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Congrats on having a choice! I had the same decision to make and I'll let you know why I decided to come to Queen's and what my feelings are now that I'm done my second year

I'm from Alberta and I decided to go to Kingston because it is more central to a number of cities than London. Sure, London is close to T.O., but we're pretty close to T.O, Ottawa, Montreal, Syracuse, etc. Also, I'm a big downhill skiier and our options living in Kingston (Jay Peak, Tremblant, Whiteface, etc.) are much better than in London I loved the fact that Kingston was on a lake (not too much waterfront property in Alberta) and I like the historic downtown area where the University and all the students lived.

Now that I've been here for a while I can honestly say that one school over the other will NOT offer a BETTER education. What you will get is a different education. Queen's and Western will teach you what you need to know, but you have to decide which method will work best for you. I enjoy the fact that at Queen's we only have tests once a semester...it gives us a lot of time to do observerships, get involved in various groups, golf/ski/party, etc. Some probably wouldn't like this, but I do!! Another nice thing about Kingston is that being smaller it's often easier to do more in the hospital as an undergrad (less clerks and residents to compete with!!). Our clinical skills program is great (as I'm sure Western's is) so I feel pretty comfortable around patients (ie://I can fake it well because I don't know what's going on a lot of the time!!). Some worry that in Kingston you don't get to see as many weird cases...but who cares!! As an undergrad med student you don't want to learn about the zebras, you want to make sure you can recognize the stuff you'll actually see. When chosing a city where you want to do a residency or fellowship in it is much more important to consider things like patient load, etc.

So, when making a decision don't worry about which school is better. If you work hard and do well you'll probably know about the same after 4 years and will probably match equally well in residency. I am obviously just presenting you with my views and don't think that there are no problems with the way we are taught here...there are, but rest assured that people at every med school in the country (and the world) complain about things from time to time. Good luck with your decision, and no matter where you pick you'll be going to a pretty wicked school!