Why are YOU interested in going to the States? (for people going)

[bannie22]

I didnt get into UofT or Mac. I'll hold my hands and say I sucked. I'm not good enough for them both.

 

However, I would have turned down UofT for NU. 100%.

 

I kept praying for an interview only because I wanted to go to the Dean's Office and convince him or her to give my interview slot to a friend whom I feel really deserves it.

Too bad I was never good enough. And yes, I know this will always come back to haunt me, I will never get to say "I turned down Canadian schools" but heck, it was always an uphill battle with UofT accepting a total of 3 internationals in the past 3 years. And I'm pretty sure they were like from 3rd world countries or something (not entirely confident, dont quote me)

 

I'm not good enough for Canadian schools. Yes. I admit that.

But that doesnt change the fact that I believe that the American education is better. (other than @ UofT)

 

Thats all.

 

These two instances are not inter-related. I hope you anti-US ppl see that.

 

 

And lets be honest, most of you are at Canadian schools too. and if I were at a Canadian school, I probably wouldnt take such a suggestion (better education) without reacting to it on my home ground (premed101 is as canadian as it gets ...)

 

 

And any US degree is always going to be slightly more respectable in other parts of the world... cause, to be honest, the world is still developing and there are countries who really do not have a clue where Canada is....

[deeman101]

I agree with you a billion times over.

Canadian doctors never seem to want to send me for tests, and for anything from toe sprains, wrist sprains, inflammation of the knee, to just about anything.

 

they give me some tylenol samples and tell me to RICE it. and get some sleep.

 

I dont think I ever had a doctor do something (treatment) to me I didnt arleady know. =.=

 

Yea. I have to wait 2 months to see a rheumatologist. Thats after years of going to my fdoc and complaining. Most I've gotten was: stop playing sports, lose weight, go to physio. Finally I've gotten anti-inflammatories which helped nothing at all but maybe the pain. Lets see how much longer this takes before something actually useful comes about. Good thing I'm still able to walk around relatively fine. Just can't run, climb stairs, do anything fun...

[A-Stark]

I agree with you a billion times over.

Canadian doctors never seem to want to send me for tests, and for anything from toe sprains, wrist sprains, inflammation of the knee, to just about anything.

 

they give me some tylenol samples and tell me to RICE it. and get some sleep.

 

I dont think I ever had a doctor do something (treatment) to me I didnt arleady know. =.=

 

Then why bother going to medical school at all? More tests and referrals is not better medicine. What do you think they're going to do, refer you for an xray so that they can get a report from the radiologist saying "wrist sprain" or more likely "normal"?

 

Incidentally, Canadian schools simply do not in general accept non-residents, which says nothing about the quality of the applicants and everything about their visa status. Interestingly, though, Dal has some sort of contract with a Malaysian school so that four students join us for clerkship.

[redribbon]

Okay, if you went to a Canadian medical school, props to you! Obviously, you're not gonna diss the hand that fed you (in other words, if you attend a Canadian medical school, you're gonna say the system rocks, quality of education is awesome, clerkship is awesome, Canadian people are awesome) and if you attend an American school, you're probably gonna say the same about your American school too (ie the system rocks, quality of education is awesome, clerkship is awesome, Amercan people are awesome), which is why I think this thread is a bit pointless.

 

HOWEVER, for those Canadian medical students who seem to be intent on harping on other Canadians who went to American medical schools and saying they only went because they weren't accepted here in Canada - I think many of us know this. You don't have to rub it in. I admit freely, I would have preferred to stay in Canada - but that's only because the only home I knew for my entire life was IN CANADA. I'm here in the States now, and I really really enjoy my medical education - I like the people, I go out more than I did in undergrad, I love the city, and I enjoy the material that I'm currently learning.

