Guest Gill0927 Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Hi all, Since I've suddenly been faced with a choice of Ottawa or Western, I'm doing a little comparison shopping. After browsing the websites, I have a question about electives. Ottawa encourages electives during 1st and 2nd year. They also leave time in students' schedules for it (eg a few afternoons 'off' a week). I haven't heard anything about 1st and 2nd year electives from Western, and it seems to me as if the 1st and 2nd year schedule doesn't leave much time (if any) for it even if you wanted to do them. So my question is, is this assessment accurate? No 1st/2nd yr electives at UWO? And also, doesn't this put other schools' students (eg Ottawa) at an advantage when competing for residencies (because they have more experience, due to having done these electives)? Any insight would be very helpful! Thanks, Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ninja Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 I think you'd be wrong to say Ottawa students have an advantage over Western students when it comes to matching, as far as clinical experience goes. Western's strength is its clerkship. Being a smaller centre, you don't have as much of a hierarchy of other clerks, residents etc etc that are working at the same time as you. As such, you get more teaching time and attention from physicians directed at you. Since there are less people around, you are also given more responsibility and more is expected of you. As such, you learn a lot more skills and are allowed to do a lot more things than you are in other clerkship programs at medical schools across the country. Go to http://www.uwomeds.com/prospective and check out the testimonials, particularly the first one (mine) since I go into greater depth about the advantages of Western's program, particularly the part about clerkship. In short, you get to do more here, you learn more, and so you impress more during your 4th year electives and thus have an edge over clerks from other schools after going through Western's program. During 1st and 2nd year, you have one or two days during the week that are only half days, or you just have like a 2 hour group session. During the rest of those days, you are encouraged to do "observerships" on your own, although this is not mandatory and really has almost no bearing on how good a doctor you will be. While many doctors will get you involved and you'll learn a lot, these observerships are meant just to expose you to the different specialties so you can get a better grip on what's out there and decide what sort of specialty you may want to pursue after graduation. So while our schedules don't say things like "12pm-4pm: Go do an elective!" it's implied that this is a constructive way to use your time off. Many people in my class have done numerous electives during the year and have been able to really narrow down their career choices to just a few specialties after not having a clue at the beginning of the year. Also, there will be classes that you will feel are review from extensive courses you took during undergrad. As such, you may be able to skip class to go do whatever you want. Some use it to study subjects they are weak on, others use this time for electives, and others just go home. It's really up to you. I'm not encouraging skipping class for electives, nor is it necessary (there's plenty of time in our schedules for that, IMHO) but it's definitely another option as far finding time for electives goes. I really feel that the clinical experience you get at UWO is better than most if not all other Canadian medical schools. Hopefully more students, including some of the ones who've been here longer, will reply back and help convince you of this fact as I've tried. Be sure to check out my testimonial too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ninja Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Sorry for the double post. My first post didn't show up at first so I posted again and BAM they both showed up at once. Oh to have moderator status... Deleted the double post. - aneliz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 You will definitely not be at a disadvantage for CaRMS by coming to UWO. Our clerkship offers something that few other schools do: you are first call as a clerk. This means that you will be called first for anything that happens on the floor when you are on-call....rather than being called later by a resident 'if they feel like having you around' as happens at many other schools. This system provides you with a lot more independence and responsibility than many other schools...meaning that you will likely learn more and function at a higher level when it comes time to do 4th year electives. UWO 4th years on elective are known across Canada as extremely strong students that are far ahead of most other schools in terms of their ability to deal with patients and problems. The other bonus for UWO is that you will do your electives in a group in 4th year...meaning that you will have finished ALL of your core rotations (will have seen all areas) before you do electives. This is a bonus because: 1. You should have a really good idea of what you are interested in by then 2. You will have been a clerk for a whole year already so you will shine at other schools 3. You will be finished all of your electives before CaRMS As for first and second year electives...there is plenty of time to do electives in first and second year. You may have to be a bit creative with your scheduling sometimes...but most weeks, both the first and second year classes have Thurs afternoons off....and second years have either Tues or Wed morning off as well. Those are good times to do electives. You can also do things like ER shifts and OB call shifts in the evenings/weekends if you are interested in those areas. Many people also skip the occasional lecture or two to do electives as well. You also have lots of time to do electives in the summers too.... many people do 4-8 weeks of electives in the summer. That said, the 1st and 2nd year electives are really not going to make or break your CaRMS application. You spend time in first and second year electives exploring different areas of medicine to determine what your interests are and to get some practice with basic skills like taking an history or doing BP's etc. The goal is not to try and impress people, get reference letters, etc. That is what 4th year electives are for. 1st and 2nd year electives are more 'career choice exploration' than anything else. So, whether you do electives in 1st or 2nd year at all or not, it really shouldn't hurt your residency chances. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gill0927 Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Thanks a lot to both of you for your responses...I was hoping you'd respond that way! Truth is, Western's been my first choice for a while now, but that became a little scarier once it became a reality, so since I have a choice between 2 schools, I figured I'd do more research and be really sure of my decision. I'm not 100% sure yet, but it looks like I'll be heading your way in September! Thanks again, and if anyone else has an opinion on the subject, I'd love to hear it! Gill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Chapsony Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 Hey Gill, I was jokingly going to try and persuade you to go to Ottawa, only for selfish reasons cause Im listed at UWO. But congrats and I'll look forward to meeting you at UWO (If I ever get off the waitlist.... ) Take care, Sony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest aneliz Posted June 17, 2004 Report Share Posted June 17, 2004 UWO is the clearly superior school....:b you know you want to come to London.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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