Strengths/Weaknesses of McMaster

[TG03]

Hi,

 

I was invited to interview at McMaster this year and am very excited. I would love to hear more about the school and was wondering if any mac med students could comment on their experience with the curriculum and some of the strengths and weaknesses of the school?

 

Thanks!

[Big Bird]

Anyone? Why choose Mac over the other Ontario schools?

[holiday1001]

only 1 year of pre-clerkship

self-directed learning- no exams to stress about.

lots of clinical experience

Hamilton health sciences has a lot of pro docs

[Big Bird]

Thanks holiday! I'm interested in your opinion on a few other things.

 

Do you feel you are adequately prepared for clerkship after only one year? Since you do not have summers, how difficult is it to schedule research or observerships during the year? Do you wish you had summers off? How well do you get to know your mentors?

 

I have heard rumours of McMaster's mediocre CaRMS stats, but even if true, it may just be because the students apply for competitive specialties. Do you have any concerns about this aspect of your next year? Have you ever had moments in clinic where you doubt yourself, or think you are not adequately prepared to be there?

 

How do you feel about PBL compared to traditional didactic learning like during undergrad?

[futureGP]

only 1 year of pre-clerkship

self-directed learning- no exams to stress about.

lots of clinical experience

Hamilton health sciences has a lot of pro docs

 

is there really no exams?

 

there should at least be some scheme to watch your progress no?

 

lawl if i were at mcmaster... i feel like i would party every day..

[futureGP]

Thanks holiday! I'm interested in your opinion on a few other things.

 

Do you feel you are adequately prepared for clerkship after only one year? Since you do not have summers, how difficult is it to schedule research or observerships during the year? Do you wish you had summers off? How well do you get to know your mentors?

 

I have heard rumours of McMaster's mediocre CaRMS stats, but even if true, it may just be because the students apply for competitive specialties. Do you have any concerns about this aspect of your next year? Have you ever had moments in clinic where you doubt yourself, or think you are not adequately prepared to be there?

 

How do you feel about PBL compared to traditional didactic learning like during undergrad?

 

mcmaster is def a quick root to lots of money

 

get in after 3 years (or if you do IB, after 2-years of ugrad), 3 yrs med + 2 yrs family

= 7-8yr ~25-26 y.o., and you're a doctor earning $250-300k gross

 

and still got lots of time to do all the fun stuff in ur 20s

[holiday1001]

Thanks holiday! I'm interested in your opinion on a few other things.

 

Do you feel you are adequately prepared for clerkship after only one year? Since you do not have summers, how difficult is it to schedule research or observerships during the year? Do you wish you had summers off? How well do you get to know your mentors?

 

I have heard rumours of McMaster's mediocre CaRMS stats, but even if true, it may just be because the students apply for competitive specialties. Do you have any concerns about this aspect of your next year? Have you ever had moments in clinic where you doubt yourself, or think you are not adequately prepared to be there?

 

How do you feel about PBL compared to traditional didactic learning like during undergrad?

it's hard for me to say right now. plenty of people before us have made the same trek and are just fine, so in that sense I trust the system. it puts more of an onus on us to make sure we do learn properly.

 

i know some people are already doing research: we have more 'free' time to do whatever we choose. same goes for observerships. you can schedule longitudinal observerships, so the opportunity definetely exsists.

 

as for the carms stats, the program people told us it was a bunch of a gunners going for specialties who didn't back up. we'll see about the match this year

 

everyone has doubts, that's just the nature of things. our first clinic electives happen in June-August, before we even finish pre-clerkship. in a way.. terrifying but also very exciting: if we so choose, we can sign up for what are essentially clerkship electives. as for preparedness itself, I feel comfortable going to see a pt by myself, doing the basic physical exam stuff, and have done so many times. I feel we have a leg up in that regard since we are exposed to clincs/real patients as part of 'horizontal electives'.

 

PBL: personally love the self-directed learning. PBL is a great way to consolidate info, see different perpsectives from other team-members. don't get it confused with CBL, which is case-based where you just go through sample cases and try to explain stuff. we actually spend little time going over the actual case itself, more talking about pathophys, treatment, approaches, etcetc.

