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Hi everyone,
I’m a 33-yr. old mom in Toronto, Ontario, staying home with two girls, aged 2.5 and 1. I also teach piano lessons from home, part-time.
I’m planning on applying to med school in 3 years, but am excited about the steps I’m taking now to further confirm this as the way for me. I’m volunteering in a local hospital and taking a physiology course this fall, and have also signed up for a Mini-Med school (6 evenings) offered by U. of Toronto as continuing education to the general public.
Anyone else from Canada?
Hi Marlys! I’m not from Canada, but I’m a piano teacher, too. 😀 I started teaching when I was in grad school for clinical social work to supplement child support and loans. I have continued to teach even as I have worked in social work and other jobs and love it! Now, in a couple of weeks I will start med school, at the age of 43, and hope to keep teaching a few students while in school. My children are older now, 15, 18, and 20, so they are much more independent than your little ones, but I still need to be available to them…so, I don’t know if I can relistically “do it all”…but I can at least try.
Good luck with your pre-med preparations. Do you already have a degreee and are just doing premed course, or do you have to do other dgree requirements? If you have any questions or feel the need for support, let me (all of us here)know.
cheers,
SueHello Sue,
It’s nice to find someone with a couple of things in common! My background is varied, but includes both piano and social work. I have my ARCT and a bachelor in music, and have taught since I was 16, but never thought I’d be a musician as my main occupation. I just taught as an easy way to earn money while I was at school. I also have a bachelor of theology, and I’ve done some work in church ministry, and I have a B.A. in Social Development Studies, which is an obscure program from the U. of Waterloo, basically being equivalent to a B.S.W. but without the practicum component. So, three degrees (four counting my ARCT) and I still want to go back to school! Argh.
I’ve had about a decade of searching and unfulfilling work (hence the different directions). Then my husband and I decided to have children, with me staying at home for a few years with the tots so I can care for them and know for darn sure what I then want to do.
After much soul-searching and some dollars spent on a career counselor, I confirmed my dream of being a doctor (family practice). Whereas I get so fired up about this possibility, it’s the practical challenges of doing the training with a young family that is my biggest stumbling block. We’d like to have another baby, hopefully in the next year, so my plan is to apply in three years, when (God willing, and the stars are in the right places) our kids will be nearly 6, 4 and 2. I’ll be 36 at that time, I’m looking only at applying to MacMaster University so I would be done at 41.
MacMaster has a unique approach and different entrance requirements, so I don’t actually need specific courses to apply, but I’m going to take some anyway just to make my time there easier, since I don’t have a university science background.
So, thanks for your words, Sue, and all the best to you as you begin this fall! Congratulations on your acceptance!
Mimicat, how old are your little ones, and where are you at in the whole premed/med school process? It’s great to hear from another Canadian, since the systems are different in so many ways. I initiated a Canadian regional discussion group through this board, but I don’t know if it’s gotten off the ground, as I’ve had lots of trouble accessing this site and the various groups over the last few months. Do you know of any specific threads or discussions pertaining to us Canadian moms/mds?
Hi Marleys,
It is nice to see some fellow Canadian Moms posting in the forum. My situation is similar to yours. I have been working towards medical school for many years while my children were very young. I needed to upgrade my highschool marks before being accepted university. I am happy to say that all of the hard work has paid off and I am starting the McMaster medical program in August. My children are 11, 10 and 8. I am 36 and I do know of other Moms that will be in my class.
I wish you all the best of luck, and if you have any questions feel free to contact me. I have been going through the application process for a couple of years and I know how stressful this can be.
Debbie
Hi Debbie,
Congratulations on your acceptance, especially since it sounds like it wasn`t your first try. Did you apply at a number of universities or were you honing in on MacmasterÉ (ack, I can`t get the keyboard to do a question mark, so these French accents are going to come up at the end of each question, unfortunately. Sorry. I need to figure that out, but for the time being I`m just going to send this.)
One big question for me is timing. I want to get going on my career of choice (finally!), and get practicing before I`m “too“ far into my 40s. If I waited longer before applying I`d love to have two more kids (haven`t convinced hubby of this yet), but then we`d have four little ones with me in med school (kids` ages would be, say, 2, 4, 6, 7.5, and mine would be 38 in 1st year). The stress-o-meter might just explode. It`s probably more likely that we`ll have just one more and I`ll stay home for two years after her birth (which at this point I want to do). The tricky part is that in three years, when I want to apply, is the last year before the dreaded double cohort will be applying (after their three years of undergrad). So, if I don`t make it in on my first try, then I compete against MANY more people. And I thought the stats of admission at Mac were intimidating now. I guess I could apply in two years, but of course I`d have to be prepared to go earlier too, when my theoretical third child would theoretically be just over 1 year old. Any thoughtsÉ (apologies again)
Well, good luck as you prepare for med school in a few weeks! wow. How are your kids and husband feeling about the changes that will ensueÉ Does your family need to moveÉ How do you think it will be for your kids, at the age and stage they`re atÉ
Marlys
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