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I was wondering if it is a good or bad idea to connect with some people in specialties you are curious about at this point in the summer before med school starts. I've heard along the grapevine that it might be seen as too "keener" and may not be favourable for you later on. At what point should I start reaching out to them even for FLEX projects or questions about the specialty / officially shadowing ?

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On 6/25/2017 at 2:40 PM, vikym said:

From a fairly reliable source, UBC is almost at the final stages of implementing CASPer for this cycle.   Let's hope and pray that it doesn't happen.  Might not be a big a deal even if they implement last min this cycle, cuz it seems like most premed101ers are highly gifted and can do well on CASPer without any preparation. ;)

?!

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On 2017-6-26 at 1:18 AM, faithoverfear said:

I was wondering if it is a good or bad idea to connect with some people in specialties you are curious about at this point in the summer before med school starts. I've heard along the grapevine that it might be seen as too "keener" and may not be favourable for you later on. At what point should I start reaching out to them even for FLEX projects or questions about the specialty / officially shadowing ?

I would take it easy. If you want, organize some shadowing in the first few weeks of med school- there will be a shadowing database shared with you with contact information. I recommend this if you're really wanting to get a feel for what's out there before things get too busy. If you get along with them, you can also inquire about potential research projects for FLEX. Being keen early on isn't really going to hurt you (unless you go way overboard)- most docs understand that students are curious and the ones on the database should certainly not be surprised.

4 hours ago, Olle said:

Out of curiosity, are there a lot of integrated science majors from UBC undergrad, at this med school? 

 

I know a few! I wouldn't say it gives you a particular advantage or disadvantage.

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I understand that most students stay on campus, or near campus for the first year...but is there any particular advantage to staying closer to VGH? Can anyone comment on how often one can expect to be at VGH during the 1st semester? Thank you. 

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3 minutes ago, Maxwe11 said:

I understand that most students stay on campus, or near campus for the first year...but is there any particular advantage to staying closer to VGH? Can anyone comment on how often one can expect to be at VGH during the 1st semester? Thank you. 

We were at VGH at most once a week for clinical skills.

The schedule is like this for first term: lectures at UBC Mon, Wed, Fri; family practice visits anywhere in Greater Vancouver on Tues (or possibly Thurs instead); clinical skills on Thurs (or possibly Tues instead) at VGH. 

Same schedule in second term, except clinical skills might be at a different hospital instead of VGH (like Surrey Memorial, or St. Paul's, or Lions Gate).

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On 6/26/2017 at 10:28 AM, Lesigh2 said:

As an additional part of the interview or pre interview?

I'd imagine that if they do decide to implement CASPer, it'd be part of the preinterview process. Currently, i believe that they're still in the process of making a decision as to whether or not they're gonna implement the CASPer. 

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10 hours ago, awalkingshadow said:

We were at VGH at most once a week for clinical skills.

The schedule is like this for first term: lectures at UBC Mon, Wed, Fri; family practice visits anywhere in Greater Vancouver on Tues (or possibly Thurs instead); clinical skills on Thurs (or possibly Tues instead) at VGH. 

Same schedule in second term, except clinical skills might be at a different hospital instead of VGH (like Surrey Memorial, or St. Paul's, or Lions Gate).

Thank you for the response. I know that the program recommends a car, or car-pooling with other students for family practice visits...do you think it's necessary? I'm not familiar with the Vancouver area, but would like to know if using public transportation is feasible. 

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2 hours ago, Maxwe11 said:

Thank you for the response. I know that the program recommends a car, or car-pooling with other students for family practice visits...do you think it's necessary? I'm not familiar with the Vancouver area, but would like to know if using public transportation is feasible. 

It depends on where you are placed for family practice (students do not get to choose or rank where they would like to go). Most family practice visit locations can be reached via transit, which is quite good relative to other Canadian cities.

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9 hours ago, Maxwe11 said:

Thank you for the response. I know that the program recommends a car, or car-pooling with other students for family practice visits...do you think it's necessary? I'm not familiar with the Vancouver area, but would like to know if using public transportation is feasible. 

There are also relatively affordable car sharing services such as zipcar or car2go. I'm planning to use one of these services combined with carpooling and public transit for first semester and get a car when I go to my distributed site.

