Reasons for going to U of T

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Not to intrude on the U of T discussion - but I don't think either Hamilton or London can beat Halifax for # of Timmy Hos. The lab I did my honours thesis in had SEVEN (7) within a 5-10 minute walk. . .

[Guest governorgeneral]

easy way to solve this:

 

1. get your phone book

2. look up "tim horton's" in the business section

3. count how many tim horton's there are.

4. divide (3) by your city's population.

 

so for montreal, 38/1 000 000 = 0.000 038.

 

(never said montreal was canada's tim horton's capital...)

 

now if you're asking which campus is canada's tim horton's capital, mcgill's got one on campus, and 5 within 10 minutes.

[Guest doubledouble]

I made the call and my instincts were correct...Hamilton has the most Tim Hortons both in absolute terms and per capita.

 

Its nuts in Hamilton you will see a street corner with two full service Tim Hortons plus a drive thru

[Guest javajane]

I used to live in Hamilton and I recall people saying that Tim Horton, the hockey player, was FROM Hamilton. So there's a claim to fame for ya. Maybe that explains the plethora of coffee joints.

[Guest Tim]

TO does not have the most Tims' per capita

UofT has only 2 Tims' on campus I know of (MSB and HSC)

HSC Tims' is THE MOST PROFITABLE! in Canada

(yet it donates all profits to HSC)

Tim Horton was a Maple Leaf for a bit

(Maple Leafs RULE!)

His salary was less than that of a family physician nowadays

He tried many trades yet the most successful (Tims') was bought out before it was truly successful

Tims' is a religion, I heard, in the boonies (pre-Missisauga Go-Trains)... everyone has a breakfast Tims' coffee in the morning.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Wow. . . surprises me. Maybe my lab was just in the "Timmy Ho" district of Halifax. . .

[Guest RAK2005]

Man, I can't believe London lost out to Hamilton... You know what that means. Tim's will start to build more and more Tim's until every other house in the sub-divisions will be replaced by a drive thru Timmys. Ahhhh, the euphoria.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

I'd rather be taken over by Timmy Ho's than McDonalds or Krispy Kreme. At least it's Canadian! And the soups and sandwiches at Tim Hortons are at least somewhat healthy.

 

What do you guys think? Which has a more detrimental impact to Canadian Health - Tim Hortons, McDonald's, or. . . U of T med students? Sorry - started writing that sentence and couldn't help but put in the last one. Just a little razzing from your friendly neighbourhood Western med student! I'll go back to the Western forum now. . .

[Guest YongQ]

Shoo UWOMED2005! Shoo!

 

Yep, sorry about the false statement about TO having the most Timmy's... obviously my anecdotal source for that was unreliable. It <!--EZCODE ITALIC START--> is<!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> true that we love you applicants, though! Also, what other med school has several faculty that are willing to party down with the students (this isn't a rhetorical question, I want feedback on this)? Does UWO have a community health prof that dances to rap by night?

 

YONGQ

[Guest UWOMED2005]

No, we don't have any profs into rap or hip-hop. . . but we have run into our clinical methods instructor (who my female classmates report to be quite a hottie) at the Ceeps for Retro night! And I've personally gone out for beers with a few profs friday afternoons at the grad club.

 

On a serious note, a couple of months back someone on this forum tried to make it look like I was anti-U of T. That is absolutely not the case - I'd have to be an idiot to seriously claim U of T Meds grads were a detriment to the Canadian Health Care System - it is a great school! But so are the other schools in Canada! I do think, however, choosing U of T just because it ranks #1 in the Maclean's survey in the Medical/Doctoral category (which is actually an assessment of the school AS A WHOLE and ACCORDING TO SPECIFIC CRITERIA, not a marker of whether the med school is good or not!!) isn't a good idea either. I only point this out because when I started applying to medical schools Maclean's and the Gourman report were my initial criteria upon which to base my decision upon, having nothing else - it's hard to get info about what the med schools are really like and that's why I think boards such as this one are such a great idea!

 

Hopefully, your experiences at interview weekend and the work of moderators such as YongQ, Carolyn, Rak2005, etc. on this board have given you a sense of what each school is about. . . the key is to pick a school where you'll fit in for the next 4 years and learn the skills you will need in the kind of medicine you want to practice (most schools in Canada will be able to succed at the latter.) If you preferred the atmosphere of U of T and think you'd fit in better there - then by all means choose U of T!

 

Of course choosing U of T could mean being on the losing team at next year's Med School Olympics. . .

 

Okay, okay - don't worry YONGQ, I'm outta here.

[Guest Impressed]

I just got home from my UofT interview. I can confirm that the first-year med students who were tour guides were absolutely great. Thanks very much!

[Guest persistenc3]

hi impressed,

 

how did u find your interview today ? thanks.

[Guest OT5 med student]

Caspase9, I'd like to help you get your story straight. "Don't have time to develop a personality?" Please, that's ridiculous! U of T med students are just as social, just as into partying, volunteering, joining clubs, playing sports, and having a blast as any other group of med students. It's absurd to think that some classes/schools are more social than others.

 

Have you heard about the zillion of activities that go on at U of T? There's MedSoc, yearbook, UTMJ, the student newspaper, our end-of-the-year-formal, an extravagant fashion show to raise money for charity, our HUGE theatrical production that raises over $18000 for cancer research each year that involves dancing, singing, acting, and an extemely talented band.

