HiHopes Posted April 4, 2017 Report Share Posted April 4, 2017 Are there any spaces within the busy three-year structure of the program to do some research in a particular field of medicine? In a super ideal situation, I'd have to pick between UofA and UofC. The capacity I'll have within each of the programs to become a competitive applicant for Carms is a big factor for me. I get that research is not absolutely necessary. What other edge would the three year program give an applicant for a competitive specialty later on? Thanks for the help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExercMed Posted April 4, 2017 Report Share Posted April 4, 2017 I know that UofC has the leaders in medicine program that allows you to pursue a graduate and medical degree at the same time. Although, within a 3-year time span, I'm sure it would be quite intense! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiHopes Posted April 4, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 4, 2017 Hi there exercmed, The LIM actually sets up a time before or during the MD program for students to do a master's or PhD. I'm thinking more along the lines of research focused on aspects of a medical specialty, for example. Something like what people at the UofA can do during their Summers,for example! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExercMed Posted April 4, 2017 Report Share Posted April 4, 2017 Ahhhh, thanks for the clarification. I'm sure that those opportunities would be present within the UofC program as well. Although, it might just have to be done concurrently with your studies as opposed to during a summer session. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiHopes Posted April 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2017 I wouldn't assume so, you know? Especially because how much denser the workload is for Calgary. Anyone who is in the program right now and knows if you can? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newmed2016 Posted April 5, 2017 Report Share Posted April 5, 2017 Totally possible to do research while at u of c if you want to (as part of LiM or just on your own)....lots of my classmates have ongoing projects, if it's something you want to do you can 100% make time for it. Also, you can do a research project as part of the evidence based medicine course in second year. Not that I've ever been a U of A student, but I definitely wouldn't say "less time to do research" is in anyway a weakness of the u of c program. Good Luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiHopes Posted April 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2017 That's great to hear! It also levels the playing field in that department and makes it harder to pick one or the other The good news is that both have pretty much everything I'd be looking for Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henslice Posted April 5, 2017 Report Share Posted April 5, 2017 Are there any spaces within the busy three-year structure of the program to do some research in a particular field of medicine? In a super ideal situation, I'd have to pick between UofA and UofC. The capacity I'll have within each of the programs to become a competitive applicant for Carms is a big factor for me. I get that research is not absolutely necessary. What other edge would the three year program give an applicant for a competitive specialty later on? Thanks for the help I hope this "ideal situation" becomes reality for you! If/when it happens, I'd like to know what other factors that you'd consider before choosing a school. I think i'm in the same situation as you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiHopes Posted April 5, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 5, 2017 Nice! Let's hope we'll both be in this extremely fortunate situation. Quick breakdown of what's important for me: Lifestyle (Ease of access to sports facilities, mountains. Either will do, it seems) Convenience (I'll be driving in Calgary a lot more, while I'd just rent really close in Edmonton, making Edmonton more convenient but more expensive) Academics (as mentioned, I want to be able to be the most competitive I can be. Thought UofA had an edge, but perhaps I was wrong) Affordability (I already have a network in Calgary, so Edmonton will be much less affordable for me) Proximity to friends/family (Calgary wins this one for me) Really haven't decided and I think there's not even a point yet. I'll at least have informed myself as much as possible until May, so that at least I'll streamline the decision-making process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henslice Posted April 6, 2017 Report Share Posted April 6, 2017 Nice! Let's hope we'll both be in this extremely fortunate situation. Quick breakdown of what's important for me: Lifestyle (Ease of access to sports facilities, mountains. Either will do, it seems) Convenience (I'll be driving in Calgary a lot more, while I'd just rent really close in Edmonton, making Edmonton more convenient but more expensive) Academics (as mentioned, I want to be able to be the most competitive I can be. Thought UofA had an edge, but perhaps I was wrong) Affordability (I already have a network in Calgary, so Edmonton will be much less affordable for me) Proximity to friends/family (Calgary wins this one for me) Really haven't decided and I think there's not even a point yet. I'll at least have informed myself as much as possible until May, so that at least I'll streamline the decision-making process. For me, both schools rank equally in all the factors that you mentioned, except for academics. Like you, I'm also aiming for a competitive residency. I'm assuming that U of A might give me a slight advantage because of