What I've learned after 4 weeks at UT med...

[CD90.2]

I know all of you out there are frantically polishing your apps, but ever wonder what is in store when you finally get in? Here is my first (and probably last) installment of "What is it really like being a first year UT med student?"

 

1) Repeat after me: "I paid 20K/yr and I still have to sit in a classroom with 300 kids 6 hours a day?"

 

2) Thank god for small group tutorials taught by smart & motivated MD's. They deserve every penny they get.

 

3) Unless you are a super genius with photographic memory, be prepared to study 2-4 hours each night after class. (warning: the above super geniuses have likely pre-read next month's topic as well)

 

4) To all the scientist out there, social determinants of health exists and is here to stay. The faster you accept that, the more fun DOCH will be. Same for the CanMEDs roles. (If you don't what CanMEDS is, you might want to google that before handing in your app.)

 

5) Your class will likely be filled with beautiful people. Over-representations of blonds, tall, and/or athletic types (ie. pretty much the entire class will sign up for intramural sports and/or work out at Hart House after class). 55% women, but sorry guys, no grey's anatomy drama yet, at least as far as I know. Might have to do with all those professionalism talk we get.

 

6) Despite all the talk of hyper-competitiveness at UT, everyone is friendly and down to earth. Even those from yale, harvard, cambridge, cornell, and yes, even those poor souls from health science at Mac.

 

7) If you were at UT for undergrad or grad studies, be prepared to be spoiled. It's amazing when UT actually cares about you. And I don't just mean academically, they even care about your personal growth. Same goes with family, friends, and strangers. For some strange reasons, people becomes really interested in what you learn each day.

 

8) Try to meet as many people as you can during O-week. That's really the time when social groups more or less coalesce together. That's not to say there is no mixing afterward, but it definitely takes much more effort.

 

9) The fable work-life balance. I personally having found that yet, but it seems like a lot of people manage to have a life outside of school. To be honest, I think not being at the lab on a friday night is a pretty good start for me.

 

10) Why choose UT med? At this point, the biggest selling point for me is the large and diverse student body. Regardless of your interests, hobbies, or philosophies, you are bound to find at least a couple people to share it with. The profs keep telling us that we will meet some of our best life-long friends in the class. I usually don't drink the whole med kool-aid, but I will admit there might be some truth to that.

 

ps. the infamous bag question. Yes, we still get bags, but from now on, it will be a UT-specific bag with the UT med and UT med alumni logo on it. In talking to people, there seems to a bit of a backlash to that particular status symbol. I personally don't use it since I know how it feels to get rejected and then having to encounter those bags on a daily basis. On the other hand, I have to admit, they are really handy when identifying your classmates on the street. It's just impossible to learn 230 new faces and names! So my anger towards those bags have diminished a bit.

 

pss. Yes, I am only writing this because I am really sick of studying respirology

[grapz]

How many asian girls aproximately are in your class. How many of those are good looking

[ontariostudent]

A couple of other things I want to add:

 

-The U of T curriculum is much better than I expected (so far) based on what I'd heard from others (mostly who are not at U of T med).

 

Most days we go from 9-5. We start at 8 once or twice a week, and end at 4 on days when we have optional tutorials. Friday afternoons are sometimes unscheduled. We always have an hour for lunch, but on days when people have to travel to or from the hospital they may schedule it for an hour and a half.

 

This doesn't mean we have 7 or 8 hours of lectures per day. Our time is split between lectures, anatomy labs, seminars, and tutorials. Sometimes they give us study blocks in the middle of the day. Every Friday morning we meet in the hospital to work on clinical skills, and Wednesday afternoons we learn about community health, either in the classroom or in the community (home and school visits are scheduled for this semester). I will be seeing my first patient this Wednesday when I do a home care visit with a partner and a case manager.

 

The class is big (224), but we are often split into smaller groups. Anatomy lab groups have 8 people, seminars have around 25, clinical skills groups have around 6, community health groups have around 10. That means there are many opportunities to work in smaller groups and to get to know individual classmates. That being said, MOST groups are made up of the people in your academy (your hospital base).

 

-They weren't kidding when they said there are tons of ways to get involved in clubs and ECs. In the first month of school I have received about 150 emails from the class listserv, which basically serves to announce social activities and functions. Some days there are multiple interest groups, and they are all looking to recruit first year med students to serve on them. There really is something for everyone, and if you don't see what you're looking for, there is funding to start your own club or activity. There are also about 50 class council positions ranging from social to academic in nature. There are also tons of social events so don't worry about U of T students being so serious!

