US to Canada

[Greeneggsnpork]

Hello

I'm planning on applying to Canadian Medschools, with the intent of eventually acquiring Canadian citizenship and staying there to live. Could someone please give me an overview of the major Canadian Medschools and perhaps tell me a little about life/work/naturalization in Canada?

I'm more into research than in clinical work (I'm planning an MD/PhD), and I'm most interested in medical genetics and gene therapy. As for location, I really like Vancouver but that's not the most important thing for me.

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[Wertt]

University of British Columbia (in Vancouver) has an excellent medical genetics core group at the Center for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (www.cmmt.ubc.ca)

Aside from there, UofT and McGill would be considered top general medical research schools.

 

[Smilemaker100]

Hello

I'm planning on applying to Canadian Medschools, with the intent of eventually acquiring Canadian citizenship and staying there to live. Could someone please give me an overview of the major Canadian Medschools and perhaps tell me a little about life/work/naturalization in Canada?

I'm more into research than in clinical work (I'm planning an MD/PhD), and I'm most interested in medical genetics and gene therapy. As for location, I really like Vancouver but that's not the most important thing for me.

What has motivated you to move to Canada ? We tend to see more Canadians migrating southward than Americans migrating northward so you're an interesting case.

If you're planning on studying at McGill and settling in Quebec, you better master your French because there is no way you can practice medicine or work in any job without it. To a certain degree, the language laws border on fanaticism here. In order to practice a health profession here, you have to prove that you had a certain amount of French schooling or pass a few French tests. I've had a number of anglophone colleagues from my university days as an undergrad who would have loved to live here but the whole French language deal deterred them from settling here.

 

[Greeneggsnpork]

What has motivated you to move to Canada ? We tend to see more Canadians migrating southward than Americans migrating northward so you're an interesting case.

If you're planning on studying at McGill and settling in Quebec, you better master your French because there is no way you can practice medicine or work in any job without it. To a certain degree, the language laws border on fanaticism here. In order to practice a health profession here, you have to prove that you had a certain amount of French schooling or pass a few French tests. I've had a number of anglophone colleagues from my university days as an undergrad who would have loved to live here but the whole French language deal deterred them from settling here.

J'etudias francais pour six ans. J'en ai oublie un peu, mais je suis certain, avec quelques mois je me souviendra tout.

There are many reasons I want to move to Canada, but many of them are personal ones that you wouldn't understand. Some of the less personal ones are: I want to live in a colder and rainier climate, I think it's prettier up there, I hate the American medical system, Canada is less of a "spotlight" country than the US, and life is a lot cheaper than where I live.

This isn't a ready-made decision yet. I'm just poking around at my options. Could somebody tell me what the job situation is like, what they like/don't like about life in Canada?

 

[cheer_up]

Quote: "Canada is less of a "spotlight" country than the US, and life is a lot cheaper than where I live"

I totally agree with ya. I think Canada is a much safer and more peaceful country to live in than the States in terms of the extent of its political involvement in the world compared to that of the States.


This isn't a ready-made decision yet. I'm just poking around at my options. Could somebody tell me what the job situation is like, what they like/don't like about life in Canada?[/QUOTE]

With a present shortage of doctors in Canada, I really don't think you'll have a problem finding a job at all. The only thing I see as being a disadvantage working in Canada is that you won't earn as much here as you will in the States. That is a fact no one can refute and it is also one of the main (if not, the main reason) reasons why a lot of the Canadian health care professionals move down South. However, since living in Canada is relatively cheaper, it all balances out in the end to a large extent. People have got to remember that everything is relative.

Good luck with your decision and I hope that you'll be able to settle in Canada.

 

[Greeneggsnpork]

Thanks!

I personally don't mind salary too much. I think American doctors make unethical sums of money more than they are really worth.

So why is McGill considered to be so much better than the other schools? How does UBC compare to the other Canadian Medschools?

 

[Smilemaker100]

Thanks!

I personally don't mind salary too much. I think American doctors make unethical sums of money more than they are really worth.

So why is McGill considered to be so much better than the other schools? How does UBC compare to the other Canadian Medschools?

Asking how McGill compares to other Canadian universities is akin to asking how Harvard compares to other universities in the US. McGill has an excellent international reputation which attracts students and researchers from all over the world. It`s strengths lies mostly in medical research. McGill has also had the highest number of Rhodes scholars compared to other Canadian colleges. In latter years, the University of Toronto has ranked as high or even higher than McGill in regards to medical research.

All that being said, I think what matters in the end, is what you make of your college education and not so much what your college`s reputation is. I honestly think it doesn`t matter where you do your M.D/Ph.D. From what I have understood, where you did your post-doctoral research appears to weigh pretty heavily in your résumé.

 

[Greeneggsnpork]

Asking how McGill compares to other Canadian universities is akin to asking how Harvard compares to other universities in the US. McGill has an excellent international reputation which attracts students and researchers from all over the world. It`s strengths lies mostly in medical research. McGill has also had the highest number of Rhodes scholars compared to other Canadian colleges. In latter years, the University of Toronto has ranked as high or even higher than McGill in regards to medical research.

