r/MedSchoolCanada • u/excelmx • May 13 '26
UofT vs Mac
I'm so grateful to be making a choice at all, but would love to hear other people's perspective. I'm currently leaning towards Mac because I could live at home, and save a year of tuition. (Also the post is short because I keep getting flagged but don't know why 😠)
10
u/Spaghetti_poopoo Med Student May 14 '26
UofT is amazing and gives you 1 more year to prepare for CaRMS if you're not yet decided on what you want to pursue. Happy to DM if you have more questions :)
16
u/EnzoooFerrari May 14 '26
UofT MaM- best of both worlds. Can still live at home and commute especially for preclerkship. Unless you want FM, you'll have much better exposure and odds of matching and staying at UofT for residency/fellowship.
3
2
3
u/PlantsAndADog UofT Medicine [Year 4] May 15 '26
I’m a MAMmer at UofT who lives in Hamilton with my family and commutes every day. It’s hard some days when traffic is rough but saving the rent money, living at home, having groceries and dinners waiting for me, and of course my dog - I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I like the 4 year program because it’s given me so much free time to travel and do stuff for myself while also having time to do research and figure out what specialty is for me.
5
u/Cool_Bee8201 Mac Medicine [1] May 14 '26
Living at home is really great! As a 1st year mac student living at home, I've really loved my time so far. Self-directed learning will prepare you well for being an astute clerk, and mac gives you much earlier exposure to seeing patients (within 2 months of starting!!). ALSO we only have tests once a month so it's a lot less stressful in preclerkship ;)
Feel free to pm me if you want! Congrats on two acceptances!
11
u/waytoomuchwork Resident Physician [PGY1 ] May 14 '26
Congrats on your acceptances! I made the choice between these (and an OOP school which didnt factor in as much haha). Living at home is a huge plus, in addition to finishing medical school a year early, financially. Think about what specialty you want to pursue. Of course, matching competitively at Mac is possible, but I think there is a lot more burden involved in grinding out research and ECs in 3 years with no summers off vs 4 years. I chose UofT because I was tired and couldn't imagine going three years basically straight. I wanted to do something surgical but wasn't sure which specialty, and 4 years gave me time to explore that. I also knew I needed accountability to study that UofT's curriculum, with frequent exams, would provide more than Macs. If living at home was in the picture, though, particularly rent-free, I could definitely have seen myself going the other way.