Best University for med undergrad?

[Gloaming]

My Dad did Medicine, which is why I did Dentistry. The key thing in life is to learn from OTHER people's mistakes.

[7thEye]

Yeah to be quite honest form what I have heard from friends medicine is such a downer in terms of a career. Too many hrs, too little pay, and in general the level of respect you guys used to have is fast disapering and now most residents feel like they are treated like crap. Patients are often too demanding and dont realize how hard a doctor works, there is huge shortage, blah blah the lists go on..

I dont think most people would even consider going into medicine anymore, it just is not worth it!

[0T6]

U of T is the best for medicine!
Macleans rates it # 1 for medical doctoral for the 11th time in a row!

UofT is obviously a great school (or I wouldn't have gone there for undergrad :P) but you're misinterpreting the rankings. The ranks are based on medical school that have major research going on.. so obviously Toronto's going to be at the top of that list. It doesn't reflect the quality of the medical program as much as it does reflect the amount of money in research, the quality of that research, and who's doing that research. If you're into academic medicine, then UT's the place to be no question! But for clinical medical education, a smaller centre might be a better choice. I was talking to someone who just finished 1st year at UT meds and he said himself that sometimes he wishes he was at another school because there'd be more clinical opportunities and exposure, that said, he wouldn't give up the resources available at UT.

[mrclone]

UofT is obviously a great school (or I wouldn't have gone there for undergrad :P) but you're misinterpreting the rankings. The ranks are based on medical school that have major research going on.. so obviously Toronto's going to be at the top of that list. It doesn't reflect the quality of the medical program as much as it does reflect the amount of money in research, the quality of that research, and who's doing that research. If you're into academic medicine, then UT's the place to be no question! But for clinical medical education, a smaller centre might be a better choice. I was talking to someone who just finished 1st year at UT meds and he said himself that sometimes he wishes he was at another school because there'd be more clinical opportunities and exposure, that said, he wouldn't give up the resources available at UT.

Ditto. Based on the allocation of funding for UT's medical research and access to resources in Toronto, you can tell it's great for that. While the MD undergrad program may be heavily tied to research, if you can separate the two, it may be marginally different from the other schools. Also, keep in mind that now that UT's President-elect was the former Dean of Medicine, expect the money to keep flowing into the med school.

Regarding pre-med programs, just choose the school that suits you and you can excel the most in, not necessarily the most reknowned school (i'm a UT grad speaking here just so you know). Keep your grades up and diversify your interests, and you can build a much stronger case for your med school admission vs. piss poor performance and lack of depth at a top school heh.

p.s. add med gen/microbio to your list of undergrad programs that are med school killers

[Necrosis]

Health Science at Mac is the best pre-med program in the country. It's the same faculty with the same profs as Mac's med school, the coursework is the most like med school, easy marks, and the majority of the grads get into med school or dentistry school. It's also the most direct route to Mac's med school. Need minimum 90's in HS, plus extracurricular activities.

I'm in this program, and I agree that the courses are extremely beneficial and the faculty is amazing. The marks are not actually that easy though - the class averages match the class average of the student group in other classes. Yes, a majority of our grads enter med school or dentistry, with many leaving after 3 years. One advantage of health sci as a program before medicine is that the courses prepare you for the field and studies you'll nopefully be doing later. Upper years who have graduated from health sci and are now in medicine have generally said that our courses in human anatomy and physiology (yes we work in the lab and yes we test with a bellringer), critical appraisal, health policy/systems, etc are really helpful (less new material to learn later). The courses are also good if you're actually interested in coures related to health and medicine.

5. Get your head out of your books and live life. Join things and be different. I mean, the # of applicants who are all cookie cutter students are so annoyingly overwhelming: "did well in high school and university, joined the science and chess club, volunteered in hospital" blah blah blah. they've seen it a million times. You want to do something different? Try this: my verbal reasoning teacher JOINED the army, became ORDAINED and goes to hospitals for 'last rites' or smtg. THAT'S different. And she got into Queens first cut.

I totally agree with this, but at the same time there are good reasons they look for the things they do. Even though everyone might have volunteered in a hospital or did research work, it tells them you've been exposed to the environment and have explored various areas in the field. I was very anti research myself, because it was too "cookie cutter" but after doing it, I realize I was too quick to judge. It was so different than what I was imagining, and I think it's probably important for medical school applicants to understand the lab side of medicine (plus you need to do research later).

UofT has the best medical program in Canada. Period.

Maybe, according to Macleans. On the other hand, if you look at the clinical approach of McMaster or what they do differently at other universities, you have to wonder if the U of T approach is necessarily the best in terms of producing good doctors. It's a great school, but I don't know if you can really say the other med schools are any worse.