 

-As the OP mentioned, U of T med pampers their students far more than U of T undergrad or grad students are used to. I was shocked to find how supportive they are and how well we are treated. They really want everyone to succeed and they are committed to serving the needs of the students. Every single week we are asked to fill out evaluation forms, and our lecturers have been extremely approachable.

 

I have really been pleasantly surprised by my experience so far. I wish I had known more about what the program would really be like before I had the opportunity to choose a medical school. I am extremely happy with my choice so far, and I'm looking forward to an awesome 4 years!

 

Oh, the OP made one comment that I disagree with: I have heard that your O-week friends are the people you end up sticking with for the rest of school, but I'm not sure that's the case. I met so many people in o-week, many of which I have hardly seen or spoken to since (it's a big class and if they're not in your academy it's easy to miss people). I am mainly becoming friends with the people in my small groups, which mostly means the people in my academy. Many of these are not people I met during o-week. Don't stress too much about making friends early. You will be thrown into so many small group situations that you will have many opportunities to get to know many individuals in the class.

[sv3]

awesome posts. Of course, when i get my FOAD letter/email, I'll be sure to hate both of you for telling me how great it is. But for now.........i can drink....and then hope. Has to be in that order

[ontariostudent]

awesome posts. Of course, when i get my FOAD letter/email, I'll be sure to hate both of you for telling me how great it is. But for now.........i can drink....and then hope. Has to be in that order

 

a) Be confident and don't start to worry yet about getting in. It's a longggg road and you probably haven't submitted your app yet.

U of T isn't the only good school out there. My friends at other schools are also very happy so far. I think that if you go into med with a positive attitude, you will find things to be happy about wherever you are. All you have to worry about is getting into one school....

[CD90.2]

Thanks ontariostudent, I forgot to attach the all important disclaimer on the bottom of my previous post. "The above is an opinion piece. Your experience at UT med may differ completely."

 

To be honest, after reading ontariostudent's post, I think I am more ambivalent about my experience so far. I was really expecting more on the educational side, especially in terms of curriculum delivery. The lack of regular free time during the week also really sucks. I would love to have one afternoon off per week to do some research at the lab. They keep reminding us that a medical student named Charles Best manged to win a Nobel prize with his research during the school year. Hard to do when you are in class/tutorials/labs all the time. But once again, this is just an opinion.

 

Seriously grapz, I hope that is not making your decision based on the hot Asian girls ratio! =)

[ontariostudent]

Thanks ontariostudent, I forgot to attach the all important disclaimer on the bottom of my previous post. "The above is an opinion piece. Your experience at UT med may differ completely."

 

To be honest, after reading ontariostudent's post, I think I am more ambivalent about my experience so far. I was really expecting more on the educational side, especially in terms of curriculum delivery. The lack of regular free time during the week also really sucks. I would love to have one afternoon off per week to do some research at the lab. They keep reminding us that a medical student named Charles Best manged to win a Nobel prize with his research during the school year. Hard to do when you are in class/tutorials/labs all the time. But once again, this is just an opinion.

 

Seriously grapz, I hope that is not making your decision based on the hot Asian girls ratio! =)

 

I agree that it would be nice to have an afternoon off every week or two, but we have more free time/less class time than I expected, and I see this as a good thing. How many times have I heard students at other schools putting U of T down for being really old school and having lectures from 8-5 every day? That's exactly what I was expecting from what people told me, but the reality, imho, is much better. I feel that we get a lot of class time and the small group things are a nice change. Of course it's all subjective, but it's something I see as an improvement over what I expected.

[peachy]

Anatomy is very different from the rest of med school. Everything (delivery of material, time available, etc) gets better when it's done.

 

I don't know that I'd agree completely about the responsiveness -- yeah, we fill out billions of forms, but that doesn't mean that anybody acts on them!

[ontariostudent]

Anatomy is very different from the rest of med school. Everything (delivery of material, time available, etc) gets better when it's done.

 

I don't know that I'd agree completely about the responsiveness -- yeah, we fill out billions of forms, but that doesn't mean that anybody acts on them!