 

we have CAEs once every few weeks: 5 short-answer qns for 1hr. we have one tmrw actually so I should be studying or something.. progress is monitored by tutors in the PBL groups, CAEs, and we do have osces (one in april i think). we also have a mccqe1-style "Personal Progress Index" test every few months, but that doesn't affect our evaluation in any way unless we are in the bottom 2%ile of the class, then the MD program will speak to us (individually).

[holiday1001]

is there really no exams?

 

there should at least be some scheme to watch your progress no?

 

lawl if i were at mcmaster... i feel like i would party every day..

also, our clerkship is like any other clerkship, exams, all that jazz

[Big Bird]

also, our clerkship is like any other clerkship, exams, all that jazz

 

Thanks Holiday for taking the time to respond with lots of info!

 

Are you happy at Mac? Do you have any complaints or things you think could be better? If you had to go somewhere aside from Mac, where would you go?

[holiday1001]

i think you'll be happy wherever you end up. the three reasons I listed up top are the three main reasons why i'm happy. things that could be better: each unit will vary a lot, depending on your group-mates, your tutor, and even your clinical skills preceptors. you can have great experiences, you can have awful experiences.

 

as well, sometimes I feel like we don't cover as much as other schools, and that does make me a little anxious for clerkship. however, so much time is spent as self-directed learning that it just drives you to work harder. also, I'm pretty sure all med students feel anxious about preparedness, no matter where you go- just my opinion

 

my first choice out of ontario was Queen's- I did my u/g there, loved the city and environment, and I liked the unmatched camaraderie among the class. some people say I belong to U of T, but I think the stress of exams would not have gone well.

 

oh Hamilton sucks so be prepared to deal with that

[Big Bird]

If you had gotten into U of T and Mac, would you have considered choosing U of T?

 

Tell me more about Hamilton! I've only really ever been around campus. Have you had any friends with awful experiences?

 

Thanks Holiday!

[Big Bird]

Thanks again for all the input, Holiday. It doesn't seem like there really are as many Mac meds students checking this subforum as in the other school forums, so it's good to hear your point of view.

[TG03]

Yes thank you holiday1001!

[ParkourParkour]

oh Hamilton sucks so be prepared to deal with that

 

wow. strongly disagree with you on that. Locke, James South/North and Ottawa Street are amazing areas. basically, westdale has student-friendly amenities, but it's a bore; get out of the area immediately surrounding campus and Hamilton is a beaut.

 

otherwise, agree with you on the other reflective points about our program. you really need to be a continuously self-reflective and self-evaluating individual since the program only gives you tools to reflect on your own learning instead of directly evaluating you.

[holiday1001]

If you had gotten into U of T and Mac, would you have considered choosing U of T?

 

Tell me more about Hamilton! I've only really ever been around campus. Have you had any friends with awful experiences?

 

Thanks Holiday!

I would have picked Mac I think. you also get an advantage applying for Mac programs (ie IM). looking back, if I went through the process again, top choice would have been Queen's or Mac.

 

wow. strongly disagree with you on that. Locke, James South/North and Ottawa Street are amazing areas. basically, westdale has student-friendly amenities, but it's a bore; get out of the area immediately surrounding campus and Hamilton is a beaut.

 

westdale, dundas, the area around campus are nice. downtown, nottt so much. especially if you compare Hamilton to Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa (can't say anything about London, haven't lived there).

[ParkourParkour]

westdale, dundas, the area around campus are nice. downtown, nottt so much. especially if you compare Hamilton to Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa (can't say anything about London, haven't lived there).

 

"nice" is subjective to the extreme.

 

Ottawa is out of the question since everything shuts down between 9-11pm leaving nothing for the weekend night owls that medical students tend to be. Kingston and London are good on traditionally student-centric nights (eg. Thursday/Saturday) but are bereft of anything on the other five days of the week.

 

that leaves us with Toronto, which has recently been confirmed as the fourth largest city in North America. of course Hamilton can't compete with the accessibility to "fun".

 

honestly, i look at Hamilton as the Portland of Ontario. misunderstood by many but with rewards that require actual effort.