 

I admit - I was disappointed that I didn't get accepted to a Canadian medical school. I wanted to stay in Toronto (even though the undergrad experience at U of T was a piece of s*it), HOWEVER, being at an American medical school for the past 10 months - I enjoy it here, it's probably the best post-secondary school experience I've had as of yet. In fact, I think I like it so much in the States that I might stay here permanently.

 

In conclusion to my somewhat pointless rant, if you don't get into a Canadian medical school, it's not the end of the world. There's many other routes that you can take, and you can be just as happy and successful (or even moreso) than if you did go to one.

 

The end.

[A-Stark]

I think I would put technology as one of the last reasons on my list for wanting to go to the States for medical school. If anything, I think my primary reason for going to the States (aside from the fact that I was shut out from Canadian schools, thanks Canada!) is for the residency opportunities. Take a look at the match list from McMaster, Queen's, Western, even U of T and compare it to the match lists from any medical school in the States (even the lower-tiered universities). You would see that the majority (~30-40%) of the Canadian medical graduates in a specific year and class match into FM residencies in Canada, compared to less than 10% of the students in American medical schools matching into FM residencies in a specific year/class. This doesn't mean American medical schools are better than Canadian medical schools, or any sily debate like that, but more of the fact that Canada and the US have a different health care system, different government billing for physicians, different allocation of resources/funds, etc.

 

I'd suggest that you think about the definition of "majority".

 

Anyway, family medicine has a considerably different role in Canada as compared to the US, so these numbers are not really comparable. I've come to this thread late, but it's too easy to overemphasize the differences rather than concentrating on the similarities. Like you, I'm really enjoying my medical education so far, and I find most of the reasons given for actively choosing the US to be of little relevance, unless you have in mind a very specific sort of research career in a specific field at a fairly specific school. But laparoscopic simulators? Setting aside that Canadian schools absolutely do have these (though not necessarily accessible to undergrad med students), they and other such toys have absolutely no relevance to what should be and is covered in an LCME-accreditated undergrad med program.

[Quester]

I think I would put technology as one of the last reasons on my list for wanting to go to the States for medical school. If anything, I think my primary reason for going to the States (aside from the fact that I was shut out from Canadian schools, thanks Canada!) is for the residency opportunities. Take a look at the match list from McMaster, Queen's, Western, even U of T and compare it to the match lists from any medical school in the States (even the lower-tiered universities). You would see that the majority (~30-40%) of the Canadian medical graduates in a specific year and class match into FM residencies in Canada, compared to less than 10% of the students in American medical schools matching into FM residencies in a specific year/class. This doesn't mean American medical schools are better than Canadian medical schools, or any sily debate like that, but more of the fact that Canada and the US have a different health care system, different government billing for physicians, different allocation of resources/funds, etc.

 

The States is pretty awesome though.

 

And before the rebutt comes in about how as a Canadian medical graduate you can also go down South and apply for US residencies, yes you can, but in terms of visa/immigration policies/board exams/USMLE headaches, it's much easier if you did your medical school training in the US and then applied for US residency, less tricky business (ie F1-OPT for the win!)

 

 

And going from Canada to the States, there's still a bit of ~culture shock~ AKA more melting pot = USA, mosaic = Canada, but I kinda like the melting pot .... in our medical school, Asians, Indians, Caucasians, Hispanics, African-Americans, whatever you are - we all mix. We all kinda hang out together, there's no segregation of the cultural groups like I saw in my undergrad in Canada.

 

Side note: Canada does have one thing that's very awesome though (before he moved to the States and is now applying for a green card here): Russell Peters! Funny guy.

 

And no offence, but San Francisco > Toronto (yeah that's right, they're both filled with Asians, but SF just does it better for some reason)

 

Woah. Are you at UCSF? Isn't that school extremely hard to get in?

[Quester]

I agree with you a billion times over.

Canadian doctors never seem to want to send me for tests, and for anything from toe sprains, wrist sprains, inflammation of the knee, to just about anything.

