Canadian vs. US med schools?

[Christina_tina]

In terms of quality of education, how do Canadian medical schools compare to the ones in the US?

 

I'm not talking about prestige, just quality of education...

 

and I am not talking about Ivy League and elite schools as they definitely have superior programs.

 

But for instance, how do UBC or McGill med compare to UCSF or UT Southwestern med programs?

[mattg]

would probably be hard to anyone to comment on, since most people receive their medical education at just one school... but most likely, very similar with respect to quality... there will be obvious variability between schools, especially with regards to research opportunities, etc... but in general, i'm sure they are all fine in terms of undergrad education... residency is more important in terms of where you will get the majority of your skills/knowledge applicable to your career as a doctor anyways

[Pantaloons]

Canadian medical schools and residencies train some of the best doctors in the world.

 

It's difficult to answer your question directly; everybody will argue about what defines a "good medical school" and what makes "a good doctor".

However, it's very simplistic for you to say "Ivy League" and "elite schools" definitely have "superior programs".

 

You need to think about

1. Getting into medicine in the first place (no easy task--especially in Canada)

2. What do you want from a medical school?

3. What do you want in life? (Big city living? Specialty medicine? Academic medicine? Community medicine? Lots of research? A family?)

 

Those are just some of the considerations that determine what medschool and residency is best for you.

 

Anyways, get into medschool first; then, if you're fortunate to have choice in admissions, worry about comparisons then.

 

(I see a possible coming flame war on this thread--which I discourage).

[some gurl]

I think it can be said that Canadian medical schools are VERY, VERY good. There are many reasons why it is difficult for US trained docs to come back to Canada and part of this is due to sub-Canadian-par training at certain institutions.

 

Great Canadian medical school education can also be supported when looking at accreditation, which is done by the same organization for both American and Canadian schools. For example, U Ottawa was just (december) audited and they passed with flying colors(97 or 98% I believe). They were also awarded the maximum time(8 years) until they have to undergo their next accreditation evaluation.

 

Lastly, Ivy League status is mostly about prestige and not necessarily about education. Sure they are known for being specialists/leaders in certain aspects, and they are great schools, but to say that they all have the best medical schools in the US/world is far fetched - lets not get hung up by elitist clubs as there are quite a few other American schools, which you've probably never heard about, who regularly rank higher than the Ivy league schools.

[04291991]

would probably be hard to anyone to comment on, since most people receive their medical education at just one school... but most likely, very similar with respect to quality... there will be obvious variability between schools, especially with regards to research opportunities, etc... but in general, i'm sure they are all fine in terms of undergrad education... residency is more important in terms of where you will get the majority of your skills/knowledge applicable to your career as a doctor anyways

 

Fa shaooo...but I've asked this on SDN multiple times, and the I've heard more complaints from their med students than here.

 

Although the curriculum may be rigorous at times, it seems that Canadian students have the flexibility to enjoy extracurricular aside from the school work more so than American students.

[Guest copacetic]

quality isnt all that much different between Canadian schools and most american schools. how much you learn depends on the individual person. in north america in general there is alot more landholding than other places in the world, but that that would apply to education in general.

[moo]

I think this argument is really, Is one school better than the other? There is great variability between schools. I went to school at a top 20 school in the US and then did FM in Alberta. I can tell you that training was undoubtedly a lot more rigorous at my school than at UA. I felt students were very much coddled at UA. However, my friend who ended up doing his residency at UCLA and then now is at UCSF also finds that. So maybe it's just that it was a lot tougher at my school than other med schools. I would also venture to say that our school is not known for primary care and I think a good med school has at its core a strong family medicine/primary care emphasis. All the top US schools have that (Harvard, UCSF, U Washington, etc. are all known for their primary care programs and their research).

 

As for accreditation, while it's great that Ottawa did so well, many Canadian schools recently have done poorly on the LCME survey--UA, USask, and Dal were all put on probation recently.