First year schedule/what to expect?

[dopamineislife]

I remember during the interviews we were shown schedules for first year - is this information available online? I tried to locate it on the uottawa med website but requires a login. Just wanted to get a sense of what to expect in terms of classes. Any other general info on what to expect in first year would also be greatly appreciated. 

[DocBrown9]

I'm gonna preface this by saying it's all pre pandemic.

Mon: lectures 830 to 1230 (optional)

Tuesday: case based learning and social medicine (mandatory) 830 to 1230

Wednesday: lectures 830 to 1230 (optional)

Thursday: anatomy/histology/radiology 830 to 1230 (only anatomy was mandatory if you wanted the 2% bonus from doing the prelab quizzes) 

Clinical skills 130 to 430 (mandatory) 

Friday Case based learning (mandatory) 830 to 1130

Integrative lecture (1130 to 1230)

 

Random sessions of mindfulness throughout the curriculum. There's also a family med placement which you do second semester (4 half days with a family doc) and volunteering which is also done second semester. 

 

As you can see there's tons of free time to use however you see fit. Some people studied, others didnt. Makes no difference, majority of people matched to what they want anyway. 

[@.@]

11 hours ago, DocBrown95 said:

I'm gonna preface this by saying it's all pre pandemic.

Mon: lectures 830 to 1230 (optional)

Tuesday: case based learning and social medicine (mandatory) 830 to 1230

Wednesday: lectures 830 to 1230 (optional)

Thursday: anatomy/histology/radiology 830 to 1230 (only anatomy was mandatory if you wanted the 2% bonus from doing the prelab quizzes) 

Clinical skills 130 to 430 (mandatory) 

Friday Case based learning (mandatory) 830 to 1130

Integrative lecture (1130 to 1230)

 

Random sessions of mindfulness throughout the curriculum. There's also a family med placement which you do second semester (4 half days with a family doc) and volunteering which is also done second semester. 

 

As you can see there's tons of free time to use however you see fit. Some people studied, others didnt. Makes no difference, majority of people matched to what they want anyway. 

Hi! New student here

Thanks for the explnation ... but what about electives? I hear people talk about them all the time but not sure what the details are regarding this. 

[MedD]

Do you know when they send out the schedule for first year?  

[DrOtter]

15 minutes ago, VanD said:

Do you know when they send out the schedule for first year?  

I'm guessing once they start registration and people get their uOZone accounts. But with COVID, it's hard to speculate. I saw on the UGME update that the final schedules for pre-clerkship 2020-2021 will be finalized by end of June, I think?

[DocBrown9]

2 hours ago, VanD said:

Do you know when they send out the schedule for first year?  

You won't get an actual schedule on uozone lol. It's just gonna show a lot of random courses that don't make much sense but are needed for admin reasons. Once you get access to Elantra or whatever they've renamed it, it will have your schedule. Likely the week or so before classes start. You will likely recieved a general schedule which tells you when exams and vacay are. 

6 hours ago, @.@ said:

Hi! New student here

Thanks for the explnation ... but what about electives? I hear people talk about them all the time but not sure what the details are regarding this. 

Electives is just Ottawa speak for observerships/shadowing. You get a presentation sometime in October and then can start after. Basically contact docs or departments and schedule about 10 hours of shadowing that works with both of your schedule. 

[DrOtter]

45 minutes ago, DocBrown95 said:

You won't get an actual schedule on uozone lol. It's just gonna show a lot of random courses that don't make much sense but are needed for admin reasons. Once you get access to Elantra or whatever they've renamed it, it will have your schedule. Likely the week or so before classes start. You will likely recieved a general schedule which tells you when exams and vacay are. 

Electives is just Ottawa speak for observerships/shadowing. You get a presentation sometime in October and then can start after. Basically contact docs or departments and schedule about 10 hours of shadowing that works with both of your schedule. 

Thank god they have a formal process for observerships  I was mentally preparing myself to just cold-call like in undergrad days haha

[DocBrown9]

2 hours ago, DrOtter said:

Thank god they have a formal process for observerships  I was mentally preparing myself to just cold-call like in undergrad days haha

Hate to break it to you but it's basically cold calling or emailing random department coordinators and hoping for a reply. The formal process is this website that you have to register them on lol  I will say people are way more receptive to taking on med students than undergrads, you just have to pick good preceptors (recommendations from upper years, case based learning tutors, people you vibe with at lunchtime talks). There's also 0 pressure to do observerships. The only point of them is to figure out what you want to do with your life (they make no difference in regards to residency matching). 

[SnowmanTheSWOMEN]

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[DrOtter]

7 hours ago, DocBrown95 said:

Hate to break it to you but it's basically cold calling or emailing random department coordinators and hoping for a reply. The formal process is this website that you have to register them on lol  I will say people are way more receptive to taking on med students than undergrads, you just have to pick good preceptors (recommendations from upper years, case based learning tutors, people you vibe with at lunchtime talks). There's also 0 pressure to do observerships. The only point of them is to figure out what you want to do with your life (they make no difference in regards to residency matching). 

Thank you for all the tips! And that's ok. I mostly want to explore and see if there are any competitive specialties I might vibe with and need to get started early on. 

[m_jacob_45]

5 hours ago, DrOtter said:

Thank you for all the tips! And that's ok. I mostly want to explore and see if there are any competitive specialties I might vibe with and need to get started early on. 

I had a pretty easy time booking peds electives so I recommend starting there if you have any interest in peds. They’re all organized by the same lady and she’s pretty reliable.

[premed72]

24 minutes ago, m_jacob_45 said:

I had a pretty easy time booking peds electives so I recommend starting there if you have any interest in peds. They’re all organized by the same lady and she’s pretty reliable

I'm super interested in peds so this is good to hear!