Canada vs US?

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RosaVerde

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Is there any consensus on whether attending a highly ranked US school vs. attending a Canadian school sets you up better career wise? I ask because I recently started researching applying to Canadian schools in my aps for '07. I have a degree in international public health, so I'm definitely forseeing that I will be interested in working outside North America eventually. I literally just clicked on this forum w/o looking back too far to see if there are any threads addressing my questions, so I appreciate any links to those as well. Also, which Canadian schools are the most highly regarded? Thanks for any help...

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justjessen said:
Is there any consensus on whether attending a highly ranked US school vs. attending a Canadian school sets you up better career wise? I ask because I recently started researching applying to Canadian schools in my aps for '07. I'm a US, Canadian, (&EU) citizen. I have a degree in international public health, so I'm definitely forseeing that I will be interested in working outside North America eventually. I literally just clicked on this forum w/o looking back too far to see if there are any threads addressing my questions, so I appreciate any links to those as well. Also, which Canadian schools are the most highly regarded? Thanks for any help...
All Canadian med schools will give you an excellent education. The most commonly cited for being the best however are McGill University, University of Toronto, University of Western Ontario, Queens University, and University of British Columbia.
 
Off the top of my head, here are some thoughts. I don't know much about American med schools-- just that the more I hear about them from SDN, the gladder I am, and the luckier I feel, that I'm here instead. 🙂

Advantages of Canadian schools:
-cheaper tuition, and potentially student loan support from your province of residence (if you have one)
-cheaper/safer cities, generally, than the States
-(generally) smaller class sizes
-a smaller national medical community-- in every hospital in Canada, there are alumni from my med school, and people who know my profs, or even people who trained with my parents or are related to my classmates or have a million and one other potential connections with me already (lots of networking opportunities-- and it also means that you're not too far removed from even the most important people in the profession here) *hums "It's a Small World"*

Advantages of American schools:
-there are more "big name" schools (if you can get into them/afford them)
-greater possibility of having 'international' names as faculty members or working in the same hospital
-I think the programs might be better funded, in terms of resources & facilities
-more options (and more diverse options) for residencies
-warmer weather
-more schools, in general, to choose from, so you can find one that's perfect for you

As far as working outside of North America eventually, I believe Canadian-trained MDs are regarded as equivalent to Americans pretty much all over the world, unless you count on the advantage of having gone to a hugely famous American school (which, let's face it, is a much bigger deal within the States than outside).

I know several Canadian docs who have emigrated to work in England or continental Europe. And all the opportunities for working in underdeveloped countries are identical.
 
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I'm a US, Canadian, (&EU) citizen.

Let me make a wild guess: one of your parents is from a european country with 'ius sanguis' citizenship, your parents were citizens of canada at the time you were born in the US.....
 
Do you enter the EU space with your EU passport, the US with a US passport and canada with the maple leaf ?
 
I'm getting tired of MD's getting their tax-payer subsidized education in Canada and then moving to another country. If you want the benefits of a cheap medical education paid for in large part by Canadian citizens, it is my opinion that you should spend at least 5 or so years here paying back your dues to society. At that point if you'd like to go somewhere else, feel free - otherwise get your education in the States. I've heard it estimated that Canadian medical students only pay 1/3 of the cost of their tuition. Why should we pay 2/3 your tuition if you're just going to leave once you're done?
 
If it represents such a problem, your goverment would be free to institute a service requirement.

(the other option would be to get rid of onerous licensing requirements for physicians trying to move north. maybe that would stem the net flow.)
 
f_w said:
If it represents such a problem, your goverment would be free to institute a service requirement.

Good point, and I am fully in favour of government requirements in this area ... unfortunately the likelyhood of this happening any time soon is very small. As you know, the provincial and national medical associations have unbelievable amounts of clout - perhaps more than any other associations out there. Any time the government tries to add more regulation to medicine, the CMA and OMA (in my province) is pretty quick to react.

At this point it looks like we're left hoping that Canadian trained students will realize how good they have it and stick around for a while.
 
At this point it looks like we're left hoping that Canadian trained students will realize how good they have it and stick around for a while.

Decide, as a country, what the health of your population and healthcare system is worth to you. At present, canadas health expenditures are rather low average compared with the rest of the developed world.
The main draw for people to go south is the better availability of resources and the better financial situation. Reduce the pressure gradient and the flow will decrease (Hagen Poisseuille's law).
 
The Canadian dollar is heading upward these days!

1 Canadian dollar / U.S. dollar = 0.853825 YIPEE! :clap: I guess I'll never consider going back to the U.S now if this trend continues! 😀 Unless 😍
 
I think money is one of the biggest issues. I know it's expensive to go to school anywhere, but the cost keeps creeping up here in the US as the wages continue to stay the same! 👎

If you're looking for name association, I guess this is the place to be. But honestly, I don't think anyone cares where you went to school as long as you're good at what you do.
 
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