Why You Should Choose OttawaU Meds

[ophtho_gunner]

thanks. i'll definitely keep this in mind.

 

You'll have medicine to keep in mind once you start school, since now you've gotten in. Dont waste that space.

[kinemed]

Another issue friends have mentioned is that since the ottawa med school is not in downtown, they have to commute to go to fun things. While this might not be issue for people who like to take bus, people who are used to UofT St george campus where everything is at walking distance, this aint happening.

 

Just a note: this only applies to people living near the school - a lot of us live downtown. And "commute" = 10 min bus ride to get downtown on a weekend evening.

[funnyboy6]

ophtho_gunner provides some good points. No med school is perfect, and different teaching styles suit different people. Some people thrive in the small group, interactive nature of PBL. Others like the UofT/traditional style of teaching. Thankfully, we in Ontario have plenty of med schools that cater to different student types.

 

Honestly, I've heard bad things about every school (e.g., mac students aren't prepared for clerkship, UofT is lecture heavy and spends too much time on clinically irrelevant stuff, etc.). Perhaps ottawa should take some steps to improve their teaching. Then again, it may just be a few disgruntled students that are complaining (who knows...)

 

But overall, still a great school.

[supafield]

read the guy's post history....

 

I dug up the thread to promote Ottawa's strengths to students that don't get a lot of exposure to the school.

 

Certainly, there can always be improvement and given that they're only on the 4th year of the new curriculum, some things will still be ironed out but the school is receptive to feedback and changes on a yearly basis to get better.

 

For any others that dislike the school, feel free to voice such opinions but in a new thread, not the thread devoted to promoting the school.... merci.

[supafield]

Floating to the top.

 

Time to bring this thread back to life and update the great effort of classes before mine.

I encourage all of my classmates and other years currently at Ottawa to pitch in...

 

Ottawa tends to be low on people's radar, if you're not from Ottawa, probably because it's pretty far away from the GTA, and if you didn't have a reason to be here in your youth, you may have not visited Ottawa much or maybe not at all..

 

There are a tonne of great reasons to chose Ottawa if given the chance. I knew very little about the city myself when I got in and 16 months later or so, I've realized how happy I am that I ended up here. There are so many things I've found out about the city, the school and the program that I had no idea about before actually coming here.

 

So hopefully, this can prepare future prospects much better than I was, and shed some light on a great school and even better program.

 

Supa

 

 

If anyone wants to add anything, just reply in this thread!

1. Vijay: our anglophone histology prof for memorizing 100 student names, for shaving his hair to raise money for cancer, and calling you "Smart girl" or "Smart guy." (g22g)
   
2. TWO!! weeks of orientation (g22g)
   
3. It's the closest Ontario school to Montreal.(noncestvrai)
   
4. a guilt-free WORK-FREE weekend every 6 weeks (tt)
   
5. protected nap..i mean..study time...(tt)
   
6. CBLs starting on Monday/Tuesday and ending on Thursday/Friday which means you are forced to study at least a little bit from week to week. (g22g)
   
7. Technology: entire curriculum is laptop and web-based. The freedom to choose your own computer has expanded, and medtech is still there to help.
   
8. ...their Admissions office people really seem to care. I sent a wee note to Nicole a few weeks ago, inquiring about a few things. The Asst. Dean of Admissions sent me an e-mail at 7am yesterday morning (a Saturday), asking me to call him. Since I was on the computer at that time, and figured he'd be there, I did. His first question: "What Asst. Dean of Admissions in Canada would do this?" I had to give him that as this was the second time this year that I'd spoken to him early in morn. [it was Richard Hebert (please insert the accent, my keyboard is not compliant!). I find him to be perpetually helpful, insightful and generous with his time. ] It would be great to see some other schools follow suit. I've only been impressed by these guys...
   (Kirsteen)
   Update to this one, Chantal and Lynn are two of the nicest admissions people I've ever met.
   My first email to Ottawa Sept 9, 11:59 a.m. cheery response at 1:32 p.m. on the same day
   Second October 14 @ 8:40 pm... cheery response at 9:15 a.m October 15th
   Third October 15 @ 2:36 p.m. .... another cheery response 9 minute later.
   I pestered them with probably 10 more emails over the course of the year and it was rare that I didn't get a very nice e-mail back the same day, if not within the hour.
   (Supa)
   
9. Clinical exposure - can start doing electives/observerships right away if you want to. There's protected time on our schedule to do it.(Tash000)
   
