Looking for uOttawa Feedback from Current Students

[Psych]

I've been accepted to uOttawa and Mac, and am trying to decide between the two. I've read a lot about Mac from current students and others on the forum (so no need for anyone to post about Mac here haha) but I haven't been able to find much about Ottawa. I'm looking for current uOttawa med students or anyone else with relevant insight to provide your perspective on the program, pros and cons, what you like/don't like about it, and how you think COVID may impact the program. Thanks!

[m_jacob_45]

1 hour ago, Psych said:

I've been accepted to uOttawa and Mac, and am trying to decide between the two. I've read a lot about Mac from current students and others on the forum (so no need for anyone to post about Mac here haha) but I haven't been able to find much about Ottawa. I'm looking for current uOttawa med students or anyone else with relevant insight to provide your perspective on the program, pros and cons, what you like/don't like about it, and how you think COVID may impact the program. Thanks!

I’m a 4th year med student at uOttawa. I think our program overall is really good. In preclerkship, I really liked the combined CBL/lecture style and having half days was really nice for doing electives, studying, participating in different opportunities, and for having time for yourself to go to the gym or whatever you like to do. I also like our curriculum which was organized by organ system generally and integrated anatomy throughout rather than making it its own block like some other schools do. I also like our clerkship structure of doing all cores before electives and feeling less rushed since it’s a 4 year program. Some cons are certain core rotations you have to do even though they may not be very related to your career goals, and I think that time could be better used for electives. I also think it would be nice to have more pre-CaRMS electives (but they are better timed than Mac in my opinion so I would still prefer Ottawa’s elective number and timing). Ottawa has a lot more exams than Mac if that is a concern for you. Its also nice to have summers off since med school is quite demanding. I’m not sure how people’s experiences have been changed since Covid 19 since our year was almost finished at the time the shutdowns started happening. A current student in 3rd year or below may be helpful for that. Hope this helps!

[dopamineislife]

6 minutes ago, m_jacob_45 said:

I’m a 4th year med student at uOttawa. I think our program overall is really good. In preclerkship, I really liked the combined CBL/lecture style and having half days was really nice for doing electives, studying, participating in different opportunities, and for having time for yourself to go to the gym or whatever you like to do. I also like our curriculum which was organized by organ system generally and integrated anatomy throughout rather than making it its own block like some other schools do. I also like our clerkship structure of doing all cores before electives and feeling less rushed since it’s a 4 year program. Some cons are certain core rotations you have to do even though they may not be very related to your career goals, and I think that time could be better used for electives. I also think it would be nice to have more pre-CaRMS electives (but they are better timed than Mac in my opinion so I would still prefer Ottawa’s elective number and timing). Ottawa has a lot more exams than Mac if that is a concern for you. Its also nice to have summers off since med school is quite demanding. I’m not sure how people’s experiences have been changed since Covid 19 since our year was almost finished at the time the shutdowns started happening. A current student in 3rd year or below may be helpful for that. Hope this helps!

Not to hijack the OP's question, but could you clarify what you mean by having to do certain core rotations that may not be very related to career goals? Is it different than other MD programs? 

[SnowmanTheSWOMEN]

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[m_jacob_45]

32 minutes ago, dopamineislife said:

Not to hijack the OP's question, but could you clarify what you mean by having to do certain core rotations that may not be very related to career goals? Is it different than other MD programs? 

We do a core rotation in 3rd year called “mandatory selectives” which is comprised of 1 week of ophthalmology, 1 week ENT, 2 weeks of a peds subspeciality, and 2 weeks of a non-IM/non surgical adult subspecialty (e.g. rad onc, radiology, neurology). Other schools don’t have this core rotation at all so there is more time for electives. We also do a mandatory 2 week medicine subspeciality and a mandatory 2 week surgical subspeciality in 4th year, which other schools don’t have. How relevant these things are will depend on what you want to do later. I was interested in internal medicine so having to do a mandatory surgical subspeciality in 4th year was not super applicable to my career interests, though I definitely still enjoyed it and the team was great.