the opportunity to do research during the two summer breaks of the program. But this is just an assumption. This assumption is supported by yet another assumption that research is an important factor to secure a spot in a competitive residency program. Like you said, research is not really necessary and reading thorough the 'medical specialties' section of this site, you'd also confirm that. Having said that though, perhaps there are other reasons that a 4-year program might be of more academic advantage than a 3-year program, and vice versa. Of the top of my head, I can think of two better ways to rank both schools in terms of their probability to help you score your ideal specialty that isn't based on assumption. First, is by looking to see if CARMS publish the matching rate of each specialty for each school and then compairing the rates. This method obviously won't really tell you if research is a central component of the matching process, but it's a starting point. Alternatively, you can post in the medical specialties section of this site or PM a few people from both schools that got into your specialty of choice, and ask them if they think the 4-year programs have any inherent advantage over the 3-year programs with regards to matching to your particular specialty. These are all crude ways of identifying academic ranking, but they are better than assumption. P.S. I haven't done any of these, but they are probably what I'd do if I was accepted into both schools Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiHopes Posted April 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 I'll do just that! Thanks for the idea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZBL Posted April 7, 2017 Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 Just going to add that while research is not impossible at a 3 year program, it's obviously easier at a 4 year program, or perhaps easier to have higher output - especially if you don't have a research background and it's a new thing for you. UofC/Mac have people matching to competitive specialties, but to make their application competitive they had to do the same work as those in a 4 year school but with one less year so it's definitely more challenging (not sure what match rates are like for UofC vs UofA for things like derm, plastics, EM etc...could probably find this somewhere). I do know that it fluctuates, in that some years we have a bunch matching to competitive things and some years we have very few. Similarly, research output is variable among those participating in research. Lastly, I and others have found that if you are interested in a competitive specialty there is minimal room for error or delay at UofC - need to hit the ground running without looking back which sucks if you have a change of interest for specialty down the road as there's not much time to recover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiHopes Posted April 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 Hi ZBL, I've done a lot of volunteering in emergency and have quite a strong passion for it. I get a feeling that I'd be okay to hit the ground running if that's what it takes. It does worry me that the lack of opportunities for research output may hurt the Carms app after, even if emergency is not nearly as intense as seen or plastics. I hear that it's a mid-tier kind of competitive specialty. Do you know if that is accurate? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZBL Posted April 7, 2017 Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 No, EM is not mid tier. Recently it's been #3 or #4 behind derm and plastics for "competitiveness" (ratio of available spots to number of applicants) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ballsortahard Posted April 7, 2017 Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 Thats weird, I always assumed Ortho and Neuro surgery were the most competitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiHopes Posted April 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 No, EM is not mid tier. Recently it's been #3 or #4 behind derm and plastics for "competitiveness" (ratio of available spots to number of applicants) Well, damn. Did I gather correctly that you're a UofC student? What's your personal feeling about which of the two'd be better for EM (either family/EM or Royal college EM)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZBL Posted April 7, 2017 Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 Nope. NeuroSx is reasonably competitive, but ortho is actually near the bottom for competitiveness along with FM and psych. Ortho is competitive in the US though. Check the CaRMS website though. The competitive ones are derm, plastics, EM, PMR, then Ophthal, ENT, NeuroSx and Uro follow those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ZBL Posted April 7, 2017 Report Share Posted April 7, 2017 Well, damn. Did I gather correctly that you're a UofC student? What's your personal feeling about which of the two'd be better for EM (either family/EM or Royal college EM)? I'm not up to date on the happenings in EM, but my own personal opinion is that 5 years is not necessary to be a good EM doctor (its residency is shorter in the US). FM/EM is nice because it's shorter and you can always do FM on the side, but my feeling is that it will not be easy to get a job in an urban centre without the 5 year. Maybe it doesn't matter if you want to go rural though. Someone else more knowledgable about EM may have more info. From a research standpoint, probably the 5 year is better but I don't think either have traditionally been as research focused for applicants in the way derm, neuroSx or ophthal are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.