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why queen's?


Guest pp15

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for current queen's med students, what makes queen's med school for you?

(want to get a feeling as to how i should answer the inevitable 'why queen's ?' quesion)

 

here's what i've heard from various med students i've talked to

 

strengths: small class, diverse student body, nice campus, nice city (small but enough stuff to do), critical inquiry elective, good balance of traditional learning and pbl

 

weakness: start clerkship later than most and awful gym facilities.

 

is that a fair assessment?

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Hey pp15,

 

Doesn't seem like there's many of us on the boards here, but anyway, just my impressions: you picked out a lot of the strengths in your list there. We are the smallest school in Ontario, one of the smallest in Canada (I think only Sask is smaller) and it makes for a great class atmosphere - everyone knows each other pretty fast, and it's the perfect size to keep things from getting too cliquey. There's also a pretty good spread of students from different places; I don't know how our stats compare with other schools without quotas, but we work out pretty well, for example if you ever made a trip out west or east you'd have a place to stay.

 

I didn't really think too much about the critical enquiry elective when I was choosing, but if you're interested particularly in doing research for that, Queen's is definitely pretty strong in having a huge range of labs you could get a placement at. If you're interested in something more clinical, there's Kingston's facilities, plus Ottawa and Toronto are pretty close so it's not too hard to make arrangements.

 

Speaking of which, Kingston's right in the middle of that Toronto - Ottawa - Montreal triad, so there's no shortage of getaway options when Kingston starts to get, well, too familiar. Actually the chance to live in Kingston made Queen's my first choice, I've always lived in bigger cities and wanted the chance to see something smaller for the 4 years. I know that for a lot of people Kingston really isn't the most appealing place to be... but well, I think it makes for good experience to try out different places while you can.

 

PBL - yeah, personally I _hate_ PBL with a passion, I just don't learn best that way... but anyway, there's a pretty good balance of the two, the PBL work is very well integrated with lecture material, eg the week you do sepsis and bacteremia and such in class, that's what you see in PBL. (It also gives you a clue where to start in writing up the learning issues.)

 

Queen's has a beautiful campus! It's really too bad that interviews have to be in the winter and you have to use your imagination to see it - the majority of your time here in med school, the campus will have amazing foliage, ivy on the walls, crests on the sidewalks... And the classrooms in Biosci Complex and clinical skills rooms in the Clinical Education Centre are very new-ish. (The cafeteria staff in Biosci at lunch are also super friendly, they call you "sweetie". Enough to warm your heart for late afternoon classes!)

 

Haven't had to face it yet, but yeah, the clerkship scheduling is less than ideal. I'm not really sure of any plans to change things (or even if our clerks are intent on changing anything), but I do know that here you do start your Clinical Skills with patients quite a bit earlier than most schools, and by the end of the 4 years you'll have at least as much (and in many cases more) clinical experience as the other med school curriculums. (curricula?)

 

And I don't even use the gym here... a lot of the class has memberships at GoodLife or some other private club, we get some professional discount being in med school.

 

Don't know if that random rambling's helpful... but anyway, just some disjointed thoughts. Hope this helps!

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What about computer facilities? Are computers integrated into the cirriculum? I know Ottawa requires everyone to have a laptop.

 

What areas have people done their critical inquiry elective in?

 

How does the honours/pass/fail evaluation work?

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Just finished class today and I can't believe I forgot mentioning my personal favourites of Queen's Medicine - we get profs from the law faculty to teach the medical law classes, I think that's unique amonst Canadian med schools. And, our history of medicine prof Dr Duffin is simply amazing: she wrote "History of Medicine: A Scandalously Short Introduction" (CMA members can get it for free with that $20 gift certificate they give you with the new members' package), great lectures and yearly field trips (this year was Ottawa, past years were Montreal and Boston I think), she and a few of our class were in the journal Stitches late last year.

 

Computer facilities - I personally like printed course notes better, and a lot of the profs are good in giving out their Powerpoints as handouts or putting them all in a coursepack. Otherwise, notes are all on the (much maligned - there was a long thread on how much people in med schools everywhere hate WebCT... but what can you do?) WebCT system, so you'll need to have access to a computer to get them. You don't need a laptop specifically or anything - I'm class co-webmaster and I get by without having even dial-up internet at home. Most ppl just use the many library computers and printers for the notes anyway.

 

Honours/pass/fail - finish with 80% or above at the end of each block (ie 80% overall on all the final exams, you don't necessarily need to get above 80% on each exam) and you get a shiny "HN" on your transcript. 60% or above, it's a "PA". And below 60%, the "FA", though those are very, very rare, none in my class so far. Exact scores never end up on your transcript, but you do get to see your short answer papers and a list of questions you got wrong on multiple choice.

 

Critical enquiry - maybe one of the upper-year moderators can comment on this, all I know is that both basic science research and clinical research either in Kingston or anywhere else in the world (assuming you have a supervisor) are do-able. I'm hoping to have the whole summer doing something clinical abroad, but it's still quite a ways away.

 

Hope this helps!

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Guest r6punkette

I think QM6 did an excellent job of covering all the pros and cons of coming here. One of the things I love about Queens is the small community feel. There is so much support within the class as well as from upper years and faculty members. We get the chance to meet other students and the faculty from a whole assortment of social events (coffee houses, meds house parties, formals, mentor dinners...). This means that if you ever have problems or questions, whether it be related to school, figuring out what kind of doc you want to be, life in general or whatever, there's always someone you can turn to for help. A good support system is key to surviving med school!!! ;)

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Guest r6punkette

Hi Beth. The Aesculapian Council randomly organizes all the first years into small groups with one or two mentors, who are doctors in the community. Also in the group are students from the upper three years. At the beginning of the year, you'll meet your mentor group at a dinner with the intentions that your group will meet intermittently throughout the year for more dinners or other activities.

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Guest r6punkette

I just put 'with the intention' because it's up to each group to organize get togethers during the rest of the year. The council organized another event (wine and cheese) last month but that's it for the rest of the year. However, as far as I know, most groups have gotten together after the initial dinner.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest MedsWannabe

I did my undergrad at queen's (lifesci!), and I love Dr. Duffin! I took her medical ethics course! Was especially sad about my Queen's rejection letter when I remembered that she teaches at the med school there...

 

The campus is gorgeous, and the Botterell hall complex is great-- queen's has a lot of advantages... the poor gym and pec centre is by far made up for by the great profs and campus.

 

best of luck with your interviews!

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  • 3 years later...

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