MS1 happy to answer questions

[casajayo]

2 hours ago, struggling2getin said:

Hi,  thanks for doing this!

1. When is an optimal time to purchase a stethoscope? Is there a school arranged event or sale? 

2. I've heard about FLEX from friends and was curious if you knew whether or not FLEX can be done in other provinces since I was hoping to come back to Toronto after exams next summer. 

 

1) There's no rush for a steth. You'll need it before you start family practice in first term (but this might not be until the second half of the term as fam practice visits are staggered because our class is massive). There's no school arranged event, but there's usually codes around to get a discount from the online stores (these don't expire though). Same goes for short white coat (some fam practice don't require it so you only need it for osce's in Dec) and reflex hammer (which you realistically won't need until second term so test out your friends to see what version you like first). Don't get a tuning fork, you won't use it

2) FLEX can definitely be done in other provinces or even internationally - as long as you have a supervisor you're good to go. I would encourage you to stick around in BC for FLEX though (or at least consider it!) - Vancouver summers are the best part of the year and it's fun to see friends from school without the pressure of studying/exams hanging overhead

[stayhydrated]

On 5/11/2019 at 3:32 AM, casajayo said:

I'm an exiting MS1 (grades pending...) and am happy to answer any burning questions

Hi, thank you so much for answering questions. I'm wondering if UBC does a white coat or stethoscope ceremony for entering students at somepoint? if so, around when? Wondering because i'm out of province and would love to have my parents come. 

[struggling2getin]

Thanks for your last response casajayo!

Would you happen to know as well whether Med students are eligible for Graduate College residences such as St Johns College?

[casajayo]

7 hours ago, stayhydrated said:

Hi, thank you so much for answering questions. I'm wondering if UBC does a white coat or stethoscope ceremony for entering students at somepoint? if so, around when? Wondering because i'm out of province and would love to have my parents come. 

We do not (at least not in first year!) - I think there's something in fourth year but not 100% sure. UBC will say that your friends and family are welcome to come to the first day of classes for a welcome - don't make your parents pay for a flight for this! Because of the class size, what happens is that all the students go to one lecture hall to get a welcome from the dean (~50 minute lecture), and your family/friends go to a separate lecture hall to watch the welcome via video conference. After that, they leave, but you still have more lectures so you probably won't even see them again until the end of school that day (like 4pm). Just video chat with them when you get to school on that first day and it will be basically the same experience 

[casajayo]

4 hours ago, struggling2getin said:

Thanks for your last response casajayo!

Would you happen to know as well whether Med students are eligible for Graduate College residences such as St Johns College?

Not sure but I'm guessing no because you'll be an undergraduate student

[Coldery]

How often do students take time off during the year? According to the FAQ, they warn us to "please be aware that longer absences of more than 2-days or re-occurring absences are unlikely to be excused for any reason". Do all students really attend almost every class or is this worded a bit more formal than it actually is? I understand that many of the lectures are recorded but is it the same for CBL or other course components?

[frenchpress]

6 hours ago, Coldery said:

How often do students take time off during the year? According to the FAQ, they warn us to "please be aware that longer absences of more than 2-days or re-occurring absences are unlikely to be excused for any reason". Do all students really attend almost every class or is this worded a bit more formal than it actually is? I understand that many of the lectures are recorded but is it the same for CBL or other course components?

Lots of people skip lectures, as well as histology and anatomy labs. CBL and other small group sessions have attendance, and those you can’t really skip.

Its difficult to really take ‘time off’ for more than a couple days unless you’re doing a negotiated absence for something like conferences. But even then, they can be a real pain in the butt to request ahead of time.  And the material does move quick, so it’s easy to fall behind if you do go away for a length of time. 

My approach was to take the odd 3-4 day weekend and then just claim I was ‘sick’ if I missed a session where attendance was taken. Or I’d plan to use a personal day ahead of time. I never bothered saying I was absent if I was just missing lectures or other sessions without attendance, because no one would know or notice. I managed 3-4 sick days (some of which I was actually sick) a semester on average without anyone ever contacting me to follow up. 

I found it easier to get away in second year because we only had CBL Wednesday and Friday. First year has more mandatory sessions on both Mondays and Fridays.

[petrichor]

Is there an academic calendar anywhere for the 2019/2020 school year? Just wanna get an idea of where the breaks fall. Or if anyone could share 2018/2019 sessional dates, I'd really appreciate it! 

[Lesigh2]

27 minutes ago, petrichor said:

Is there an academic calendar anywhere for the 2019/2020 school year? Just wanna get an idea of where the breaks fall. Or if anyone could share 2018/2019 sessional dates, I'd really appreciate it! 

