Reasons why you should go to the U of S for medical school!

[saskwatch]

Greetings to all you aspiring med applicants,

 

As all of you will be shortly receiving results of your applications to various medical schools in the country, I would like to take this opportunity to try to sell the program to you. I hope that if you receive an offer to attend the U of S for medical school, that you make that commitment to come to Saskatoon!

 

Now, why would I do that? I am nearing the ending of my training in Saskatoon, having only a couple weeks left of clerkship (called JURSI out here), and moving on to residency in a couple months, and at this point, I can easily say that the U of S program is one of the top programs in the country.

 

You might ask "How can I say that, when you've only attended one medical school?" Simple, during the course of training, you go on electives, visit various other schools, meet other med students and of course, during the CaRMS tours (and btw, by exchanging stories across a table laden with pints of liquid refreshment ) It is easy to find out a lot about other programs, and find out what your own program's strengths are. Of course, I may be biased, but ignore any blatant homerism that you may perceive...

 

Now after the long-winded preamble, the reasons:

 

1) Clinical teaching: From the day you enter medical school and on, you will have the opportunity to get numerous patient encounters. You can shadow extensively in first year. You have introductory clinical rotations in second year, where you will be seeing patients nearly every day. There are numerous staff and residents that are extremely interested in teaching junior medical students at nearly every stage. They will be more interested in trying to sell you on a particular specialty than in "pimping" you.

 

2) Clerkship: The U of S has the most clinically confident JURSIs (interns/clerks) in Canada. Simply because JURSIs here have a much greater degree of clinical responsibility than elsewhere in Canada. We can write out own orders. We are often first call on the wards during rotations. We often see emergency consults independently as well. For most rotations, we will present patients to the attending. The U of S has a reputation for having very well trained JURSIs, who do very well on electives elsewhere, and have a relatively smaller learning curve to adjust to residency.

 

3) Hands-on Experience: You learn by doing more than you do from watching. There will be the OR, where if you are keen, you can do a fair amount of suturing, and closing, or in the emerg, where JURSIs have done things like chest tubes, reducing dislocations/fractures, etc. JURSIs often have more hands-on experience than equivalent students elsewhere in Canada.

 

4) Smaller classes: Currently classes are at 84, with intentions to expand further. It is still smaller in general then other schools, but you do get to know your classmates very well. And given the smaller number of residents as well, there tends to be a very collegial atmosphere between residents and students.

 

5) The CaRMS match: Students here are matched throughout Canada, often to first choice sites and disciplines. Often, they match to very competitive specialties. For instance, in my class, one student matched to U of T Derm. Each year, there are several people that match to competitive specialties, such as Ophtho, Plastics, Urology, Radiology. The past 3 years have had a 98% first round match rate.

 

6) Saskatoon: It is a very nice city. Nice trails by the river to biking, running. Relatively little traffic, can get to the University in under 15 minutes from most parts of the city. Good variety of restaurants. And of course, this province is "recession-proof". Only complaint is the weather - it does get quite hot during summers...

 

7) Time off: You get 3 months off during the summers after both first and second year. There is the Making The Links program, in which you can go to Mozambique. There are international clinical exchanges, in which students in the past have gone to places like Germany, Cyprus, etc. You also get 3 weeks off over Christmas during every year of school. And during clerkship, you get 4 weeks vacation time, that can be taken throughout various rotations (just not at once), and up to 5 days for conference time.

 

8) And most importantly, we have an Xbox 360 in our JURSI lounge for purely academic purposes of course... how else will you develop the requisite hand-eye coordination for performing various procedures?

 

So if that doesn't sell the program to you, I don't know what will. Of course, no program isn't without any faults, but having nearly reached the end of my time at the medical school here, I have no regrets in my mind for having attended medical school at the U of S. I am immensely glad to have done my training here. And I hope that when you received an invitation to attend this school, you have my utmost recommendations.

 

SaskWatch

U of S - Class of 2009

[abcwxyz]

Thanks for this.

[Dr.Mash]

2 saskwatch:

 

Thanks a lot for your perspective! I only decisively disagree with "receiving our results shortly". It's excruciatingly long 6 weeks of our dream hopes being in limbo!

[NewfieMike]

8) And most importantly, we have an Xbox 360 in our JURSI lounge for purely academic purposes of course... how else will you develop the requisite hand-eye coordination for performing various procedures?

 

http://archsurg.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/142/2/181?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=video+games&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

[Dr.Mash]

http://archsurg.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/142/2/181?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=video+games&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&resourcetype=HWCIT

 

Now THAT'S an excuse!

[momo]

LOL I just wanted to add to this love fest - and I am talking real honest here now...

 

I spend most of my life in Ontario and I can honestly say that I don't miss it one little bit here in SK... the friends I have made in my class are the best I have ever made.... people can be nutsy out West:) and there are some REALLY bad drivers in Saskatoon, but overall - I'd live here over Ontario any time. Again, this is relative, and my own personal opinion, but I've been to 4 universities in my life, so I do have a bit of a perspective. U of S is not perfect by any means, but the issues we have, we bring to our Deans, our professors and they listen to us. I would not want to endure the competitive spirit or the anonymous nature of some bigger schools. I absolutely love it here, and I do think our education is quality education.

 

Just wanted to add my 2 cents... m

[DOC_Ma]

Sask is definitely my first choice, as I have some friends from that province and told me great things about it and I have done some research on its program now hearing great things from u. However I am afraid that if I get into Toronto and Sask at the same time, all my friends/relatives/parents will make me go to toronto since they believe the best medical schools are Toronto and Mcgill in Canada. They are paying for my med school tuition too so I gotta kiss their butt a little lol......

[saskwatch]

It is good to hear that you are willing to consider U of S. There is nothing wrong with attending U of T, or McGill. They have a stronger research focus, and more opportunities for that.

 

However, U of S undoubtedly has greater opportunity for clinical experience, as there are fewer residents and fellows, so as a medical student, you will have lots of opportunities to become involved that you may not receive in a larger centre.

[sharon333]

Those are all great reasons.