HappyAndHopeful

Thank you so much Birdy, very much appreciate you sharing your experiences with it. Very best of luck with your applications!

Welcome to the uOttawa med family I’m sorry it’s been so stressful for you guys regarding not knowing what the exact plans are for this upcoming school year. I’m not sure what the plans are either, but I can guarantee that the faculty is working hard to put in place the best plan for you guys as possible. They just extensively reworked our 3rd and 4th year curriculums to allow us to continue clinical duties and electives safely in the context of the pandemic and public health recommendations, and I think they’ve done a great job so far with being transparent and advocating in our best interes

New update on the AFMC website; no visiting electives for the duration of the 2020-2021 academic year: https://afmc.ca/en/news-publications/learner-news

Unless they have changed something, no need to buy any of those items!

Thank you!

Mixed feelings - I totally understand the reasoning and support the decision, and happy fourth year won’t be as expensive. Selfishly, disappointed that it means I won’t be able to do any electives back home where family is, or in locations and specialties I would probably never have the chance to do again in the future. Also wondering how this will impact the prospect of getting letters. I imagine people will have a much bigger variety of elective experiences (in terms of specialty, since it seems unlikely to do 8 weeks of one specialty in the same city?) even if applying to competitive specia

Hi all! Perhaps a simple question, but I haven’t been able to find the answer elsewhere: when applying for a +1, how does it work if you’ve taken time off during residency (ex. 6-month maternity leave) and finish residency later than the rest of your cohort? Do you still apply at the same time, but just start and end the +1 later (and is this a disadvantage for your application?), or do you have to wait for the following year to apply so you can start July 1? Thanks very much in advance!

That's correct - it's a mix between downtown, close to the Civic, and near RGN/General. There's a neighbourhood with a lot of townhouses called Freedom Private that's essentially right beside the school, and a lot of students live there. The ones that live farther generally drive to the med school (parking is about $700 from Sept. to April), take the bus, or take one of the shuttles - there is a uOttawa shuttle that runs between main campus and RGN (also stops at the Lees campus), and an Ottawa Hospital shuttle that runs between the General, Riverside, and Civic. I think the biggest pro to

I don't have a membership, but if I recall correctly I think it's about $17 every two weeks. Hopefully someone else can confirm!

There are! There is a Good Life gym for hospital employees in the basement of the General, which med students can use too. There is also a Movati in the Trainyards (5-10 minute drive from RGN).

Congratulations on your acceptances!!! I would say one of the biggest factors to consider when choosing is social support and/or being in a city that you feel would be the best fit. I feel that having good social support wherever you are for school (whether it’s family or friends) it more important than things like curriculum differences. Medical school can be very stressful at times, so it’s nice to have family or friends close by. But I don’t think you can go wrong with any of those schools. Best of luck with choosing!

I hear you... exciting times!

I believe the faculty sent us an email about them closer to when we started (July or August, maybe?). The applications open up in August I believe, with some being due September 30 and others being due October 31. There are also some that you can apply for in the winter (due end of Feb I believe), but a lot fewer than the fall!

I also just wanted to emphasize this - it really is so important to factor family/social supports into your decision, and it played a role in how I chose which med school to attend as well.

Congratulations on your acceptances!! I'm a current 3rd year student at uOttawa. I think the comments above give a really good overview. My experience with pre-clerkship was really good - I felt that we had a good balance between lecture/labs/CBL/self-learning modules/physical exam and history-taking sessions as well as afternoons off to study or do whatever you wish. We also had the opportunity to do observership electives as early as the fall of first year, and starting winter of first year, we had mandatory afternoon or evening shifts with a family doctor. Both of those were real