Reaction to madness at UofT med as we approach the start of the school year
reading through the comments in the thread about what’s going on at uoft with lectures no longer being recorded, i feel like everyone is debating the downstream effects instead of asking why attendance dropped in the first place.
as an incoming ms3, i can promise you this isn't about students being lazy or not caring about medicine. it comes down to the fact that the system forces us to constantly overload our time.
in an ideal world, med school is simple: you go to class, learn the material, and focus on becoming a good doctor. but with how carms and residency matching work now, that just does not cut it anymore. at uoft especially, where so many people aim for competitive specialties, time time “built” into our schedule is not enough to stay competitive for the match.
because of that, people adapt. we try to study as efficiently as humanly possible— whether that’s using AI to synthesize notes, using third-party resources, or watching recorded lectures at 2x speed to get through the material in half the time.
when non-classroom metrics carry so much weight for our actual careers, sitting through hours of live lecture ends up being low-yield. students aren't skipping to slack off; they’re using that time to run research projects, shadow, network, build portfolios, or honestly just get enough sleep to avoid total burnout.
writing this off as a "lack of student commitment" totally misses the structural reality of modern med education. removing recordings and forcing attendance just adds extra friction and stress without fixing the core issue. if leadership wants people in seats, the answer is not coercion, it is looking at why the system forces students to triage their time like this in the first place.