 

Thanks for the insight, but one thing that needs pointing out is that they have changed the curriculum this year so we don't have only anatomy for the first few months. Our anatomy goes until winter break and has physiology, embryology and histology mixed in. Some weeks we're not in the lab at all, and others we are there for 8-10 hours.

[Mike]

I was really expecting more on the educational side, especially in terms of curriculum delivery.

 

I am very disappointed with the way they teach anatomy at UofT. Learning anatomy without understanding the pathology just becomes a long list of Latin names to memorize.

 

At other schools, medical students learn anatomy over a longer period of time and in the right context.

[Prion]

Why are you mentioning the social determinants of health? Is that something they taught you in class over and over?

[ontariostudent]

Why are you mentioning the social determinants of health? Is that something they taught you in class over and over?

 

We have a course called Determinants of Community Health for one afternoon each week. Some weeks we have lectures on public health and the Canadian health care system, but other weeks we meet in small groups to talk about issues that are closer to home and to do community visits. I'd say that the theme is pretty prevalent throughout the program, as the course runs for all 4 years.

 

As for the way U of T teaches anatomy, I'm not sure there IS an ideal way to teach it. However, I think that the change in curriculum that they implemented this year is a positive one. As I mentioned above, instead of doing JUST anatomy and then JUST physiology and then JUST patholophysiology, the anatomy is now integrated with physiology (separate classes that run in parallel), which means that you're learning normal function along with the anatomy. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing that the pathology will be taught separately. This way we have a basic overview of ALL body systems in first year, and then in second year we get to learn pathology in context of what we know about the entire body. This has several advantages:

 

a) You are introduced to every body system in the first year, so you can start to think about the different specialties and have exposure to everything before your first summer, so you can start to focus in on areas of interest.

 

You have an idea of how the entire body functions in health before you start to worry about what can go wrong. This is important because pathology is never limited to one system or one part of anatomy. The body is integrated, and any change in one area (whether positive or negative) will have ramifications on other parts of the body. Once you have a basic understanding of normal anatomy and physiology you can start to understand the full impact of all the pathologies. The order also gives students a chance to review the basic physiology so it sticks better.

 

c) One last thing about the U of T curriculum is that we are introduced to pathology in first year, but we're not really responsible for it. For example, we just had an afternoon about cystic fibrosis after finishing our resp section. We have also had a radiology lecture in which we saw many scans of different forms of pathology, and we had a number of pbl type seminars that included diagnosis of pathology based on our knowledge of normal anatomy and physiology. While formal instruction in pathology doesn't happen until second year, we are definitely exposed to it right from the beginning.

 

Again, I'm not saying that U of T's curriculum is the best or even ideal, but I don't necessarily see a problem with the way in which they introduce anatomy, physiology and pathology.

[Jochi1543]

I know all of you out there are frantically polishing your apps, but ever wonder what is in store when you finally get in? Here is my first (and probably last) installment of "What is it really like being a first year UT med student?"

 

1) Repeat after me: "I paid 20K/yr and I still have to sit in a classroom with 300 kids 6 hours a day?"

 

2) Thank god for small group tutorials taught by smart & motivated MD's. They deserve every penny they get.

 

3) Unless you are a super genius with photographic memory, be prepared to study 2-4 hours each night after class. (warning: the above super geniuses have likely pre-read next month's topic as well)

 

What I learned after 3 weeks at U of A Med:

 

Be glad you're not at U of T Med....

 

On a more serious note, that sounds rough. I'm glad U of A makes the intro block extremely chill. I've had tons of time to work out, socialize, etc. I see keeners studying on Friday afternoons, but if you wanted to, you could take the entire weekend off and do just fine. We average about 3 hours of lecture a day and about an hour a day of mandatory studying (that's 5 days a week, and then add 5 hours of DL - PBL - and it makes 25 hours a week). I spend maybe 3 hours extra reviewing lectures I didn't quite understand, either on the weekend or during the week. It's Sunday, almost noon, and since noon on Friday, I have studied (if that verb is even appropriate, considering we basically had a histology party with wine and cheese) for 2 hours total; plan to do about 2 hours more today. Easier than 4th year undergrad so far. I didn't study for our Friday quiz at ALL and got 13/16, which I'm sure is at least at the class average, if not above.

