Thanks for sharing that perspective. I agree that there are too few medical student spots in Canada, and is one of the biggest problems facing health care today.

I think people need to think it’s a lottery because thats the only way to make
sense of it, all your article did was make me think it’s completly a
irrational system. The problem isnt just one of selection process, it’s
of spaces availible and a seeming intent to keep a shortage inplay.

First they need to increase the spaces. Then an automatic entrance for those who
achieved the 4.0 etc and lotto the rest would do a much better job i think.
The admissions process is COMPLELTY inadequate (beyond meetign the req’s) for
figuring out who is “Doctor” material (whatever that means) should be done
in the actual training phase like other professions. A proctologist is a
different person than someone persuing psychiatry (maybe not so different ;p).

Joshua says : “this past year Queen’s interviewed 760 candidates and accepted only 100 in the first round.”
This is an amazing statmement! How many people cant even find a family doctor?

Ya know When health care is gaurenteed by the charter Then we as canadians deserve it.
Medical is the only service idustry thats treated like a controlled substance.
Why is med school so different than say taking the nessecary undergrad to get into
graduate studies? I think it displays an elitist mentality and serves none.

Joshua says : “Committees don’t say “if you get this GPA, volunteer this many hours, get this MCAT score,
and say this in an interview, you will automatically get in”
I think they should. Your right though and it’s VERY unfortunate.

I also think sometimes people invent things to try and justify insanity as a need
to rationmalize the irrational.

Joshua says : “The problem with medical school admissions is that they’re working with limited information. ”
Thats why the admissions should be about reqs versus spots, subjectivity aside.

Joshua says : “All they get are some numerical scores, an essay, some letters, and a relatively short interview ”
Thats WAY more than most professions. Airline pilot for instance (just to speak to having
people lives in your hands).

Joshua says : “not to mention the subjectivity ”
I find it AMAZING that it’s ok that people are allowed to include subjectivity in the admissions toolkit.

Joshua says : “involved with evaluating some of these. All they can do is come up with a process that they think will
select for candidates with potential to be competent physicians, with no guarantee they actually will be.”
There is NO POSSIBLE way to know with the limited time they have with each candidate that this one would be good or not.
Though, stopping daming up the admissions process and limiting the seats is a GREAT and Sane way to maintain a shortage.

Joshua says : “it’s not the best physician candidates who get in, but the individuals who do the best in the admissions process.”
true in all admissions processes the extra hoops and convoluted logic doesnt solve it.

Joshua says : “The hope of the admissions committees strongly believe there is a correlation between the two, ”
Hope without intellegent planning is the hallmark of the damned.
Bad or good physicians should be encouraged or removed as nessecary in the actual training process.
where you can get a sense of them.

Joshua says : “There are so many qualified applicants for fewer spots. However, my hope would be that with enough attempts,
those who would make great physicians will eventually get in.”

I know of two EXCELLENT people that said “screw this” and moved on. One had 3.7 and 4.0 gpa’s with all the
nessecary volenteering etc. There are LOADS of them out there tryign to hang in … the question
is why arent they filling the MASSIVE whole in our helath care system??

i think the prof should have had security in the building keeping an eye on the fire alarms instead of taking this step… york had to pay quite a lot of money for these false alarms this year and it would have made sense to give that money to the security guards instead of the fire dept :/

… And we had a fire alarm during that exam, so only 50/70 questions were marked lol.

The funny thing about university is that professors, especially in the upper years, have a lot of flexibility about the structure of their courses.

I had a course this year where we had basically 3 tests each worth a 1/3 of the course. I’ve also had courses with a 50% final exam. And then I’ve had courses with a final exam worth 20%. It really is up to the professor.

I thought most university exams are worth at least 30%… It’s still possible to get 65 =P You never know when the prof will curve the marks down or the exam turns out to be a killer.

Personally though, if I knew I didn’t have to try that hard to keep the same letter grade and only letter grades count, then I’d rather spend more time with family, extracurriculars, hobbies, or studying for other stuff. I’m still using that time wisely. It’s not like I’m going to play computer games all day.