New Curriculum Concerns

[greyworm]

Hey guys I've been lurking the forum for a long time and you guys have been super informative.

I'm so grateful to have been offered admission to Western and Ottawa but I'm having a really hard time choosing between the two.

The thing is, I'm heavily leaning towards Western for many reasons but one thing that bothers me / holds me back is the new curriculum. 

I've had bad experiences being in the year when the IB programme was overhauled and I felt like my year was a trial run of sorts.

I heard from some of my friends that the year that Toronto changed curriculum was also a mess, and I'm not looking forward to being the "guinea pig" year. Maybe I'm being too neurotic :S

Does anyone know more about the changes or have any insights?

[Pakoon]

Tuesdays off, I'm sold.

[anonymouspls]

Schools like to talk about how they're making all these amazing changes all the time, but im told at the end things tend to stay more or less the same. But if you're that concerned you should accept Ottawa.

 

also i would much rather have Fridays off...

[apple94]

You can read about the curriculum changes online. But at the end of the day it wont talk about the downsides you're scared of (schools assume there are no downsides to changing curriculums). And nobody on this forum will be able to tell you if there are any downsides either - we wont know until we experience the school year. I have heard anecdotal downsides to being in the"guinea pig year" here and there, but if your gut tells you to go with Western then I would defer to that. 

[brady23]

Having a day off in the curriculum is huge imo.

I think the new curriculum will have tweaks that need to be made, but it's a step in the right direction. 

[guest2019]

5 hours ago, brady23 said:

Having a day off in the curriculum is huge imo.

I think the new curriculum will have tweaks that need to be made, but it's a step in the right direction. 

Is it an actual day off though? I thought students still have to do something productive, such as research or shadowing. 

[apple94]

13 hours ago, guest2019 said:

Is it an actual day off though? I thought students still have to do something productive, such as research or shadowing. 

Yeah you're right, it's expected you're being productive that day, but who knows to what degree they are going to hold students accountable to that

[m_jacob_45]

Ottawa is great!! But good luck with whatever you choose.

[abouttimeijoined]

winters in Ottawa are terrible, other than that its a great city. that's my input on that but personally, Western's curriculum seems like the dream come true and I think the pros outway the possible cons of the transition problems

[xiphoid]

1 hour ago, abouttimeijoined said:

winters in Ottawa are terrible, other than that its a great city. 

London winters are no better 

[Pakoon]

1 hour ago, xiphoid said:

London winters are no better 

Windsor winters on the other hand...

[poopedthepants]

On 5/27/2019 at 8:08 AM, nsrdude said:

Yeah you're right, it's expected you're being productive that day, but who knows to what degree they are going to hold students accountable to that

UofT also introduced a day off in their new curriculum and based off IG a lot of people use it to travel 

[anonymouspls]

On 5/26/2019 at 12:27 PM, Pakoon said:

Tuesdays off, I'm sold.

Kind of late but are we sure Tuesdays are off? I made a specialist appointment a couple months back for a Tuesday in October and i cant see where it says Tuesdays are off

[Pakoon]

5 minutes ago, ysera said:

Kind of late but are we sure Tuesdays are off? I made a specialist appointment a couple months back for a Tuesday in October and i cant see where it says Tuesdays are off

It's in a pdf about the new curriculum floating around somewhere, I'm sure you can find it if you  google  the new curriculum

[rmorelan]

On 5/27/2019 at 1:25 PM, xiphoid said:

London winters are no better 

as someone that did residency in Ottawa and med school in London........really?