Queen’s Med 2020 AMA

[Sauna]

Happy to answer any questions 

[IMislove]

what restaurant will you go to first when quarantine is over?

[Peanuts29]

What are 3 pros and 3 cons to Queen's med? Leaning more towards Western but open to hearing about Queens and would be willing to consider before concretely rejecting. 

[hijkl]

do you have any idea if the waitlist typically starts moving the day after offers are due (so this year, may 26th), and, if so, what proportion of people receive offers at this point?

[Scinapse]

Do you think Queen's prepares students well and makes them competitive for residency applications? For the whole range of specialties (family med, psych, IM, EM, cardio, plastics, etc.)

[helicase]

1 hour ago, inkbat said:

do you have any idea if the waitlist typically starts moving the day after offers are due (so this year, may 26th), and, if so, what proportion of people receive offers at this point?

It is always about 2 weeks after acceptances (+/- 1 day). The numbers will depend on how many reject the offer. The waitlist will continue to move until a 'class is full' email is sent out.

[Sauna]

3 hours ago, IMislove said:

what restaurant will you go to first when quarantine is over?

Namaste

[Sauna]

4 hours ago, Peanuts29 said:

What are 3 pros and 3 cons to Queen's med? Leaning more towards Western but open to hearing about Queens and would be willing to consider before concretely rejecting. 

Congrats! Both solid programs, you can’t go wrong. There’s way more than 3 pro’s but imo the top 3 are:

1. Community. Yes, I know everyone says they have an amazing and friendly community. This is probably true, but QMed is just on a whole other level. For example, check this out. Or this. Find me another school that does this stuff and you can have the rest of my LOC. More info on the community in case you missed it. Another unique part of our community is that we’re the only Ontario school with 1 campus and 1 stream, so you’re whole class will be in the same room every day (for pre-clerkship). 

2. Small learner:faculty ratio. I knew about this when I chose Queen’s but didn’t fully appreciate it until I started clerkship. This is probably my favourite part of clerkship.  

The QMed formula for success goes like this:

The most important factor when it comes to matching is elective/clinical performance —> The best way to improve your clinical performance is with practice and seeing lots of patients to apply what you learned in pre-clerkship—> a learning environment with a low learner:faculty ratio, like Queen’s, provides this.

This is one of the reasons Queen’s has the top match rate in the country. Essentially it means that you’ll be maximizing the amount of time spent managing your own patients. On internal medicine for example, you’re responsible for managing, assessing, and coming up with a plan for 5-6 patients that you round on in the morning and review with your team at lunch. You’ll be catching a ton of babies on OBSGYN. There are tons of opportunities for you to do procedures that would normally be done by residents. 

We are very strong clinically because of this, in fact two of my classmates saved a guy’s life at a Loblaws a few months ago. 

3. With 3 post-secondary schools in a town of ~120k, Kingston is a big education hub. This has many implications; the faculty are here because they love teaching (when they accepted their job offers they knew that teaching would be a big component of what they do), there are lots of student-oriented activities, lots of cool coffee shops for studying, a beautiful pier, the highest number of restaurants per capita in Canada. This is a unique way to spend your 4 years of med school that probably can’t be replicated again in your lifetime. 

The main con for me was also Kingston. Kingston is a small town so there’s less stuff to do, but tbh there’s not much to do in London either, compared to bigger cities like Toronto and Ottawa. We still go to Toronto every couple of weeks anyway for Raptors games etc. There are a lot of older houses, but you don’t necessarily have to live there. There’s no cool downtown luxury condos, but at least you’re saving money (which is probably what you want to do at this stage of your training). 

There’s definitely more cons than this but I can’t recall them tbh either because I’ve found solutions or have learned to live with them. There’s definitely no deal breaker cons unless you want to be close to family/friends who are not in Kingston. 

