Reasons to choose U of S?

[Guest blobbo123]

U of S has a lower profile and lower apparent prestige than some of the "big" schools like U of T. For those researching which med school to potentially attend, have you come across any reasons to choose U of S over one of these larger schools? (other than location, family etc., just based on the school alone). Also what would be some reasons not to attend U of S?

 

Here are some of mine. Please speak up if you disagree.

 

Reasons to attend:

1. Small class size - get to know fellow classmates and faculty better, more hands-on experience in the clinic.

2. It's the only school you get accepted.

 

Reasons not to attend:

1. Poor public image due to "probationary" status of med school.

2. Fewer opportunities to do research than at a larger research-intensive university.

[Guest Ian Wong]

One of my classmates started his residency in Orthopedic Surgery at U of S this year. He's been seriously impressed with just how much clinical exposure he's been getting, and this is true of the medical students as well. Due to the limited number of residents and fellows at U of S, Sask medical students take on a huge amount of clinical responsibility early on, and are therefore doing things that many other med students at other institutions would be watching the residents do.

 

The med students at U of S will deliver many more babies, perform many more procedures (arterial lines, central lines, intubations, first assist on surgeries), and be making many more clinical decisions (ie. which meds to give to this patient) with a lot more independance than many schools with a larger cohort of residents and fellows. This means that you will have a significant head start when you begin residency, as you've seen and done things that other people have only read about.

 

Obviously, you have to balance this out against the big-time research dollars and other sorts of exposure that you would get at a larger center like Toronto. There's really good points to both areas, and it depends a lot on your interests and personal goals.

 

Ian

[Guest skiboot]

Blobbo,

 

Sorry if this sounds like a silly question, but

what exactly does probationary status mean?

 

Skiboot

[Guest Ian Wong]

There's a thread discussing this here:

 

pub125.ezboard.com/fpremed101frm17.showMessage?topicID=163.topic

 

Basically, all Canadian medical schools are accredited by the LCME, an institution that accredits all US MD schools as well, and insures that educational objectives are consistently met by each medical school. The Canadian arm of the LCME is called CACMS (Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools). If you are on probation, it means that there are problem areas within the curriculum/faculty/medical school, and if these problems persist, theoretically your accreditation could be revoked (ie. you'd cease to be a medical school).

 

With that said, it would be outright political suicide for a province to lose its sole medical school, particularly in a province that is already critically short of physicians, so you could argue that this probation will serve as a heads-up to the provincial government that there needs to be a significant infusion of money and funding into the U of S medical school.

 

Accreditation issues don't come up overnight, so getting put on probation probably had a lot to due with chronic government underfunding over the last several years. Medical students will probably end up benefiting from this increased attention to their medical school, although that's impossible to say for certain until after the fact.

 

Ian

[Guest RageoftheDragon]

My buddy took of to SFU to finish his undergrad after 1st year. His biggest complaint: missing out on all the hunnies that U of S has. Apparently UofS is a haven for pretty ladies.

 

RotD

[Guest StephenNoor]

My family doctor graduated from this MED SCHOOL ^ ^