Medical School Spotlight: Université Laval
What is a typical week for a Laval medical student?
Laval medical school is one of the three francophone medical schools in Canada, therefore we learn eveyrthing in French. During the first two preclinical years, we have the didactic courses like other medical schools. Usually we have lecture from 8:30 to 11:30, sometimes we also have lectures in the afternoon. We have one to two small group sessions every week, where we review clinical method and practice physical examination with the supervision of a resident physician. I would say that we have a very good and flexible schedule compared to other medical schools (10 hours of didactic lectures and 4 hours of small group).
Why should I pick Laval over other medical schools?
In ULaval, medical students have a lot of freedom. We can choose to do our preclinical studies in 2 to 3 years. Most of the students choose the 3 years preclinical track (so 5 years of medical schools in total). ULaval also provides students with a lot of research opportunities to improve our CV, and most of research internship are paid and can be counted toward our credits. As there is no other medical school in the area, students cover all hospitals in Quebec City. To sum up, we have a great faculty who understand our needs as medical students, and we have great teachers who are passionate about medical education. The medical school works very hard to help students match to the residency program of their choices.
How can you make your application stand out for Laval medical school?
I’ve published a blog on tips for Quebec medical and dental schools application. Here is the link to the blog: Tips for Quebec Pre-medical & Pre-dental Students. Basically, you should know that getting good grades is your priority; CV is secondary. In fact, for French medical schools (including ULaval), pre-interview screening is 100% based on your grades, and post-interview rank list is 50% based on your grades as well. Having a remarkable CV and extracurricular activities might help you in some MMI stations (stations with traditional interview style). However, most of the stations are scenario-based, and you won’t have too many opportunities to talk to your interviewer about your volunteer or leadership accomplishments. You should also know that if you receive an interview invite from the three French medical schools, you will only complete one MMI. Therefore, it’s very important to do well on the MMI, as all three medical schools will use the same MMI score within one application cycle. ULaval may also start incorporating CASPer in the next year application cycle, however it’s not confirmed at this time.