[DocBrown9]

Ottawa grad here... I'd say Ottawas preclerkship is perfect. You are gonna here a lot of people say med school is hard but preclerkship is the what I'd say are the easiest two years of your life. Half days along with good clinically oriented lectures and sometimes okay cbls make it great. You get enough knowledge to perform well without having to read a bunch of textbooks but not so much that your brain is full of useless things like the Krebs cycle. Clerkship is also great. Having cores first is amazing. 3 year schools sound great but imagine your first clinical rotation being an elective, believe me it shows (I was a surgical gunner on psych and my preceptor still favoured me over the elective student from Calgary). In every med school your gonna have the amazing students (preceptors treat like residents, you know they will match for sure) and the meh students (not socially aware plus minimal knowledge plus minimal knowledge or overly focused on their specialty of interest). I'd say we had less meh students at Ottawa. I remember preceptors and residents both on elective and in Ottawa would tell me how much they loved Ottawa clerks. 

I completely disagree with m_jacobs_45 comment making it seem like doing cores such as mandatory selectives or 4th year selectives as a negative. Med school is about being a good PHYSCIAN. Not a specialist. The carms process has rearranged med student mentality into trying to specialize from day one which ultimately hurts your education. Cores and selectives are an amazing way to invest in skills that will benefit you throughout your medical career and during electives (psych teaches you how to handle difficult patients, anesthesia teaches you great pharmacology and procedural skills, ENT teaches you how to do proper ear exams).

Another benefit is the lack of fellows in Ottawa. This means you get amazing clinical exposure. I got to open, close and learn how to scope in the OR, something friends in other med schools only got to do on elective. 

Downs sides to Ottawa... Snow lots of it plus cold winters. Less electives than other schools which isn't a huge issue now that there is a cap plus it never stopped Ottawa from matching well (i remember my friend group everyone got their 1st or 2nd choice program). Med school is far from downtown/good food. Faculty tries to scare students into backing up with family (not appropriate for all students as it takes certain characteristics to be a good family doctor). 

[dopamineislife]

@m_jacob_45 @DocBrown95 is there anything that you wish you had done differently during your 4 years at Ottawa? 

[m_jacob_45]

51 minutes ago, dopamineislife said:

@m_jacob_45 @DocBrown95 is there anything that you wish you had done differently during your 4 years at Ottawa? 

I probably studied a bit too much in preclerkship haha, so I wish I had worried less about doing as well on all of the preclerkship exams. Otherwise there is nothing major I would change. I also interviewed at Ottawa and Mac for med school and definitely do not regret going to uOttawa. Having seen some clerks from Mac starting clerkship with an elective in Ottawa, it seemed to be a bit of a rough way to be “thrown” into clerkship.

[dopamineislife]

12 minutes ago, m_jacob_45 said:

I probably studied a bit too much in preclerkship haha, so I wish I had worried less about doing as well on all of the preclerkship exams. Otherwise there is nothing major I would change. I also interviewed at Ottawa and Mac for med school and definitely do not regret going to uOttawa. Having seen some clerks from Mac starting clerkship with an elective in Ottawa, it seemed to be a bit of a rough way to be “thrown” into clerkship.

This is good to know. Do you mind if I ask when you started shadowing and how you spent your first year summer? Clearly I have a lot of time on my hands now and can think about such things. I am not sure how covid will affect shadowing and such though (is it even referred to as shadowing?). 

[poplitealfossa]

Hi Psych, 

I believe both are excellent schools and you won't be wrong picking either one. Some important questions I asked myself when I was in your shoes were: 1) Where will I be most comfortable? 2) Where do I see myself living for the next 4+ years? I think this often gets under emphasized when picking schools due to the nature that you mainly get advice on which has a better program/curriculum. Don't get me wrong that is obviously important but having a good social support during medical school is extremely important as well. It will be a difficult 4 years and so ask yourself, 1) how important is it for me to be close to family? 2) Is Hamilton/Ottawa a place I see myself thriving? As DocBrown95 mentioned Ottawa has long winters and is very cold compared to Hamilton. Ottawa is also isolated from the main campus and may be more difficult to engage in certain activities with the entire campus body and farther from good food selections. Thus, I just wrote this to give you a different perspective.

