Is Pursuing Biomedical Sciences a Viable Pathway to Medical School?

[Sorry!]

Well I'm applying to university in the winter time. I should be in university this year but I needed to take an extra course due to the program changing requirements and the summer school course was full by the time I found out :(.

Anyways I want to take Biomedical Sciences program offered at York University:

http://futurestudents.yorku.ca/program/biomedical_science

After that I would like to attempt to get into grad school (medical) and pursue an M.D..
Friends I've talked to have been telling me to jump from a course such as Biomedical to med school is a crazy unlikely jump and that my chances of being considered are basically 0. I've looked into it and I can't understand why that would be so (I've heard of people going to med school from an engineering program.) I've also talked to a councillor at one of the schools and she told me that one of the most important things is volunteer work.

Just wondering what you guys think... is it a massive jump? Does your academic background play the largest part in getting into grad school?

As well is the biomedical field good career wise? Like I'm interested in it a lot and I wouldn't mind doing research etc. (if med school doesn't end up working out for me) but if there are no jobs available then I don't see the point in wasting 40 grand... anyone know a website where it could list fields and their job demand? That would be great :D

 

[Choppy]

Keep in mind this is advice about medical school applications from people on a physics forum...

First of all medical school is a professional school, NOT graduate school (with the possible exception of combined MD/PhD programs).

Secondly, to apply to medical school you need to satisfy the prerequisites which vary from school to school but generally consist of a typical first year for just about any science program. Beyond that, your degree doesn't really matter. You can get in with a degree in music, provided you have the prerequisits. To be competative, you need to have very high marks and have a well rounded CV - including community service and volunteer work. So unless these friends advising you are in medical school, I wouldn't put a lot of weight on their comments.

I can't tell you too much about the biomedical field. What I would do is look at the people who have graduated from the program you're interested in and see where they've ended up.