 

The week after this one is our last week of the intro block and we are in class for *drumroll* 9.5 hours, which includes review sessions for some of the tougher lectures from this block (like neurophysiology or molecular genetics), so they are basically part of your prep for the final, anyway. Considering that I've been reviewing some of the more difficult material on my own on the weekends for a few hours, I'm pretty sure I will spend no more than 10 hours studying that week - which is perfect, because we have our final soccer game of the season that week AND I have a 3-hour meeting for one of the committees I'm sitting on.

[firefly]

Advice for those of you who are currently in UofT undergrad: take ANA300, ANA301, PSL302, LMP301, HMB320 (if that's still neuroanatomy), and some form of BCH. These courses will become extremely helpful once you're in.

[KennethToronto]

Advice for those of you who are currently in UofT undergrad: take ANA300, ANA301, PSL302, LMP301, HMB320 (if that's still neuroanatomy), and some form of BCH. These courses will become extremely helpful once you're in.

 

Or you can just learn it when you're in medicine and use your undergrad time to take courses oh...you know...might not have time for later on?

 

Just a thought.

[CD90.2]

What!? There is a medical school called U of A? Is that the University of Arkansas? I better google it. Joking aside, I am not complaining about the breadth of the material, just it's delivery. Some of this stuff is bound to come in handy at some point....

 

ps. Note to self: I better review my notes on professionalism and regional elitism! =)

 

 

What I learned after 3 weeks at U of A Med:

Be glad you're not at U of T Med....

 

On a more serious note, that sounds rough. I'm glad U of A makes the intro block extremely chill. I've had tons of time to work out, socialize, etc. I see keeners studying on Friday afternoons, but if you wanted to, you could take the entire weekend off and do just fine. We average about 3 hours of lecture a day and about an hour a day of mandatory studying (that's 5 days a week, and then add 5 hours of DL - PBL - and it makes 25 hours a week). I spend maybe 3 hours extra reviewing lectures I didn't quite understand, either on the weekend or during the week. It's Sunday, almost noon, and since noon on Friday, I have studied (if that verb is even appropriate, considering we basically had a histology party with wine and cheese) for 2 hours total; plan to do about 2 hours more today. Easier than 4th year undergrad so far. I didn't study for our Friday quiz at ALL and got 13/16, which I'm sure is at least at the class average, if not above.

 

The week after this one is our last week of the intro block and we are in class for *drumroll* 9.5 hours, which includes review sessions for some of the tougher lectures from this block (like neurophysiology or molecular genetics), so they are basically part of your prep for the final, anyway. Considering that I've been reviewing some of the more difficult material on my own on the weekends for a few hours, I'm pretty sure I will spend no more than 10 hours studying that week - which is perfect, because we have our final soccer game of the season that week AND I have a 3-hour meeting for one of the committees I'm sitting on.

[firefly]

Or you can just learn it when you're in medicine and use your undergrad time to take courses oh...you know...might not have time for later on?

 

Just a thought.

 

Or you can not have to study your butt off during med school and use your time instead to enjoy life/learn other things that will further your personal development.

 

Just my thoughts.

[Prion]

Advice for those of you who are currently in UofT undergrad: take ANA300, ANA301, PSL302, LMP301, HMB320 (if that's still neuroanatomy), and some form of BCH. These courses will become extremely helpful once you're in.

 

I'm curious to know why? I took most of these courses. Are they helpful because of the concepts or because they give you all the details so when you learn it again in med school you will retain it better?

 

(was thinking if I should throw my notes for some of those courses out).

[Jochi1543]

Or you can not have to study your butt off during med school and use your time instead to enjoy life/learn other things that will further your personal development.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

I actually have to side with Kenneth on that one. Yeah, I do feel like having taken anatomy helped me save about 30 minutes of studying for our "intro to anatomy" lecture (we don't start the real anatomy til 2nd semester, so of course it might save me more time later on) or that having taken a primary care paramedic course gave me quite an advantage in our first DL (PBL) scenario which dealt with emergency medicine....but really, the yield is extremely low compared to the amount of time required to take these undergrad or professional courses.

 

Maybe it's a bit different with U of A - our intro block exists solely for the purpose of getting all of us on the same level, so that later on we don't have people scrambling to barely pass something when others breeze through a lecture because they took an undergrad course on the topic. Based on what I hear from 1st year UTmeds, at U of T, you just kind of plunge head-first into a topic like embryology right away and learn it in depth (correct me if I'm wrong), so there seems to be a different approach. So maybe at U of T, having taken undergrad embryology or whatever might help a bit more than at U of A, where it really doesn't matter.

