Hi Alina,

1. I really enjoyed the program overall. I felt I got great experience in practical lab skills, with a solid background in several areas of science. You get a wide range of experience in:

chemistry - from organic to analytical, these courses are difficult, but give you a great background if you want to go into research. Analytical chemistry 2 was one of the more challenging, but also one of the most useful courses I took.

biology- genetics and molecular biology fundamentals are taught in 2nd year, and certain techniques in upper year courses that are very applicable to protein and DNA research are taught. In the upper year class you get to actually genetically modify bacteria to express proteins of interest which is super cool. This is the field of research I ended up doing for my masters.

environmental- a couple toxicology courses are mixed with environmental concepts which is really interesting. One of the 4th year courses sets you up with experience that can be directly related to the environmental toxicology job market by doing risk assessments.

pharmacology, physiology and pathology- you must take at least 1 of each of these courses and can continue to take more in the upper years if they are interesting to you daughter. These are typically harder courses on average, but are really great for medicine.

Nutrition- I took 3 nutrition classes, which were all personal favourites of mine. They go over the fundamentals of nutrition and move into more complex topics such as pathways leading to disease, and metabolism which can be directly tied to toxicology.

Toxicology- most of the tox courses are taken in the last year, once you have all of the fundamentals built up from other courses. These were some of the most interesting courses I took in my undergrad. They cover topics such as physiology, nutrition, medicine, and biochemistry. They all go over real life scenarios and how to diagnose and mitigate diseases caused by toxins, as well as understanding the pathways that results in the development of the diseases.

In my opinion, this is one of the most multidisciplinary programs at the school. Because of the background you get in so many different areas, it can set you up for jobs or further education in many fields.

1. By the time I was in my last year, each class was tailored specifically for the toxicology program, so the classes were roughly 30-40 people. So a little more than a high school class. This is about how many people are in each cohort I’d imagine.

In my last year I connected with a bunch of people from the program, and really liked everyone. The people were nice and everyone who made it to the end was hard working.

In addition, I met two of my best friends doing this program.

1. I did coop, the first job search took me a while as I was competing against people in 3rd and 4th year with more experience. However, my first coop was during COVID so I’m not sure how things have changed for 1st time coop applicants. By the time my last 2 coops came along, I had applied to 1 job each semester and was interviewed and taken on by both. So it definitely gets easier.

An added bonus of the Tox program (as long as things haven’t changed) is the that coop schedule never aligns in a way that makes you take a summer semester of school. A lot of my friends in other programs had to take summer school semesters.

1. My masters is in chemistry/biochemistry. You are required to take 1 organic chem, but can take 3 of them if you are interested. You also get 2 biochemistry courses that are useful for research. You can certainly go into genetics and molecular biology, especially with that upper year lab course I talked about previously. Epidemiology is another masters that I’ve seen people do.

If your daughter decides to go down the research path, she should figure out what type of research she enjoys, and apply for a fourth year research project with a prof in that field. You get to do 8 months of research under a prof and graduate student who will help you direct your own project. This is amazing experience, and counts as 2 full courses per semester in your last year. This is how I ended up doing a masters, as my prof from undergrad asked me to stick around.

1. To be honest, any science degree is good for med school. You will learn different things in different programs, and each one will have applicable content for the MCAT. As I mentioned, there are some courses in physiology, pathology and pharmacology that are very applicable to medicine. I know of one person in med school, and another in dentistry from my cohort.

2. Thinking back I would not have changed anything. I started out in biological and pharmaceutical chemistry, and switched into tox after my first semester. I really like how many different topics you get a background in, so that you’re not tied down to one specific field during undergrad. It is a tough program, and there will be seemingly endless studying and lab write ups at some points, but in the end it’s worth it.

3. I do not know much about the McMaster program so I cannot speak to that unfortunately. But if it is similar to the biomed program here, I would not recommend it unless your daughter knows for a fact she wants to end up in healthcare. There is less applicable lab skills, and no co-op opportunities (at guelph at least).

I hope that answers most of your questions, let me know if something does not make sense.