You are reading this book, but I don’t know who you are or whether you have the potential to be admitted to a professional school. If you do have the potential, then I sincerely hope that you can reach your goal. I also hope that this book will help you in your quest. This book can help you generate the high grades needed for admission to professional schools, but it cannot work the miracle of increasing the number of places in these schools. This is where I would like to offer you some other aspects of succeeding at university.
Look at your transcripts. Often your marks reflect your true interests. If you are getting great marks in specific courses, that could indicate your special interests or abilities in that subject area. Look at what options and opportunities exist in that area and try to determine if that’s a route to follow. I’d also advise you not to panic. Sometimes students don’t really figure out what they want in life until it’s almost time to graduate. Remember, a good education will serve you in a diversity of ways that may have nothing at all to do with the specific subjects that you studied.
Did You Know?
According to 2006 data, only 60% of those with a Bachelor’s degree or university certificate held a job “closely related” to their field of study. This percentage varied by subject area; those that graduated from education and health programs were the most likely to have a job closely related to their studies, while arts and humanities graduates were least likely to hold a job closely related to their education.3
Evaluating Your Goals and Alternatives
It’s often the case that students haven’t even thought of alternatives to their primary goal in life. In high school, the job opportunities that students are made aware of are generally very limited. Attending university can open your eyes to the wide variety of career options that are available. In the meantime, it doesn’t hurt to reassess your current situation. Often one’s primary goal, especially for the professions of medicine, dentistry and law, among others, is in reality a parental dream not the student’s.
Every year I have students come to ask for advice about their progress in my courses. Often they are failing or doing poorly and can’t understand why. In a large number of cases, the reason is simple. They are attending university for all the wrong reasons. The primary reason is Mom and/or Dad want them to become a professional. I’ve had dozens of students over the years come to me and ask what they can do because their parents are putting unrealistic pressure on them to become a professional when they either aren’t interested or won’t be able to meet the demands of getting accepted to that profession.
Did You Know?
A 2010 survey of first-year students at 39 Canadian universities revealed that for 27% of students surveyed, meeting parental expectations was a “very important” reason for attending university.4
As an adult, you need to look out for your own interests. So if your marks are not up to par for your goals or if you are finding that your goals are changing, here’s a list of assessment questions you can answer that should help you in determining just what is right for you:
1.Write down your goals and interests in two side-by-side columns and list the positives and negatives for them.
2.Note whether they are your goals or whether someone else is pushing you in that choice.
3.List the courses in which you are doing your best.
4.List the courses in which you are doing your worst.
5.List the courses which you like the best.
6.List the courses which you don’t like or skip classes.
7.Seriously evaluate your grades (cumulative and recent).
8.Compare your actual grades with those that are required for the profession that you want.
9.Go through all of the above and see what things are positive and which are negative.
10.Based on those results, do an online search for professions in those areas.
In short, write down the plusses and minuses of your current life. Look at what you have written and see if being a student is the best route for you.
The smartest thing you can do, as a student, is to keep your options open. Don’t limit yourself too much too early. It’s very likely that you really don’t know what you want to do in life. How could you? You hardly know what real opportunities exist! You haven’t yet had the chance to examine in depth all of the options open to you.
For this reason, I re-emphasize: Keep your options open. You may wonder, “How do I do that?” The first thing to do is to select a first-year program that will not limit you. Many students enter their first year with unrealistic dreams and enrol in courses that are intended to prepare them for specific programs rather than give them an all-round education. After a year or so they find that they have not been admitted to the school or program of their choice. Then they realize that they have made a tremendous error. Not only did they not realize their dreams, they also have a bag full of useless courses that have not prepared them for an alternative future.
That’s one of the keys to success in life: having alternatives. We all have dreams; some are easily reachable, some are not. It is important to dream. But it is important to be realistic at the same time. You have a future to protect; don’t waste your years with only one dream in mind. The chances are that it may not be realized. With alternatives, you have something to fall back on.
I was lucky in this regard. I entered university with no idea about what I wanted to be or what I wanted to do with my life. I liked biology but not to the exclusion of other subjects. As a result, I took a general program in my first year that included the basics: math, English, introductory biology, French and chemistry. My first-year average was less than exciting, somewhere around 66%. In spite of this no-so-exciting average I had set the stage for my future. I now had many options open to me and I had strengthened my ability in basic areas necessary for survival—communication and calculation.
I subsequently pursued biology more enthusiastically but continued to round out my program with more general subjects such as psychology and many arts subjects. Each year my grades improved and my options were still open. Although I decided to specialize in biology in my third and fourth years, I still had the opportunity to switch to other areas if I had changed my mind. Having diverse courses (but not so diverse as to generate a totally uncoordinated program), I also found that my learning was enhanced by the different points of view to which I was exposed. This broader education has also helped me in general since it means that I am more diversified in my knowledge.
So keep your options open. Take a first-year program that includes certain basics but still contains some of the subjects that are most interesting to you. In addition, have alternatives open for yourself. Your desire to attend medical school or some other professional faculty may become a reality for you. But if it doesn’t, you will have other options to fall back on.
Figure 1.1 shows a general diagram that summarizes
