a crisis of academic faith a.k.a. all of our lives.

Hello! Let’s say that you get accepted into social sciences (in first year), for political sciences. And, you know you want to go to medical school in the future, but would really like to study politics as well. As we know, medical school accepts students from all disciplines of studies. Though, for UofT’s medical school requirements you need at least 2 FCE of life sciences. How does that work? You study political sciences but take science courses at the same time? But I don’t have Highschool 12U chem or physics!!!!! Can I take night school or summer school during my UNIVERSITY YEARS to fulfil any of these requirements??Can I still pursue my dream of becoming a doctor? Thanks in Advance!

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hey there,

ok, i don’t want to be presumptuous here. i know there are many brilliant young people who have multiple interests and can juggle them all equally. i know this because i used to be one of them. i was in the sciences, i was in the arts, i was in languages; i could do everything. however, university has this great effect on people where it both broadens your perspective and forces you to focus in on the things that really matter to you. it happened to me and it will probably happen to you, unless you’re hard on yourself now and force yourself to make a decision, which is what i would recommend.

what i’m saying is: it would be in your best interest to ask yourself honestly, now, whether you truly want to pursue medicine or political science. both fields are academically rigorous and you kind of have to be fully dedicated in order to be successful in them.

you can easily get 2 FCE of life science in university if you’re enrolled in political science, by doing a poli sci major and two life science minors. that would give you more than 2.0 FCE and fulfil those requirements for med school. however, you’ll be competing for entrance into med school and on the MCATs with people whose entire program has been focused around life science, and that’s tough.

also, most life science courses in first year either require or recommend grade 12 chemistry?or grade 12 calculus. PUMP can be used to fulfil that calculus requirement, but unfortunately there’s no equivalent program for chemistry. doing night/summer school while in university won’t fulfil the requirement because you need to have completed grade 12 chem/physics before you actually take the university courses. there are some biology courses that don’t require any grade 12 chemistry, so you can look into those to get some of your life science credits, but most courses will require the grade 12 background in chem.

all in all, yeah, if you’re really dedicated, it probably can be done, but i wouldn’t advise it. chemistry and physics are just as important for those studying medicine as bio, and if you want to study poli sci now but want to become a doctor in the future, that’s telling me that your real passion lies with politics. obviously, you should do what you want with your life, but just don’t compromise your real passion for something that feels safe, because lemme tell you, med school is hella expensive, and you’d better be sure that’s what you want to do before spending all that money.

best,

aska