Ontario medical school increasing enrollment?

[filter105]

I heard someone saying that. While I know U of C cut enrollment this year and U of A will also cut enrollment. Is that true? are Ontario medical schools increasing enrollment to meet the demand for family physician?

 

Thank you~

[VeronicaK]

# of seats increases slightly each year (u of t for example offered 280ish seats last year, this year they're offering 290ish). Medschools are not willing to increase the number of seats dramatically.

[ralk]

# of seats increases slightly each year (u of t for example offered 280ish seats last year, this year they're offering 290ish). Medschools are not willing to increase the number of seats dramatically.

 

Where'd you get that information from? OMSAS has U of T holding steady at 259 for the past three years.

[nick]

# of seats increases slightly each year (u of t for example offered 280ish seats last year, this year they're offering 290ish). Medschools are not willing to increase the number of seats dramatically.

 

(This might be different from province to province, but Ian Walker of U Calgary said it was a provincial decision, not a med school decision.)

[VeronicaK]

Where'd you get that information from? OMSAS has U of T holding steady at 259 for the past three years.

 

My numbers might not be exact but if you look at statistics the number of admitted students increases slightly each year (but so does the number of applicants), so it doesn't really make any difference

[VeronicaK]

(This might be different from province to province, but Ian Walker of U Calgary said it was a provincial decision, not a med school decision.)

 

you mean they decided to give more seats?

[ralk]

My numbers might not be exact but if you look at statistics the number of admitted students increases slightly each year (but so does the number of applicants), so it doesn't really make any difference

 

Again, where are you getting this data? OMSAS says that U of T has had the exact same number of students for the last three years. There may have been more offers of admission, but the actual number attending the school hasn't changed.

[Birdy]

It wouldn't surprise me if they keep enrolment gradually increasing. There was very little change in enrolment numbers between the 70s and late 90s (in fact, we were graduating almost 1000 fewer doctors a year by the late nineties than in the mid seventies!), then a bit of an explosion in seat numbers in the early 2000s since the ratio of new doctors to the overall population had gotten quite behind. We're only just now at the level we were in the 70s. I'd be surprised if schools didn't add a couple seats every few years to keep up and prevent that happening again.

[rmorelan]

The Dean at Western told us that the province wanted to hold the number of spots stay for the next few years (this was last year he said this). The number of graduates according to the government's own studies has not reached the point where demand is being met and even going into oversupply in some things.

 

Eventually I would suspect the number of seats to fall a bit as we have been playing catch up. Very expensive to train a doctor so it really isn't a good idea to have too many being created.

[Leon]

# of seats increases slightly each year (u of t for example offered 280ish seats last year, this year they're offering 290ish). Medschools are not willing to increase the number of seats dramatically.

 

This is false. The number of seats at UofT this year remain at 259. Nowhere near 290 - could you clarify your source for this information?

 

I really don't think seats will increase at all in the next half decade. If anything- I think they will drop in number. There seems to be a mismatch between MD enrollment and residency enrollment (based on rumors, no official statistics AFAIK).

[VeronicaK]

This is false. The number of seats at UofT this year remain at 259. Nowhere near 290 - could you clarify your source for this information?

 

I really don't think seats will increase at all in the next half decade. If anything- I think they will drop in number. There seems to be a mismatch between MD enrollment and residency enrollment (based on rumors, no official statistics AFAIK).

 

I realized I might have been looking at the number interviewed or at a different university. If I see those numbers again I'll let you know. Sorry about that

[IamIDP]

I realized I might have been looking at the number interviewed or at a different university. If I see those numbers again I'll let you know. Sorry about that

 

That's fine. I think a lot of you guys are forgetting every school has x number of seats but give out x + y number of acceptances they hand out since not every successful applicant accepts their invite/chooses another school.

[Leon]

I realized I might have been looking at the number interviewed or at a different university. If I see those numbers again I'll let you know. Sorry about that

 

No probs! I'm almost certain you saw something for another university (though I don't think any Canadian school has that many seats). UofT is fixed at 259 for this cycle. It's actually very expensive to add even one medical seat and expansions don't get implemented without careful analysis and long term planning.

[bnface]

and expansions don't get implemented without careful analysis and long term planning.

Given the current employment situation, clearly not enough analysis and long-term planning...

[Leon]

Given the current employment situation, clearly not enough analysis and long-term planning...

 

I agree. There really doesn't seem to be enough communication between MD Admissions and Residency Directors. The lack of talking is causing these ridiculous 10 year lags that screw people over.

[amichel]

No probs! I'm almost certain you saw something for another university (though I don't think any Canadian school has that many seats). UofT is fixed at 259 for this cycle. It's actually very expensive to add even one medical seat and expansions don't get implemented without careful analysis and long term planning.

 

UBC has 288

[rmorelan]

I agree. There really doesn't seem to be enough communication between MD Admissions and Residency Directors. The lack of talking is causing these ridiculous 10 year lags that screw people over.

 

I blame it more on the central provincial control - I mean the medical schools didn't want to cut seats in the 90s. They simply weren't given a choice.

 

There are some serious structural problems with how hospitals are run as well with respect to residency. Entire programs rely on residents to operate despite the lack of jobs in that area.

 

The lack of flexibility in our training also doesn't help. I remember the surprise some people had at how surgery residents even cannot move easily over to another field of surgery without repeating the entire training. There is a lot of isolation going on.