Usually you will get 3-4 weeks vacation in December. I think finals ended early December maybe around the 12th? In the spring, we ended around April 25/26th. Flex is for 6 weeks following that.

[stayhydrated]

On 5/12/2019 at 3:34 PM, RamenSenpai said:

hey ya'll, MS1 here from Ontario. If you have any questions about moving to Vancouver, shoot me a message!

Hi! I'm still trying to decide between staying in Ontario (Mac Regional Campus) or coming to UBC (VFMP). Some things I'm trying to get some insight into if you are able to answer are:  

1. If it's challenging or complicated to do electives in Ontario, or go back to Ontario during summers to do research or work? - do you have any experience with this and how were you able to find the opportunities? 

2. How common is it to match into residency in Ontario after doing med school in BC? Would you recommend against this? After looking it up it seems that most people end up matching in province.

3. Do you find that it was more difficult having to build a new network and connections in BC? I feel like I've finally built decent connections with profs and researchers I've worked for and having to leave that behind, and have to start from scratch reaching out to profs again isn't enticing 

4. How did you go about finding housing, I'm not sure what I should do because I can't visit the places beforehand and don't have a good understanding of the area. 

5. And I guess overall your experiences of being an out of province student, if you've enjoyed it or would have done anything differently. 

Living in Vancouver is a dream for me, but there's so many logistical things like wanting to eventually come back to live in Ontario that is making this decision harder than I anticipated, as well as the fact that I will be far from family and friends. I'm sorry for all the questions but I haven't really been able to find any answers looking online, and this would really help a lot. of course, if there's anything you don't want to answer thats totally ok! Thanks in advance 

[petrichor]

4 hours ago, Lesigh2 said:

Usually you will get 3-4 weeks vacation in December. I think finals ended early December maybe around the 12th? In the spring, we ended around April 25/26th. Flex is for 6 weeks following that.

Oh awesome, thank you!! Are there any designated breaks in between apart from normal holidays? Any additional days off that you might remember? 

[casajayo]

12 hours ago, frenchpress said:

Lots of people skip lectures, as well as histology and anatomy labs. CBL and other small group sessions have attendance, and those you can’t really skip.

Its difficult to really take ‘time off’ for more than a couple days unless you’re doing a negotiated absence for something like conferences. But even then, they can be a real pain in the butt to request ahead of time.  And the material does move quick, so it’s easy to fall behind if you do go away for a length of time. 

My approach was to take the odd 3-4 day weekend and then just claim I was ‘sick’ if I missed a session where attendance was taken. Or I’d plan to use a personal day ahead of time. I never bothered saying I was absent if I was just missing lectures or other sessions without attendance, because no one would know or notice. I managed 3-4 sick days (some of which I was actually sick) a semester on average without anyone ever contacting me to follow up. 

I found it easier to get away in second year because we only had CBL Wednesday and Friday. First year has more mandatory sessions on both Mondays and Fridays.

Ya, don't worry about noted attendance for lectures (other than fam practice large group seminars where they sometimes take attendance). I took all three of my personal days (can be used for literally anything) but it was really easy to apply and get them off, literally just filled out the form and told them what I was doing and a couple days later they were approved. I also took ~7 sick days over the year and didn't hear anything about it

[casajayo]

3 hours ago, petrichor said:

Oh awesome, thank you!! Are there any designated breaks in between apart from normal holidays? Any additional days off that you might remember? 

Nope, no other breaks other than holidays (no reading break either fyi)

[KB2408]

Hi everyone! I have a question about living arrangements. I’m struggling to decide whether I want to live with roommates or not and was wondering what you would advise. I think my biggest worry is cost of rent and also making a solid group of friends. I really want to make the most of the next 4 years (both education and social-wise) and am not sure whether living with someone will help with that. I’ve heard that med can feel somewhat lonely (according to forums) so it may be beneficial to live with someone else. 

So I guess my main questions are:

1. What are most current med students doing?

2. Should I really be that concerned with rent (assuming that with a doctor’s salary I should be able to pay off all my debt eventually)?

Also, if anyone is interested in potentially housing together, let me know! 

Thanks!

[OwnerOfTheTARDIS]

14 hours ago, Lesigh2 said:

Usually you will get 3-4 weeks vacation in December. I think finals ended early December maybe around the 12th? In the spring, we ended around April 25/26th. Flex is for 6 weeks following that.

I don't think this is completely accurate. Winter break is usually only 2 weeks from my understanding. It's actually extremely stressful for students moving to distributed sites.

It was only 3 weeks this year because of the way the holidays landed - we would have either been in class until Dec. 21st or had to start class on Dec 30th (a Wednesday), so they gave us 3 weeks at December but took one week away from summer. There's a possibility that there will always be 3 weeks going forward (I was part of submitting a complaint that 2 weeks was not enough time for distributees to move, unpack, and relax a bit for the holidays), but last I heard from faculty, 2 weeks was still standard. 

