Guest zirneklis Posted June 5, 2003 Report Share Posted June 5, 2003 Hi all! Do you feel like you get enough clinical exposure in the first couple of years? For those of you who have done rotations (or have talked to someone who has), do you feel like you are actively participating in the hospitals? I've heard that UofT students dont get as involved because there are so many residents available... Thanks z ps. Is anyone else trying to decide bt UofT and Queen's? Or did anyone have to make this decision in previous years? I'd really love some more insight...I think I'm leaning towards UofT, but I just want to be sure... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lakers4life Posted June 5, 2003 Report Share Posted June 5, 2003 Speaking from the 1st two years, inspite of SARS, I woudl say that I have had decent clinical exposure. Not outstanding, and yes there are a lot of residents that do stuff instead of a useless meds student, but it hasn't been terrible. There is ample opportunity to get your own clinical exposure, in addition to the 1-day-a-week ASCM. In 3rd/4th year most people do find that they get to do less at a bigger teaching hospital,. but you also get to see the coolest cases, so its a bit of a trade off. You can always do electives in the community or something if you are worried,but UofT grads are by no means weak. I would venture to say that according to match stats we are probably, if not they strongest, then at least 1 of the best. We never have years like Ottawa and stuff with like 20% of our class going unmatched, and we usually have a ton of specialists. In deciding b/w Q/Uoft, I got on a waitlist at Queens, but UofT would have been my number 1. I like the big city with more to do around the city socially, bigger and more hospitals, and the work with super-specialists in their area and the top researchers. I know there are benefits to Queens [smaller town, more rural exposure] but I don't intend on working in rural community so the pros and cons shifted heavily towards UofT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Namgalsip Posted June 5, 2003 Report Share Posted June 5, 2003 Hey Lakers4life, Did Ottawa seriously have a year when 20% of their students go unmatched? I was looking at the CaRMs website and it seems that Ottawa has one of the highest matching % Can you tell me where I can find that stat you posted? I'm just trying to decide between schools and I could use some direction Thanks, Nams Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest multifish Posted June 5, 2003 Report Share Posted June 5, 2003 Zirneklis: Keep in mind that no matter what school you choose, the amount of clinical exposure you get during the clerkship is much much less than what you get during residency. I once shadowed a pediatrician who did her MD at Mac, a very hands-on school, who said that she felt that compared to her residency, she learned almost nothing in clerkship. My brother did his MD at UWO and said that while the clerkship program is great, what really prepared him for working as a doctor was his residency. This is just an n of 2, but it rings true for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted June 6, 2003 Report Share Posted June 6, 2003 Whoah man - U of T unmatch statistics this year were not THAT far off from U of O's!!! There were what, 8 people unmatched from U of T as compared to 12 from U of O? This was a truly anomalous year. . . there were pretty much record number of unmatched people everywhere (well, actually, except UWO. . . we had a bad year the year before and didn't do so badly this year so our stats remained unchanged with 6 unmatched) There was a huge influx of IMGs from the US and into Manitoba, an excess of of Quebec students trying to get into English schools, and NOBODY seemed to want to match to family. . . so yes, there were lots of unmatched people. Even at U of T. Please get your facts straight and look at the whole picture before you make wild statements like that about other schools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lakers4life Posted June 6, 2003 Report Share Posted June 6, 2003 Hey UWOMEDS, Uhm, I think I did have my stats straight guys! UofT has like 198 students graduating with only, what 8 unmatched. UofO had like 12 unmatched in a class of 82 or something like that. Those numbers are not even remotely similar. You do need to consider the entire class size when you compare unmatched students. UofT is liek more than twice the size but had 4 less unmatched students; seems like a BIG discrepency to me! I am simply stating facts; who knows maybe all 12 at Ottawa had ENT/Optho as their top choices? But I do think that I am justified in pointing out that 12/82 is a much bigger number than 8/198 or 6/110 [uWo]. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted June 6, 2003 Report Share Posted June 6, 2003 Yeah, that is a point. But I think U of O's class is quite a bit bigger than 82, and I think this is a totally unfair year for comparison because there were tons of unmatched across the board. If I remember correctly, UBC also had 12, and U of A had 13. BTW - do you know which school had the LEAST unmatched this past year? I'll bet you'll never guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cheech10 Posted June 6, 2003 Report Share Posted June 6, 2003 Look, unmatch statistics have much more to do with individual program choices than school strength. Even the specialty/family ratio is no good because the specialties differ in their competitiveness (eg. psych, IM, OB vs rads, ophtho, derm). One point cannot be argued though: you are much more likely to have an easier time matching at the school you graduated from than at other schools. Some Toronto programs fill 60% or more of their spots with UofT grads. You can see these from the out-of-towners matched statistic at CaRMS. And if you miss out on some clinical experience in clerkship, you'll more than make up for it in residency, especially with the excellent programs here in Toronto. To the OP: I also had to choose between Queen's and UofT. I really loved Queen's, and a good friend of mine was going to be my roommate there, but in the end I chose Toronto because: I liked the curriculum better for my learning style, I had more opportunities for research (quite a big difference here), and I would have a better chance of matching back to a Toronto program (important since all my family and my long-term girlfriend are here). If your criteria are different (and probably are), just make a list and evaluate the schools on each one. Then rank the criteria that are most important to you, and choose accordingly. Good luck; it's not an easy decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lakers4life Posted June 6, 2003 Report Share Posted June 6, 2003 hmmm...interesting question about the least...no idea, but I quessing..memorial? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted June 6, 2003 Report Share Posted June 6, 2003 No, I think it was Mac (I answered that in a different thread.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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