<p>Haha, I see this is almost my situation right now.</p>
<p>I’m in the middle of a decision of going to University of Toronto for a double major in biochemistry and math or going to University of Waterloo for a double major in applied math and bioinformatics. </p>
<p>I have my eyes on an MD-phD program (Neuroscience or Biomedical engineering phD probably, I really like quantitative bio related stuff and I want to use it to help ppl) somewhere for grad school and those programs are very selective. There are only four positions per year at UofT, 3 at Western, 20 at Duke etc… There are many applications for those programs though. Therefore godly MCATs and GPAs are a given. On top of that they want extensive undergraduate research and experience.</p>
<p>Here is my dilema, I know that at Waterloo, the profs are very accessible and the co-op program will give me 2 to 3 years of undergrad first hand experience. University of Toronto has 1200 lifesci students first year and who knows how many people all eyeing the medical school stream. Everybody will be hogging the profs, and they are nearly impossible to reach before medical school applications. Therefore it’s really hard to get undergrad research there. On top of that (a minor point), the people there are known to be very cut throat, and friends of mine came back and told stories of how they were misled
by “peer tutors” in their assignments and got 0s… Our school (Vincent Massey) does send a lot of people to UofT every year though, so we have a nice community of Massey people who are willing to help up a fellow former school mate.</p>
<p>However, on the other side, I like the UofT environment more and it holds a stronger name than UofW. If I do manage to land any research position then UofT wins. MD-phD programs may be selective enough that the selection may have to come down the prestige… This is what I’m afraid of. UofW rose to fame in its Math program fairly recently, and I doubt its acknowledgement has extended south of the border yet.</p>
<p>So basically in short: Waterloo to play it safe and have guarenteed research (with good profs mind you, just no universal prestige yet) or to be risky and go to UofT and gamble for those few undergrad spots. (Getting one is harder than getting into med school so…)</p>
<p>Therefore… help me out? </p>
<p>Other details: Waterloo gave me some 14k national scholarship thingie and 2k entrance. UofT will probably give me 1k for entrance (they hadn’t even sent out their acceptances yet for most people…)</p>