Hope this helps

[Peanuts29]

Thanks this does help. Some followup questions. Wouldn't you be able to do a lot of those shadowing things at any school I'm not sure I get why this is unique to Queens? Also, the community stuff looks cool but wouldn't it also be problematic because then you are more likely to be stuck with people you don't like in close proximity? I would be worried someone would sabatoge me if I'm doing everything with my class. There must be 1 person out of the 100 people that I will not get along with and being forced to be with them sounds problematic. 

[bumbleb33]

1 hour ago, Peanuts29 said:

Thanks this does help. Some followup questions. Wouldn't you be able to do a lot of those shadowing things at any school I'm not sure I get why this is unique to Queens? Also, the community stuff looks cool but wouldn't it also be problematic because then you are more likely to be stuck with people you don't like in close proximity? I would be worried someone would sabatoge me if I'm doing everything with my class. There must be 1 person out of the 100 people that I will not get along with and being forced to be with them sounds problematic. 

So I don't go to Queen's, but I can speak to the class size -> don't like people -> sabatoge (?) comment.

I know I hate when people say this, but the reality is that no matter what environment you're in, there are going to be people that rub you the wrong way. This will be true in medical school, residency, and in the general workforce. It's frustrating, and annoying, and it'll be up to you to learn how to work with them regardless and come up with strategies to not let that get you distracted (excluding obviously serious bullying/harassment).

Whether you're in a class of 100 vs. 200, I don't suspect it will make that much of a difference (I noticed you've posted about Western, if you're at the London site you'll be working with 133 students, so not that much of a size difference). You are bound to have people in your class that you don't like regardless of size, and most likely larger class size = more people you don't like. In larger group settings it'll be easier to avoid because there's not that much classmate interaction unless you sit with them, and in small groups, that's just the luck of the draw for group assignments (which do switch up every few months so it's not that big of a deal). And once again, it is an essential life skill to learn to work with people you may not get along with perfectly. Remain respectful and professional, and try to leave your personal bias at the door.

As for the sabatoge comment, I'm really not sure you should be as concerned about that. I know that the premed journey is STRESSFUL, and it can push you into a place where it's you vs. the world, and at some schools it can come across as cut-throat. From my experience, medical school becomes the time when you have to distance yourself from comparing yourself to your classmates, and focus on making yourself a stronger applicant, period. Its a more individual competition, as in reality you often find your classmates are your supporters (sharing notes, extracurricular opportunities, sharing names of great docs to observe etc.). It is up to you to go out and meet docs, observe specialties, join interest groups and leadership opportunities, find research supervisors if that's something you're interested in. You're in control of how you behave and perform in clinical settings, which is how docs will get to know you to network/build references.  There are so many different opportunities and pathways that you are in control of navigating, so it would be difficult for someone to sabatoge you. 

[Sauna]

2 hours ago, Peanuts29 said:

Thanks this does help. Some followup questions. Wouldn't you be able to do a lot of those shadowing things at any school I'm not sure I get why this is unique to Queens? 

Good questions! It’s unique to Queen’s because of the ratios. Let’s look at 2 examples. 

Example 1: You are scheduled for a psyc outpatient clinic. You arrive and the attending tells you to start seeing patients and review with them after each encounter. You end up seeing 10 patients.

Example 2: You are scheduled for a psyc outpatient clinic. You arrive and there’s a R1 there as well. The attending tells you both to start seeing patients and review with them after each encounter. You end up seeing 5 patients and the resident sees the other 5. 

Multiply this across all 2 years of clerkship and that’s the difference having additional learners creates. Having just one additional learner can make the difference between scrubbing in to assist with a surgery and there being no room for you at the table because residents and fellows are prioritized. 

2 hours ago, Peanuts29 said:

Also, the community stuff looks cool but wouldn't it also be problematic because then you are more likely to be stuck with people you don't like in close proximity? I would be worried someone would sabatoge me if I'm doing everything with my class. There must be 1 person out of the 100 people that I will not get along with and being forced to be with them sounds problematic. 

@bumbleb33 provided an excellent response to this. I will just add that this hasn’t been a problem for me during pre-clerkship.

