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Rural Context Score For City Folk!


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Hi there,

 

Can somebody tell me if there is any way somebody from Toronto or Ottawa could obtain a good context score from NOSM?

 

Rural volunteering? Living in the north during the summers?

 

NORTHERN Canada such as Nunavut? Ottawa/Toronto work with aboriginal populations?

 

Any thoughts/suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

Hope to hear soon...

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I don't know if anyone can definitively answer that. From what I can find, the context score seems to be a bit of a black box.

 

   What is important is where you grew up. For example, they want to know where you went to high school and what the population of that town/city is. On top of that, they want to know where you have lived for more than a year since you were born. They explicitly point out that visiting or having a cottage "up north" does NOT fit into "living in the north". The NOSM pdf link below states, "Research has shown that medical school graduates who have grown up in rural and remote areas are more likely to practice in a rural setting". That makes me think that where you were born/grew up and potentially where your family/ties are is what is important to them and ultimately what will keep you in the North. Having said that, on NOSM's website they say:

 

  "We are looking for a concrete, demonstrated interest in living and working in Northern Ontario, and/or other rural, remote or northern urban communities.  Volunteer experience, work experience, extracurricular activities and research are all areas one can endeavour to demonstrate this interest."

 

  So it seems, if you do spend summers up north or in a remote/rural area and work with underserviced populations (the Aboriginal population would be in this category) perhaps you could get yourself a non-zero score?

 

  However, if you look at this http://www.flinders.edu.au/fms/muster/Documents/107%204Context%20Tool%20Muster.pdf it seems that at least 90% of admitted students are "from Northern Ontario", the other ~ 10% are from rural and remote places from around Canada. On top of that, 5-10% are Aboriginal and about 20% are Francophone. Take what you will from that. 

 

  NOSM takes their social accountability mandate very seriously and they strive to have a medical school class that most represents the population of the North. They also want to retain their physicians to serve the population up North and in remote areas that desperately need it. Anything you can do to show commitment to this would certainly not hurt your application.  

 

    

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I feel like anyone from "the city" will have a fairly low chance at an interview/acceptance, unless you're EXTREMELY dedicated to living in NO and you can truly show it - without them thinking that you're just appeasing to NOSM's policies. 

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