United States vs Canada | Medical School & Becoming a Doctor

medical training is strenuous anywhere in the world but it certainly does not work the same way in every country between becoming a fully trained doctor in canada or the u.s which path is harder longer or more expensive let's break it down one category at a time dr jabal med schoolinsiders.com if you want to become a fully trained physician in either canada or the united states there are at least three stages you must go through in both cases the first one is pre-med done in university or college that's when students learn basic sciences like biology genetics and chemistry the second stage is medical school itself which is generally divided into preclinical and clinical years and finally there is residency which is when newly minted doctors specialize and work towards their board certification you'll start as a pre-med in college or university in both canada and the us american medical schools require a bachelor's degree prior to matriculating which generally takes at least four years the good news is you can major in whatever you want as long as you fulfill the prerequisite requirements such as biology chemistry physics and the like technically canadian medical schools allow you to enter medical school without a bachelor's degree however most students do complete all four years and get a bachelor's degree prior to matriculating to medical school unlike their american counterparts canadian pre-meds are not required to complete the same two-year set of prerequisite courses the university of ottawa requires organic chemistry for example but queen's university has no prerequisites and just like in the us you can major in any subject you'd like tuition cost also varies between these two countries and that's mostly because canada heavily subsidizes higher education in the u.s public medical school tuition averages nearly seven thousand dollars per year whereas private medical schools average at fifty eight thousand dollars per year that's before living expenses which are highly variable and based on the city you're living in in canada the costs are quite different the average tuition is around thirteen thousand dollars for canadian students and twenty three thousand dollars if you're international completing your pre-med requirements doesn't guarantee admission to medical school you still have to face the mcat and a competitive admission process getting into medical school in canada is considered more competitive compared to getting into medical school in the u.s based on average mcat scores and admission rates the medical college admission test or mcat is the standardized exam for both canadian and american students applying to medical school although students from both countries take the same test there are some key differences you should be aware of first canadian schools weigh mcat section scores differently than their us counterparts in the u.s schools give each section approximately equal weighting although there is some variation between programs however in canada mcat assessment varies significantly by program the critical analysis and reasoning section of the mcat also known as cars is generally more heavily weighted the university of toronto has an mcat cutoff such that if you're above a 125 in each section with one section allowed a 124 your mcat isn't evaluated competitively at mcmaster the mcat accounts for 32 percent of your final admissions decision and the only section they look at is cars queens looks at all sections while ottawa doesn't use the mcat as an evaluation criterion at western they evaluate all sections with different cutoffs each year and cars generally having the hardest cut off second canadian medical school matriculants have a slightly higher average mcat score in 2019 the mean mcat score for matriculants in the us was 5 11.2 compared to 5 12.5 for canadian students the competitive process for medical school admissions doesn't end with the mcat comparing admission rates highlights the fact that competition is fierce in canada recently approximately 53 000 students applied to 22 000 medical school seats in the us in comparison about 14 500 students applied to 2 500 canadian medical school positions that results in 5.65 applicants per seat in canada versus 2.38 in the us this may seem strange after all isn't canada short on doctors shouldn't more applicants be able to gain admission and ultimately help fill the gap while canada presents the 19th highest gdp per capita globally it only ranks 76th on physicians density canada has relatively fewer doctors than countries like uzbekistan and jordan when speaking with my canadian colleagues about these issues two hypotheses arose to explain this phenomenon the first and more politically correct one is that there are simply not enough financial resources canadian higher education is highly subsidized by the government which obviously represents significant expenses the second possibility which is just a theory revolves around medical lobbyists in canada the idea being there is incentive to keep the supply of physicians low to maintain practicing doctors high pay canadian medical schools give preferential treatment to students who are from the same province after all these students are more likely to stay after graduating thus serving the local population there are some exceptions in ontario where they treat all canadians equally meaning if you live in ontario you may not get as much of a home province advantage the university of british columbia for example officially requires a greater minimum gpa for out of province applicants there are noteworthy differences and similarities between applying in the u.s and canada except for nine medical schools u.s universities use a common application system called the american medical college application service or amcas the equivalent of amcas to do schools is the american association of colleges of osteopathic medicine application service or double a comas on the other hand most canadian medical schools use their own independent application systems ontario being the exception all six ontario medical schools use a common application system called the ontario medical schools application system or omsas there is no omsas equivalent for osteopathic medical schools since canada doesn't offer any do programs although the exact systems differ between countries the core of your application will be very similar in both america and canada programs seek a holistic understanding of an applicant rather than basing their