10. Supportive staff - they actually ask for and respond to feedback . 3 years ago the students requested P/F replace H/P/F and the faculty listened. More more minor examples exist, but this one illustrates a big change. (Tash000)
    
11. City - great urban and outdoor life. Clubs, restaurants, bars are great. Close to water and snow...almost everyone skiis or boards in my class...I'm trying to learn! Class -Post final exam trip to Tremblant in December! (Tash000)
    
12. Systems based - just makes more sense. You learn everything about a single system at the same time with an emphasis on integration with other concepts.(Tash000)
    
13. PEOPLE - great, relaxed group of people! This is the most important, I think. Super friendly and generally laid back students. If you crave competition, this isn't the place to be! (Tash000)
    
14. E-curriculum - all the sources you need are at your fingertips. Also makes CBL a lot more interesting since you have diagnostic info integrated into the case (ie. videos of echos, heart sounds, etc.) (Tash000)
    
15. Ottawa is bilingual, so is the university and the MD porgram. I believe it is part of our national culture/history and everybody who wish to honor our national tradition, improve their french and study medicine, should choose UO.
    (Tutifruiti) If you want to learn French, there are FREE courses at the school to do so!
    
16. I love the E-curriculum, I download all the powerpoint presentation AND online notes on which I am able to take notes, highlight, underline. This is super cool since I don't have to carry huge binders (they grow very fast!) and am able to zoom on picture which are in colour! Paper notes users don't have that chance. Moreover, the library and classroom are all wired for internet so during a lecture if you don't understand something, you can immediately look online. Yep, I am very enthousiastic about the e-curriculum... it is a must for all computers and technology lovers!
    (Tutifruiti)
    
17. Multiple methods of learning. Ottawa does this just as well as any school in Ontario, in first year we have didactic lecture MON/WED, small groups (8 or less) for Case based learning on TUES/FRI, individual self learning modules to be completed on your own time. Ottawa does not rely too heavily on any one learning modality. Some schools you can get beat down with long lecture hours and at others you can be sent on your way with little formal support. At Ottawa, if there is a good way to learn for you, chances are it's in the curriculum. (Supa/Sil)
    
18. You have a lot of free time, at least 4 afternoons free per week. We are encouraged to follow physicians around to rule specialties in or out. I started doing a thoracic surgery elective and while in my first month in med school, I had my hand inside somebody's thoracic cage and was feeling a tumour. And I have classmates who have rotated throughout different specialties, seen births, etc. (Sil)
    
19. The location of the school is great we are between 2 major teaching hospitals. The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario which is great place to do rotations and work. And the Ottawa General Hospital. After classes you just have to walk over and do your elective. As well, within the city we have the Heart Institute which is world renown for cardiology. Ottawa being the second largest city in Ontario has specialists in every discipline and usually our tutors for CBL are specialists of whatever block we are studying (for example I had a cardiologist for cardiology, a nephrologist for renal, etc). You get a lot more exposure to rarer conditions here than some of the medical schools in smaller cities. (Sil)
    
20. The Heart Institute deserves it's own post. Cardiology here is world class. All the doctors are AMAZING teachers for the most part. These guys know there stuff and are anxious to teach it to us. You can tell they're proud of what they do. The cardio unit is so well run, with great opportunities for additional learning and electives. I'm convinced we have the best cardiology teaching in the country.
    
21. My classmates are great. I constantly get e-mails from individuals from the class (people that are not necessarily my friends) telling us about extra-resources that they have found on line, tables they have created or notes that they are sharing. As a class we are very cohesive. I find that med students in my class hang out together a lot of times (soccer games, movies together, girls and guys night out, block parties, diners, intramurals, etc, etc, etc). (Sil)
    
22. I really like the e-curriculum. I cannot say enough about that. At the beginning of the block we are handed all of the notes that we need for the block (the power point presentations and extra writing the profs want us to have). These power point presentations are also available online. So I can make my notes directly on the computer. Many books are available online. The advantage is that I can go to the library with my laptop and my course notes and leave most of my books at home (my laptop is way lighter than Harrison's Internal medicine). As well, if I need to look up a medical term I don't need to carry with me (or borrow) a medical dictionary, is all online (provided by the university). Many of the extra materials are provided online also for example we got extra CDs with breath sounds, heart sounds, and extra random material some PBL tutors give us. A student was hired by the faculty and took pictures from prosections of anatomy specimens. I can easily study for this at home, at the library, from a PBL room, ie the night before an exam (well you get my drift. And without my laptop would I have enough time to check this site non-stop ? (Sil)
    
23. I don`t find the med school location a bother at all....for us southend-ers it`s closer and has less traffic flow during rush hour. The 85 (bus) takes you downtown within a matter of 10 minutes. Altavista, although not a bustling neighbourhood, is fairly close to St. Laurent Blvd. which provides easy access to a huge mall, 24 eateries, golf courses, a Hooters, and the ever popular nuDEN!!! (James W.)
    