 

they give me some tylenol samples and tell me to RICE it. and get some sleep.

 

I dont think I ever had a doctor do something (treatment) to me I didnt arleady know. =.=

 

+1

Agree.

[bannie22]

Then why bother going to medical school at all? More tests and referrals is not better medicine. What do you think they're going to do, refer you for an xray so that they can get a report from the radiologist saying "wrist sprain" or more likely "normal"?

 

Incidentally, Canadian schools simply do not in general accept non-residents, which says nothing about the quality of the applicants and everything about their visa status. Interestingly, though, Dal has some sort of contract with a Malaysian school so that four students join us for clerkship.

 

 

So that I can fix people up. Get them what they want. Make them feel better, physically and psychologically.

 

Why cant they do that? (send me for a scan if i want one?) the more tests you do, the more accurate your information is. i think as a doctor-to-be you would agree with that? if my knee is totally fine, then great! if its not, then we look at what we can do next, instead of just shooing me away. In fact, I was very pissed, because if you watched Survivor heroes vs villians. Jason had the same symptoms as me, except that his was better. I couldnt even walk for a few days after the injury. And teh doc said he shud go for an MRI. and me? nothing?

 

I believe something is wrong with my knee. severe discomfort, not much pain. slight loss of fine motor control. pain when running hard... and all that... i am going back to singapore, and alreayd made an appointment to visit the specialist and get a mri scan. easy. see. i jsut wanna know. if its just psychological then i will want to get over it, but if not, then i wanna know wahts wrong and i wanna fix it. isnt that what we always tell patients. its always better to go check it out with the doctor even if its something that might not seem like a big deal?

but apparently in socialized medicine, the attitudes change and there are of course people that take advantage of the system and waste resources, but what aboutt hose who are actualy concerned?

i really really damn wanna play soccer proplery again. i want to be able to run. i want to be able to go to sleep at night knowing that i did all i could to fix that damn knee that hurts so much.

Thanks then, I always thought I was better than many of applicants but couldnt get in becasue of my citizenship. Too bad for canada, and too bad for me.

[Lactic Folly]

I'm not saying this applies to your situation, but studies have shown that nonindicated imaging studies are unlikely to help patients and can lead to more invasive procedures, such as surgery, to the ultimate detriment of patients. (e.g. asymptomatic patient goes for screening scan - incidentaloma is found, likely benign, but malignancy not excluded - leads to further workup, biopsy, surgery with its attendant morbidity)

[bannie22]

I'm not saying this applies to your situation, but studies have shown that nonindicated imaging studies are unlikely to help patients and can lead to more invasive procedures, such as surgery, to the ultimate detriment of patients. (e.g. asymptomatic patient goes for screening scan - incidentaloma is found, likely benign, but malignancy not excluded - leads to further workup, biopsy, surgery with its attendant morbidity)

 

i see. probably want to quote those, because from what i have been taught/learnt, the more evidence u have on a specific case the better it is.

 

and if the doc was willing to send me for an xray why not an mri?

 

its a ligament sprain/tear for gods sake. u wont see it in an xray...

[Lactic Folly]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16244269?dopt=AbstractPlus

http://archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/169/10/921

http://www.ajronline.org/cgi/content/full/180/2/317

Again, not directly applicable to your situation..

[A-Stark]

i see. probably want to quote those, because from what i have been taught/learnt, the more evidence u have on a specific case the better it is.

 

Please look up the following concepts: sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, NNT (number needed to treat), and NNH (number needed to harm). While you're at it, pick up a clinical epidemiology book.

[mig174]

I actually like the American system. Dont you miggy?

In relative or absolute terms? Relative to Canada, I probably view the medical education system as roughly the same, on average. There are more schools in USA (131 AAMC accredited IIRC), and so it is more likely that the top and bottom schools are in the USA, also.

 

And I agree its not harder to get into Canadian schools. (At least Ontario ones) Ontario schools are based on GPA.