competitiveness purely off scores while your mcat and gpa are important the soft components of your application such as letters of recommendation personal statement working activities and other factors are important considerations prior to being offered an interview casper a video and text-based application created at mcmaster university has increasingly become a larger component in assessing candidacy at several canadian medical schools and now some in the us are following suit and of course how you perform on the interview is critical in determining whether you'll receive an acceptance offer what about life after medical school acceptance medical schools operate similarly between the two countries at almost all schools the first two years are preclinical and the last two are clinical in the first two years or pre-clinical or pre-clerkship years you'll learn the foundational sciences of medicine like anatomy physiology and the various organ systems these two years emphasis is on understanding the physiology and pathophysiology through textbooks and classroom didactics the latter half or clinical years is when you spend most of your time in a hospital or clinic instead of a classroom these years are divided into rotations each lasting between two and eight weeks during each rotation you'll be on a particular service such as pediatrics or general surgery your grades are based on an exam at the end of each rotation in addition to evaluations from your supervising physicians most canadian medical schools have pass fail for all four years of medical school in the u.s it's more common to have pass fail during the pre-clinical years but a graded system with honors high pass pass and fail during the clinical years u.s medical students also have to face the dreaded usmle step 1 and step 2 ck while canadian counterparts have nothing of the sort to worry about instead canadian medical students take the mcc qe their usmle equivalent for licensing after they match this translates to a lower stress environment for the most part amongst canadian medical students they don't have to worry about getting honors in all their clinical rotations like their american counterparts do instead they simply need to excel in the rotation for which they are going to apply into the residency application process for us and canadian students very starkly primarily due to differences in medical school objective measurements in the us usmle step one is taken after the second year of medical school and has been the single most heavily weighted objective factor in residency matching for that reason it causes a great deal of stress and anxiety for many medical students in 2022 it's transitioning to pass fail which will likely place greater emphasis on usmle step 2 ck which is generally taken after the third year of medical school in september of your final year of medical school you'll submit your application through the electronic residency application service or eras for most specialties there are a few specialties that have their own separate match outside this system just like applying to medical school you'll need to submit your test scores transcripts personal statement letters of recommendation and activities list in the subsequent months interviews are offered and in february candidates submit their rank list match day occurs in march where you open up your envelope and find out where you'll be attending residency because canadian medical students don't have grades and don't have a standardized test like the usmle that is factored into their residency application their candidacy is primarily a function of their letters of recommendation personal statement and cv if you're applying into a highly competitive specialty research becomes more important too residencies may also give preference to students who have completed an elective rotation at their program the licensing exam for canadian medical students the mcc qe part 1 is taken at the end of medical school after match therefore it has no bearing on one's residency application if you made it this far congratulations you're officially a doctor and are now in the final stage of your training to get board certified the exact duration of each specialty varies in each country internal medicine is three years in both but family medicine is two years in canada and three years in the us whereas anesthesiology is five in canada but four in the us in terms of pay you'll be making roughly fifty thousand to sixty thousand dollars per year depending on your year in training in both countries after residency is when you'll take a significant raise as an attending as for the lifestyle residency in both countries is grueling in the united states the acgme has mandated an 80 hour work week restriction although certain specialties often the surgical ones are known to violate this and exceed sometimes over 100 hours per week in canada current duty hour restrictions allow residents to work 70 hours per week on average and up to 100 hours per week during peak periods regardless of whether you're training to become a doctor in the us or canada our insiders at med school insiders have extensive experience in helping our students succeed whether it's crushing the mcat finessing a personal statement honing your interview skills or anything else related to excelling as a pre-med or medical student we've got you covered we've had close to 3 000 customers so far and have an industry-leading 99 customer satisfaction rating that's not an accident we've obsessed and invested heavily over the past few years in creating our proprietary systems that allow us to consistently provide excellent service and deliver stellar results that is the med school insider's difference learn more about why our customers love us at medschoolinsiders.com if you enjoyed this video check out my video on md versus dio vs caribbean medical schools or my video on how to choose a specialty much love and i'll see you guys there

Channel: Med School Insiders

Views: 407,079

Keywords: Pre-med, Premed, Med Student, Medical School, Med School, Medical Student, united states, canada, united states vs canada, medical school comparison, osteopathic vs allopathic, canadian premed, college premed, canadian residency, nrmp match, united states residency, canadian vs us residency, u.s. vs canada medical school, medical training, international student, IMG vs FMG, international medical graduate, foreign medical graduate

Id: ALjJ6poPAWA

Length: 13min 2sec (782 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 13 2021