24. As far as Ottawa goes as a city to live in...I've travelled and spent significant time in all major Canadian cities and have also spent time in many of the less-known cities...I would say I have a pretty good handle on what other Canadian cities are like. I would say, in my opinion, the three nicest places to live in Canada, in order of my personal preference are: Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver. Ottawa is an amazing city. I lived here when I was younger and it was pretty lame with respect to night life, etc. Ottawa currently has a great night life scene...the market is really fun...and Hull is right next door. Good restaurents are everywhere. Ottawa is also very clean and safe, as major Canadian cities go. Our cost of living is also excellent relative to other major cities in Canada.
    Ottawa also has lots of great things to do outside...if you're sporty...there are miles and miles of bicycle/blading/running paths, we have the canal...the gatineau is right next door for hiking and cross-country skiing in the winter...we have world-class bass, pickerel/walleye, musky fishing within 15-30 minutes of downtown...(Peter Hill)
    
25. Ottawa's a great place to visit. I did an away elective there and absolutely loved it. The downtown area is a lot of fun, and the staff and residents at the hospital were some of the happiest and friendliest that I've ever had the pleasure of working with. (Ian Wong) <-- it doesn't get more official than that haha.
    
26. Because of the e-curriculum, you can confidently dose through lectures and know that you can download relatively detailed sets of notes for the classes you missed.*(Mistah Anderson)*mistah anderson does not advocate sleeping in class. However he currently holds the record for most classes slept thru for meds 2007.
    
27. Our med school, is physically attached to *two* hospitals: the Ottawa General and the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. This means that not only do you have two training hospitals and two places to do on-site electives... but you also have multiple cafeterias to choose from for lunch, not to mention 4 coffee options Full service Timmies, Self serve Starbucks and Timothy's and a caf in the med school with it's own coffee.(Mistah Anderson)
    
28. We get complementary newspapers each morning by stopping by the education office. (g22g)
    
29. Like Mac you are relatively high on the teaching food chain (There aren't a great deal of residents between you and the patient). For instance great practical hands on expeirence like CABG. (Steph Macdonell)
    
30. I am here. (Steph Macdonell)
    
31. Beautiful scenere in Gatineau Park (Dave M.)
    
32. Its great to come to Ottawa and see more Leaf's fans at the Scotia Bank place watching the Sens get whooped in overtime. (Demetrios S.)
    
33. Ottawa has the best fan base and club for the Minor League Hockey. (Misha M.)
    
34. Mentor night: about once a month or two you hang out for dinner and an activity with one or two physicans and few third, second, and first year colleagues. The docs typically pay. And if you happen to miss an activity they will call to check up on you to make sure everything is alright. For instance we are going skate the canal, try beavertails, and have dinner at their house this Feb. weekend. The entire project is lead coordinated by the med students.(g22g)
    
35. Student leadership and Community health groups: First year students will be given the opportunity to mentor a child stricken with cancer, provide health education to high schoolers, coordinate a summer elective in Bear country, and attend weekly seminars on international health. Click here for details mededu.med.uottawa.ca/aesculapian/HTML/CommunityInternationalHealth/CommunityHealth/groups.htm (g22g)
    
36. So you think you are SMRT? SMRT club: Stands for Seminars on manuscripts that Revolutionize Therapies: It’s a journal club organized by the first year class to cover tomorrow's therapies today. Sessions are lead by an enthusastic student and with the audience of a faculty member experienced in the topic of the month. Click here for the web page: mededu.med.uottawa.ca/meds2007/SMRT/ (g22g, shameless plug)
    
37. EGSO, a group of forty first year students that work together to answer and share the learning objectives given by the faculty in a particular block. Student answers are further screened by two peer reviewers. Excellent collaboration!(g22g)
    
38. Med Show!
    
39. Our academic assistant dean shaved HER (yes.. HER) long blonde locks to raise money for paediatric cancer research!
    
40. PSD (physician skills development) has you doing histories on REAL inpatients during the SECOND week of classes! I wasn't even out of orientation and I was sitting in the oncology floor, taking a history from a patient. It was scary and amazing at the same time. It was a great way to step into the career you're just starting to learn.
    