Yes, the way the program is structured is very important but consider the city itself and where it is located as that may be important for some. For example, when I was deciding between medical schools I ended up choosing the one that was closer/more accessible to home as I wanted to be closer to my family for support and I am very happy I made that decision. Either way, both schools are great and you will end up becoming a doctor! I hope this somewhat helped! Best of luck! 

[m_jacob_45]

58 minutes ago, dopamineislife said:

This is good to know. Do you mind if I ask when you started shadowing and how you spent your first year summer? Clearly I have a lot of time on my hands now and can think about such things. I am not sure how covid will affect shadowing and such though (is it even referred to as shadowing?). 

I started shadowing in first year a few months in. In Ottawa they’re called preclerkship electives. Covid 19 is very likely to limit shadowing for the first few months at least I think since the school and hospitals will want to limit possible student exposure to Covid 19, but September is a while away so things could change to some degree by then. In my first summer, I did a research summerstudentship in my home city, which was great to get some research experience and I got to present at a national conference later in the year. My classmates were also able to get similar opportunities if they wanted. 

[HappyAndHopeful]

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 really positive experiences!

Clerkship so far has been great!  Our rotations are 6 weeks with a variety of clinical experiences in those six weeks for a lot of specialties (for example, peds rotation consists of 3 weeks peds CTU, 2 weeks peds emerge, 1 week NICU), and we do all of our core rotations before electives.  I didn't realize how lucky we are to have it that way before starting clerkship, as I think electives would be a lot more difficult/nerve-wracking prior to completing cores.  I personally like that we have a mandatory selectives rotation and selectives in fourth year, as it gives the chance to experience some of the smaller specialties that we may not experience otherwise.  I'm not interested in ENT or ophtho or any peds subspecialties, but I think having that experience is still very useful for any specialty you do go into (especially fam med).  COVID has impacted our clerkship significantly, as we were pulled from our clinical duties mid-March when the situation started worsening.  With that being said, our faculty has been amazing with coming up with a plan for us - last week we started back online, and as of now, we are returning to clinical duties early July.  For pre-clerkship, I believe all learning and exams were switched to a virtual format, which seems to be working well (hopefully a pre-clerk can chime in).  

On a similar theme, our faculty is awesome.  In my experience, they have always supported our wellness, been very accessible, and listened to student feedback.  The COVID situation has been no different, I feel like we are lucky to have a faculty that cares so much.  Regarding classmates, I got the vibe during my interview that it was a tight-knit group, and that has definitely been the case.  There is also a lot of mentorship between years, which is nice.

Regarding cons, I suppose some people would see the four-year program as a con, but it also gives you the time to do research, travel, or just relax in the summers after first and second year.  I think we also have more exams than other schools have, and while this feels like a con during the stress of studying, I think overall it's a good thing because it helps consolidate the knowledge better.  We also have fewer pre-CaRMS electives than other schools do, but I don't think this puts uOttawa students at a disadvantage in CaRMS, especially now with the new rules for electives.

I hope that helps a little bit!  Congratulations again, and please don't hesitate to ask more questions!

[HappyAndHopeful]

49 minutes ago, poplitealfossa said:

Hi Psych, 

I believe both are excellent schools and you won't be wrong picking either one. Some important questions I asked myself when I was in your shoes were: 1) Where will I be most comfortable? 2) Where do I see myself living for the next 4+ years? I think this often gets under emphasized when picking schools due to the nature that you mainly get advice on which has a better program/curriculum. Don't get me wrong that is obviously important but having a good social support during medical school is extremely important as well. It will be a difficult 4 years and so ask yourself, 1) how important is it for me to be close to family? 2) Is Hamilton/Ottawa a place I see myself thriving? As DocBrown95 mentioned Ottawa has long winters and is very cold compared to Hamilton. Ottawa is also isolated from the main campus and may be more difficult to engage in certain activities with the entire campus body and farther from good food selections. Thus, I just wrote this to give you a different perspective.

