Ascent · Health & life sciences
Choose the undergraduate degree for what comes after it.
Most students in this stream are aiming past the degree — medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, research. That makes the decision different from every other stream: the question isn't only which program will admit them, it's which one they'll actually do well in for four years.
Commonly required
- ENG4U
- SBI4U — Biology
- SCH4U — Chemistry
- MHF4U, with MCV4U for some programs
- SPH4U for some programs
Prerequisites and supplementary requirements change year to year and vary by program. Everything here is orientation — we verify each requirement against the program's current admissions page before your student's list is final.
What decides it
Where the weight really falls.
Supplementaries that look like nothing else
McMaster's Health Sciences supplementary is its own genre — it rewards a way of thinking rather than a list of achievements, and it cannot be prepared for in the week before it's due.
CASPer, where it applies
Several Ontario nursing programs use CASPer, a timed situational-judgement test. It can be practised, and students who walk in cold are at a real and avoidable disadvantage.
The GPA conversation nobody has early enough
If the plan runs through medical or professional school, the undergraduate GPA matters more than the prestige of the program that produced it. It's an uncomfortable conversation in Grade 11 and a much worse one in second year.
In practice
What Ascent does here.
- Building the program list backwards from what the student wants to do after the degree, not from which name sounds most like medicine
- Supplementary and CASPer preparation on a real schedule, months out
- A frank read on competitiveness — including what the backup plan is, before it's needed
Where students apply
- Health Sciences (BHSc) — McMaster
- Medical Sciences — Western
- Life Sciences — Queen's
- Life Sciences — Toronto
- Kinesiology — Western, Queen's, McMaster
- Nursing (BScN) — across Ontario
Representative programs, not a list to apply from — the real list gets built around your student's grades, courses, and what they want out of the degree.
Other streams
Students often sit across two of these.
Next step
Plan the health sciences application properly.
An Ascent session starts with the transcript and the target, and ends with a written plan for what happens between now and the deadline.
Timing — health sciences
Grade 11 · fall
The after-the-degree conversation, early enough that it can still shape course selection.
Summer before Grade 12
Supplementary work begins, and CASPer preparation gets scheduled rather than improvised.
Grade 12 · winter
Supplementary and test deadlines, and a realistic read on which offers to plan around.