All that being said, I think what matters in the end, is what you make of your college education and not so much what your college`s reputation is. I honestly think it doesn`t matter where you do your M.D/Ph.D. From what I have understood, where you did your post-doctoral research appears to weigh pretty heavily in your résumé.

I understand that it is the individual that determines the quality of education and not location, but let's be realists and agree that location is also pretty important. If that weren't true, people wouldn't be fussing about where they got accepted/rejected.

In any case, thank you for the info on McGill, but I was actually more interested in learning about UBC. What is UBC like? I will go there this summer to check it out, but I'd love to hear an insider's point of view.

 

[ssc_396]

UBC is great! The 'vibe' is very similar to many other north-west coast cities in the US (Seattle, Portland, SF.... (not LA)). If you like the outdoors the best city for you in Canada is easily Vancouver. Vancouver rarely dips below freezing so it’s common for people to cycle to work year round. There's world class climbing, scuba diving, skiing, hiking, mountain biking.... all within ~30 minutes from downtown Vancouver (depending on traffic). The people that live in Vancouver reflect this and I remember seeing that it is the healthiest city in Canada.
In terms of quality of research I doubt you’ll notice a difference between the resources at UBC and places like McGill or the University of Alberta who both pull in similar research dollars. In terms of medical education there is NO difference in quality between what you’ll get at UBC compared to anywhere else in Canada.

Asking how McGill compares to other Canadian universities is akin to asking how Harvard compares to other universities in the US.

..gonna go ahead and disagree with that. A more accurate comparison would be like comparing Dartmouth to the rest of the US. Harvard is miles ahead of most other American Universities. McGill is most certainly not way ahead of other Canadian Universities. McGill is in fact one of the least competitive medical schools in Canada for in Province students with a 40% acceptance rate compared to 15-20% at most other Canadian schools. It’s is not like the US where the difference between good and bad schools is enormous. We do not have good and bad schools in Canada. All are very tightly monitored and so the quality is kept to a similar high standard across the board. This is reflected by the fact that there is little noticeable difference between how Canadian schools place in the residency match. They all have similar numbers though some schools (cough…Ottawa) like to claim they have the best stats when in fact the difference is something like 98.6% compared to 97.9%

But if you are interested in an MD/PhD you must have some idea of what you want to do. Specific research groups might be stronger at one University over another. For example the best type I diabetes research happens at the University of Alberta. The best Cystic Fibrosis at Toronto….

However, this is all pointless discussion unless you are Canadian. If you are not a permanent resident or Canadian citizen the only two schools you can apply to are McGill and Toronto. Of those two McGill takes more American students per year.

 

[trustwomen]

However, this is all pointless discussion unless you are Canadian. If you are not a permanent resident or Canadian citizen the only two schools you can apply to are McGill and Toronto. Of those two McGill takes more American students per year.

Dunno if it's just those two (I think Mac suspended their internationals so that might be the case) but I just checked UBC website - citizens and residents only (and only 10 spots OOP for that matter). So no UBC for Americans, this is true...

I just want to say, in defense of McGill, that the in-province acceptance rate is high because they are an anglophone university in a francophone province, so they are basically getting their pool of applicants from only about 2 million people. There are also three French schools, none of which require the MCAT - appealing for the bilingual (which most young anglo Quebeckers are these days). McGill also tells university students basically to not bother applying if you have less than a 30/3.5 (I hear a couple get in with one or the other anyway, though probably not this year).

All this adds up to: they get very few applications from in-province, hence the higher rate (and my happy, happy self!). This year there were more in-province applicants (250 for MDCM, instead of the usual 160-180) because of the double-cohort in Ontario; anyone born in Quebec counts as a resident even if they never lived here, so we had a lot of "reborn Quebecois" to contend with this year. So since they only took 74, that drops the acceptance rate down under 30%. And, of course, the Ontario schools were exceptionally stiff/competitive over the past few years for the same demographic reason. The quality of the education, of course, is not in question for any Canadian school - they all provide top-notch training. So sure, you could say "Dartmouth vs. the average US school" but a better comparison might be "Harvard vs. the other top 20s". With U of T being the main contender/occasional victor...

 

[ssc_396]

Sure - I’m not trying to knock McGill in any way. Where else in Canada will you get such a depth of culture alongside your MD? I just think the continual McGill (and UofT to be fair) 'we are the best medical school' attitude is ridiculous, elitist and not warranted.

 

[trustwomen]

Sure - I’m not trying to knock McGill in any way. Where else in Canada will you get such a depth of culture alongside your MD? I just think the continual McGill (and UofT to be fair) 'we are the best medical school' attitude is ridiculous, elitist and not warranted.

I agree 100%. I've already seen a bit of this kind of attitude on another forum - that McGill has a "better" undergrad than other schools... ridiculous. Canadian schools are all good. Really, the proof is in the (match-rate) pudding.

I happen to think McGill is the "best medical school" in Canada for one reason: because they accepted me, which is obviously a sign of good taste...