9 hours ago, petrichor said:

Oh awesome, thank you!! Are there any designated breaks in between apart from normal holidays? Any additional days off that you might remember? 

No reading break. Sometimes exams will be on weekends. We only get official government holidays off, but then they make you come in early Tuesday morning when you're supposed to have study time. 

The Iron Bank always gets its due. 

[BoardManGetsPaid]

11 hours ago, stayhydrated said:

Hi! I'm still trying to decide between staying in Ontario (Mac Regional Campus) or coming to UBC (VFMP). Some things I'm trying to get some insight into if you are able to answer are:  

1. If it's challenging or complicated to do electives in Ontario, or go back to Ontario during summers to do research or work? - do you have any experience with this and how were you able to find the opportunities? 

2. How common is it to match into residency in Ontario after doing med school in BC? Would you recommend against this? After looking it up it seems that most people end up matching in province.

3. Do you find that it was more difficult having to build a new network and connections in BC? I feel like I've finally built decent connections with profs and researchers I've worked for and having to leave that behind, and have to start from scratch reaching out to profs again isn't enticing 

4. How did you go about finding housing, I'm not sure what I should do because I can't visit the places beforehand and don't have a good understanding of the area. 

5. And I guess overall your experiences of being an out of province student, if you've enjoyed it or would have done anything differently. 

Living in Vancouver is a dream for me, but there's so many logistical things like wanting to eventually come back to live in Ontario that is making this decision harder than I anticipated, as well as the fact that I will be far from family and friends. I'm sorry for all the questions but I haven't really been able to find any answers looking online, and this would really help a lot. of course, if there's anything you don't want to answer thats totally ok! Thanks in advance 

1. I don't really know much about electives because I'm just finishing MS1 but I don't think it's any more difficult to do electives in Ontario or BC. It's a centralized system as far as I know and doesn't really depend on where you go to school. Someone please correct me on this. In terms of research, it's far easier for me to get one in Vancouver because of our FOS curriculum. I'd had to email multiple profs in Ontario in different universities for one to say yes, but this is because I haven't done much research in undergrad. If you've already built those connections in Ontario, I'd imagine it would be easier for you to do research in Ontario compared to me.

2. I don't know how common it is, but I do not that it's more common for you to match into BC compared to Ontario if you go to UBC. My take is that if you're going for a competitive specialty, you'd want to apply broadly and pray for someone (anywhere across Canada) to take you. So I wouldn't recommend for or against doing residency in Ontario after going to UBC. It'll depend on what you want, family, etc. What were some of your concerns regarding this?

3. It wasn't difficult; you get to shadow different specialties and build connections that way. It'll probably be the same as you first started building connections-like you said. Are you hoping for a certain specialty that you'd want to maintain those connections for? Perhaps ask your current profs if they have any connections in BC you could contact?

4. In the med Facebook group there's a doc that'll fill up in the next few months with people offering housing and asking roommates. In first year you'll be at UBC most of the time for CBL, anatomy, and lectures. You'd have to go to Diamond Health (near Vancouver General Hospital) for clinical/history taking skills sessions or go to the MSAC for social events. So there's a couple of options: 1. Live near UBC so you can walk to school (THIS IS GREAT FOR THOSE EXTRA MINUTES OF SLEEP BEFORE GOING TO 8AM CBL SESSIONS), 2. Live in the middle between UBC and Diamond (this is what I did, it wasn't too bad but just make sure you live near a bus route that takes you to UBC. BTW the buses in Vancouver aren't the best, but not terrible), 3. Live near Diamond (this is where you'll be most often in second year), 4. Others (far from UBC and Diamond). I personally flew to Vancouver for a week in the summer just to look for houses. I didn't really trust Craigslist to sign contracts without looking at the unit but you could do a video call or ask someone you know in Vancouver to look at it for you. 

5. It was definitely tough at first because I lived at home in the last 3 years of university and had access to a car. It was the loss of familiarity being in a new place but you adapt to it pretty soon. You'll find a new fam in med that'll keep you comfortable (shout out to my fam who know my username now, right vellichor?). What was most difficult for me was not having access to a car-it makes you think twice going somewhere because of it, but Vancouver's car sharing makes up for it somewhat (Car2Go). Now that I've lived in Vancouver for almost a year I don't regret coming here. I've gotten sick of the snowstorms back home and prefer the milder ones here. There's more rain, but rain>snow

Hope this helps! Lemme know if you have any other questions and congrats on your acceptances  

[BoardManGetsPaid]

2 hours ago, KB2408 said:

Hi everyone! I have a question about living arrangements. I’m struggling to decide whether I want to live with roommates or not and was wondering what you would advise. I think my biggest worry is cost of rent and also making a solid group of friends. I really want to make the most of the next 4 years (both education and social-wise) and am not sure whether living with someone will help with that. I’ve heard that med can feel somewhat lonely (according to forums) so it may be beneficial to live with someone else. 

