Biggest Faculty or Specialization Misconceptions You’d Like to Share

I'm in ISCI but the best premed program I have to say is MICB. Let me explain a few things first:

A common misconception is that you can't take lab courses when you're in ISCI. You can take BIOL lab courses which are equally as valuable as MICB and CAPS lab courses. You can also join BIOMOD and iGEM, NSERC, or apply for research scholarships. If you're diligent enough, research experience shouldn't be a problem in ISCI.

Also second misconception: That ISCI is easy for GPA. This only really applies to fourth year because 3rd years can't really get into the real GPA boosting courses like SPPH because fourth-year registration dates are earlier. So in 3rd year you end up taking pretty much the same courses as any other major that you are integrating minus the labs. Now the reason I said MICB is better is that they have almost equal flexibility in 3rd and 4th year and they allow you to take labs. When I made my course schedule I noticed I was planning on taking the same courses as my MICB friends and had very little flexibility in taking "easy" courses. Obviously, there's the option of taking whatever and going YOLO, but I noticed almost nobody does this in my program.

Anyways, only apply to ISCI if you have a clear goal that you want to accomplish. For example, you can make a pretty compelling Neurobiology integration if you're in ISCI by taking biological courses in CAPS, PSYC, BIOC, and BIOL.

/r/UBC Thread