MrKhiladi Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 do applicants have a better chance at matching at the school that they are attending medical school at.Do schools have a preferance.how about if you attended undergrad there but not med school? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darla Posted February 8, 2011 Report Share Posted February 8, 2011 From what I've seen and heard from the interview tour, schools unofficially prefer their own medical students. They understand the program already and are likely to have the base knowledge that the program expects. As well, they have a strong social connection to the city. They may recognize your face and already have an idea of the kind of person you are. Doing your undergrad at a school offers you the advantage of creating a social base in the areas which residency programs may consider to be advantageous since they expect people to rank programs where they feel comfortable. For the most part though, any advantage you may receive is minimal and (in my opinion) not worth picking your undergrad or med school to try to gain an advantage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Advantage in that it is easier for you to make connections and have them get to know you. As Darla said, doing your undergrad allows you to demonstrate familiarity with the city, but it probably doesn't weigh more than doing an actual away elective at that program. Disadvantage if they know you and are unimpressed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 i was going to say, it really depends how good you are, if you really suck, they'll know it, but if you're a superstar, you should get a spot, whereas at other schools, even if you generally suck, at least if you have a good elective you might stand out. Advantage in that it is easier for you to make connections and have them get to know you. As Darla said, doing your undergrad allows you to demonstrate familiarity with the city, but it probably doesn't weigh more than doing an actual away elective at that program. Disadvantage if they know you and are unimpressed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ABC Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 I agree with what's been said about if there is any advantage, it is due to the fact that they know you better, not that they have a preference for "their own" students. On a slightly different note, do you think that going to a school for med and residency make you less desirable when applying for jobs? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 You mean going to the same school? I can't think of a reason why it would. You don't learn the same things in medical school and residency, though most people try to go to a different institution for fellowship if possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Some places will always interview their own students for residency positions assuming there are no red flags. That can be a bit of a leg up for sure! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Though it might be a courtesy interview and there is no guarantee you'll be ranked high. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrKhiladi Posted February 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 whats considered ranking high.Top what...2,.3, 4, etc? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 What I meant was that you might not be ranked higher solely because you are from the same school, even if you do receive an interview because of it. In absolute terms, if a program has four spots and you are ranked within the top four, then you are "ranked to match" i.e. if you choose this program, you are guaranteed to match there. If a program has four spots and they usually go to, say, twelve spots down their rank list to fill them, then your chances would be good if within the top twelve (but not guaranteed due to yearly variation). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Though it might be a courtesy interview and there is no guarantee you'll be ranked high. Sure but just getting an interview for sure is a pretty big bias in the system I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 as they say: it's who you know, not what you know, especially here where we have no usmle 1's or pre-clinical grades etc. Sure but just getting an interview for sure is a pretty big bias in the system I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Amen to that. We need more objectivity in medical school evaluations. We just spent 10 years beating it out of the system Isn't all this CARMS stuff more like a job interview anyway? There is all kinds of subjective stuff in job interviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NLengr Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Amen to that. We need more objectivity in medical school evaluations. Good luck convincing people of that. I suggested having a more objective PORTION (with lots of the current stuff remaining) of medical school evaluations, and people jumped down my throat so fast you would have thought I was suggesting pitchforkings puppies for kicks or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darla Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 Students don't want objectivity because they'll have to work OMG. They shouldn't have to work in medicine, they worked SOOOO HARRRD to get in! LOL! The schools don't want it because then the quality of each school's teaching could be compared objectively. Maybe SK would end up on top, who knows? Maybe UoT would have to shape up? It's not a matter of the work (not only anyway). When I've talked about this with the admin of UME, they argue that having our assessment P/F it helps ensure that we engage in meaningful extracurricular activities rather than competing with