Double Cohort Year.

[Guest RXK]

Hello Everyone,

 

i'm unfortunately part of the double cohort and i was wondering if anyone could give some predictions for when many of us apply to medical school in the coming years. also, would anyone have info. on increasing med school seats when it's time for the cohort to apply.

 

Thanks,

 

RXK

[Guest thesaug]

Hi RXK,

 

Im pretty sure the decision to increase seats rest on the government. The Liberal government did talk about increasing seats in medical schools (im not sure whether it was a specific platform promise...but they havent really been keeping all those promises :b ). In my opinion, I doubt that the seats will increase by such a number to offset the possible increase in number of applications.

 

Also, I am pretty sure that a seat increase, when implemented, will be announced about a year or so in advance of the year of application.

 

Good luck with school!

[Guest byjude]

The Ontario govt is not going to increase seats just for exclusive the sake of the double cohort, although it is reasonable to expect that the McGuinty govt may increase seats in general over the next few years to go with their campaign promises (hopefully they accompany this with an increase in residency spots to go along with it!). This may not be specifically geared toward facilitating med school admissions for double cohort students, but that might be a minor point to support increased funding.

 

Given that the govt has already announced a tuition freeze, it wouldn't be hugely overexpectant to bet that we may see more seats soon - maybe not this year, but probably in time for next year's admissions offers.

 

Of course, they won't be doubling the number of seats, and it already seems like with every passing year, there is a larger and larger "backlog" of unsuccessful applicants reapplying after completing graduate studies, second undergrad degrees, or older applicants deciding to apply after years away from school. But it seems like Ontario schools are attempting to disperse their double cohort applicant overload, as Ottawa and UWO have introduced a requirement for a 4-year undergrad degree - meaning that they will face their double cohort of applicants in 2007 while McMaster/UT/Queens will face it in 2006. This may narrow the pool slightly come 2007 since some of the double cohort applicants will have already been accepted the year before - either to those 3 schools or to non-Ontario schools that maintain 3-year requirements.

 

Best advice for today: worry about your GPA before you worry about your odds. If medicine is really what you want to do, then you will get in at some point at some school. You can't control that today, but you can control your GPA, which is the key to getting those golden acceptances.

[Guest tweep0]

I agree with the other posts.

 

Very unlikely that the gov't will increase spots for one year then reduce them again. But with NOMS opening up and other factors like the possibility of a slight increase in the number of seats, there is relief in sight.

 

Tweep

[Guest aneliz]

It is very, very unlikely that there will be an increase in med school (or any professional school) seats with the exclusive motivation being to 'accomodate the double cohort'.

 

The number of seats in any professional program are dictated by the 'demand' for people with those qualifications and the capacity of the schools to educate (properly) a certain number of people. The number of med school seats are dictated by the provinical government...based on the funding available and the 'need' for physicians. They have been expanded recently (due to the shortage of doctors) and the liberals are talking about increasing med school seats again. In contrast, the NDP cut Ontario med school seats in the early 90's because of a perceived surplus of doctors. However, all of these decisions are usually ultimately motivated by funding issues...and money is something that the liberals don't have a lot of to throw around right now.

 

The other 'limiting' reagent is the capacity of the schools. UWO is at capacity (likely over capacity) and cannot take any more students regardless of what the government says without a significant amount of increased $$ coming with them. Our small group teaching has gone from 4 people in a group several years ago to 8+ people in a group now. They are having difficulty finding preceptors to run clinical teaching groups (to the point where our class has half the number of tutor group sessions as the year before us had) and 24 people from our class are supposed to be spending their third year in Windsor because there is not enough space/teaching resources for everyone in London.

 

Med school seat availability has never been determined by the demand from applicants to get in. (there is already a huge demand from applicants and a very few seats - hence the competition to get into med). So, given all of these factors, I highly doubt there will be ANY increase in seats to accomodate the 'double-cohort'...but don't worry about it too much....there are many paths to medicine (apply after 3rd year, apply after undergrad, apply after a victory lap, apply after a grad degree, apply after travelling/working, etc) and people will apply at different times to different schools....not as a big 'clump' like you did when applying from high school to undergrad. And, just like it was when you applied to undergrad, if you excel, you will still have as good a chance of getting in as you would have if you were not part of the double cohort. The people that are really affected by the increase in competition are those that sit at the 'dividing line' or are mediocre applicants.

[Guest daryn]

Last year I was at the professional fair at U of T.

 

I asked one of the reps at the medicine booth and asked the same question.

 

The answer was a short, curt, resounding.."NO". Actually at that point I was quite taken aback by it.

[Guest UofCMeds2005]

Right now the pressing problem in medicine is residency spots. The gov cannot afford to increase the number of medical school spots. It has to put the money into training existing MDs. Currently, there are not enough residency spots or 1:1. That is not acceptable. By increasing med school spots they are only making a already huge problem worse. I really feel for the double cohort year - it would suck to be in your position. To be honest I don't know what the best solution is for you guys.

[Guest Steve U of T]

I understand that ideally there are more residency spots than medical graduates to allow for choice of specialty, and right now, we are far from having the ideal 1.2:1 ratio. However, if the government does increase the number of residency spaces without increasing med school enrolment, do those extra spots actually cost money even though the same number of residents are being trained? I suppose there would be limited costs in order to have the appropriate staff on hand to train a resident should someone match to that program, but in the event nobody matches to a particular program, I'd imagine the costs would be much less than if a resident is actually trained.

 

In any case, I believe that for every extra space in medical school the government adds, there should be a concomitant increase of 1.2 residency spaces (or more to make up for the current deficiency). This would severely limit the number of spots the government can afford to open up.

 

I'm really curious how much those extra 0.2 spaces actually cost since they are not filled. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Guest byjude]

Don't forget, residency spots also have to accomodate international medical graduates, including Canadians who go to foreign medical schools but hope to return to practise.

[Guest UofCMeds2005]

In addition, the bulk of the left over spots are in urban and rual family. The majority of speciality positions are difficult to match to and are getting more difficult each year.

[Guest therealcrackers]

There is also significant political pressure in Ontario to increase the number of doctors, pronto. The fastest way for the Ontario government to do this is allow for the rapid accreditation and licensure of IMGs. However, their quotas this year aren't large, and given that there were only about 40 spots total that went unfilled, the backlog of 10000+ foreign trained doctors wanting accreditation gets bigger every year. The 1.2:1 is ideal for the graduating classes for the greatest reasonable flexibility: having it be any smaller also shuts out a great number of bright, capable people who can't get accreditation in this country.