Mcmaster vs Dalhousie

[summergirl25]

Looking for input from anyone who is from Ontario and CHOSE to go OOP.

I've been accepted to Dal and am on the waitlist at Mac, and while my original thought was that I would choose Mac if accepted, over the past few months and my amazing experience visiting friends and interviewing in Halifax I've been thinking to choose Dal. This is also heavily based on me feeling a 4 year program is a better fit. I am hoping to come back to Ontario for residency but based on people Ive spoken to who have been through the process, being at Dal shouldn't negatively impact that (and depending on what speciality i want this thought is very premature lol) Very torn! So any input would be appreciated. Of course, if i never get that offer to Mac this won't even be an issue lol 

Few pros and cons I've thought of:

Mac Pros: Closer to home, friends and fam; build connections at Mac/in Ontario when I will most likely want to come back to Ontario
Mac cons: 3 year program and heavily self-taught which i'm not sure is best for me, covid, random selection process (which i don't think will be a big deal in the end)

Dal pros: love the culture, 4 year program, feel this school is more my "vibe"
Dal cons: far from friends and fam (have some friends at dal but nothing in comparison - i've always lived and gone to school in Ontario) 
 

[MDWoman]

How long do you have to accept your Dal offer?

[MDLD]

Personally I have heard great things about dal. 
 

I think all the pros and cons You have listed are valid points and I think it will depend on what you valid more.  Right now with covid I think the benefits of a 4 year program is even better.

Mac will almost certainly be online for the majority or at least most of first year.  You have only 15 months vs 24 months for pre clerkship a time when u can decide your speciality. Doing this online will make it harder.

 

another thing to consider is That Nova Scotia has had only about 1000 cases of covid and 55 deaths compared to Ontario’s 21,000 cases and 1800 deaths. It is more likely that they might be able to have in person classes than Mac and covid restrictions will be lifted sooner there than here in ontario

 

best of luck 

[Peanuts29]

4 hours ago, summergirl25 said:

Looking for input from anyone who is from Ontario and CHOSE to go OOP.

I've been accepted to Dal and am on the waitlist at Mac, and while my original thought was that I would choose Mac if accepted, over the past few months and my amazing experience visiting friends and interviewing in Halifax I've been thinking to choose Dal. This is also heavily based on me feeling a 4 year program is a better fit. I am hoping to come back to Ontario for residency but based on people Ive spoken to who have been through the process, being at Dal shouldn't negatively impact that (and depending on what speciality i want this thought is very premature lol) Very torn! So any input would be appreciated. Of course, if i never get that offer to Mac this won't even be an issue lol 

Few pros and cons I've thought of:

Mac Pros: Closer to home, friends and fam; build connections at Mac/in Ontario when I will most likely want to come back to Ontario
Mac cons: 3 year program and heavily self-taught which i'm not sure is best for me, covid, random selection process (which i don't think will be a big deal in the end)

Dal pros: love the culture, 4 year program, feel this school is more my "vibe"
Dal cons: far from friends and fam (have some friends at dal but nothing in comparison - i've always lived and gone to school in Ontario) 
 

I chose Western (which is similar to other 4 year programs in structure) over Mac. 

For me I will be declining partially because of the lottery. I don't want the lottery label to reflect poorly on me later down the road. It seems a lot of people have been talking about the potential downstream effects of not being able to explore specialties at McMaster because of how fast you need to choose and how being the "lottery class" can hurt me. If residents who are picking people for specialties are talking about the lottery reflecting poorly then I'm not taking a chance.

The bigger reasons is that because Mac is a 3 year program, it will be much more rushed in every regard than Western (or other 4 year programs) with summers. In Mac I need to know my specialty (or an idea) by apparently February of 2021 and I barely even know where I will live for med lol, let alone what specialty I want. I don't like that I can't experiment with specialties for a long time because of COVID and I don't want to feel that pressure. Considering once you get matched to your specialty it is permanent, I want to make a well informed decision and not be rushed to choose because of COVID. I rather have the summers at Western to make things up. I also can not do clinical skills learning virtually at McMaster until COVID is up....

Barely any vacation (compared to Western or other 4 year programs) time means I will have to learn physicals virtually (which seems dumb like imagine using a stethoscope over a computer) just to keep up with a fast pace 3 year program which just doesn't seem worth it to me considering you only apply to specialties once.

The other reason is that I don't like that McMaster from what I've been reading has lectures that are mandatory to go to on top of their tutorial program. It is not all optional like it used to be it seems. 

I worked hard to get an acceptance, I'm not going to mess up my future because McMaster didn't have a back up plan if their schedule got messed up because of COVID.