[firefly]

I'm curious to know why? I took most of these courses. Are they helpful because of the concepts or because they give you all the details so when you learn it again in med school you will retain it better?

 

(was thinking if I should throw my notes for some of those courses out).

 

Hmm well for me personally, having learned the material in undergrad means that I can relearn it much faster the second time around. We are in class almost everyday from 9-5 (granted not always learning didactically), but if I have to review the material when I get home everyday for another couple of hours, that would really blow. I woudln't have time to hang out with my friends and do all these other things I enjoy.

 

Also you do build on some of the knoweldge from those courses, so I find that it helps a lot already having mastered the foundation.

 

I never took ANA301, which I regret because my friends who took that course in undergrad can now skip embryology altogether while I'm stuck in class boggling my mind over septum primum and septum secumdum.

[Prion]

Hmm well for me personally, having learned the material in undergrad means that I can relearn it much faster the second time around. We are in class almost everyday from 9-5 (granted not always learning didactically), but if I have to review the material when I get home everyday for another couple of hours, that would really blow. I woudln't have time to hang out with my friends and do all these other things I enjoy.

 

Also you do build on some of the knoweldge from those courses, so I find that it helps a lot already having mastered the foundation.

 

I never took ANA301, which I regret because my friends who took that course in undergrad can now skip embryology altogether while I'm stuck in class boggling my mind over septum primum and septum secumdum.

 

lol is dr. taylor teaching you?

 

Also, hanging out with friends? I didn't even get to do that in undergrad

[KennethToronto]

Or you can not have to study your butt off during med school and use your time instead to enjoy life/learn other things that will further your personal development.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

You don't need to study your butt off during med school and you can still use your time to enjoy life / learn other things that will further your personal development.

 

Just sayin'.

[sbrugby]

Hmm well for me personally, having learned the material in undergrad means that I can relearn it much faster the second time around. We are in class almost everyday from 9-5 (granted not always learning didactically), but if I have to review the material when I get home everyday for another couple of hours, that would really blow. I woudln't have time to hang out with my friends and do all these other things I enjoy.

 

Also you do build on some of the knoweldge from those courses, so I find that it helps a lot already having mastered the foundation.

 

I never took ANA301, which I regret because my friends who took that course in undergrad can now skip embryology altogether while I'm stuck in class boggling my mind over septum primum and septum secumdum.

 

+1

 

pretty sure my study time is cutting into my free time right now

 

our days are pretty packed as they are. as someone with zero background in most of the stuff we're being taught right now, i wouldn't mind being able to zip through the material much more quickly.

 

anyways, just do what you want. take whatever courses you want for whatever reasons you want. there's no "right way" to go about this stuff.

[rogerroger]

This is a good thread to read if you want to get an idea what it is like once you are in. From a second year meds vantage point I agree with 90% of what is being described here.

 

The 1T3s are experiencing a less intense anatomy experience than the 1T2s experienced. Anatomy use to be over around Halloween. Now things are more spread out and taught in parallel with some physiology. This is a nice touch.

 

In second year things still keep you busy but you are by no means paralyzed by work or anything like that. A general week for us is two days a week spent in lecture from about 8AM-3/4PM. These lectures are on pathology and later in the year the foundations of medical practice.

 

Then we have one morning of DOCH lectures a week (community health continues every year until you graduate). In second year DOCH is centered around conducting real research in a community setting. This is in contrast to first year which centers around exploring and identifying the determining factors of health in a community. In second year your task is to apply scientific methodology to evaluate these factors.

 

We also spend four hours a week doing some pbl sessions related to the lecture material. These sessions really are all about developing diagnostic reasoning skills.

 

To mix it up we have maybe three or so hours of small group seminars also tossed in here and there.

 

Then to top the week off ones time spent in hospitals continues. In first year you really focus on doing basic physical exams and taking histories. In second year you spend some time with physicians in different specialties learning still basic, but slightly more specific examination skills. Also you start to learn to how to take your findings and start coming up with differentials etc. This takes up one half day a week.

[Jochi1543]

You don't need to study your butt off during med school and you can still use your time to enjoy life / learn other things that will further your personal development.

 

Just sayin'.

 

Amen, brotha, P/F rulez.