one another (e.g. quite a bit of charity work and the "unofficial curriculum" of learning about our specialties including doing observerships). We tend to share resources more than you would in undergrad because we want to see everyone in the class succeed. There are arguments for differentiating as well, but I'll leave that for someone else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 i have no complaints, you know the drill man, just play the system, take the usmle, aim for a sick score, and only apply for insanely competitive u.s. programs that you can't get guaranteed in canada since there are no objective measures... then you start working on kissing some insane ass here in canada and apply to both, if you get a us spot and get squeezed out of the canadian match, who cares, since you'll only be listing programs you want to go to, if not, hope that all that ass kissing works... if all else fails, i guess you could ian wong it or do fm im glad i don't want anything competitive, at least in the u.s. i could study for my usmle and hopefully ace it, here everything is, at least in some respects, left to chance i have no complaints though, it's just life, cruise through, chill, and enjoy it Students don't want objectivity because they'll have to work OMG. They shouldn't have to work in medicine, they worked SOOOO HARRRD to get in! LOL! The schools don't want it because then the quality of each school's teaching could be compared objectively. Maybe SK would end up on top, who knows? Maybe UoT would have to shape up? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entkeener Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 It's not a matter of the work (not only anyway). When I've talked about this with the admin of UME, they argue that having our assessment P/F it helps ensure that we engage in meaningful extracurricular activities rather than competing with one another (e.g. quite a bit of charity work and the "unofficial curriculum" of learning about our specialties including doing observerships). We tend to share resources more than you would in undergrad because we want to see everyone in the class succeed. There are arguments for differentiating as well, but I'll leave that for someone else Honestly, looking back the pass-fail system is a stupid joke (especially the 60% benchmark to pass). The argument about extracurriculars is a joke too. I don't know about you but I was very active in the community in undergrad and still finished at the top of my class at one of the two Canadian universities that has a real reputation internationally. People work their assesses of in undergrad and then take it easy for four years in medical school. Maybe the reason so many people complain about how hard residency is has to do with how easy they take it on us during our MDs. Medical school was a joke in terms of difficulty compared to the courses I took in undergrad. Even people that fail exams get a chance to retake them and they are afraid to fail people out and don't because it's easier to let them through ("It's way more paperwork to fail a student even if they deserve it"). So much time is spent now teaching the 'softer side' of medicine that important topics are omitted from medical school (e.g. Hydrocephalus was never formally taught to my medical school class, nor was spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, etc...). Things really need to start moving back to the 'good old days' where being a doctor involved more than just 'being a nice person.' Grades are not only an objective method of evaluating performance and knowledge but too motivate students to learn by providing an equally objective measure of your understanding of the material. They should be brought back if we want to continue to have a knowledgeable doctor at the end of the bed when we get ill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entkeener Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 It's not a matter of the work (not only anyway). When I've talked about this with the admin of UME, they argue that having our assessment P/F it helps ensure that we engage in meaningful extracurricular activities rather than competing with one another (e.g. quite a bit of charity work and the "unofficial curriculum" of learning about our specialties including doing observerships). We tend to share resources more than you would in undergrad because we want to see everyone in the class succeed. There are arguments for differentiating as well, but I'll leave that for someone else Honestly, looking back the pass-fail system is a stupid joke (especially the 60% benchmark to pass). The argument about extracurriculars is a joke too. I don't know about you but I was very active in the community in undergrad and still finished at the top of my class at one of the two Canadian universities that has a real reputation internationally. People work their assesses of in undergrad and then take it easy for four years in medical school. Maybe the reason so many people complain about how hard residency is has to do with how easy they take it on us during our MDs. Medical school was a joke in terms of difficulty compared to the courses I took in undergrad. Even people that fail exams get a chance to retake them and they are afraid to fail people out and don't because it's easier to let them through ("It's way more paperwork to fail a student even if they deserve it"). So much time is spent now teaching the 'softer side' of medicine that important topics are omitted from medical school (e.g. Hydrocephalus was never formally taught to my medical school class, nor was spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, etc...). Things really need to start moving back to the 'good old days' where being a doctor involved more than just 'being a nice person.' Grades are not only an objective method of evaluating performance and knowledge but too motivate students to learn by providing an equally objective measure of your understanding of the material. They should be brought back if we want to continue to have a knowledgeable doctor at the end of the bed when we get ill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