[Dasypus]

I've lived in Hamilton for the past nearly-four years, and I have to say I've come to love it. It's clearly headed on a terrific trajectory: almost every good cafe in town has opened since I got here, and all of those are thriving. Locke Street is getting to be totally amazing, the James St North area has the Art Crawl and especially SuperCrawl, the Food and Drink fest is actually better than its Toronto counterpart, and the hiking along the Bruce Trail and into the Dundas Valley Conservation Area makes my non-winter months complete.

[w_robin]

If you had gotten into U of T and Mac, would you have considered choosing U of T?

 

Tell me more about Hamilton! I've only really ever been around campus. Have you had any friends with awful experiences?

 

Thanks Holiday!

 

I would've chosen Mac. There are some significant differences between the programs and it is important that you fit the program just as much as the program fits you. It makes a BIG difference in how your educational experience.

 

I'm convinced that I'm much happier here than I would've been had I gone to U of T instead. People in undergrad think that there is a name brand difference but... there isn't. People in the postgrad world respect McMaster's name - especially in certain disciplines, we're better known internationally than U of T. If that kind of stuff is important to you.

[holiday1001]

word on the street is that mac had the best match rate in ON. let's wait for the stats though!

[aaronjw]

Uhhh byward market ring a bell? Party in til 2am the shuffle over to someone's apartment in the market for a rooftop/balcony after party.

 

Oh and if you like to play hockey you will NOT find another city in Canada per capita that has as many rec and competitive hockey leagues. The 3 years I lived there I played in games 7 days a week including 2 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sundays. It was an expensive 3-year habit hahah

 

"nice" is subjective to the extreme.

 

Ottawa is out of the question since everything shuts down between 9-11pm leaving nothing for the weekend night owls that medical students tend to be. Kingston and London are good on traditionally student-centric nights (eg. Thursday/Saturday) but are bereft of anything on the other five days of the week.

 

that leaves us with Toronto, which has recently been confirmed as the fourth largest city in North America. of course Hamilton can't compete with the accessibility to "fun".

 

honestly, i look at Hamilton as the Portland of Ontario. misunderstood by many but with rewards that require actual effort.

[tenesseewrites]

nah, Hamilton is terrible with a few isolated good/tolerable areas. try to live just a little ouside westdale (like Dundurn st. for example) and you'll have shootings and homeless people/sketch dudes knocking on your door in the middle of the night (multiple times, this isn't a 1-time thing) asking for money because "their baby is stuck in the car :("

 

I love Mac, but Hamilton is nothing to brag about.

 

edit - that said, you shouldn't let stuff like that scare you off from Mac. Every city has sketchy areas. But I just can't deal with people acting like Hamilton is dandy/nbd. There are good areas, but don't gloss over how terrible it can be.

[ParkourParkour]

But I just can't deal with people acting like Hamilton is dandy/nbd. There are good areas, but don't gloss over how terrible it can be.

 

and I just can't deal with people that think and write with the subtext that they're superior to 500,000 individuals and the city they call home.

[tenesseewrites]

and I just can't deal with people that think and write with the subtext that they're superior to 500,000 individuals and the city they call home.

 

I am not allowed to voice my personal experiences highlighting that Hamilton is not a fine and dandy place? How am I acting superior when I write that there are serious concerns when you venture outside of the "safe zones" of the city. I was made to feel fundamentally unsafe IN MY OWN HOME when I lived ouside of Westdale. The men that came to our door? they always disappeared the moment my male roommate showed his face. I had to stay on the phone with my roommate during the 5 minute walk home from the bus stop to our house, because of the neighbourhood I lived in. Men tried to follow me home SEVERAL TIMES. My program prohibited events from occurring in several downtown areas, because of stabbings and threats to students.

 

I don't appreciate your dismissal of my experiences just because I dared to question your precious city. Obviously this stuff can happen anywhere (as a former Scarborough resident, I'm pretty aware of this fact). Love Hamilton all you want, but like I said don't deny that it can be a pretty terrible place, especially if you are a woman and you are percieved as "weak" and an "easy target".