Did you know there are TWO med school bands that perform awesome shows many times a year, 2 "Medstocks" per year where amateurs can show off their talent, there's a huge art show, intramurals, an athletic banquet, movie nights, a string quartet, an open house, a research day, and a fantastic Orientation Week. There's tons of volunteer/community activities, such as mentoring inner-city kids, volunteering at downtown homeless shelters, teaching healthy sexuality to high school kids, Saturday Program where you can tutor high school kids, Adventures in

Science at Sickkids, food drives, blood drives, clothing drives, you name it, it's here. We've gone cosmic bowling, laser tagging, boat cruising, rockclimbing, skiing, to the Royal Ontario Museum, and to Quebec City and Ottawa for Med events. We've been on Mike Bullard and Electric Circus. There's also all of our post-exam parties, joint 1st and 2nd year parties, fundraising parties, profac parties, Halloween and Christmas parties, and just plain everyday/weekend parties at houses, bars and clubs around the city.

 

And those are just planned events. Don't forget all the individual stuff you do with your friends from the class like going to movies, going for martini's, having dinner parties, going rollerblading, joining hip hop dancing classes, whatever. Toronto is a BIG city, U of T meds is a BIG class, and that's what's so great about it. There are people who are interested in everything you can possibly imagine, and more. And the city of Toronto has it all (and this is coming from a Vancouverite, born and raised to make fun of Toronto).

 

And yes, we study too...some more than others. You can get as involved as you want, and study as much as you want. I can tell you, as someone who was very active in undergrad, lived in rez and socialized a lot, and did a fairly challenging Honours science program...I have never studied so much, partied so much, or been as involved in school events as I have been at U of T. And yes, I get Honours, so does almost half the class, despite the zillion of activities we're invovled in. It's do-able, it's not overly competitive, and it's FUN. Toronto is an amazing place to learn medicine, with over 10 teaching hospitals, 8 of which are right downtown at your doorstep, a great program, and great students. Yes, some people are anal, some are super huge keeners, but most are just your average type A med students, just like you'll find at any other school.

 

Whew, if you've even managed to read this far, I hope I've squashed some of your pre-conceived notions about U of T. No one school is perfect for everyone, stop stressing about where to go until you get your acceptances, and then just choose the place that makes the most sense to you.

 

And that's my rant of the day.

(that's for any OT5's reading this )

[Guest LifeSci05]

You make me want to go to UofT more than I already do.

[Guest YongQ]

"0T5 med student," which Vancouverite are you? That is quite the plug for our school!

 

YONGQ

[Guest The Fox Rox]

Hey OT5 vancouverite Med Student,

that was almost as good a Martin Luther Kings 'I have a dream' speech. It makes the 100,000 dollars of debt that I might be under seem to be totally worth in.

 

Hoping to get in

[Guest DO]

The guy who works at the UofT MSB Tim Horton's gave me a free muffin after my interview last weekend. It made the whole excursion worthwhile.

[Guest James Wong]

I know OT5 med student as this person was kind enough to billot me. 0T5 med student probably won't be replying to these posts as 0T5 med student doesn't frequent this site at all. I showed this site to 0T5 med student while I stayed in TO. 0T5 med student was able to convince on the matter that, yes it is in fact, it is simply untrue that UT med students are anti-social and all that negative stuff that has been said. There are always a certain few who are really competitive but that exists every where and also depends on the class. I am told 0T5 is considered the more social (less smart class) when compared to 0T4 (It came from an 0T5 student so don't complain to me). I suspect that many people who post simply to bad mouth UT do so to scare others from applying there. YongQ, to answer your question as to whom 0T5 med student is, first tell me this, are you the student whom they call yourlastname.youlastname???? If so, email me at jamesw(at)mail(dot)ccoomm (anti-spam technique) and I'll leak the identity of my billot.....we had a good laugh at your expence when 0T5 med student told me what they call you at UT. heheh

[Guest YongQ]

Hi James,

 

Ooh let's play a game!

 

Hmm let's see if my deductive powers of reasoning are right first - there are only 5 of us in 0T5 from BC... only 2 who did honours degrees... you cleverly hid the gender of your billet, but still the mere fact the person billeted you means he/she has space to billet you in the first place... and judging by the amount of knowledge this person has about the extracurrics, the person must be fairly active... is 0T5 med student = AG?

 

YONGQ

[Guest Thewonderer]

If it is true that OT5 is more social than OT4 (i.e. OT4 is more intense and stressed out), who knows whether OT6 will be a class composite similar to OT5 or OT4?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Same goes for UWO. Some years are more involved, others more into the books. So I guess what matters is not how the 2005s are, but how the 2006s are going to be!

[Guest ThugJaan]

Chances are that OT6 will be closer to OT4 simply b.c the OT$'s had a hand in picking them. But that is, at best, an overly simplistic approach.

 

There ARE OT4s that partyand have fun; its just that there core group is much smaller than our core group.

 

On the plus side though, they do much better than we do in school. So if you are a non-intense OT4 student you will probably hav fun and do well in school.

[Guest UWOMED2005]

Interesting theory! The same thing has been noted of Western classes - one year will be a big study year, the next a big party year. I'd never thought about it in terms of the students selected for interview weekend. Of course that really doesn't work for Western, as it's supposed to be the third years on the interviewing committee who interview. . . though a fair number of 2nd years get invited to interview as well.

[Guest YongQ]

ThugJaan, maybe your theory is right. I'm just hoping that when the 0T6s see how crazy we are, they'll want to be like us

[Guest James Wong]

Damn yongQ,

Your deduction powers are very good indeed! You are right. AG was my billot. Does that mean that I was right to assume that you are indeed AF. (I can`t find the question mark on this French keyboard).