Applying to Queens Medicine and going to my mom's house

If everything goes right for me, I will be applying to Queen's Medicine in mid July of 2016. This is 2 years and a month away. It feels like both a long time and a short time away. On the one hand, after I finish the 2014-15 year, I will only have 1 year to apply. On the other hand, it is still 2 years away. I still feel like I need to improve my EC's. I plan on doing hospital volunteering, physician shadowing, mental health volunteering,  basketball coaching, lets talk science, and being a member of several UBC clubs. I hope this is enough. And I hope 2 years is enough time to put into my EC's.

Words won't be able to describe how happy I'll be if I get into Queens in 2017. I doubt I will get in though because I'll only have 3 undergrad years, so I'll need to do really well on the MCAT. I'm still not sure if i should write the MCAT in the summer of 2015 or 2016, or both. One thing's for sure, I'll need  at least one year of good marks under my belt in order to justify spending thousands of dollars on MCAT materials. Also, I hope SN2ed of the SDN forums makes a study schedule for the 2015 MCAT. I read somewhere that he is going to.

Right now it is looking like I might only apply to Queens in 2016. I may apply to others but I am not sure yet. It depends on my gpa. If I did apply to others it would be all schools that I meet the requirements for, and also accept 3rd years. University of Calgary is potentially one school, and so is UBC. I still have to make a spreadsheet of every canadian school with it's requirements and then decide when and where I will apply. Hopefully I will do this soon.

In my FNH 200 course, I figured if I get 100 percent on everything remaining, I will get 92 in the course. This however is going to be very hard. It starts with a quiz I have to do this weekend.

This weekend I'm going back to Duncan on Vancouver island (my hometown) to see my good friend and also my mom. I'm only going for 2 days but I'm looking forward to it because I haven't seen my friend in a while. We always have fun together. I just wish he was pursuing medicine because I think he'd make an excellent doctor.

Spanish Banks in Point Grey

Today I went to Spanish Banks beach in Vancouver with my girlfriend. I had never been there before and I found out it is a really nice beach. There is a beautiful view of the north shore and downtown Vancouver from the beach. There is also a cool little concession stand, and people had volleyball nets set up and some people were barbequing, and of course some people were in the water. If you google "spanish banks" you can see for yourself how nice it is. I am not in the best shape of my life but I hope to be in really good shape in 1-2 months. I'm going to be doing interval running 3/4 times a week and jogging or riding the stationary bike 3 times a week. I am also watching my diet and eating healthy, except for 1 or 2 cheat days a week.

There are also some very nice houses near Spanish Banks and I believe it is a very desirable place to live. I believe it is in Point Grey, which has one of the highest median income levels in Vancouver. I would love to live in Point Grey when I'm older. Of course I'd have to be a doctor to afford it. I've always dreamed of having a wonderful home in Vancouver ever since I visited Vancouver as a young child. Point Grey is right by UBC, so if I was living in Point Grey, I might be working at UBC Hospital, or VGH which is a few minutes away, or St. Paul's Hospital which is downtown. Or I may work at a combination of the 3. Or I may have my own practice.

I am still not sure what specialty I want to go into. From my limited knowledge, I think I would want to be a cardiothoracic surgeon, possibly a pediatric cardiac surgeon. I know there are only two pediatric cardiac surgeons in the province of British Columbia. But I am not sure about things like lifestyle factors (work hours, shift work, vacation time etc.) and income levels of all the specialties. Income is important to me. Although I am becoming a physician because of the meaningful work and the work environment, I also value income because my family has never had money before. I do see myself living a higher lifestyle, but to me it's more about security than luxury. I want to be able to have opportunities in life like living comfortably in a major urban center, travelling and supporting others. Also it is nice to be rewarded for doing meaningful work.

Midterm Mark and Anybody know about any easy Thomspon Rivers University online/distance courses?

So I got my midterm mark back from my Food, Nutrition and Health 200 course and I got 80 percent on it. I am okay with this mark because going into the exam I did not feel prepared, but while I was writing my exam I felt I knew most of the questions. 80 percent at UBC is an A-, so overall it is a fairly good grade. In the grand scheme of things though, I should be getting in the 90s because UBC Medicine's average to get in is around 87 percent (with the worst year dropped). So I need to do really well. Similarly, it is going to be nearly impossible for me to get above 90 (an A+) in the course because of the marks I've already received. I would have to get almost 100 percent on the final and on all the quizes and assignments.