entkeener Posted February 20, 2011 Report Share Posted February 20, 2011 It's not a matter of the work (not only anyway). When I've talked about this with the admin of UME, they argue that having our assessment P/F it helps ensure that we engage in meaningful extracurricular activities rather than competing with one another (e.g. quite a bit of charity work and the "unofficial curriculum" of learning about our specialties including doing observerships). We tend to share resources more than you would in undergrad because we want to see everyone in the class succeed. There are arguments for differentiating as well, but I'll leave that for someone else Honestly, looking back the pass-fail system is a stupid joke (especially the 60% benchmark to pass). The argument about extracurriculars is a joke too. I don't know about you but I was very active in the community in undergrad and still finished at the top of my class at one of the two Canadian universities that has a real reputation internationally. People work their assesses of in undergrad and then take it easy for four years in medical school. Maybe the reason so many people complain about how hard residency is has to do with how easy they take it on us during our MDs. Medical school was a joke in terms of difficulty compared to the courses I took in undergrad. Even people that fail exams get a chance to retake them and they are afraid to fail people out and don't because it's easier to let them through ("It's way more paperwork to fail a student even if they deserve it"). So much time is spent now teaching the 'softer side' of medicine that important topics are omitted from medical school (e.g. Hydrocephalus was never formally taught to my medical school class, nor was spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, etc...). Things really need to start moving back to the 'good old days' where being a doctor involved more than just 'being a nice person.' Grades are not only an objective method of evaluating performance and knowledge but too motivate students to learn by providing an equally objective measure of your understanding of the material. They should be brought back if we want to continue to have a knowledgeable doctor at the end of the bed when we get ill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apache Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 honestly, i agree with most of this. i don't know if there should be a straight a-f grading system but i think there should be h/p/marginal-p/f. i'm not afraid to admit i would work a lot harder if i knew i could snag some honors. as it is right now, i spend most of my time shaddowing the specialties i want to match into and network like crazy, i don't bother with any volunteering, i just don't get that enthused about it. in school i just make sure i do averagely, enough to stay off the radar so to speak... in undergrad i pushed myself a lot harder. i don't think i would ever admit it to anyone in school though, lol... criticizing pass/fail is like sacrilage . Honestly, looking back the pass-fail system is a stupid joke (especially the 60% benchmark to pass). The argument about extracurriculars is a joke too. I don't know about you but I was very active in the community in undergrad and still finished at the top of my class at one of the two Canadian universities that has a real reputation internationally. People work their assesses of in undergrad and then take it easy for four years in medical school. Maybe the reason so many people complain about how hard residency is has to do with how easy they take it on us during our MDs. Medical school was a joke in terms of difficulty compared to the courses I took in undergrad. Even people that fail exams get a chance to retake them and they are afraid to fail people out and don't because it's easier to let them through ("It's way more paperwork to fail a student even if they deserve it"). So much time is spent now teaching the 'softer side' of medicine that important topics are omitted from medical school (e.g. Hydrocephalus was never formally taught to my medical school class, nor was spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, etc...). Things really need to start moving back to the 'good old days' where being a doctor involved more than just 'being a nice person.' Grades are not only an objective method of evaluating performance and knowledge but too motivate students to learn by providing an equally objective measure of your understanding of the material. They should be brought back if we want to continue to have a knowledgeable doctor at the end of the bed when we get ill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sultanator Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Hey guys, had a quick question since ya'll are talking about the grading system... I'm from Sherbrooke University where all our courses are grades A thru F with the usual GPA (as do all the French Quebec Universities) If/When I'll apply for Residency in the rest of Canada, how will I be compared to with other Canadian applicants since they will all have P or Fail, while I will actually have letter grades with a GPA. Will they actually simply convert all my grades to P, and if so, could having, for instance, more Bs than As or vice-versa influence a decision ?! Thanks ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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