41. Free shuttle bus to main campus (administrative stuff, gym, intramurals, etc) and to riverside and civic campuses of the ottawa hospital (electives, clerkship)
    
42. Anatomy lab online! Cadaver pictures are labelled and all online so you're not in the anatomy lab with a bunch of cadavers by yourself on a tuesday night! Very well labelled and photographed. Great way to prepare for lab.
    
43. Putting in a "Meds" volleyball/hockey/basketball team into the intramural league so you can relive your glory high school days of when you scored 4 touch downs in a single game for polk high.
    
44. If you qualify for you provincial financial aid, you automatically received a $4500 bursary this year (2010/11)
    
45. Beavertails - burning calories by skating 10 km on the canal, and then immediately eating them all back with a beavertail and hot chocolate at one of the huts on the canal is a fantastic pasttime
    
46. The health sci library was completely renovated as of September 2010. As it stands, it's a pretty nice place to study.
    
47. Ottawa is great for restaurants. If you compare it to Toronto, you may not think so, but it blows London, Hamilton and Kingston away (not that I'm picking on these cities, it's just that these are the only ones I have any experience with in the restaurant scene)
    There's the Byward Market which is loaded with bars and nicer restaurants, but we also have Elgin St., The Glebe, Westboro, Chinatown, Little Italy etc, that all have quality places to eat. This town is also overrun with shawarma places. Not to mention I just tried lobster poutine for the first time and it was an incredible experience.
    
48. Do you like beer? Find someone with a car and head over the river to Gatineau. The Beer king sells plenty of great beers for a dollar a bottle/can. I paid $45 to buy a 24 of Blanche de Chambly at the London beerstore. I went over to Gatineau this fall and bought 24 bottle for $26. Made a second trip recently and all the Sleeman was under a dollar a bottle and I got a 24 of Heineken for $28... just unreal

*suggestions for extending the list are welcome!*

[Dutch_girl]

There is no question that UO has one of the best medical programs in the country. We are rated the #1 accredited medical school in Canada and have the best balance between clinical exposure and integrative learning. As someone who was accepted into McGill, Toronto, UWO and Ottawa you can take my word that I truly believe the University of Ottawa is the best school in Canada. I believe that UO is the best option that will prepare you for your career as a physician and still maintain a life outside of medical school.

[aaronjw]

There is no question that UO has one of the best medical programs in the country. We are rated the #1 accredited medical school in Canada and have the best balance between clinical exposure and integrative learning. As someone who was accepted into McGill, Toronto, UWO and Ottawa you can take my word that I truly believe the University of Ottawa is the best school in Canada. I believe that UO is the best option that will prepare you for your career as a physician and still maintain a life outside of medical school.

 

all medical schools will prepare you well for a career as a physician

[Dutch_girl]

all medical schools will prepare you well for a career as a physician

 

Absolutely true - every Canadian medical school will give you a fantastic medical education. But I believe UO has placed a strong focus on clinical exposure and allows you the time to pursue all your interests outside of school!

[funnyboy6]

I really agree with dutch_girl's comment about accreditation. Unfortunately, Ottawa does not have the "prestige" of UofT or McGill, so it goes under the radar of a lot of applicants. But according to their last accreditation report, UofO got a near perfect rating in every respect. They provide as good a medical education as you can find in North America.

[gt3rs]

Are lectures video recorded?

[kinemed]

Are lectures video recorded?

 

Nope, lectures are not video (or audio) recorded. There's been talk about it, but as far as I understand there's been a bit of a stumbling block re: intellectual property that the administration would have to address

[SetG]

I was just accepted to Ottawa med this morning, yay!!

 

I know nothing about Ottawa. Where do med students typically live? Downtown or near the hospital? Are there housing services? I'm so lost...help!

[kinemed]

I was just accepted to Ottawa med this morning, yay!!

 

I know nothing about Ottawa. Where do med students typically live? Downtown or near the hospital? Are there housing services? I'm so lost...help!