Also my final exam for FNH 200 has been scheduled and it is on June 27th. I am going to start studying for this exam this weekend and continue through until the day before or the day of the exam. I am trying to get above 95 percent.

Also I need to register in a Thompson Rivers University online class. I am not quite sure about which course to take. If anyone has taken any courses at Thompson Rivers University and found them to be fairly easy and/or fairly easy to achieve a high mark, then please comment below with the course title and number if you can remember it. I am thinking about taking a math class, or a chemistry class, or a social work class, but I am not sure which one I will do yet.

Respiratory Therapy

So I applied to Respiratory therapy at Thompson Rivers University and I found out I got in! I was very surprised since they take university grades into account. They also take high school into account so maybe that was what helped me get in. The problem with this program is that it has to be done on site in Kamloops British Columbia, at Thompson Rivers University. Kamloops is about 4-7 hours away from Vancouver by car (I am just guessing here) and I really do not want to move there. I love everything about Vancouver, including the schools here. If this program was in Vancouver, I would probably do it. But since it's not, I'm going to have to decline. It is tempting though because they make anywhere from 27-33 dollars an hour here in BC. I may revisit Respiratory therapy in the future as a backup plan. Even if I did it I would only work until I got into medical school. I would never do it as a permanent job. Right now it is one of my lowest backup plans.

I don't place much stock into my backup plans simply because I want to succeed in my main goal of medicine and nothing else. I really wouldn't be happy doing anything aside from medicine. However due to limited funds, I may have to pursue a temporary career to support my university studies in order to get into medicine.

Right now, my main backups are Respiratory therapy, pharmacy, master's/phd programs (professor or research or both), perfusion, pharmacy tech, and I believe that is all I can think of right now. Hopefully I get into medicine after 1-3 years of applying and I don't have to worry about any of these backup careers.

Summer Plans

So I was able to register for courses at UBC this summer. So far, I'm only in one course, it's called a Food, Nutrition, and Health class. It started on May 12th, so I missed the first few classes because I registered late. My first midterm is next Monday on June 2nd, and I have an assignment due this Friday as well. I am starting to get a bit stressed but I still believe I have enough time to do everything. After this class is over in June, I might be taking two Thompson Rivers University classes online. But I am not completely sure yet.

I'm also glad I could register at UBC this summer because then I can workout at the UBC gym for the student price which is significantly cheaper. I'm going to get my membership tomorrow because when I tried to get it last week they said the system hadn't updated yet and said I wasn't registered in courses so they said to come in on Wednesday (tomorrow).

I am quite concerned about my FNH class because it is a science class and a 200 level class. I haven't taken a science class in a few years so I may be a bit rusty. I'll be glad once the midterm is over and I get my mark back because then I can gauge how I'm doing. But in the mean time I guess I'll just study and wait. Starting tomorrow I plan on putting in 8-10 hour days studying until my midterm. I might increase it to 12 hours on the weekend if I feel I'm not absorbing the material. There is quite a bit of material to know but most of it seems fairly interesting.

( ) Draft Day

(Removed)

 I saw the movie Draft Day, the Kevin Costner movie about the NFL Draft, and it was really good! I was surprised how good it was. If youre a fan of the NFL or even sports, then I highly suggest watching Draft Day. The next movies I'm looking forward to are Neighbours, Godzilla, and 22 Jump Street.

Uncertain Summer

Hey so sorry for the delay between posts. I have just been relaxing and also running some errands. The errands are in relation to my courses because I was registered in 3 courses at Langara for the summer but I was dropped from them because I didn't pay my fees! I've been scrambling by talking to UBC and trying to register for 2 courses there. They said it may be a bit too late to register now, but I should find out sometime next week. Next week is also when classes start so I'll be attending lectures just in case I can register at UBC.

I am not proud of not paying my fees, but in my defense I have never heard of a school requiring fee payment 2 weeks before the first day of class. I was also given no warning, no emails, nothing. The only way I would have known is if I looked on the calendar on the website. Despite this, I can't help but feel a bit irresponsible about this whole thing.

My girlfriend also had a great idea by suggesting that I take Thompson Rivers University online classes. So if I can't register at UBC, I will take Thomspon Rivers classes instead of working this summer. I feel my education is too important to put off for a summer. The only problem is that I don't really like online classes, but I'm hoping that I will enjoy the ones that I'll register in. They will be 3 classes in total, 1 math class and 2 social work classes.

As soon as I know what I'm doing this summer, I will post on here. I guess I will just have to watch some NHL playoff hockey in the mean time.