Choosing between U of A and Queens... help

[Guest Choosing]

I am having a hell of a time choosing between U of A and Queens. I've narrowed it down to these two schools, but I cant make a solid decision for one or the other.

 

That being said, can anyone here help me choose U of A over Queens? What advantages would one school have over the other? What made you choose Alberta?

 

Thanks guys!

[Guest BBB]

EWE of EH, of course!

 

Follow summervirus' comments, including any links he mentioned.

 

Well, at least that's how I got convinced. I treat him like God.....maybe that's a bit of exaggeration........ He gave good evidence-based advice.

[Guest fox]

I saw in the Queen's forum that you were asking about opportunities for rural medicine. I think the Alberta government has a program where they pay for part/all of your expenses related to doing a rural medicine elective. I know some people have gone out to Jasper for a few weeks to get some rural medicine experience, which would be a very cool place to spend a chunk of time (in my opinion).

 

Are you trying to decide for this coming year? BBB is right... summervirus has many posts talking about the benefits and drawbacks of the program. Maybe scroll through the past posts and you'll get a lot of information.

 

In the end I guess it's where you feel most comfortable. U of A is a great school and the facilities at the U of A hospital are wonderful. I'm not sure how the equipment etc compares to that in Kingston, but the Stollery Children's Hospital is ranked of one of the best in Canada, and according to MacLean's magazine (put whatever stock into that you may), Capital Health was ranked number one in the country this year. I thought that was pretty impressive!

[Guest summervirus]

Oh wow, I'm so flattered.

 

Anyway, back to the topic... I had to make the same choice last year too. I ultimately chose UofA (obviously). There were a number of reasons, both personal (family, friends, etc.) and objective (curriculum, finances, etc.) Both schools are terrific, which is why it was a difficult decision.

 

In the end, the biggest factors to influence me to go to the UofA is the fact that (1) it has an excellent reputation and is well established like Queen's but tuition was way cheaper; (2) UofA has one of the most complete postgraduate/residency programs in the country... (the programs that aren't offered at the UofA weren't offered at Queen's either); (3) when you take a look at the hospital, you can tell that a lot of money gets poured into the school; and, (4) I wanted to stay fairly close to my family so I preferred western Canada.

[Guest Choosing]

Thanks for the quick replies.

 

I should have made it more clear in that queens post that I'm NOT interested in rural medicine, but thanks for bringing it up anyway.

 

Two more quick things:

How cliquey is the group in U of A med? I've heard that they are, and I've heard that they're not. I know that queens has a reputation for being very un-cliquey.

 

Also, I've convinced myself that the quality of educaiton will be the same at Alberta and Queens. Am I right?

 

THanks for the help guys!

[Guest Choosing]

One more thing I should ask....

 

 

Why did alberta fail so miserably in the match this year? 77% ?? THis was the lowest score in Canada! And this was the first year with the new curriculum, if I'm not wrong....

 

 

What happened?

[Guest summervirus]

This year is the second class to go through the new curriculum.

 

I'm not sure about the stats because I never saw them before. But, from what I know, I think part of the match results can be attributed to the types of specialties the students chose. A lot of people that went unmatched chose the most competitive specialty programs. For example, I was told by one of the graduating students that something like 7 people applied for ophthalmology and 5 got in, 2 were left unmatched. Another 3 (?) applied for plastic surgery and only 1 got matched. Stuff like that. From my understanding and what I was told by our career counsellor, the unmatched students were the ones that aimed for super competitive specialties and didn't have realistic backup plans. Surprisingly, I was told that several "honors" students didn't get matched.

 

I'm sure there are other factors that contributed to the mess too though.

 

Also keep in mind that even though we had a 77% match (I'm assuming that number is correct because I haven't really seen the stats yet), it's not really *that* different from many of the other schools. The easiest one for me to compare with is the UofC... just because I have friends that go to school there and they told me about their match results. From what I was told, they're only a few % higher? Our class size is bigger than their's. UofA is 125 and I think UofC is 110 (not including the international students that don't go through CaRMS). So, in reality, the difference between our match stats and another school's like UofC's is the difference of 1 person.

 

There's been a lot of speculation about why the match went so poorly this year. And, I know it's not just a UofA phenomenon. I think all schools suffered but UofA is just more conspicuous because we were apparently ranked the lowest.

 

On a lighter note, last year's class (2002), the first year to go through the new curriculum, had a very good match.

[Guest shkelo]

Are you from Alberta or Ontario? Which school did you choose to do your undergrad studies? Other than the academic environment, what other factors are important to you?

 

As summervirus already mentioned, Alberta medical students did very well on LMCC/MCCQE licensing exam last year (2nd overall/1st in problem solving cases) so there is no doubt in my mind that the teaching program at U of A is very effective and attracts high caliber students. I also heard that this particular class had a large number of people choosing highly competitive specialties. There are only a few positions available across Canada and the results bore out in their match statistics. Although Alberta had the lowest match score in 1st choice of discipline, they had the highest score in 2nd choice of discipline. It all evens out.

 

Remember that the CaRMS report also mentions that there was a 37% reduction in the number of applicants to family medicine. So summervirus is right when he states that this isn't a U of A phenomenon. In 2002, there were 49 unmatched applicants across Canada. That number has more than doubled to 114 for 2003. It appears that the number of residency positions in medical specialties have not increased very much as compared to family medicine (which fewer medical students want anyway).

 

Each class is different in terms of cliquey-ness. It's a product of the unique personalities that make up each class. As far as I'm concerned, the academic environment at U of A is non-competitive and encourages students to work together (e.g. PBL sessions, support group, and anatomy labs). The truth is you'll probably like both schools just as much. Go for the school that has the right fit (or feel) for you. You will ultimately be there for the next 4 years.

[Guest shkelo]

I forgot to mention that U of A has a program to highlight your summer research pursuits called the STIR program (special training in research). You can check out the details at: www.med.ualberta.ca/educa...rvisor.cfm

 

This isn't an "invisible" endeavor that no one will see. Of particular note: "Upon graduation, students who have successfully completed the program will receive an M.D. degree with the 'with Special Training in Research' notation." Something to think about.

[Guest summervirus]

Very well put, shkelo!

[Guest Choosing]

Wow, thanks for the great replies guys. This'll help a lot making the decision.