Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

2017 Carms Applicants


Recommended Posts

Thanks Technobabble, for cheering me up.

Yes I were feeling down this afternoon...because psychiatry is my first choice, and I didn't get a chance to do elective at McMaster...but I loved their program focus in Global Mental Health. I got involved in mental health as a teen, and med school has confirmed my passion for psych :)

I did psych elective in Montreal and UofToronto, and got excellent evaluations. My school won't allow me to do more electives -_-

Have you known anyone who appealed interview rejection, and then were invited? (or anyone else who wants to chime in).

Not personally, no - however anecdotally I've heard of several applicants who not only succeeded in getting an interview, but also getting matched to the program that initially rejected them! CaRMS is a strange entity...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 444
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Thank you so much! I will try to appeal their decision in a bit, it might not change much, but there is nothing to lose B)

Anyone who could share their appealing process experience? Do I write to the secretary, a short email, or a moderate lengthy email explaining my interests for their program, and my strengths?

Not personally, no - however anecdotally I've heard of several applicants who not only succeeded in getting an interview, but also getting matched to the program that initially rejected them! CaRMS is a strange entity...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you so much! I will try to appeal their decision in a bit, it might not change much, but there is nothing to lose B)

Anyone who could share their appealing process experience? Do I write to the secretary, a short email, or a moderate lengthy email explaining my interests for their program, and my strengths?

Wouldn't you want to write to the PD instead of the administrator? I doubt the admin has any sway...

 

Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I got my first interview reject from McMaster Psychiatry today.

As a CMG who did 2 electives in psychiatry, with excellent evaluations...I don't know what to say..I had no red flags, passed all my classes and no bad evaluations...

Does anyone know if they only interview people who did electives at Mac? Could I write to the secretary and appeal their decision?

 

that just seems to happen from time to time - I had it in rads (when a school you are pretty much expecting to interview you doesn't it can be confusing and set you back a bit). 

 

don't second guess yourself - it is natural, but wrong. There is a bit of almost randomness to the process. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks rmorelan. :)

I was feeling shocked and down when I received the email. Istarted to go over my head, what could go wrong in my application (NOT GOOD)

Thanks to the support I received on the forum, I am putting this behind and are focussing on my OSCE :D ...

I wrote the email to appeal the interview rejection. I have nothing to lose ;)

Thank you guys for your kind support! 

that just seems to happen from time to time - I had it in rads (when a school you are pretty much expecting to interview you doesn't it can be confusing and set you back a bit). 

 

don't second guess yourself - it is natural, but wrong. There is a bit of almost randomness to the process. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you so much! I will try to appeal their decision in a bit, it might not change much, but there is nothing to lose B)

Anyone who could share their appealing process experience? Do I write to the secretary, a short email, or a moderate lengthy email explaining my interests for their program, and my strengths?

 

As some of the previous posters have said, I would focus on the interviews you have. There's many reasons why your application may have been rejected, even if there were no red flags. Some programs will only interview you if you did an elective at their site, i.e. guarantee interviews to people who did electives at their site, even if their applications are a bit 'weaker' than yours.. And unless you are within the top 10% of applicants across the country for your specialty that you're applying too, i.e. psychiatry, then don't count on getting interview invites to all programs that you applied to. Be grateful and happy with the ones you have. 

 

Think about it from the perspective of the administrative staff. She will be bombarded with emails and inquiries from students across the country. Their program is in full gears trying to get ready and organized for CaRMS socials/interviews in January. Reviewing an application that was rejected is definitely not at their priority. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for your input.

I am not expecting a reply from McMaster Psychiatry. I wrote the appeal email as a last resort, but no false hope.

CaRMS is a mysterious lottery ticket, we all have to live with it :)

As some of the previous posters have said, I would focus on the interviews you have. There's many reasons why your application may have been rejected, even if there were no red flags. Some programs will only interview you if you did an elective at their site, i.e. guarantee interviews to people who did electives at their site, even if their applications are a bit 'weaker' than yours.. And unless you are within the top 10% of applicants across the country for your specialty that you're applying too, i.e. psychiatry, then don't count on getting interview invites to all programs that you applied to. Be grateful and happy with the ones you have. 

 

Think about it from the perspective of the administrative staff. She will be bombarded with emails and inquiries from students across the country. Their program is in full gears trying to get ready and organized for CaRMS socials/interviews in January. Reviewing an application that was rejected is definitely not at their priority. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's killing me too...I check my emails regularly daily, it would be so much better if each program states what date they will send out the interview invites.

We have SENIOR Clerk Fatigue syndrome lol...it doesn't help when you have a big exam coming up :mellow:

Is the wait killing anyone else? So much shorter than applying to med school, yet so much worse.

Doesn't help that it's been 48 weeks since the last time we had more than 3 days off. 2 more weeks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's killing me too...I check my emails regularly daily, it would be so much better if each program states what date they will send out the interview invites.

We have SENIOR Clerk Fatigue syndrome lol...it doesn't help when you have a big exam coming up :mellow:

 

ha, well we have no idea as a rule exactly when that would be :) and if we did have a date it would just be some far off point in time to absolutely sure we are ready, and thus you would be waiting probably post christmas and have less time to actually prepare for travel/interviews........

 

hang in there you 7/8th done doctors to be .... the end game is about to start. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's killing me too...I check my emails regularly daily, it would be so much better if each program states what date they will send out the interview invites.

We have SENIOR Clerk Fatigue syndrome lol...it doesn't help when you have a big exam coming up :mellow:

 

side note re: sig - half way there(?) :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ha, well we have no idea as a rule exactly when that would be :) and if we did have a date it would just be some far off point in time to absolutely sure we are ready, and thus you would be waiting probably post christmas and have less time to actually prepare for travel/interviews........

 

hang in there you 7/8th done doctors to be .... the end game is about to start.

Exactly. As I understand it, that's basically what internal does (Jan 4th), giving their applicants (in my opinion) ridiculously short notice to book flights and such.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Exactly. As I understand it, that's basically what internal does (Jan 4th), giving their applicants (in my opinion) ridiculously short notice to book flights and such.

 

yeah stressful - coupled with the fact that it is winter time ideally you want to book flights not just to get there but get there with backup in case there are delays - harder to do when you are closer to the deadline and things have filled up. I have had friends lose out on interviews that way - and there often isn't really a good way to make it up. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I looked at the CaRMS stat, for internal medicine, the match rate for CMG is around 80-90%...I think that if we apply broadly, an applicant with no red flags should be matched somewhere?

I understand that not everyone will get their first choice of location :)

Should have clarified, I meant worse because of the higher # of applications received which means less interviews to go around. Several people I know were disappointed in the number they received last year. Matching itself should still be ok but I expect the average applicant will have fewer programs to rank. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I heard that Memorial IM might because they had far more applicants than expected. Not confirmed though.

 

 

I can't remember the exact numbers last year, but there are about 37% more applicants to the program overall. Last year interviews got disrupted by bad weather (mainly in Halifax!) so we ended up with lots of phone interviews. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.


×
×
  • Create New...