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9 hours ago, Maxwe11 said:

Thank you for the response. I know that the program recommends a car, or car-pooling with other students for family practice visits...do you think it's necessary? I'm not familiar with the Vancouver area, but would like to know if using public transportation is feasible. 

Keep in mind that there are only 4 family practice visits in first term, and 5 visits in second term. Getting a car solely for this purpose might not be worth it.

Public transportation is possible, but it might take 1.5-2x the time compared to driving a car. With only 4 visits, you'll have to decide if getting a car or using car-sharing (e.g. car2go) is worth it.

Car-pooling will only be possible if you have a partner for family practice visits coming from the same direction; it's possible you might not have a partner and have to get there on your own.

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On 2017-06-28 at 5:20 PM, Maxwe11 said:

I understand that most students stay on campus, or near campus for the first year...but is there any particular advantage to staying closer to VGH? Can anyone comment on how often one can expect to be at VGH during the 1st semester? Thank you. 

During 1st semester we were only at VGH one afternoon/week (Tuesday or Thursday from 1-5pm depending on your individual schedule for clinical experiences). So for 1st year there is less of an advantage to being close to VGH, but in 2nd year most of our classes are held at VGH. Some people live closer to UBC for 1st year and move closer to VGH for 2nd year and others choose to live in between UBC and VGH for both 1st and 2nd year so they don't have to make an extra move before the start of 2nd year.

 

On 2017-06-29 at 4:00 AM, Maxwe11 said:

Thank you for the response. I know that the program recommends a car, or car-pooling with other students for family practice visits...do you think it's necessary? I'm not familiar with the Vancouver area, but would like to know if using public transportation is feasible. 

For most family practice placements in the Greater Vancouver area you can commute by public transit in a reasonable amount of time. There are a few locations for family practice that are harder or take longer to get to by public transit; in which case carpooling with a classmate or using a car share program may be a good idea. However, as another poster above stated we only had 4 family practice visits in term 1 and 5 visits in term 2 so I felt that buying or leasing a car is not necessary for first year classes.

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On 2017-06-28 at 0:14 PM, Olle said:

Out of curiosity, are there a lot of integrated science majors from UBC undergrad, at this med school? 

 

There are some fellow UBC ISCIers at UBC in medical school. We each had a unique integration and have our own interests because our degrees were highly tailored to our own learning goals and interests.

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I was wondering how computer science majors or other majors study for medical school, as they are not in a medical related major? I am in cognitive sciences, in psych stream and going into their second year. Is it best to take science courses as electives as they serve as prerequisites in some or most med schools? Is self-studying also an alternative? I haven't taken CHEM123 and I can't get into that course due to first years taking up the seats for priority. If anyone could help me, I am in desperate need for advice. 

Here is also a link to UBC's previous accepted science courses as prerequisites into medical school: http://mdprogram.med.ubc.ca/files/2016/05/Previous-Science-Prereqs-2016-2017.pdf

Would taking these courses give me the opportunity to apply to most medical schools?

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On 2017-6-25 at 2:40 PM, vikym said:

From a fairly reliable source, UBC is almost at the final stages of implementing CASPer for this cycle.   Let's hope and pray that it doesn't happen.  Might not be a big a deal even if they implement last min this cycle, cuz it seems like most premed101ers are highly gifted and can do well on CASPer without any preparation. ;)

Ughh :'( I hope not!

I did it for some Ontario schools a couple cycles back and I don't think I knew what I was doing at all... how do u do well on CASPer?

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On 6/25/2017 at 2:40 PM, vikym said:

From a fairly reliable source, UBC is almost at the final stages of implementing CASPer for this cycle.   Let's hope and pray that it doesn't happen.  Might not be a big a deal even if they implement last min this cycle, cuz it seems like most premed101ers are highly gifted and can do well on CASPer without any preparation. ;)

 

Ughh :'( I hope not!

I did it for some Ontario schools a couple cycles back and I don't think I knew what I was doing at all... how do u do well on CASPer?

From UBC's admission blog: "We cannot speak to other UBC programs, but at this time, MD Admissions has no plans to implement CASPer. Please remember that information shared on applicant forums can be inaccurate."

Doesn't look like anyone applying to UBC needs to worry about CASPer this year :) 

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2 hours ago, OwnerOfTheTARDIS said:

 

From UBC's admission blog: "We cannot speak to other UBC programs, but at this time, MD Admissions has no plans to implement CASPer. Please remember that information shared on applicant forums can be inaccurate."