 

Depends on how you define "harder" and what you are comparing. If you are comparing Ontario to USA as a whole, it is harder to get into Ontario med schools, no question:

 

           |  # applied     | # matriculated    | % matriculated
US          |   42269        | 18390             | 43.5 [1]
Ontario     |   5815         | 877               | 15.0 [2]

 

Sources: 1,2

 

However, if you are comparing admissions to top schools like Harvard, which has a ~3% acceptance rate, obviously it is easier to get into UofT, just based on numbers.

 

However, American schools tend to look for a more well-rounded applicant, and also one that "fits" the school, compared to Ontario schools who would cut anyone with less than an 11 on verbal.

 

I agree, the VR11 and R cutoffs are excessive, but perhaps the schools have reason for using them. But it doesn't make any sense to claim that Ontario schools don't pick students that fit them. Western and Queen's interview a lot of applicants and they have an ample sample size from which to pick those students that "fit" them. So this is kind of a non-argument.

 

Its just what you have. If you have a neat 4.0, and a decent MCAT, you are safe in Canada, but that doesnt mean you will get into a half decent school in the States...

 

I sincerely doubt that even you believe what you just wrote. There are numerous 4.0s that get rejected in Ontario... and numerous bland 4.0s that can get accepted at US colleges. In fact, one can argue that the extra emphasis on the MCAT by the US schools makes up for their relative lack of emphasis on GPA when compared to Canadian schools.

 

I am not quite sure of the point of the post miggy, but I guess if you get into a school that fits you better, then you would also tend to benefit more from the education right?

 

The point of the post would be revealed if you read the thread before my post. In theory, yes - if you go to a school that is the best fit for you,you would have the best education. But it often happens that the students who the school believes are a fit do not believe that same school is a fit for them, or vice versa.

 

Either ways, UofT MD/PhD obviously beats my random-school MD. =p And too bad I'm not the leader-esk H******* material.... yet.

 

If you say so. Also it's leader-esque. It's still obvious that the HMS rejection hurts, but grow up plz.

[TripleA]

Canadian schools matriculate about 2,500 students per year while US schools matriculate about 18,000 students per year. Considering the Canadian population is only about 1/10 of the US population, it seems that US medical schools are hard to get into. One would wonder why from time to time some people claim that Canadian schools are harder to get into. The claim is based on two facts. 1) Canadian matriculate rate is lower, that is, 25% for Canada with about 10,000 applicants for 2500 spots vs. 43% for US with about 42,000 applicants for about 18,000 spots; 2) Average GPA of matriculated students is higher for Canadian medical schools.

 

These two facts seem to be convincing but as a matter of fact, are midleading. The fact that US population is about 10 times of Canadian population whereas the number of medical school applicants in US is only about 4 times of the number of Canadian applicants itself indicates something needs to be looked into carefully. Unlike in Canada where everyone can apply at his/her wishes, US schools normally have a premed program which filters out a significant portion of uncompetitive students. Therefore 25% Canadian matriculate rate vs. 43% US matriculate does not neccessarily mean Canadian schools are harder to get in. Maybe there are more uncompetitive applicants in the pool in Canada.

 

Then one would argue that the average GPA of Canadian school matriculated students is higher. This, too, does not mean anything, because the way GPA is calculated in Canada is totally different from that of US. For example, in Canada, some schools only count two best years when calculated one's GPA, some schools only count two latest years, some schools only weight your core prerequisite courses, and some will drop two of your worst courses per year, etc. Plus converting one's grade from percentage to 4 point scale is so arbitrary. There are too much room for the data to be manipulated.

[TripleA]

Canadian schools are more number driven whereas US admission process is more unpredicatable. For example, a candidate with MCAT 31R and GPA 3.46 was accepted by HMS while another candidate with MACT 40+ and GPA 3.9 was not even given an interview by HMS. It is highly unlikely these would happen in Canada.