[Sauna]

7 hours ago, Scinapse said:

Do you think Queen's prepares students well and makes them competitive for residency applications? For the whole range of specialties (family med, psych, IM, EM, cardio, plastics, etc.)

Yes, Queen’s has had the highest match rate in the country consistently. If you look at the specialties people are matching to, it’s usually been around ~1/3 primary care, ~1/3 internal medicine, and ~1/3 surgery/other. We did very well again this year (2020) from what I’ve heard, with grads matching to the most competitive specialties and locations. I think that a strong applicant can match to their specialty of choice from any school, but Queen’s does a great job of providing support and direction. For example, my class is currently scheduled for 1 on 1 meetings with our career advising faculty to discuss how covid-19 will impact our individual career choices, and to provide support/answer any questions. 

[spooked]

Thank you for answering our questions!

What would you say are next steps post acceptance?

[Sauna]

59 minutes ago, spooked said:

Thank you for answering our questions!

What would you say are next steps post acceptance?

Go celebrate!!

[lighthouse]

Hi, I'm wondering if you could speak a bit more to how students are assessed at Queen's? Do you have frequent tests or just a midterm and exam? And what is the passing grade?

[Sauna]

1 hour ago, lighthouse said:

Hi, I'm wondering if you could speak a bit more to how students are assessed at Queen's? Do you have frequent tests or just a midterm and exam? And what is the passing grade?

It’s both; frequent low stakes assessments + feedback, as well as a final exam that you need to pass to pass the block. Passing grade is a 60. 

[FrannieLydon]

14 hours ago, Sauna said:

It’s both; frequent low stakes assessments + feedback, as well as a final exam that you need to pass to pass the block. Passing grade is a 60. 

Hypothetically, what happens when you do not successfully pass a block? 

[Sauna]

46 minutes ago, FrannieLydon said:

Hypothetically, what happens when you do not successfully pass a block? 

If there are extenuating circumstances or if it’s just one block, you will have a chance to write a supplementary exam. If you pass the supplementary exam, you get the same P on your transcript that everyone else has. 

If it’s more than one block, there will be a more in-depth discussion about what is going on and whether it’s better to write 2+ supplementary exams or repeat the year. This is very rare. 

[IMislove]

46 minutes ago, FrannieLydon said:

Hypothetically, what happens when you do not successfully pass a block? 

Nvm got answered.

[FrannieLydon]

4 minutes ago, Sauna said:

If there are extenuating circumstances or if it’s just one block, you will have a chance to write a supplementary exam. If you pass the supplementary exam, you get the same P on your transcript that everyone else has. 

Thanks! Quick follow up, I understand that everything is basically pass fail – however, on exams will they still show you your total mark? 

[IMislove]

11 minutes ago, FrannieLydon said:

Thanks! Quick follow up, I understand that everything is basically pass fail – however, on exams will they still show you your total mark? 

Yes

[lighthouse]

Another curriculum question: I understand that some other schools (Western and Ottawa?) have their core rotations before their electives and apparently some students have found that beneficial for clerkship. Does Queen's mix core rotations/electives and if so, have you found this to be a challenge?

[Aetherus]

18 minutes ago, lighthouse said:

Another curriculum question: I understand that some other schools (Western and Ottawa?) have their core rotations before their electives and apparently some students have found that beneficial for clerkship. Does Queen's mix core rotations/electives and if so, have you found this to be a challenge?

Queen’s has the best set up for electives in my opinion. We have 6 weeks in 3rd year after you have completed 3 core rotations, and then you have another 8 weeks in September/Oct/Nov pre-carms and then you have 2 weeks in january. The 6 weeks in 3rd year are fantastic as it is easier to set up electives at that time as no other school has elective time that match with this. Furthermore, it allows you to test drive whatever specialty you are interested in so that you don’t realize in 4th year after doing a few electives that it is not a right fit and then you dont have time to fix your schedule to be competitive for anything else.

[racoonmed1997]

Hi @Sauna! Thanks so much for doing this. Have you heard anything about classes returning in-person or online?