HappyAndHopeful

I think the best advice about this that I was given in med school was to not try to plan your personal life around medicine - because there really will be no right time. So when you’re ready to get married, get married. When you’re ready to have kids, have kids. We got married while we were both in clerkship. Took some coordination but we wouldn’t have changed anything about it. Now in residency, we plan to maybe start our family in the near future (had wanted to travel a bit first, but covid, and who knows when it will be safe to again). I have colleagues who have gotten married and had kids

For northern Ontario, check out the Health Force Ontario website to see the job/locum listings there. COL is generally lower. You can also connect with some of the physician recruiters in the areas you’d like to work - they’d be able to give you good insight into job prospects/scopes of practice too

Hey guys! I hope you’re all well. I kind of forgot about MCCQE1, lol, and just realized that this week is 9 weeks since the end of the last session. Which means those of us who wrote in the spring should be getting our scores this week, no? Are they usually on time with giving out the scores?

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!