2004 Expansion

I've been doing some reading about UBC Med School's 2004 expansion, and it seems pretty intresting.

Does this mean that it will be easier to gain admission into UBC's med school in 2004?

There will be more spots available in 2004. Will it really be any less competitive, probably not by all that much. You'll still need to be at the upper end of the applicant pool to get an acceptance. In the Class of 2006 application cycle, there were 874 applications for 128 spots. So, right now, each medical student in the Class of 2006 needed to rank above at least 746 out of 874 applicants in order to get accepted!

www.admissions.med.ubc.ca/stats/page1.htm

Even if additional spots still come up, admissions will still be very competitive. At the end of the day, I think that each potential applicant should still apply, and not be dissuaded by the numbers. Just worry about the things that you can control, namely those factors related to your own personal application.

Here's an old article regarding the expansion, which is quite out of date. I believe that the end date for expansion up to 224 graduates a year won't be achieved until 2010; it certainly won't happen immediately in 2004.

There's some good links at the end of the article describing links at UNBC and UVic which have lots of official press releases regarding the expansion.



www.canada.com/health/bctv_healthnews/story.html?id={1A253C75-0F9C-4BE6-A2C5-6CA808E5EDC1}

BCTV Health News
B.C. doubles medical students

Tuesday, March 19, 2002

BC is in the midst of serious doctor shortage. Each year - between 300 and 400 B.C. physicians retire or leave the province.

Add to that a growing and aging population and you have a situation that is only going to get worse. Unless, that is, more medical students are trained.

Today - the Minister of Advanced Education awarded three B.C. Universities a total of $134 million dollars to create more spots for medical students.

The University of British Columbia will receive $110 million dollars to establish a new Life Sciences Centre. The remaining money will be divided between the University of Victoria and the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George.

While UBC has a well established medical program - this will be the first time UVIC and UNBC will train medical students.

Each will enroll 24 students per year - beginning in September 2004. Because the physician shortage is most serious in smaller rural communities, it is hoped that the students attracted to the new UNBC program - will remain to start up rural practices.

All combined, the number of medical students taught in the province annually will nearly double from 128 to 224. It's an impressive increase, but according to UBC figures - 300 new graduates per year would be required to meet the demand.

For more information you can check out at the following links:

The University of Northern British Columbia
www.unbc.ca/nmp

The University of Victoria
www.uvic.ca/imp

The University of British Columbia
www.ubc.ca


Ian
UBC, Med 4

WOW!

Thanks a lot for the awesome reply!

Ian,

has there been any talk of increasing the number of seats for the 2003 entering class? From the UBC website, it looks as though that Life Sciences Centre might be complete by then!:rollin

me

There will not be. The medical school seats will expand further for Sept. 2004 if everything goes according to plan, but there are no new seats to be added for Sept. 2003.

Ian
UBC, Med 4

Labs are scheduled to move into the life sciences centre in 2004. I don't think anyone will be there in just 8 months! That UBC website is such a liar! :rollin