Electives At Canadian Schools As Us Md Grad

[kbilal08]

Hey Everyone

I'm going through a bit of a dilemma here.  Could someone please clarify/provide some more info for me on the topic of applying for away electives. 

 

I was hoping to do away electives during my 4th year at at least 3-4 Canadian institutions.  I did NOT realize that I would be considered as an International applicant for electives.

 

I am a Canadian citizen, I did my undergrad at U of Toronto, I'm completing MD at a school in New York City.  Even for the CaRMs application, i'm considered a Canadian graduate rather than an international medical graduate.

 

Am I just confused? Or am I really an international medical graduate for the purposes of Electives?

 

 

[shogun91]

 

Am I just confused? Or am I really an international medical graduate for the purposes of Electives?

 

UofT looks at us in the Canadian/U.S. student category so we are good there. We are seen as internationals at every other school that I'm aware of. Honestly, a part from the rare school, we can apply to any elective that CMGs can apply to. The only difference being we have to pay higher fees for electives.

[kbilal08]

UofT looks at us in the Canadian/U.S. student category so we are good there. We are seen as internationals at every other school that I'm aware of. Honestly, a part from the rare school, we can apply to any elective that CMGs can apply to. The only difference being we have to pay higher fees for electives.

 

Thank you for getting back to me Shogun.  This is extremely infuriating since schools like Western and McMaster had their application window for International applicants back in November-December 2016!  So now their applications are closed.  Sure, this is a mistake on my part because I didn't plan this out a year in advance.  However, I couldn't have imagined that this would be the case, considering the fact that I'm considered in the same pool as a Canadian graduate when it comes to CaRMs.  

 

Do you think I can contact the department I want to take an elective in and try to explain to them that i'm not truly an international and am in fact I'm from a pretty well known US MD school?  

[LittleDaisy]

You could try contacting McMaster and Western electives coordinators, it really doesn't hurt! Writing to the staff preceptors might also help, but at some point, it is mostly an administrative issue. 

 Booking electives for OOP CMGS is tricky, I booked around 1 year in advance with my elective preceptors in Toronto (email confirmation), and applied asap as AFMC portal opens up (7 months in advance), and still ran into some minor issues

You have to think that each school places its own students first for all clinical electives, and might even place their IP med students later. There is no clear rules or policy for how each elective coordinator handles the OOP or USMG med students requests for electives.

Best of luck!

Thank you for getting back to me Shogun.  This is extremely infuriating since schools like Western and McMaster had their application window for International applicants back in November-December 2016!  So now their applications are closed.  Sure, this is a mistake on my part because I didn't plan this out a year in advance.  However, I couldn't have imagined that this would be the case, considering the fact that I'm considered in the same pool as a Canadian graduate when it comes to CaRMs.  

 

Do you think I can contact the department I want to take an elective in and try to explain to them that i'm not truly an international and am in fact I'm from a pretty well known US MD school?  

[ralk]

Thank you for getting back to me Shogun.  This is extremely infuriating since schools like Western and McMaster had their application window for International applicants back in November-December 2016!  So now their applications are closed.  Sure, this is a mistake on my part because I didn't plan this out a year in advance.  However, I couldn't have imagined that this would be the case, considering the fact that I'm considered in the same pool as a Canadian graduate when it comes to CaRMs.  

 

Do you think I can contact the department I want to take an elective in and try to explain to them that i'm not truly an international and am in fact I'm from a pretty well known US MD school?  

 

You can contact the schools directly to see if there would be any exceptions granted to their application deadline, but I would not try to make the case that you are not an international because in this circumstance, you are. Electives are not the same as CaRMS and the reason for both the higher fees and the earlier deadline has nothing to do with whether your school is LMCC-accredited (which is why USMDs are in the CMG pool). Rather, it has to do with differences in insurance coverage (Canadian students will be covered at other Canadian schools, international students usually aren't) and availability of elective spots (Canadian schools have a vested interest in making their electives available to other Canadian students, because their own students are likely to want electives at the other Canadian schools, far more than they will want international electives).

 

I understand the frustration - even for a CMG, electives are a bureaucratic nightmare that rarely makes sense. However, to maximize your chances at landing an elective, it's best to go in without any implication of entitlement - you're asking these schools to break their own rules on your behalf. It doesn't matter that you're a Canadian citizen, who will be in the CMG pool for CaRMS, going to a good USMD school. You're an international student by the school's elective guidelines who, very understandably, didn't think they would be considered an international student, and you're asking for some leeway.