 

This thread addresses other things as well (which you might find useful), but also has a good rundown of locations to live

 

http://www.premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52337

 

I lived downtown (around King Edward and Laurier) in both 1st and 2nd year. I have a 5 minute walk to the shuttle and an 8 minute walk to the transit way (main public transit route) - takes me about 25 minutes to get to/from school). Alot will depend on if you have a car - I don't, so I need to be able to get to the grocery store, gym, etc. easily - all are within 10 minutes of my place. Other popular locations: Lees, Freedom Private. I'm sure other people will chime in - think about starting a separate thread

[supafield]

Hundreds of lecture slides to go through on your own. You don't have to go to the lectures you don't want to at UT, at least you get lectured on the material.

 

Haha, having gone through a couple years of the curriculum, this is absolutely untrue. The only teaching they really expect you do on your own are an average of one self learning module per week which is an online learning module that takes roughly 45 minutes, some quicker, some longer.

 

I think I can handle the extra hour a week of self teaching in exchange for 4 afternoons to do what I wish with.

[kinemed]

Second this - the only material we're expected to know is what we're lectured on. Yes, some lectures will feel rushed (see: immunology) - but hey, you have all afternoon or evening do go through that if you need to on those rare times. I get to do what I want with most of my afternoons - whether it's study, sleep, or go to the park with my dog.

 

Haha, having gone through a couple years of the curriculum, this is absolutely untrue. The only teaching they really expect you do on your own are an average of one self learning module per week which is an online learning module that takes roughly 45 minutes, some quicker, some longer.

 

I think I can handle the extra hour a week of self teaching in exchange for 4 afternoons to do what I wish with.

[kaykiddo]

Having had my interview at Ottawa, I'm super excited and can't wait to hear back - been spending (an unhealthy amount of) my free time looking up things about UOttawa - but one thing I'm having trouble finding online is info on student life /associations / groups that we can get involved with.

For example, is there a medical students association, and how do you get involved with this? What are the types of things you can get involved with on campus, outside of the medical curriculum?

I'm also curious about the campus - do we have 24 hour access to the main medical building, are there study rooms/lounges for the medical students within the main building or is our study space the main library?

I'm just curious as to what our space is like - for example, I have a friend at Mac's Waterloo campus, and they essentially have a building to themselves, where they have lectures and classes, but there are also lounges and study rooms dedicated for their use in between, or after hours.

Any insight would be awesome!

Thanks all!

[green_eggs_and_ham]

The Medical Student Association is the Aesculapian Society. You get involved in first year either by running for class president, or else by applying for one of the other positions. Don't worry, there is no shortage of things to get involved in. Most people play on intramural sports teams, participate in special interest groups related to their area of interest, or in other activities (e.g. right now we are preparing for medshow, the annual first year student show). I am fairly certain I could fill up all my time just doing these things, without ever doing any homework.

 

In terms of campus space, I honestly don't know if we have 24 hour access because I have never tried to come late at night. There is a student lounge, where we generally hang out/eat lunch, as well as study rooms (both in the library and the rooms we do small group learning in). We have our own library on our campus (shared w/ the other programs that are at our campus of course), but some people still prefer to go to the main library (which is at the main campus).

 

Hope this answers your questions!

[kaykiddo]

Thanks! that does help.

Also just have a few technical questions about Ottawa's curriculum as well, for anyone who doesn't mind answering.

What's the difference between CBL and PBL?

Are classes pass/fail at UO, or are they assigned marks?

I also keep reading a lot about how there are "afternoons off" during the week - is this a trade off for more independent study..or is this just a myth all together?

 

Thanks!

[green_eggs_and_ham]

Since I have never done PBL, I can't directly comment on this, but I'm pretty sure that in PBL you are not given objectives that need to be accomplished during the session, and must spend time coming up with them yourselves as a group. In CBL, we get a list of the objectives that should be covered, so if they are not completely covered by our discussion of the case, we can go back and discuss them after.

 

You get a mark back for exams, but only you will see that mark. All of the marks for the semester are calculated into a final mark, which determines whether you pass or fail the semester. Your transcript will just indicate a pass or a fail.

 

If you are applying to the English stream, you pretty much do get afternoons off. In first year, we are done at 12:30 every day except for Thursday (when we have clinical skills in the afternoon). I wouldn't say this is necessarily a "trade-off" because we cover the vast majority of required material in class, but it may happen at a faster pace than you are comfortable with and may then require more background reading. I choose to spend most of my afternoons studying, but I have a lot of classmates that spend a lot of their time doing 10-hour electives.

[goingplaid]

Why?

Because of frosh week!!