Why Ottawa?

[zeja02]

As I'm preparing for my interview, i'm having trouble with this question since i dont have much experience with uOttawa or the city itself. Can any current Ottawa students shed light on unique things about the program that make it special?

[HappyAndHopeful]

Obviously I’m a bit biased, but here are a few reasons why I think our program is unique:  

1. The sense of community. We are very close as a class, and this may sound cliché, but it does feel like a big family to me. The faculty and staff are wonderful as well, and very helpful/friendly. There are always fun social events going on, too, and there is a lot of academic mentorship and support from upper year students.

2. We have a wellness curriculum, which I think is really awesome. Part of that curriculum entails mindfulness sessions that we have throughout the year. 

3. We have afternoons off. This allows for a lot of flexibility. You can study, do extracurriculars, or electives in the afternoon, which is really nice!

4. That brings me to the next point: electives. We are able to start doing electives as early as October of first year. You can do them in essentially any specialty, which is awesome.  

5. I find our curriculum to be very balanced between lecture, CBL (small group case-based learning), labs, and physical skills. It’s a nice mix, and I find that I usually come out of the week with a good understanding of the concepts learned that week. 

6. Ottawa itself is a beautiful city. There is always something to do!

I hope that helps!  

[bruh]

2 hours ago, HappyAndHopeful said:

Obviously I’m a bit biased, but here are a few reasons why I think our program is unique:  

1. The sense of community. We are very close as a class, and this may sound cliché, but it does feel like a big family to me. The faculty and staff are wonderful as well, and very helpful/friendly. There are always fun social events going on, too, and there is a lot of academic mentorship and support from upper year students as well.

2. We have a wellness curriculum, which I think is really awesome. Part of that curriculum entails mindfulness sessions that we have throughout the year. 

3. We have afternoons off. This allows for a lot of flexibility. You can study, do extracurriculars, or electives in the afternoon, which is awesome!

4. That brings me to the next point: electives. We are able to start doing electives as early as October of first year. You can do them in essentially any specialty, which is awesome.  

5. I find our curriculum to be very balanced between lecture, CBL (small group case-based learning), labs, and physical skills. It’s a nice mix, and I find that I usually come out of the week with a good understanding of the concepts learned that week. 

6. Ottawa itself is a beautiful city. There is always something to do!

I hope that helps!  

That sounds awesome. Especially the ability to do electives so early on gives you a lot of exposure right away

 

I know there may be a bias, but may you also tell us what the cons of UOttawa are, if any?

[Curiousaboutapps1]

3 hours ago, FatherFranklin said:

That sounds awesome. Especially the ability to do electives so early on gives you a lot of exposure right away

 

I know there may be a bias, but may you also tell us what the cons of UOttawa are, if any?

It's cold as shit. 

Edit: Also, if you are anglophone, you have to scroll to the bottom of the e-mails sent out by Admin to get to the English version of the message.  

Seriously though, Ottawa is awesome. 

[bruh]

5 hours ago, Curiousaboutapps1 said:

It's cold as shit. 

Edit: Also, if you are anglophone, you have to scroll to the bottom of the e-mails sent out by Admin to get to the English version of the message.  

Seriously though, Ottawa is awesome. 

My other interview is with Calgary and that’s colder than Ottawa so that’s not even a con for me haha

[rmorelan]

7 hours ago, FatherFranklin said:

My other interview is with Calgary and that’s colder than Ottawa so that’s not even a con for me haha

Ha, yeah Ottawa isn't even the coldest place to do residency in Ontario. 

(says the person struggling along with the rest of the city of Ottawa in this morning of fog, freezing rain, and some type of weather I don't have a good name for)

 

[HappyAndHopeful]

On 2018-02-11 at 2:10 PM, FatherFranklin said:

That sounds awesome. Especially the ability to do electives so early on gives you a lot of exposure right away

 

I know there may be a bias, but may you also tell us what the cons of UOttawa are, if any?

Haha, like others have mentioned, the weather here is hard to get used to for some people! I don't find it too cold because my hometown is colder, but it goes from being very cold to very warm/melty within a short amount of time, with rain that often freezes.  It definitely makes walking to school interesting at times.  BUT I think the program makes up for any weird weather we get.

In terms of cons with regards to the program, I'm only in first year, but there isn't really anything that comes to mind.  One nice thing is that the faculty is VERY receptive to feedback, with regards to individual lectures, tutors, the curriculum as a whole, and any suggestions students have.  Things have been changed/implemented based on feedback from students, so they definitely take feedback to heart.