Are You Prepared?

Here are some tips beyond General Requirements to ensure that you are prepared for school in naturopathic medicine. Also, if you have not been to see a naturopath yet, click on the What to Expect link under Prospective Patients.

Academic Prerequisites

All the naturopathic schools have very similar entrance requirements. Unlike other Canadian Medical schools, an undergraduate degree is mandatory for entry into both Naturopathic schools in Canada. Furthermore, there are specific course prerequisites: General Biology (one year), Biochemistry, General Chemistry (one year), Organic Chemistry, Intro Psychology (one year/half year for Boucher) & Humanities (one from a choice), Physiology (one year for CCNM). Some of the American schools also require Physics as well as a Math (algebra based) course.

**Note: if you do not have all the pre-medical sciences, CCNM does offer these through its Continuing Education Department.

The Application Process

There are no MCAT entrance exams for naturopathy (medical schools may weight MCAT scores at 15% of the applicants pre-interview admissions criteria - the remainder is 50% academic record, 25% life experiences and 10% reference letters. Source: University of Calgary, 2008). Instead, your academic record carries the most weight, followed by your extracurricular/volunteer/ employment (life experiences) and entrance letters will get you to the interview stage.

To prepare for your school interview and entrance letters, it helps if you are currently, or were in the past, the patient of a Naturopath. The experience of being a patient will show a relevant and much deeper understanding of the issues of naturopathic medicine.

Also, one of the application questions usually includes an understanding of the history of naturopathy. If at all possible, get the book Nature Doctors by Friedhelm Kirchfeld & Wade Boyle - you will need it in first year as well (it is available on line through Amazon and Chapters).

Volunteering or working somewhere in the health industry will also show your dedicated interest in health and helping others.

1st Year Prep

A strong science background will help ease the volume of required learning in the first year. If at all possible, take a university Human Physiology course and especially Anatomy. Although neither course is mandatory for acceptance, they are both recommended by most naturopathic schools. These are year long courses and Anatomy will be one of the most time consuming courses to learn because of the immense amount of memorization. I was fortunate to have a taken Anatomy (with cadaver labs) and was able to enjoy the review and learn some additional things that I missed the first time around. As such, I was able to put a minimal effort into studying Anatomy and focus on other courses that I had never encountered before (My wife and I also had a baby which took a bit of time!).

The intensity of naturopathic college is probably unlike anybody can prepare you for. A typical day (of 1st year) at CCNM can range from 8:30am to 6pm spent in classes with a 1 hour break to eat. Also, although the exams are slightly more applied than most university exams, a passing grade for each course is a minimum of 65-70% depending on the school . As such, many students go to class all day and then study until bed. This leaves very little time for family or a second job. The possibility to work might be better at Boucher because their trimester system lengthens their school year, but they take fewer classes at once.

School is very expensive, about $20,000 per year. So make sure that you work out your financing/loans so that you are not forced to work part-time during school. This can be a battle and I am by no means an expert on financial advice-it's tough! Both schools in Canada are eligible for government student loans (If more funding is needed, an educational Line of Credit to Naturopathic Students is most easily acquired through the CIBC). A few people do choose to work part-time throughout the year because it is a break from studying or relaxing atmosphere etc. but, I still don't know how they do it!

Remember though, if this is your passion, you will be able to do it!