不是说了吗?McMaster 的Health Sciences是最佳选择,进了这个专业你就有一半身子迈入了医学院的大门。但是进到这个专业据说像中奖一样很难,可能只是比Lottomax好一点。我所认识的几家Colonel By IB毕业的子弟几乎都去学life science去了,但是没人进了这个。
如果进不了这个, 我个人认为渥太华大学是最好的选择。
McMaster的Health Science, 是个招人“羡慕嫉妒恨”的program。没进这个program,但最后又进了医学院的,往往是拿着瞧不起的眼光来看待这个program。
作为家长的,一定得有个现实的估计,期待过高,对孩子是不公平的。
建议读一读Toronto Star的这篇文章:
Teaching themselves to learn。
这篇文章有些信息是不准确的。
Teaching themselves to learn
She had a 96-per-cent average in Grade 12 and was the top student in her entire school board.
But she still didn't make the cut for McMaster's Health Sciences program.
What began as a degree with a unique way of teaching undergraduate students eight years ago has turned into the hottest program around,
with 3,500 applications for 160 spots each year.
It's also a program that's unique to North America, with an approach to learning that's quite unusual for undergraduate students.
"We have a very difficult time selecting students to begin with," acknowledges Delsworth Harnish, assistant dean of the honours Bachelor of Health Sciences program.
"By the time is all said and done, we have rejected students with 96 and 95 (averages)."
Several of the top students in Greater Toronto boards were accepted to the program for this fall, with averages of 98 or 99 per cent.
Although it's not all about grades – students have to fill out supplementary applications with "odd questions," says Harnish, such as asking them what question should not be asked, and why. Sometimes, students will say the school should not ask about religious affiliation.
"It does require them to work through an issue and think about something," he adds.
Although the students do take several elected courses, they must take a core of "inquiry" courses starting in first year.
Harnish says the inquiry method is well known, but normally undergraduate students start out with big classes and little support, then classes get smaller each year. He insists that's backwards to student needs.
These Mac students are divided into groups of 20 and work with a "facilitator" – a professor who, instead of lecturing them for three hours at a time, guides them as they research and try to answer a question on their own. The profs typically meet with their groups once every two weeks.
On their first day, students might be given an abstract from a scholarly publication, then sit in small groups to discuss it and devise some questions. Then, they go to the library to find the answer to one of those questions.
"It falls apart, largely because they don't know how to work in a group. They all want to (research) their own question, they can't find the answer in the library and they end up arguing," says Harnish.
But it's all a part of the learning process; students figure out how to manage their time, ask questions, find answers. "All of the things we all need and require as productive individuals but don't have the opportunity to develop in our working years," says Harnish.
Students may also be called upon, randomly, at the end of the course, to give a 30-minute presentation in front of almost 200 peers and instructors, and take their questions afterwards. So they have to know their stuff.
Harnish said the core courses were designed this way to make sure students actually learn, and retain, information.
He argues there isn't any learning going on in a lecture; humans have an attention span of about 20 minutes, so what is the point of making students sit for one or two hours?
Jordan Robertson, 26, is a 2004 graduate of the program who's returned to become a facilitator. She says the experience turned her into a more self-directed learner.
She went on to pursue a career in naturopathic medicine, and now works in Burlington.
Medical schools do like the Mac graduates: about 60 to 65 per cent of them get into a medical school, and of the roughly 35 per cent who don't, they often go into law, psychology or health policy.