Ottawa's Reputation

[kdsnipe35]

Hi everyone,

 

I was waitlisted at the medical school and I'm just curious

[Riskybusiness]

rankings... which ones are you talking about? Also, what do these rankings consider, and what do they even mean?

 

here's some evidence:

 

https://www.carms.ca/assets/upload/pdfs/2013R1_MatchResults/Table_16_En.pdf

https://www.carms.ca/en/r-1-match-reports

 

Seems like Ottawa had the 3rd highest residency matching rate (% of people who got their first choice) in Canada for 2013 (2nd in Ontario after NOSM). If you look at the data, this is fairly consistent across the years. This stat is just one of many - take a look through the different reports if you're interested! Also, take this data with a large grain of salt.

[kdsnipe35]

rankings... which ones are you talking about? Also, what do these rankings consider, and what do they even mean?

 

here's some evidence:

 

https://www.carms.ca/assets/upload/pdfs/2013R1_MatchResults/Table_16_En.pdf

https://www.carms.ca/en/r-1-match-reports

 

Seems like Ottawa had the 3rd highest residency matching rate (% of people who got their first choice) in Canada for 2013 (2nd in Ontario after NOSM). If you look at the data, this is fairly consistent across the years. This stat is just one of many - take a look through the different reports if you're interested! Also, take this data with a large grain of salt.

 

I'm taking about on a national level and globally...

[une17]

Are you referring to the rankings done by Maclean's, The Globe and Mail, Times Higher Education global rankings etc? If so, those have zero bearing on the quality or reputation of the MD program at Ottawa.

 

As Riskybusiness said, look at the residency match lists. Assuming you want to stay in medicine after your MD, then the match rate is what matters compared to 'rankings'. In that context, Ottawa is a fantastic place to study medicine.

[rmorelan]

Are you referring to the rankings done by Maclean's, The Globe and Mail, Times Higher Education global rankings etc? If so, those have zero bearing on the quality or reputation of the MD program at Ottawa.

 

As Riskybusiness said, look at the residency match lists. Assuming you want to stay in medicine after your MD, then the match rate is what matters compared to 'rankings'. In that context, Ottawa is a fantastic place to study medicine.

 

hehehehe - I really hate those rankings. Made up numbers by people with arbitrary definitions of reputation and quality. All for what purpose - how does that ranking actually impact anything?

 

This isn't the states - in public education all the schools roughly get the same amount per student and charge roughly the same tuition. That means they are all on the same resource level. It is really have huge advantage over other schools with such a system. It isn't Harvard where you can charge huge sums over everyone else. It also isn't the US where you can charge a variable amount for your services based on reputation. The best and worst radiologist in Ontario would earn the exact same for reading the same scan for instance It is a different system.

 

That all being said if Ottawa was in the toilet for some reason you wouldn't want to go there - but it isn't. Some people are looking for a solid education with the all important good matching result in the end. Ottawa has that in spades. Go break down exactly how they compute these meaningless scores and see why they are silly. Ask yourself how that particular aspect of their metric actually would help a medical student match (that is your all consuming goal in medical school - find out what you want to do and match to it. You would be surprised likely how little the school you are from factors into that).

[kdsnipe35]

Thanks for the replies. On another unrelated note, in terms of conditional wgpa, does your current year gpa have to be above the set gpa or does your combined gpa have to be above as im waitlisted and concerned i wont meet the cut if i do get off the list. For instance, does my third year have to be above 3.85 or does this year combined with my first two have to be above it?

 

[NeuroBurgers]

rankings... which ones are you talking about? Also, what do these rankings consider, and what do they even mean?

 

here's some evidence:

 

https://www.carms.ca/assets/upload/pdfs/2013R1_MatchResults/Table_16_En.pdf

https://www.carms.ca/en/r-1-match-reports

 

Seems like Ottawa had the 3rd highest residency matching rate (% of people who got their first choice) in Canada for 2013 (2nd in Ontario after NOSM). If you look at the data, this is fairly consistent across the years. This stat is just one of many - take a look through the different reports if you're interested! Also, take this data with a large grain of salt.

 

1) To be fair, I think residency matching rates have a lot to do with which residency programs/specialties the students are applying to, and less to do with the school (with the exception of the French schools. They tend to have lower matching rates...must be a Quebec thing). For instance I think a higher proportion NOSM students, in 2013, applied to Family Medicine; a program that is less competitive than, say, Neurosurgery. Hence, higher residency matching rates.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, or elaborate if I missed something!

 

2) I noticed, in those charts, that 89.2% of international medical school applicants received their first choice. That is slightly higher than the match rate for students coming from US schools. How is this possible? Is it because the majority of IMGs are applying to Family Med? I was always under the impression that IMGs had a much lower match rate...

[goingplaid]

1) To be fair, I think residency matching rates have a lot to do with which residency programs/specialties the students are applying to, and less to do with the school (with the exception of the French schools. They tend to have lower matching rates...must be a Quebec thing). For instance I think a higher proportion NOSM students, in 2013, applied to Family Medicine; a program that is less competitive than, say, Neurosurgery. Hence, higher residency matching rates.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, or elaborate if I missed something!

 

2) I noticed, in those charts, that 89.2% of international medical school applicants received their first choice. That is slightly higher than the match rate for students coming from US schools. How is this possible? Is it because the majority of IMGs are applying to Family Med? I was always under the impression that IMGs had a much lower match rate...

 

There are Ottawa students who apply for, and match to, very competitive programs every year. I don't have the stat on me at the moment, but the last time I looked the average (excluding NOSM) for Family Med applicants was about 50%. Ottawa is usually just below this as well as Mac. When I saw the stat, UofT was on 50% and Western was above.

 

I think our match results are great, but it really depends on the applicants themselves, if they back up, etc, etc,...

 

GP

[amichel]

1) To be fair, I think residency matching rates have a lot to do with which residency programs/specialties the students are applying to, and less to do with the school (with the exception of the French schools. They tend to have lower matching rates...must be a Quebec thing). For instance I think a higher proportion NOSM students, in 2013, applied to Family Medicine; a program that is less competitive than, say, Neurosurgery. Hence, higher residency matching rates.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong, or elaborate if I missed something!

 

2) I noticed, in those charts, that 89.2% of international medical school applicants received their first choice. That is slightly higher than the match rate for students coming from US schools. How is this possible? Is it because the majority of IMGs are applying to Family Med? I was always under the impression that IMGs had a much lower match rate...

 

 

89% of IMGs WHO MATCHED got their first choice.

[NeuroBurgers]

89% of IMGs WHO MATCHED got their first choice.

 

Thanks, makes more sense