early bird

[hburney]

Dear people
I am a canadian citizen by immigration, am in my 2nd year at the University of Western Ontario, in a biology program and have a few questions to help decide a number of issues.

1) does a biology major give you any advantage when applying to med schools or is it the grades you got in ANY major e.g english/psychology /economics etc, as my average for 1st yr biology with the required prerequisites for med school was 81%, whereas if I switch to a languages or social sciences program I will score higher as I excell at these type of subjects .

2)is it money wise better to practice in US or Canada

3) what are my chances if I went back to my country Pakistan, and am able to graduate from a med school, take my USMLE and try for residency in US.

4) if I am able to get into med school in america how many yrs will it take (usually) to pay off the loans

Thankyou I will be very touched if you take the time to guide me,
Mariam

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[csname]

Hi hburney,

I'm also from Pakistan and am currently finishing my Biology honours degree. Here's what I think.

1. In canada it doesn't matter at all what you major in when it comes to applying to med school as long as you have the pre-requisites for med school, you know the usual course in bio, chem, english, etc. You can go to omsas website for details into each ontario med school requirements. So my advice to you would be take the courses that you enjoy and feel you would do better in. One of my friends also loved doing language and arts courses in which he had B+ average, but he ended up majoring in bio "for better preparation for med school" and now he can't even apply to graduate because of bad gpa in his bio courses.

2. Money wise USA is so much better for doctors than Canada. But remember money is not everything in life. I think canada is safer to live in and a better place to raise a family than USA. But having said that, USA is a great place to be in and many of my relatives are working as doctors in USA while none in canada.

3. Two pakistani med schools that I would recommend you apply if you plan to come to USA are King Edward Medical College in Lahore and Aga Khan University in Karachi. Entire batches of these colleges go abroad, particularly USA, every year. There are hundreds of Pakistani doctors who are able to secure good residencies in USA following USMLE. In addition, going to Pakistan will ensure you that you don't have any loans to worry about However, I've heard from some people that following sept. 11, US hasn't been very receptive to Pakistanis

4. Once you're in, don't worry about loans at all. You'll probably end up accumulating 300 K in loans, but you can easily pay it off in say... 20 years paying 1000 bucks every month. and once your practice really starts, you'll be able to pay it off even quickly

Good luck on getting into med school. By the way, what are chances for canadians to get into US med schools? Which US med school are you thinking about?

cheers,