Medical School in Canada

[Endoxifen]

I am a dual citizen with the U.S. and Canada. What is everyone's take on going to medical school in Canada? What are the challenges of practicing in the states with a Canadian education. Is the medical experience significantly different? Are there any extra requirements for students who went to college in the States? Thank you!

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[NotASerialKiller]

GPAs in Canada are higher because they're calculated differently, but it's still a 4.0 scale. That means that even if you apply as a citizen, they'll still only see your GPA as-is, which can be extremely prohibitive considering you generally need a 3.85+ to be highly competitive. It would also depend on which province you'll have residence in, though.

As for practicing, you're free to take the USMLE while studying in Canada (plenty of my classmates are planning on it), so you can apply to residency programs in the US. In terms of competitiveness I'm not sure how much of a disadvantage you'd be at, but no matter where you apply in the States you won't have been able to do any rotations there which can't help. I'm not quite sure how the matching system works in the US, but here US MDs are placed in the same pool as Canadian MDs so there theoretically isn't a huge disadvantage, with the caveat that I mentioned of not having any connections at the hospitals you're applying to.

edit: Also keep in mind that the average successful Canadian applicant takes several cycles to get in, so don't hold your breath if you're only going to be applying once to both countries.

 

[Endoxifen]

GPAs in Canada are higher because they're calculated differently, but it's still a 4.0 scale. That means that even if you apply as a citizen, they'll still only see your GPA as-is, which can be extremely prohibitive considering you generally need a 3.85+ to be highly competitive. It would also depend on which province you'll have residence in, though.

As for practicing, you're free to take the USMLE while studying in Canada (plenty of my classmates are planning on it), so you can apply to residency programs in the US. In terms of competitiveness I'm not sure how much of a disadvantage you'd be at, but no matter where you apply in the States you won't have been able to do any rotations there which can't help. I'm not quite sure how the matching system works in the US, but here US MDs are placed in the same pool as Canadian MDs so there theoretically isn't a huge disadvantage, with the caveat that I mentioned of not having any connections at the hospitals you're applying to.

edit: Also keep in mind that the average successful Canadian applicant takes several cycles to get in, so don't hold your breath if you're only going to be applying once to both countries.

What do you mean by rotations? Do you mean working in the hospital as a student?

 

[NotASerialKiller]

What do you mean by rotations? Do you mean working in the hospital as a student?

Yes your clerkship rotations in M-3/M-4, the clinical years of med school. You can apply to programs you've never had any contact with, but normally if you're thinking about living in a certain city or province you'll do an elective there so when it comes time to apply to residency they know who you are already. That's how it works here at least, it's possible that because the US is a lot bigger it's more common to apply somewhere you've never had contact with, in which case the only disadvantage would be if they don't like that you haven't been exposed to the US health care system in med school.

If you're 100% sure you want to practice in the US, then you want to do your residency there. If you want to maximize your competitiveness for residency, I'd go to a US med school. It's harder to get in in Canada and it can only hurt you (maybe very minimally, maybe more than that) when you're applying to US residency programs.