Northern Routes

Want to be a doctor? This is what you can expect.

I am frequently asked—in the grocery store, by email, in DMs on social media—“Why didn’t my child or cousin or neighbour get into NOSM University?” The journey to becoming a physician is a competitive, complex and challenging one. It is a passage that few people truly understand or appreciate. I hope to offer some insight into the process. Typically, Canadian citizens finish high school, then finish a university degree (in most cases) and then they apply to medical school. There are 17 medical schools in Canada, of which NOSM University is the only fully independent medical university. Acceptance to all of them is highly ...

2023: The Year of Infinite Innovation

Hello, Bonjour, Aanin, Boozhoo, Tanshi, Kwe Kwe, Welcome to 2023! This year looks promising already with brave new adventures for NOSM University. I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday and is now ready for the next phase of our journey. Last year was full of twists, turns and runs for us—a new University, the new Chancellor and Board of Governors, a Senate election underway, and of course the financial boons from donations and the return of our endowments from Laurentian University. We were surrounded by international conflicts and the increasingly urgent climate emergency, health resource shortages and a declining economy, but ...

What a difference a year makes

In the early 1950s, my mother moved from India to Cedar Rapids, Iowa with two kids in tow. Then I was born. My memories of Iowa are mostly winter ones. Yes, that’s me in the white coat; the baby of the family. Snowfall in Iowa often piled up as high as small apartment buildings. My mother became a hardy Midwesterner, embracing the wildness of the new season she had never encountered in New Delhi. She made it a lot of fun to be a newcomer to America. She was hard pressed to prepare for her first winter in Iowa and, later, in Ottawa. Because of this, she spent a good part of her later career setting up programs to help new immigrants ...