So I guess my main questions are:

1. What are most current med students doing?

2. Should I really be that concerned with rent (assuming that with a doctor’s salary I should be able to pay off all my debt eventually)?

Also, if anyone is interested in potentially housing together, let me know! 

Thanks!

Hey, Ill try to answer your questions.

I know people in my class who live by themselves (lil me), room with others, or live at home. It did get a bit boring living by myself with no one to talk to but you get the perks of not having to share anything with others. You'll find your group of friends in med pretty soon and your class holds a lot of social events so I wouldn't worry about not experiencing the social aspects of med so to say. With that said I will be rooming with friends closer to VGH next year to cut down on the cost of rent. It's true that you wouldn't necessarily have to worry about debt as a doctor but this will vary depending on the person. Provided that you don't have more than 200k in debt, you should be able to pay it off a few years after residency. But for some people at that stage, they wouldn't necessarily want to be paying off debt but would rather spend money building up their practice, saving money, etc. so having less debt would be preferred for them.

If you wanna house with someone check out the document posted on the med Facebook group. It'll build up in the next few months. Hope this helps!

[pyridoxal-phosphate]

.

[Lesigh2]

1 hour ago, pyridoxal-phosphate said:

Thanks for all of your time!!

Is there a pingpong/table tennis table lol? 

Yes in VFMP

[casajayo]

On 5/17/2019 at 8:33 PM, OwnerOfTheTARDIS said:

I don't think this is completely accurate. Winter break is usually only 2 weeks from my understanding. It's actually extremely stressful for students moving to distributed sites.

It was only 3 weeks this year because of the way the holidays landed - we would have either been in class until Dec. 21st or had to start class on Dec 30th (a Wednesday), so they gave us 3 weeks at December but took one week away from summer. There's a possibility that there will always be 3 weeks going forward (I was part of submitting a complaint that 2 weeks was not enough time for distributees to move, unpack, and relax a bit for the holidays), but last I heard from faculty, 2 weeks was still standard. 

It was actually ~3.5 weeks this year - I'm not sure if it's standard practice but we started a week later than the rest of UBC (they started Wed Jan 2nd and we didn't start until Tuesday Jan 8th, so we had from Dec12th - Jan 8th off) so maybe your complaint was heard!

[struggling2getin]

Just have one more question about FLEX! Would any of you know if it can be combined with paid research programs or awards that span the whole summer? 

[stayhydrated]

@OpparSenpai Thank you for all the info you've shared! Definitely answered a lot of my questions. One last question about being an out of province student, how often do you find you actually are able to go back to Ontario? Do most people go for summers and christmas? are there other breaks that you can go for? Does it get harder to go visit as you enter upper years? 

[casajayo]

11 hours ago, struggling2getin said:

Just have one more question about FLEX! Would any of you know if it can be combined with paid research programs or awards that span the whole summer? 

I know a lot of people applied for SSRP and summer programs and plan to complete those including the FLEX period. At the same time, you're technically not allowed to be paid (like salary or hourly) during FLEX (admin will tell you it's something about not being able to get paid and get credits but that's bogus in my opinion), but things like awards or stipends are fine 

[BoardManGetsPaid]

22 hours ago, stayhydrated said:

@OpparSenpai Thank you for all the info you've shared! Definitely answered a lot of my questions. One last question about being an out of province student, how often do you find you actually are able to go back to Ontario? Do most people go for summers and christmas? are there other breaks that you can go for? Does it get harder to go visit as you enter upper years? 

i went back during Christmas break and planning to go back for the summer after FLEX. I managed to went back during a long weekend in first semester and could've done the same thing again in second semester. The faculty's planning to give students a week of no classes before your first midterm so you could go back then as well. this should be similar in second year.

looking at the mock 3rd year schedule you get about a week of winter break and 4 weeks of summer before 4th year (compared to 3 weeks Christmas break and 11 weeks summer break for 1st year). not sure if they get long weekends off since their schedule is pretty much dependent on their rotation. 

[stayhydrated]

22 minutes ago, OpparSenpai said:

looking at the mock 3rd year schedule

Thank you! Do you know where I can find mock schedules for first and second year, as well as more info about the curriculum? (similar to the presentation after interviews, but tbh I couldn't pay attention to the presentation afterwards at all lol)