellent grad school placement rates WITHIN Canada, but they aren't great outside of Canada. Personally it has always been my dream to attend an Ivy League medical school. Would I be at a significant advantage as a Penn student? Keeping in mind that I'm ineligible for financial aid but my parents make ~300k/yr, what should I do?</p>
<p>As a sidenote, how is Penn for premed in general? How hard is it to keep up good grades? BHSc at McMaster is pretty well-known for being an easy program to get an A in. While I do like a challenge, I don't want to hurt my chances for becoming a doctor, its something I've wanted my entire life. Thanks for your help in advance.</p>
<p>Interesting. There is a history of Canadians having an impact on American medicine. William Osler, educated at McGill, was chair of medicine at Penn, and went on to be the first head of medicine at Johns Hopkins. So there’s an omen for you. </p>
<p>But Penn wouldn’t have accepted you if they didn’t think you were worthy. And as they say, it’s harder to get into an Ivy than to stay in an Ivy.</p>
<p>One thing I have to give to my school is that it really is an excellent school if you’re legitamately serious about being a pre-med. It also has a >80% placement rate in Medical School. That said, McMcaster Health Sciences would be an equally excellent choice, that I would most definitely recommend over Penn if saving money as at all a concern.</p>
<p>PS: Penn is fairly challenging. Ignore those who talk about grade inflation. That exists at Yale and Brown. Penn is a fairly big undergrad school with tons of pre-meds. And even the non-premed classes are pretty difficult since your competition are the smartest and generally the most hard-working students from around the world.</p>
<p>I certainly hope I’m Ivy-worthy, if not even BHSc might be pretty challenging! I’ve heard about Penn’s amazing admission statistics, but I’ve also heard they’re rather inflated through very selective methods of determining who applies to medical school. That said, I’d still LOVE to come to Penn, its probably my first choice just in terms of being in an amazing city (Hamilton isn’t the most exciting of places to be perfectly honest). As for the grading, I’m sure I’ll have to work for grades I’ve just heard that Penn is easier off than say Cornell or Princeton in general, its one of the inflated ivies, not the deflated ones.</p>
<p>Overall, knowing that my aim is a medical school like Penn’s own or dare I say Harvard or JHU (and I’m not trying to be arrogant or assume I’ll be accepted, I know just how incredibly difficult it is for international students but am more than willing to give it my all and hope for the best), would I be doing myself a favour by choosing Penn over McMaster?</p>
<p>The way I see it, I can go to McMaster and have a great show at one of the mid-tier Canadian medical schools, but if I really want to break into the top tier in Canada or abroad, Penn might give me an edge. Thoughts?</p>
<p>As for whether Penn will give you more of an advantage over McMaster in getting into HMS or JHU or even Penn-Medicine, I’m not sure. Try posting this in the pre-med forum. </p>
<p>I can’t find any statistics but I know that a fairly large chunk of Penn-Med’s MD class is from Penn undergrad. And Penn-Med is, along with JHU, the second best Medical School in the United States.</p>
<p>HAHAHA that article is pretty interesting. I haven’t visited recently and am not able to attend preview days but I visited once ~5 years ago and really enjoyed it. That being said, visiting a city as a tourist and living there are obviously two very different things. I haven’t been able to find any statistics to point me in one direction or the other either, I know McMaster does very well for a Canadian program and for Canadian Medical Schools, but Penn’s 83% admit rate is pretty hard to beat =/</p>
<p>For the record, THOUSANDS of Penn students and recent alums love Philly and all that it has to offer, and view it as a positive aspect of attending Penn. Just search the Penn fourm here on CC to see lots of examples.</p>
<p>But, different strokes for different folks. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I love big historic cities so I don’t see Philly being much of a problem for me. Honestly both of these schools are decent fits, Penn perhaps a bit moreso. What’s the better choice for the future though</p>
<p>beuuuummpppppp. I’m still very confused, I think I can pull a better GPA at Mac but Penn promises a much better college experience. how IS the grading at Penn, especially for the BBB major?</p>
<p>^ BBB is not an easy major at all. I know several friends who were Valedictorians in their respective graduating classes who are currently struggling with their coursework.
It’s certainly not like Mac Health Sci where you can get by with a 3.7 by just doing all your work, from what I’ve heard.</p>
<p>Note that The College at Penn’s average GPA is a little below 3.4 right now. And that includes Ancient History, Art History, Hispanic Studies, etc majors as well.</p>
<p>PS: You must have a intentional mentor by now. Talk to him/her about this!</p>
<p>Med School is ferociously expensive. How are you going to pay for it? Most US students use student loans. However, you are an international student, so you can’t get the same loans that US students can. Some med schools require international students to pay the full cost of all four years when they enroll! Check that out now, so you can plan ahead.</p>
<p>It is perfectly OK to ask McMaster how many pre-meds go to the US to med school each year, and it is OK to ask the US med schools you are interested in which Canadian universities their current students have graduated from.</p>
<p>The standard advice for pre-meds is to choose an undergraduate institution that is cheap for you so that you have money left over for med school. Provided you can complete the pre-med courses, get good grades, and do well on the MCAT, it doesn’t matter much at all which undergrad you attend.</p>
<p>iamanapp, I don’t think anyone has been assigned a mentor yet, I’m afraid I don’t have one at any rate. i’m not suggesting BBB is easy at all, I’ve just heard its not quite as cutthroat as biochemistry or some of the other premed majors</p>
<p>happymom, I don’t see finances being too huge of a problem, my parents have been extremely supportive and say that they’ll back my decision no matter what it is. I’m lucky enough to have parents who make significantly more than tuition, even at an Ivy League school, so we won’t have to mortgage the house or anything to pay for anything. I called McMaster and they told me to look at their statistics online, but this are just based off of an entrance survey and show how many end into medicine, it isn’t broken down by school. (See here: [Graduates](<a href=“http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/bhsc/graduates.html]Graduates[/url]”>http://fhs.mcmaster.ca/bhsc/graduates.html)</a>)</p>
<p>I’m just a little worries about keeping up at Penn. My SAT scores and class rank relative to my pretty competitive public high school were quite good, but I really don’t know what competition will be like at Penn. That said, it seems to fit me a lot better as a school (Hamilton is a boring city…I wasn’t a huge fan of my visit). Should I pick the school that promises a better time at the risk of failing to reach my long-term goals, or the program that is considered to guarantee medical school in Canada (an exaggeration, but statistically BHSc students do rather well in medical admissions)?</p>
<p>I’m willing to work very hard, but I had some VERY smart friends rejected from Penn so I really don’t know if working hard will be enough considering the competition there</p>