[A-Stark]

Ontario schools are probably harder to get into than the US average, but that doesn't really apply elsewhere in the country. Canadian schools also lack any kind of "legacy" seats or similar things. When some of the American accreditation people were visiting last winter, they remarked both on the high level of student involvement in the process and asked about any such seats here. Don't have any!

[mig174]

Canadian schools are more number driven whereas US admission process is more unpredicatable. For example, a candidate with MCAT 31R and GPA 3.46 was accepted by HMS while another candidate with MACT 40+ and GPA 3.9 was not even given an interview by HMS. It is highly unlikely these would happen in Canada.

 

Well yeah, the schools look for different things. I posted this link before in this thread but it was buried in between pointless ranting: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/10/051010crat_atlarge

[bannie22]

 

If you say so. Also it's leader-esque. It's still obvious that the HMS rejection hurts, but grow up plz.

 

No idea why you are so defensive regarding your UofT acceptance.

 

My opinion has nothing to do with my HMS rejection, and if I was biased I would not suggest that UofT could be as good a school as many other American schools.

[bannie22]

Please look up the following concepts: sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, NNT (number needed to treat), and NNH (number needed to harm). While you're at it, pick up a clinical epidemiology book.

 

Why not share your views based on all the above concepts instead of being such a smart-ass Dalhousie med student? LOL. Is that how you share information with your patients? No wonder the medical situation is horrible in Canada. Doctors that arent willing to do anything (not even explain).

 

 

The bottom line regarding ANYTHING (and not just treatment) is that the more data you have, the better equipped you are to get to the root of the problem.

[bannie22]

In relative or absolute terms? Relative to Canada, I probably view the medical education system as roughly the same, on average. There are more schools in USA (131 AAMC accredited IIRC), and so it is more likely that the top and bottom schools are in the USA, also.

 

US top 20 = Canada 3

 

Depends on how you define "harder" and what you are comparing. If you are comparing Ontario to USA as a whole, it is harder to get into Ontario med schools, no question:

 

           |  # applied     | # matriculated    | % matriculated
US          |   42269        | 18390             | 43.5 [1]
Ontario     |   5815         | 877               | 15.0 [2]

 

Sources: 1,2

 

However, if you are comparing admissions to top schools like Harvard, which has a ~3% acceptance rate, obviously it is easier to get into UofT, just based on numbers.

 

 

 

I agree, the VR11 and R cutoffs are excessive, but perhaps the schools have reason for using them. But it doesn't make any sense to claim that Ontario schools don't pick students that fit them. Western and Queen's interview a lot of applicants and they have an ample sample size from which to pick those students that "fit" them. So this is kind of a non-argument.

 

vr 11 and r is EXTREMELY excessive. Whats their interview size?

 

I sincerely doubt that even you believe what you just wrote. There are numerous 4.0s that get rejected in Ontario... and numerous bland 4.0s that can get accepted at US colleges. In fact, one can argue that the extra emphasis on the MCAT by the US schools makes up for their relative lack of emphasis on GPA when compared to Canadian schools.

 

With a 4.0, you are very solid for Canadian schools. With a 4.0, there are still numerous other factors that American schools look at. If you have a 4.0/33. You are competitive at lots of Ontario schools. With a 4.0/33, you are probably gonna be in the midtiers.If you applied to the states, you will probably have noticed this trend.

[c17h]

Why not share your views based on all the above concepts instead of being such a smart-ass Dalhousie med student? LOL. Is that how you share information with your patients? No wonder the medical situation is horrible in Canada. Doctors that arent willing to do anything (not even explain).

 

 

The bottom line regarding ANYTHING (and not just treatment) is that the more data you have, the better equipped you are to get to the root of the problem.

 

+1

 

But in Canada, it's just difficult to order so many tests when doctors feel that it's unnecessary...otherwise, our health care program would be poor...although it is already going in that direction.