Doesn't look like anyone applying to UBC needs to worry about CASPer this year :) 

Thank you for doing the work of finding this out!! 

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On ‎7‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 5:25 PM, OwnerOfTheTARDIS said:

 

From UBC's admission blog: "We cannot speak to other UBC programs, but at this time, MD Admissions has no plans to implement CASPer. Please remember that information shared on applicant forums can be inaccurate."

Doesn't look like anyone applying to UBC needs to worry about CASPer this year :) 

Thanks for clarifying ... is there a link to this post or date?

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 6/9/2017 at 3:43 AM, frenchpress said:

Don't think so. They just sent out the 2021 class orientation materials -- the draft calendar for year 1 does not show a reading break.

So basically there's 3 months of summer break after 1st year, how long are the summer breaks after 2nd and 3rd year? 

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Hello everyone :) I am very excited to have been accepted but I'm in a bit of a pickle so I'm hoping for some advice. 

July 31 was the deadline for the graduate letter of completion, and I obtained a letter of completion which did arrive by the deadline but they said it was not official because it was not in an endorsed envelope. Our school issues letters of completion via PDF attachments on emails (which I have forwarded to the admissions team), but when I asked if it could be uploaded, I was told it was not acceptable. Now, my application is being reviewed because of this. Does anyone have experience with these appeals or similar stories? I am quite anxious since I was overjoyed at being accepted and don't want it taken away. 

Thank you all for the help. 

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3 hours ago, catdaddy said:

Hello everyone :) I am very excited to have been accepted but I'm in a bit of a pickle so I'm hoping for some advice. 

July 31 was the deadline for the graduate letter of completion, and I obtained a letter of completion which did arrive by the deadline but they said it was not official because it was not in an endorsed envelope. Our school issues letters of completion via PDF attachments on emails (which I have forwarded to the admissions team), but when I asked if it could be uploaded, I was told it was not acceptable. Now, my application is being reviewed because of this. Does anyone have experience with these appeals or similar stories? I am quite anxious since I was overjoyed at being accepted and don't want it taken away. 

Thank you all for the help. 

My heart sank when I read this. Hopefully UBC is reasonable about this. Is your school sending a new letter of completion in an endorsed envelope to UBC? When is it arriving to admissions?

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44 minutes ago, TARS said:

My heart sank when I read this. Hopefully UBC is reasonable about this. Is your school sending a new letter of completion in an endorsed envelope to UBC? When is it arriving to admissions?

Thank you for the kindness, TARS. I have contacted the previous institution to send a new letter in an endorsed envelope, but of course the deadline has passed so I hope it will arrive this week. 

*Edit: I guess a follow up question would be if there is anyone you'd recommend speaking to regarding this issue, or what the procedures for appealing an unfavourable decision would be? I am understanding of the circumstances, but I also would rather not sit at home for a year and re-apply, so I'd like to know all my options if possible. 

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3 hours ago, catdaddy said:

Thank you for the kindness, TARS. I have contacted the previous institution to send a new letter in an endorsed envelope, but of course the deadline has passed so I hope it will arrive this week. 

*Edit: I guess a follow up question would be if there is anyone you'd recommend speaking to regarding this issue, or what the procedures for appealing an unfavourable decision would be? I am understanding of the circumstances, but I also would rather not sit at home for a year and re-apply, so I'd like to know all my options if possible. 

It seems unreasonable and unlikely that UBC will revoke admission this late into the cycle as long as proof of graduation is documented sometime soon... They'd go through more trouble gathering paperwork from a new student than they would just the proof of graduation from you lol

If an unfavorable outcome does happen, you can try appealing through the faculty first (unless this is already considered an appeal).  Adcom will review the circumstances and provide you with a response.  If faculty appeal is denied, you can appeal through UBC Senate Vancouver via Admissions Committee.  I've done and granted a few appeals for regular ubc admissions when a student's offer is revoked because of extenuating circumstances, they're usually reasonable especially if it's a technical error not on your part. Not sure how it'll work in this case, because the number of seats in med is pretty concrete and they can't just add another student if your spot is given away.  If it does comes to appeals, make sure you do it ASAP because it takes time, you have to schedule hearings, etc and school is starting pretty soon. Didn't want to scare you, doubt you'll come down this path, but just something for your peace of mind if you do come across this.

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