 

Edit - I have lived, studied, volunteered and worked in Hamilton for the past 6 years. Clearly I don't hate the city and I don't think I'm ~above it. I don't understand why you're so unwilling to address the fact that it has its problems.

[ParkourParkour]

there aren't designated "safe zones" in the city. by using this language, you're only further reinforcing the notion of hegemony towards those who have been marginalized in this city.

 

also, the claims you're making about the effects of victimization in your interactions is problematic given that you're making blanket statements about the intentions of Hamiltonians and the subtextual issues surrounding the perceived intentions of those individuals.

 

the reason why Hamilton may seem unsafe is because of the structural violence that has been inflicted upon the city and its residents over the past several decades.

 

there are institutional problems with this city. by perpetually complaining and propagating the notion that the issues with Hamilton are nigh-innate you're not helping in the slightest.

 

edit: I do find it reprehensible that you felt unsafe in this city. Nevertheless, I find exception to the continued notion in your statements that downtown Hamilton is disproportionately more unsafe than other urban/gentrified areas in this country.

 

edit: http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2012/07/24/hamilton-crime-statistics.html this may dispel some rumours about Hamilton compared to other cities in Canada.

 

I am not allowed to voice my personal experiences highlighting that Hamilton is not a fine and dandy place? How am I acting superior when I write that there are serious concerns when you venture outside of the "safe zones" of the city. I was made to feel fundamentally unsafe IN MY OWN HOME when I lived ouside of Westdale. The men that came to our door? they always disappeared the moment my male roommate showed his face. I had to stay on the phone with my roommate during the 5 minute walk home from the bus stop to our house, because of the neighbourhood I lived in. Men tried to follow me home SEVERAL TIMES. My program prohibited events from occurring in several downtown areas, because of stabbings and threats to students.

 

I don't appreciate your dismissal of my experiences just because I dared to question your precious city. Obviously this stuff can happen anywhere (as a former Scarborough resident, I'm pretty aware of this fact). Love Hamilton all you want, but like I said don't deny that it can be a pretty terrible place, especially if you are a woman and you are percieved as "weak" and an "easy target".

 

Edit - I have lived, studied, volunteered and worked in Hamilton for the past 6 years. Clearly I don't hate the city and I don't think I'm ~above it. I don't understand why you're so unwilling to address the fact that it has its problems.

[tenesseewrites]

there aren't designated "safe zones" in the city. by using this language, you're only further reinforcing the notion of hegemony towards those who have been marginalized in this city.

 

also, the claims you're making about the effects of victimization in your interactions is problematic given that you're making blanket statements about the intentions of Hamiltonians and the subtextual issues surrounding the perceived intentions of those individuals.

 

the reason why Hamilton may seem unsafe is because of the structural violence that has been inflicted upon the city and its residents over the past several decades.

 

there are institutional problems with this city. by perpetually complaining and propagating the notion that the issues with Hamilton are nigh-innate you're not helping in the slightest.

 

edit: I do find it reprehensible that you felt unsafe in this city. Nevertheless, I find exception to the continued notion in your statements that downtown Hamilton is disproportionately more unsafe than other urban/gentrified areas in this country.

 

edit: http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2012/07/24/hamilton-crime-statistics.html this may dispel some rumours about Hamilton compared to other cities in Canada.

 

obviously there aren't designated "safe zones" within the city. that's why I put the term in quotations.

 

my post was entirely about my experiences in the city, having lived and worked in different areas of it for quite some time, not about "helping" to solve the institutional and historical problems Hamilton has faced. I find it problematic that you're being so dismissive of my statements, referring to them as simple "complaining". Good to know that something so serious can be so easily brushed aside.

 

I have repeatedly said that every city has "less than friendly" areas. I disagree with your insistance that I'm painting Hamilton as a more dangerous city than other urban areas in the country. If this were a post about York University, I would bring up my friend's unpleasant experiences with that area. Would you accuse me of being above ~Torontonians then?

 

You know absolutely nothing about me, who I am and what I do, and yet you feel comfortable posting blanket statements about my character and my attitudes toward people. This thread has completely disintegrated and I will not continue to defend my statements against someone so hell-bent on twisting my words, attacking me on a personal level and dismissing my experiences.