akinf,
It depends where you want to go for medicine. If you're a Canadian citizen without US citizenship, unless you're rich, Canada would probably be your best choice. Except for the absolute best US schools, you won't get any better medical education in the States than you would here. Plus, 1 year in the States will cost as much as 4 years here. Also, it's not the Canadian undergrad degree that will keep you out of US med school but a lack of US citizenship or PR status--undergrad in the States won't change that.
If you're an Ontario resident and your preference is an Ontario medical school, the official policy is "
an A is an A" and no school cares where it came from
.
Furthermore, unlike many US schools, MCAT scores aren't that big a factor here with Queen's having the highest strict MCAT cutoff in the province (32). Mac and Ottawa don't even require the MCAT, Western's cutoff is low (30) and Toronto uses it as a flag. So unlike what the above poster said, in Canada your MCAT doesn't count for all that much. What this means is that GPA is worth a hell of a lot and there are no checks (eg. highly weighted MCAT score) against attending an easy school. So go where you'll get the best marks. In my opinion, the system is setup so that people who get 75% in highschool get into meds cuz they end up at way less competitive undergrad schools and get better marks. American schools will definately look at the university you go to though, but remember, it is very difficult to get into US medschools that compare to Canadian ones if you're not a citizen.
I don't know for sure how the schools in other provinces view the undergrad institution, but there is a general, and foolish, underlying policy in Canada that all schools are equal.
Having said that, DO NOT GO TO TORONTO (St. George campus). Every class over 40 people is curved from a C- to B+ and keep in mind most of the people there have a high 80+ high school average. You can do well there, but there is extreme competition for As, and the classes are huge, making it difficult to get good letters from profs. Many US schools require 2 letters from science faculty--when Immunology is a class of 300 and taught by 8 profs, it's difficult to get to know one really well, and may science profs are reluctant to give letters to people going to med school as opposed to grad school. Plus, it's demanding--what is usually first-year chem at nearly every other school in N. America is compressed into 1/2 year and the first half of orgo is taught in year 1. Why??
The only advantage to Toronto I can see is that you have perhaps the widest variety of science courses on the continent and later on, you can be taught by people at the absolute top of their field (my developmental cardiovascular physiology course was taught in part by the cardiac transplant surgeon at the Hospital for Sick Children and the first person to prove that infants can be transplanted across blood groups, for example). If you do get letters from people like this, then the names will be known pretty much everywhere. But if you don't get the grades you need, quality of education won't mean anything when all your friends who went to easy schools are in med school and you aren't.
If I had to do it all over again, I would go to McMaster, which my friend who just graduated from there described as "marginally more difficult than high school." Now he's a smart guy, but he knows there is a difference in difficulty at different schools and at least in Ontario, it's all about numbers. So go where you feel you'll get the best marks (stick to a school with a med school though) and have opportunities to volunteer or do research if you like that stuff.
As for individual courses, you'll cover the bases for most schools if you do 1 yr general chem, 1 yr orgo, 1 yr bio, 1 yr physics (all with lab), 1 yr math through calculus and 1 yr English. Many like a course in stats too.
Again, in Canada it varies. Schools like UBC, Alberta and Manitoba want 1 yr of biochem, while Mac has absolutely no prerequisites and Western will have only "suggested" courses in 2006. Check the schools' websites.
What Canadian schools (except Mac) will look at is difficulty of courses. Don't take a bunch of 1st or 2nd year courses in your later years.
One thing to keep in mind is that some schools in Canada have helpful weighted GPAs where only some years are considered or some courses are dropped. This generally applies only if you've taken 5 full courses per year, regardless of what is required at the undergrad institution. I believe that many top schools in the States, especially the Ivies, define a full course load as 4 full classes per year (8 half-courses), so unless you exceed that, the weighting formulas won't apply.
good luck
