Choosing UBC?

[Guest ubcredfox]

Hi All,

 

I found out (quite unexpectedly) that I got into UBC yesterday! It's kinda crazy, as I thought that the interview went, at best, so so. I also got into Queen's medicine so I have to make a choice now..so here's why I started this thread...

 

If you had to make the choice between UBC and Queen's, why would you choose Queen's?

 

I'd really like to know as much info about the program as possible; that includes the very good things and the very bad things i.e. an objective overview. And, if any of the upper years could let me know how they would rate their personal exposure to hands-on clinical medicine that would be much appreciated. I want to go to a school where I can do more than just read textbooks and write exams - that's what undergrad was for.

 

Thanks for any help and congrats to all the other 2010'ers!

[Guest Jazz]

Congratulations ubcredfox, and the others who got good news yesterday.

 

Pro's of UBC

-location - Vancouver is the best place to study in my opinion, you all probably know that already -I ruled out Queen's after a day in Kingston, but that's just me

-curriculum offers early clinical exposure - you go out and shadow at a GP's office, along with interviewing volunteer patients in clinical skills course within the first month of first year,

-nice new building, computer lab, anatomy lab,with lots of rooms to study in - this is actually pretty important, studying in the old Woodward rooms were depressing

 

Cons

-too much PBL in my opinion, but Queen's and most school are PBL based too -some people like PBL but i prefer lectures

-large class size, we are not like Calgary or Queen's where it seems like everyone knows everyone

 

I think there will be a good deal of "reading text books and writing exams" in the first two years at any school, that's unavoidable unfortunately. You have clerkship and the rest of your career for clinical medicine.

[Guest lidia]

I am in the same predicament as you redfox!

Who knew this decision could actually be stressful.

I am a Vancouverite born and raised, but wondering if I should try something different for the next four years. Both schools seemed so fantastic though, I think it will be hard to go terribly wrong.

[Guest ubcredfox]

Hi Lidia,

 

Ya, I've lived here most of my life and did all of my schooling here (from elementary up) so I'm kinda feeling an itch to switch schools.

 

The class size at UBC bothers me - 200 people in the Vancouver program compared to 100 at Queen's.

 

For most of UBC undergrad I felt like I was just a student number, as I don't think UBC administration/faculty make anywhere near a decent effort to get to know students. How can they when classes are 300 ppl or more?

 

Also, I think it may be cheaper to attend Queen's. The cost of living and the tuition are both lower, and, as an added bonus, Queen's is ranked consistently higher than UBC in terms of academic quality (according to Macleans).

 

Arg...this is gonna be tough..but, I agree with you, I don't think you can go horribly wrong either way. I think both schools will give you the opportunities to get an excellent medical education.

[Guest sudoku]

ubc medicine is quite different from ubc undergrad. I did my undergrad at UBC too and i do agree with you about being just another "student number".

 

However, i felt very "supported" by the faculty at UBC med. Dr. Ovalle who teaches histo is absolutely hilarious and... quite phenomenal. The same goes to Dr. Ovalle and Dr. Doroudi from gross anatomy. (tidbits: Dr. Ovalle also wrote the gross anatomy text) In addition, Dr. Waechter went beyond the call of duty to help us learn cardio... there are too many for me to list here. You'll have mentors and assigned "buddy" to get you thru the program as well.

 

I hope i didn't leak out any secrets. You'll have a lot of surprises waiting for you at UBC med. I had an absolute blast (well not at the present moment 'cuz i 'm cramming for exams)

sudoku

[Guest Zen]

Just to clarify,

 

It's Dr.Vogl who's one of the authors of Gray's Anatomy For Students (Gross anatomy). Dr.Ovalle although not yet published for a textbook, is compiling a textbook for histology, and some of his chapters are available to us students as supplementary materials online.

 

:-)

[Guest thatuvicguy]

I would take comments on academic quality from Macleans with a VERY large grain of salt.

 

UBC Med has awesome facilities. Class size is a little large but feels a little smaller after 48 people head to IMP and NMP. In my humble, totally-biased opinion, studying medicine in a location like Vancouver, BC is hard to beat. Beyond the benefits of locale, we have early clinical exposure, a decent amount of self-directed learning time & a pretty well-run curriculum.

 

To be fair, I often wonder if having exams after each block would be better than behemoths at the end of term but I think there are +'s and -'s to each system. I'm not sure what Queens does on this front.

 

Ok, that's all for now.

 

Cheers,

thatuvicguy

[Guest sudoku]

hahaha.... thanks Zen. I didn't realize i typed in Dr. Ovalle's name in twice. It figures. I was studying histo.

 

okie.. Dr. vogl teaches anatomy and wrote a very nice textbook. Tip for the incoming year: practice your drawing skills... Dr. Vogl is "wicked" at the board. It's quite a challenge to copy down the drawing as well as listening to him simultaneously.

 

okie... gotta get backt o my DPAS paper.:x

 

sudoku

[Guest leviathan]

Vogl taught Head and Neck in the undergrad anatomy course I took. He's a pretty good drawer! He always handed out diagrams to fill in though, so it wasn't hard to do...