Pronouns: she/her

What Was I Doing Before Med: Health Sciences at Queens

#1 Piece of Advice: Make time for friends and hobbies, especially during “study weekends”! Balance is key to productive, sustainable, and enjoyable study habits :)

Hot take from first year med: Shadowing is a great way to solidify content learned in lectures, develop clinical skills, and connect with physicians!

The **Moment** you got into med: After staying up for the better part of the night waiting to see if the OMSAS website crash would resolve itself, I made a grave error in the morning…I checked the Canadian Pre-Med Reddit forum (duh, duh, duh!) to see if the med school offers had been sent. I was extremely disheartened to read that several people had received offers from U of T already, while my inbox remained empty :( Feeling defeated, and trying my best to feel happy for my friends who had received med school offers earlier in the morning, I walked to work in the rain thinking something along the lines of “always the bridesmaid, never the bride”….SO DRAMATIC. Once I got to work, I decided to check OMSAS one last time. To my surprise, I found an offer from U of T -- I immediately burst into tears! To this day, whenever I’m walking along “Hospital Row” (University Ave), I find myself having a “pinch me” moment, as I still can’t believe that I get to live out my dream and study medicine at the best medical school in Canada :)

Pronouns: he/him

What Was I Doing Before Med: Health Sciences at McMaster

#1 Piece of Advice: You will often be reminded that Med School is similar to “drinking out of a firehose”. It’s true! It is impossible to retain every single detail thrown at you each week. Try to pick out the most high-yield information from each body system to take forward with you along your journey to become a physician (which will fly by faster than you would think)! I can probably tell you how to treat a GI bleed, but if you asked me to describe what happens to an embryo one week after fertilization, you’d be out of luck.

Hot take from first year med: I had a lot of of fun writing the microbiology ME…

The **Moment** you got into med: After turning off my phone notifications and waiting a full hour after I first saw the UofT thread on r/premedcanada start blowing up on the morning of May 9th, I checked my phone and saw the glorious acceptance email. I ran downstairs to an empty house, figured my dad had taken my dog for a walk, and had the urge to go running to try and find him. I ended up about half a kilometer from home and my dad was nowhere in sight, so I ran back home and waited for him to walk through the front door so we could celebrate together. Best day ever!

Pronouns: he/him

What Was I Doing Before Med: Medical Radiation Sciences at McMaster

#1 Piece of Advice: Do not study with the intention of getting a 100% on every single test! Instead, focus on the key takeaway points from each block and must-knows as a future clerkship student. I know it will be a difficult mentality to shift from because of your journey here. However, all that time you may be using to commit that obscure antibiotic to memory could be used towards forming lasting connections with your friends and exploring life in the city. Which in my opinion, makes for better memories to look back upon :)

Hot take from first year med: Monday morning lectures are purely for socializing…👀

The **Moment** you got into med: I was chilling in my living room with my partner and Dad, refreshing my emails constantly while being totally on edge. Like many others, I checked r/premedcanada and saw that other people were receiving email acceptances to UofT and thought that it just wasn’t meant to be for me. Then on a whim, I decided I would check OMSAS just to make sure. Then there it was, that glorious ‘Offer’ right beside my application to UofT. I jumped and screamed for a solid two minutes with my partner and Dad. I swear the entire neighborhood could hear us. There was this sudden feeling of immense relief and clarity, as if a weight on my soul had been vanquished for good. Definitely one of the happiest moments of my life that I’ll never forget.

Pronouns: she/her

What Was I Doing Before Med: Masters in BioTechnology at UofT

#1 Piece of Advice: Shadow with an open mind! Even if you are coming into med school with an idea of which specialty you want to pursue, shadow as many different specialties as you can. The best way to know what you like and what you don’t is by trying it!

Hot take from first year med: Book that weekend trip (you will still have time to study for ME’s I promise)!!

The **Moment** you got into med: I was in the kitchen with my mom anxiously refreshing my inbox. I happened to watch the email come in. I opened it, immediately started screaming, then my mom started screaming and we gave each other the biggest hug. It was really special :)

Pronouns: he/him

What Was I Doing Before Med: Medical Sciences (Physiology and Pharmacology) at Western

#1 Piece of Advice: First year is set up to give you ample free time outside of your mandatory coursework. After (presumably) dedicating countless hours towards the path of getting into med school, now is the perfect time for you to get back into old hobbies or discover new ones.

Hot take from first year med: Shadowing is by far the most exciting part of the Year 1 curriculum!

The **Moment** you got into med: I had two back-to-back final exams the day offers were released but I decided it was probably best to do the big reveal after my exams. The exams actually went pretty horribly and would go on to do a number on my GPA for that year! And after writing them I was so sad and was certain that if I didn’t get in this year, it would be significantly harder for any subsequent attempts. In my dejected state I just went home and ripped off the bandage to be pleasantly surprised by an offer from my top choice of med school, UofT!