Yes, the way the program is structured is very important but consider the city itself and where it is located as that may be important for some. For example, when I was deciding between medical schools I ended up choosing the one that was closer/more accessible to home as I wanted to be closer to my family for support and I am very happy I made that decision. Either way, both schools are great and you will end up becoming a doctor! I hope this somewhat helped! Best of luck! 

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.    

[dopamineislife]

Can anyone chime in when information re: scholarships, bursaries, etc. will be sent out? When should we be looking into such things? 

[HappyAndHopeful]

2 minutes ago, dopamineislife said:

Can anyone chime in when information re: scholarships, bursaries, etc. will be sent out? When should we be looking into such things? 

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!

[dopamineislife]

19 minutes ago, HappyAndHopeful said:

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!

Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us! I have been a bundle of emotions the past few days, ranging from excitement to curiosity, and the questions are just spilling out lol 

[DocBrown9]

7 hours ago, dopamineislife said:

@m_jacob_45 @DocBrown95 is there anything that you wish you had done differently during your 4 years at Ottawa? 

Studied less and travelled more (although my friends and I still studied probably the least out of all our classmates and always ranked in the 80th plus percentage for exams). Work ethic and efficiency is way more important than knowledge. Surprisingly work ethic and efficiency is where a lot of students struggle (ie carry 3 patients in CTU is hectic meanwhile my friends and I would carry 6 to 8 while still helping residents out with random stuff)

[HappyAndHopeful]

8 hours ago, dopamineislife said:

Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us! I have been a bundle of emotions the past few days, ranging from excitement to curiosity, and the questions are just spilling out lol 

I hear you... exciting times!

[deedee908]

Does anyone know how long summer/winter breaks are at uOttawa? And/or any other med schools for comparison?

[MDWoman]

On 5/14/2020 at 10:58 AM, Psych said:

I've been accepted to uOttawa and Mac, and am trying to decide between the two. I've read a lot about Mac from current students and others on the forum (so no need for anyone to post about Mac here haha) but I haven't been able to find much about Ottawa. I'm looking for current uOttawa med students or anyone else with relevant insight to provide your perspective on the program, pros and cons, what you like/don't like about it, and how you think COVID may impact the program. Thanks!

Have you decided what offer you will be accepting?

[m_jacob_45]

7 hours ago, deedee908 said:

Does anyone know how long summer/winter breaks are at uOttawa? And/or any other med schools for comparison?

At uOttawa winter breaks are 2 weeks in all years. Summer is from June- September between first and second year, and June- mid August between 2nd and 3rd year. There is a two week summer break in July in 3rd year. In 4th year, the school year ends in April and residency starts July 1st (so you get a bit of spring and summer off). All years except 4th year have a two week break in March or April. 

[deedee908]

5 hours ago, m_jacob_45 said:

At uOttawa winter breaks are 2 weeks in all years. Summer is from June- September between first and second year, and June- mid August between 2nd and 3rd year. There is a two week summer break in July in 3rd year. In 4th year, the school year ends in April and residency starts July 1st (so you get a bit of spring and summer off). All years except 4th year have a two week break in March or April. 

thank you so much!

[Psych]

10 hours ago, MDWoman said:

Have you decided what offer you will be accepting?

Not yet- but leaning towards Ottawa! Thanks for everyone who’s provided advice, it’s been very helpful

[MDWoman]

Let 

10 hours ago, Psych said:

Not yet- but leaning towards Ottawa! Thanks for everyone who’s provided advice, it’s been very helpful

let us know when you make a decision 

[cubes868]

1 hour ago, MDWoman said:

Let 

let us know when you make a decision 

I understand this a nerve-wracking time for everyone but give Psych some space to decide. There is no need to pressure anyone to make a decision!