Does the medical school matter

[Guest Hello]

Okay, does the medical school you go to matter. If the medical students could answer this truthfully it would be helpful. Would a school in the states be better or one in canada. Now I am not asking in reference to research (where there are OBVIOUS differences) I am asking in reference to the training you will recieve as a doctor.

Any other advice would be great too.

Thanks

[Guest Ian Wong]

I don't think anyone will argue that there's more technology down in the States. However, there's something to be said for being less reliant on technology, and for having increased responsibility when you are on your clinical rotations. From the standpoint of learning to be a strong clinician, you'll definitely get that in Canada.

 

I've heard from numerous physicians in a variety of different specialties that Canadian grads out of med school or residency are highly valued when applying for either US residencies or fellowships as we tend to get loaded with more patient responsibility at an earlier stage in our training. As a result, we tend to have more experience when it comes to managing patients. This is of course anecdotal, and I think it would be next to impossible to generate a reliable yardstick given the tremendous variability between institutions in either the US or Canada.

 

Ian

UBC, Med 3

[Guest Hello]

The reason I ask this is because I have been accepted to canadian and U.S schools, and money is not a consideration. I am also not planning to pursue research, I just want to do medicine. Now the schools in the states have MANY more hospitals on campus. Also, since the cities are alot more fast paced then some in canada, I was expecting a better training due to volume. Is this an acceptable notion. Also, how much weight is placed on the medical school attended when applying for residency, is it even a consideration?

Any thoughts would help thanks. (p.s I am planning to do residency in the U.S so coming back to canada is not an issue)

[Guest Thewonderer]

I think that you have to separate the issue of med school training v.s. the issue of specialty selection later on.

 

Med school wise, I have heard that Canadian schools do tend to focus more on clinical diagnosis and less on technology. And with underfunding in the hospitals and less of a malpractice concern, Canadian schools maybe let students do more hand-on experiences.

 

However, if you stay in Canada, when you apply for Canadian residency, you will be limited by what specialty spots the government wants to sponsor for that year. After Canadian match, current med students start talking how well their schools do, placing a couple people each into ENT, plastic surgery, Ophthamology etc., but perhaps none into derm for that year. And that's a good matchlist! The reason is that the government severely limits the number of training spots for each specialty in order to promote primary care and also because it is cheaper that way! It is a nation-wide cost-containment strategy.

 

But if you go to an American school, usually that's not a concern. Every school pretty much places somebody into every specialty every year. There are simply more "specialty" spots availabe in the states every year (i.e. US is still less primary care oriented than Canada). That could be a reason for coming to the states since working visa will be a problem if you graduate from Canadian med schools and decide to come down to the states to pursue your dream specialty because Canadian government decides to cut those spots down for that year.

 

As for residency application, if you attend a top-tier school (Harvard, Hopkins, UCSF to Baylor, Cornell, etc.) in the US, it might give you an edge over a Canadian grad simply because of familiarity. Also, every school tends to send lots of its own kids to its affiliated hospital every year.

 

If you want to talk to me privately, e-mail me at cupholder_2000@yahoo.com

 

I am always interested to hear more from Canadians who have decided or applied to the schools in the states.