r/MedSchoolCanada

Excluding derm and Optho

Hey everyone! I am super excited to be starting med school at UofA this fall 🥹

I had a specific question and wanted to get some thoughts from MS1/MS2 students who may have been in a similar situation or considered something similar.

I may have an opportunity to continue working part-time at my current job during first year (and maybe second year) of med school, and I’m trying to figure out whether this is realistically manageable or if it would become too overwhelming.

A bit more context:

- I currently work fully remote at a tech company making ~$42/hr

- There’s a possibility I could continue for ~10 hrs/week with a flexible schedule

- The work would be mostly independent (not dependent on other teams), so I could work evenings/weekends

- This would bring in around $1200–1300/month, which would essentially cover my living expenses

- I’m a first generation immigrant with no family in Canada, so I’m fully financially independent. I do have some savings, but I would strongly prefer to keep that as an emergency fund unless absolutely necessary

I would really appreciate hearing from anyone who has worked during med school, especially during pre-clerkship, or anyone who has thoughts on whether this sounds manageable or risky long term.

Thanks in advance!! Really looking forward to meeting everyone this fall 🙂

Particularly when you’re an attending and have completed the brutal 5 year residency + relevant fellowships

Any current residents/attendings who can offer insights into lifestyle during and after residency?

What made you choose a program over another! What was primarily what that program HAD to have for you: ex rural vs city, fellowship potential etc, or location in terms of province/territory?

Just asking because in Canada there’s way fewer options than the states as we know, so i wanted to see which factors valued more to you/ people you know.

Thank you in advance:)

Wondering if anyone has an idea of what call looks like for IM residents at UoT? Is it 24h q4 even on electives ? I’ve found the maximum hours possible - is it typically maxed out? Does base hospital change anything ?

I know it is a Medical School forum but I couldn’t find a specific Canadian residency one to ask. Thank you in advance 🙏🏼.

We talk about why FM + 1 can be more ideal then EM. But for those who went/or are interested in the EM route. Why was that the better option for you?

Because of the accelerated nature of Mac’s program, I understand that electives are interspersed with core rotations during clerkship. Does this mean:

1. You may go into electives without having done the core for that speciality so you have knowledge gaps, and hence you leave a poorer impression?

2. Makes it so preceptors from early electives forget who you are if you want a LOR a year later?

Just wondering how Mac students manage this!

Hey everyone! I’m an incoming U of T med student and have started looking into housing options for the fall.

From what I’ve seen so far, a really nice place with roommates (good location, newer building, more space, better amenities) tends to be around $1,700–1,900/month, whereas places that are a bit farther away, smaller/older, or have some drawbacks (e.g., lots of Airbnb units, poorer management, maintenance issues) are more in the $1,400–1,700/month range.

I’m trying to figure out whether paying an extra $200–300/month is actually worth it. Over four years, that works out to roughly $9,600–14,400 in additional housing costs, which is obviously a significant amount once interest and opportunity cost are considered. Furthermore, if I really wanted to, I could spend that money travelling.

For those who have gone through med school, do you feel that spending more for a nicer living situation was worth it in terms of quality of life, convenience, and mental health? Or do you think it’s better to minimize housing costs and keep debt as low as possible?

Would love to hear how others approached this decision and whether, in hindsight, you would make the same choice.

Current med student from Ontario at an OOP school, interested in IM and hoping to eventually match back to Toronto. I really like the idea of a longitudinal clerkship structure, but LIC options here are rural-based.

Interestingly, a U of T admin I spoke with said clerkship structure/location is pretty inconsequential for matching, but my school’s career counsellor raised concerns about getting the right exposure and reference letters for urban academic IM programs.

Does a rural LIC actually make it harder to match urban/academic IM, or is it mostly a non-issue if you perform well?

Dear Reddit,

Current M3. Don’t want to do surgery.
Would really appreciate some advice regarding specialty. I enjoy everything pretty much equally. My view is that: at the end of the day it’s a job and things become routine, so might as well pick the job with the best perks.

I just want the specialty that can optimize these things the most (yes I know this is super obvious and idealistic): money + lifestyle as staff + probability of matching (!!).
Some specialties that came to mind: PMR, pathology, and (recently) nuclear medicine.

I’ve gotten good-very strong feedback on my rotations/electives. Several abstracts (in different medical specialties) and many ECs/clubs, and could potentially get 1-2 pubs by CARMS deadline.

What should/can I try to match to?

Thank you!!!

Edit: IM is a tough one. Likely match but the concept of 2nd match + relocating is a tough call. Can end up in Geri/GIM/etc.

Edit: I’ve seen some comments say FM but seems like the money aspect is like 2/3 of what a specialist makes (correct me if wrong though)

Asking for a friend: does he have a better chance of matching to a competitive specialty if his family made a commitment to donate 5 million to the hypothetically Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences?

I know it’s very variable but can anyone shed some light into how much full time for each would expect to take home? Just want a rough estimate

I have the options of choosing between UBC and UofT D right now, i would really love to live in vancouver for med school, yet i'm also worried about residency. If i wanted to match into something like internal medicine or orthopaedic surgery (although less likely), would it be difficult to match back to uoft? Any input would be appreciated!

I’m a current MS1 and I’ve decided I want 1-2 sets of basic scrubs for some clinic days. I’m not one to splurge for FIGS but the options are overwhelming. Does anyone have any recommendations for brands or Amazon links or whatever? I’m a short woman but I know that scrubs are more forgiving (the fact that the hospital scrubs fit without being ridiculously long was a nice surprise!). It’s just hard to know what to get online when I can’t see if the fabric/quality is decent or not and they all look the same despite the massive price variation.

From a strictly financial pov, which is best in the long run?
Cardiology adds at least 3 years of training, but does the additional training yield more annual income than GIM?

Thanks!

Incoming MS1 buying a new laptop. My school uses examplify to proctor exams. Has anyone had any trouble with running examplify on an AMD laptop? Specifically an AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 340. The examplify site says compatible with Intel and ARM based processors, but doesn't explicitly mention AMD.

I got accepted to UofC and I was wondering a few things if anyone could help me out!

1. Do you need to get involved in ECs right away? I know it’s important for residency matching so this may be premature!

2. How did you like the program? 3 years is definitely more condensed than the 4 so how did you find balancing academics with other aspects of your life?

3. How important is it to live near campus? Are we there frequently after classes?

4. How hard did you find it to make friends/ how would you recommend making friends? I’m super nervous if you can’t tell and having major imposter syndrome

5. Do I need to buy scrubs or anything right away?

I’m a second-year IM resident interested in a non-procedural subspecialty. 

After doing local rotations and electives at other schools, I’m getting the sense that there’s an above average level of interest in my year. I recognize this is subjective and I may be overestimating because I’m paying more attention.

I think I can put together a reasonably competitive application but given the amount of randomness to the CaRMS process, I want to prepare for the possibility of not matching and completing the fourth year of IM. Although my team-based medicine rotations (CTU or equivalent) haven’t been my favourite and I’m not a huge fan of acuity (i.e. ICU), I find most aspects of IM work satisfying (GIM consults, ambulatory clinics, ED consults).

I’m doing residency outside of Ontario but would eventually like to work in the GTA to be closer to friends and family. I’m wondering what the job market is like for four-year IM grads in the community, and if I end up going down that path, how I could improve my chances of getting hired in the GTA (where to set up electives and what to do them in, etc.)

Most people at my program who are interested in GIM go on to complete the two-year GIM fellowship, so I haven’t had a chance to connect directly with any four-year grads yet. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!