How is "Rural" Defined?

[Guest Ronin]

Obviously we all know that your "context" (i.e. communities you've lived in, worked in, etc.) plays a fair role in the admissions process at NOSM. But how exactly are they defining "rural"? In the literature I've seen, it's usually an area with population < 10,000.

 

I'm wondering if they have a hard and fast cut-off for this. For example, I grew up in a town of about 13,000 people, went to university in a town of 4,000 people, and my parents currently live in a town with < 500 people. On the flip side, I now live in a city of 3 million people!

 

Any thoughts on this? I'm sure nobody has the definitive answer here, but it's an interesting thing to look at.

[Guest opiedog]

They do look at the population of where you grew up, so add in a few tidbits about that if you can somewhere. There are some good websites on rural physicians that you might want to seek out....this web site is a good one to start with www.srpc.ca/ Look in the blue bar on the right hand side for Medical School Admissions for a link to a pdf document. It has some great info in it, that would also be helpful in prepping for interviews.

[Guest Kidha]

Excellent Question!

 

What is rural and what is not depends on what measure you are using. As you mentioned already population of the town is one way. However, if you live in a town of 10 000 people that is a 1 hour drive away from Toronto, some would not consider that rural. I would check with the school. I remember someone last year on the forum that was from a small town but the town was just an hour away from Hamilton. As I recall that person was not given an interview either and they did have a high GPA.

 

All the best

[Guest Ronin]

I asked the school about it last year, and they were fairly vague. I'm not too concerned about it to tell you the truth, it's just an interesting concept.

 

I've also seen rural defined in relation to your distance from a tertiary care centre, which is probably quite relevant to a person's health-care environment.

 

I have to say, I'm not a fan of the 10,000 rule. Are we saying that a population of 15,000 is urban? What if you have 20,000 people, but very few resources?

 

Obviously I don't think that the schools should start doing extensive research into the geography of every applicant. It's a complex concept.

[Guest Matt66GT]

I think if I remember correctly on the OMSAS app there was a portion where we had to specify the population of our community where we grew up. I don't remember all of the ranges but the smallest was less than 10,000.

 

I do know there are a few towns up here in Northern Ontario who are greater than 10,000 but are so far from everywhere they are certainly considered rural in some aspects.

 

According to the website - additional consideration of applicant's admission will consist of:

 

(1) the applicant’s residency history, i.e. time spent living in a northern urban, rural and/or remote community

(2) a demonstrated interest in living and working in northern urban, rural and/or remote communities

(3) a demonstrated interest in working with underserviced populations (wherever they are).

 

I'm not so sure how relevant rural becomes if it's not a northern location????

 

I would by looking at that say the focus shifts slightly from rural to northern.....although I would say that being from a rural southern community would make one more predisposed to stay in the north than say someone who is from a southern urban centre.

[Guest opiedog]

If it adds anything to the conversation, I grew up in a small town just outside of Hamilton with a population of about 14,000. For the past 15 years I've lived in the north. And yes, I am a student at NOSM.

 

I would say "small town" and "rural" are definitely a different concept, but no matter what, if you don't send in an application you won't have a chance. As far as figuring out what your odds are, from the application you might already have sent in, well, that's a pretty tough challenge. Especially when you don't get to see any of the other applications.