University Rankings

[Guest MDHopeful04]

June is quickly approaching. I think the MacLean's 2003 university rankings may be of some help to those trying to choose a university/med school to attend in September.

 

The actual university guide is sold in bookstores. I believe it's about $17-$18.

 

www.macleans.ca/universit...33202_2948

[Guest lex]

if choosing a med school, keep in mind that the medical/doctoral category actually has little correlation with the quality of the medical school. it's just a category to rank universities that have a full compliment of PhD programs and a medical faculty. the quality of any individual school or faculty within the university cannot be garnered by looking at the blanket rankings.

[Guest jackiedirks]

For a more accurate assessment of the medical school itself- try the Gourman Report, which comes out every year. It ranks individual programs instead of the school as a whole.

[Guest MDHopeful04]

jackiedirks,

 

I was wondering if you'd have a link to access the Gourman Report online? If not, where would I be able to get a copy of these rankings?

 

Thanks.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Check your library, in the reference section.

 

I've never been able to find a link on the internet.

 

But even the Gourman isn't that accurate - the rankings rarely change, even if programs and funding do.

 

Truth is most rankings are pretty bunk. A journalist visiting a medical (or law, undergrad, grad, etc) school for one weekend ain't really going to know bunk about how that school stacks against other schools.

[Guest marbledust]

I had a chat once with one of the Deans at the University of Calgary and he suggested that the rankings largely come out of which schools choose to cooperate with the Macleans people and which don't. He suggested that the U of C generally doesn't cooperate (whatever that entails).

 

I don't know if it was just sour grapes on his part though, as Calgary consistenly doesn't do very well in the rankings. But since he is "in the know" at the instititution, he might be onto something.

 

I think the Macleans rankings are fun to read, but I personally don't put into stock into them. According to my mother, a friend of her's allegedly bought the magazine to help decide which university would be the best to eventually send her son to (he's 13). 0]

[Guest noncestvrai]

Unless a really comprehensive study comes out on medical schools, one can look for different factors such as funding, student/prof ratios, licensing exams and so forth.

 

Probably Toronto has the most impressing funding for its Faculty of medicine (including research), but that does not mean it has a better med school than say McGill, necessarily.

 

I think all medschools in Canada are pretty good, I mean we put our lives in the hands of these people, so a standard has to be there, or at least a bare minimum must be shared in all provinces. Hence, all the national qualifying exams are necessary for that matter.

 

noncestvrai

[Guest Ian Wong]

There's some old threads discussing the Gourman Report; I couldn't find them, but they're around in the forum Archives somewhere...

 

I would agree that using that report is less useful than judging the med school's based on more individualized criteria. In other words, factors you should use include: class sizes, PBL vs Didactic vs hybrid (pick something that fits your learning style best!), proximity to family and friends, cost of living, tuition costs, climate, research opportunities, genuine interest in living in that city, good "gut" feeling during interviews and in conversation with current med students, availability of outdoor/cultural/religious activities or hobbies, etc. All of these factors are more likely to influence your happiness at a given med school (which will directly impact your ability to study and learn well), more likely than what some dude wrote down in a report based on his own arbitrary criteria.

 

Toronto has by far the greatest research opportunities in Canada, the largest numbers of practising subspecialist physicians, and the largest number of available residency and fellowship positions, along with an extremely strong international reputation, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Halifax or Ottawa might not work better for you as a medical school depending on those individual factors. As mentioned earlier, all the Canadian med schools are accredited by the same organization, which means that the end product should be pretty equivalent throughout.

 

Go with what fits you best.

 

Ian

[Guest Kara]

Everybody talks about how useless these rankings are but everybody seems to read them. Here's one that rates the top 500 world universities (2003) based on research, nobel prizes, etc.:

 

ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ranking.htm

 

4 universities in Canada ranked in top 100 in the world and their world ranking:

 

23-U of Tor

35-UBC

79-McGill

86-McMaster