[A-Stark]

Why not share your views based on all the above concepts instead of being such a smart-ass Dalhousie med student? LOL. Is that how you share information with your patients? No wonder the medical situation is horrible in Canada. Doctors that arent willing to do anything (not even explain).

 

If you are incapable of respectful discussion, I hope at least that you're able to google those terms yourself. But here's the wiki article if that's too difficult to find.

 

The bottom line regarding ANYTHING (and not just treatment) is that the more data you have, the better equipped you are to get to the root of the problem.

 

Unless those "data" consist of false positives/negatives or inconsistent/inconclusive results. You don't do a test if it's unlikely to reveal anything meaningful, as in something that will affect the diagnosis, treatment, or outcome generally. Platitudes don't mean anything.

[bannie22]

If you are incapable of respectful discussion, I hope at least that you're able to google those terms yourself. But here's the wiki article if that's too difficult to find.

 

 

 

Unless those "data" consist of false positives/negatives or inconsistent/inconclusive results. You don't do a test if it's unlikely to reveal anything meaningful, as in something that will affect the diagnosis, treatment, or outcome generally. Platitudes don't mean anything.

 

 

 

Alright AStark, I dont think we can come to a "respectable discussion" as you said so I'm gonna end my conversation. In fact, this has never been suppoed to be a thread about health care systems.

 

I would hope that my med school has seniors that are more than willing to share their insights with me rather than trying to be a smart ass. I am sorry I am only in undergrad and have not picked up an epidemiology textbook yet.

 

All I know is that my doctor in Singapore told me that if the injury has only been present for 3 weeks, there is no rush to get more tests. Unfortunately, this has been a year, and when I wake up in the morning and feel pain in my knee, I think I would like more tests done, whether you want to give me it or not.

 

In fact, 3 doctors gave me 3 different diagnosis regarding my knee, so perhaps maybe a scan really isnt necessary and I should just let my knee rot. no seriously, if it is nothing, I would love the evidence pointed at my face and say, go get some counselling. Perfect.

 

 

Mig. I dont want to get all personal with you. I would never have rubbed salt if you did not get into your dream school, and I was surprised that you said what you did when I tried to diffuse the tempers around the thread. I see you as a classmate and as a friend and I have no interests in trying to argue over which school is better or what not.

 

 

I would love to go to the States, thats all. No matter how much I know I will miss UofT, I need to get moving, conquer a new environment, meet more people, and see alittle bit more of the world.

 

I'm just international like that. By most of the comparisons done here, heck, most countries have as good or even better education that the states. Just pick the best school of any country,

 

Singapore NUS

HK HKU

China whatever university

Australia whatever university (Monash?)

Malaysia UM

Japan TODAI<- wow. we wont even get a sniff at Todai.

 

Of course, all these schools are SUPERB. That doesnt mean that the schools below them are comparable.

 

Chow outside!

[A-Stark]

Alright AStark, I dont think we can come to a "respectable discussion" as you said so I'm gonna end my conversation. In fact, this has never been suppoed to be a thread about health care systems.

 

I would hope that my med school has seniors that are more than willing to share their insights with me rather than trying to be a smart ass. I am sorry I am only in undergrad and have not picked up an epidemiology textbook yet.

 

Not only did I point you to the relevant wiki article, I gave some further explanation in my second paragraph. If you consider that be a "smart ass", go right ahead, but if you're incapable of looking stuff up on your own, I'm not sure how you'll fare in the future.

[Cyradis]

Woww lol. I posted this a while ago because I was bored =P Didn't expect to generate so much controversy. However, now that I have, I'll add my 2 cents (esp since I've seen these debates so much =P).

 

It's an interesting point that most Canadians who apply to the US do so as a safety... I had the sense it was true and one of the things I wanted to see in the poll was whether it is actually the case - and it seems to be. Very interesting to me as someone from Canada, applying to the States, with Canadian schools as back-ups.

