Negative Feedback from interviews

[Guest Jerika81]

I don't know how many of you visit the Western forum, but you may have noticed the thread there about their interview weekend. Some people have given them some pretty harsh criticism about their school being portrayed as a "party" school by the 1st years.

 

I know that there was a lot of emphasis at our interview weekends on all the social aspects of our school, and I'm wondering what people thought of this. Was it overdone? And did you feel there was enough emphasis on the academic side of things as well? Did you feel there was any bashing of other medical schools? Or was there anything else that could have been done differently to make your experience better?

 

I think any constructive criticism you guys could give would be very useful. So what are your thoughts?

[Guest Jazz]

Out of the schools I interviewed at (UBC, Queen's, Calgary), Queen's probably portrayed itself as a "party school" the most. Quite a few students talked about how they don't have to study much 'til exam time but everyone still gets Honours and how the school makes it as easy as possible for them so they can party. I find that almost too good to be true. Perhaps there is a tendency for the students to make their school sound "cooler" as people sometimes associate med students with "science geeks" (?). However, the opposite was true at UBC where the student I talked to admitted that most of them are obsessive compulsive type A personalities who studies everything even with the P/F system. I actually thought my UC experience was the best in terms of learning about both the social and academic aspect of the school, the students were professional and friendly, so I don't think you guys have anything to worry about. The weekend actually made Calgary my first choice.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hey there,

 

I too, enjoyed my day at UofC. The presentation, tour and comments from current students were all very helpful in providing a better picture of medical school life at UofC.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest katwoman2003]

I think UC med student tour guides protrayed themselves really well during interview days. Although many social aspects were mentioned, all students were knowledgeable about the resources for learning and the academic relationships with each other. The fact that the classes are so diverse in their backgrounds and that some students have different study styles show that UC offers really good learning support. I didn't think UC was a "party school" at all.

 

I do have a question about the residency match. Do UC students get matched really well every year?

[Guest Jerika81]

In the past U of C has always done about the same as other schools in terms of # of people matching to their first choice specialty. In fact I think all the schools in Canada are within a pretty tight range for these statistics.

I don't know about this year though, because as you may have seen, U of C did the second worst with regards to the # of students that went unmatched (8 + 1 prior:eek ). I haven't seen any stats on the # that matched to their first choice, so I don't know if that was worse this year as well. I think the only reason a lot of people went unmatched is because they were going for really competitive specialties and didn't rank any back ups. In fact I'd say only about 20-25% of the class of 2004 is going in to family medicine, so poorer matching is to be expected. People from the class of 2004 did match to all the competitive specialties though, so I don't think this years match results should be a major concern. I hope that answers your question:D .

 

Thanks for everyone's positive comments. It's great to hear that you all enjoyed your time here. But seriously, if anyone does have some negative comments, it would be very useful to hear them.

[Guest klukyboy]

I would recommend that when you have the doctor come in to talk, feed him a few good points about UofC before he comes in. The anesthetist that talked to us mentioned that he felt UofC grad were weak in areas such as anatomy, but didn't really have an answer when asked about the strengths of the program.

[Guest Jazzey]

Hi Jerika81,

I too found that UC students did a really good job presenting a very positive picture of the school. My impression was that many different types of students attend UC, that the class is very cohesive and that the students all support one another. UC students made an impression on me on how much they enjoyed the school and what a friendly environment surrounds them.

I left thinking what an awesome place UC would be to study medicine

[Guest drews97]

Hey Jazz. Keep in mind that at Queen's our 1st semester is relatively slack. In fact, phase 1 as it's called is essentially basic science with anatomy and pharmacology mixed in. As such, a lot of the material was review for a lot of people and many of us really didn't work too hard. That's not to say that there weren't people that studied hard, there were. The last month of class people also studied really hard as well too! Additionally, since we have NO tests what-so-ever during the semester we do have a bit more time to socialize/play sports/whatever. We're now in what is called phase IIa and it spans from January to late May, so obviously most people aren't going to study too hard the first few months, there's no point! On the whole, however, we're learning 'real' medicine now and most of the people I know are doing much more consistent work than was done during our first 4 months here. Anyway, we have our time to work hard and our time to relax, just like any school, but our unique structure possibly allows us for a longer period of low stress followed by a single but pretty stressful period (at least for me!!). Oh, and as far as no one failing, people can fail, but once you're in medical school -and this applies to all schools- they don't want to fail you out!! So in some ways the school will go out of its way to help you if you're struggling. Good luck.