 

With that said... the way I've always looked at US/Canada (I'm a dual citizen btw, so I have some patriotism/allegiance to both countries) for schooling is that the top US schools (so for med schools maybe top ~40 ish) offer a better education/more opportunity than Canadian schools, the mid-tier US schools are about on par, and the low-tier US schools are worse.

 

In fact, this seems to be the trend I've noticed in just about everything - The US simply has a greater spread/range, so the top is better, the mid is the same, and the bottom is worse.

 

As someone who applied to a LOT of both US and Canadian Med schools (and so I've done a lot of research on it), I'd like to add a bit about how "easy" it is to get into schools.

 

You can't just compare US vs. Canada. Although Canadian schools are more uniform, US schools vary so much. Going to a little-known small state school will require very different standards than going to Harvard, Yale, UCSF, or something like that. Once again, it's much harder to get into top schools in the US, but easier to get into low tier.

 

The GPA comparisons are fairly meaningless IMO. A 3.5 vs. 4.0 means radically different things even within a single school (i.e. someone who takes all their electives in bird courses vs. someone who takes really heavy courses), even moreso between schools in the same province/country, and virtually useless to compare between countries. While interviewing in the States, many of the applicants I ran into had 3.6-3.8 GPAs from Duke, Harvard, Yale, etc. with 35-40 ish range on their MCATs (STANDARDIZED test). On the flip side, there are so many students I know in Canada with close to 4.0s who scored right around a 30 on their MCAT. I'm tempted to lean towards the MCAT as being a fairer comparison than GPA (an imperfect one still, but better than GPA). Besides, studies have actually shown MCAT to be a better correlate to med school performance than GPA anyway =P. Horray for evidence-based!

 

So, with that said, your overall application, the kind of person you are, leadership, dedication, MCAT (as a measure of academic ability), etc. are all looked at as a whole in the US. Canadian schools seem to mostly rank people by numbers.

 

A little bit about my own experiences applying to schools in both countries:

I was fairly shocked (having gone to school in Canada) when I found out in the States that they get together as a committee and discuss/vote on each applicant to decide who they accept! In Canada it was a numeric score, simply ranked by GPA/MCAT (and sometimes an evaluation of my ECs).

 

The faculty were far more involved in my US interviews - my interview groups were 6-10 people normally and we all got a chance to meet the dean and several of the senior faculty personally. Between 4 interviews in the US and 5 interviews in Canada, I have to say that the worst interview experience in the US was about on par with the best in Canada (in terms of the interview day/my impression of the school). The schools support their students in absolutely everything they do, every step of the way, and bend over backwards to make the best of every opportunity available. I never got that impression in Canada - every Canadian school was another school that was okay.

 

With that said, I should qualify it by saying that I only applied to schools in the top 25 in the US. I suspect if I was talking about the mid-low tier schools, I might be saying the opposite.

 

Lastly, about cost... US schools are solidly more expensive. With that said... consider that on average it'll be.... about 100-150k more expensive than a Canadian school (I'm from Ontario so I'm thinking about ON med school tuition, not like McGill). I honestly don't think this is such a big deal... If we make a slightly simplified assumption that all physicians retire at the same age.... then going to medical school after 3rd year is worth at least 150k more than going after 4th year, which is another 150k more than going after 1 year post-undergrad (since you'll be in practice for one year longer). However, no one seems to think it's a big deal if you go to med school in 3rd or 4th year, nor does anyone think it's a big deal if you go after a year, or two of grad school.

 

By the way, the average US med student takes about 7-8 years to repay all their debts (this is according to the financial aid guy at one of the US schools I interviewed at). If you go to one of the top schools, you'll probably make more than the average US med graduate... so that time is probably even less. I don't think this is all that much worse than Canada.... (which, correct me if I'm wrong, has most students taking maybe 5-6 years to repay their loans).