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To the premeds following along, if you have multiple acceptances, it's worth looking at how the different schools respond to a pandemic. Do you want to attend the school that puts your safety at risk by having you continue with rotations as though nothing's going on, or do you want to attend the one that pulls clerks away from their duties while providing a virtual alternative to ensure that it's still possible to graduate on time?

correct me if i’m wrong but.... today is monday? lol

I called today and the guy said more invites should be sent by the end of today or maybe tomorrow LOL Let's see what actually happens though...

Just called them. They said emails will be sent out throughout this week. The majority of the emails will be sent out today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. I asked if the delay was due to COVID-19, and he said that this is the normal timeline for them.

LOL let's hope we hear back something today... idk what to think anymore about all this

The more people share, the more comforted I feel by the fact that this was a gong show for everyone haha. Guess it's time to hunker down and wait until May....like always, it's going to be a looooong wait

It’s a bizzarre reaction given that so many other schools are pulling the clerks. Making accommodations so that students can graduate on time will be a country wide problem - they aren’t going to be able to hold back a year’s worth of medical students. We will all almost certainly complete our degrees on time. If it does end up resolving in a week or two... then great. We only missed a couple weeks of rotations, which is really not a big deal and can be made up or honestly just accepted as necessary in the face of all this. And we go back to usual. But if it doesn’t resolve and things get as bad as they are predicting, then having had clerks continue will have been a significant safety risk for patients and students, and could very well have contributed to making things worse.

Currently looking for associateship position and this thread was a very depressing read LOL. Quick comment about finances: people constantly give examples of "your income will be ___ if you try to pay off your debt in 10 years, which is basically the income of a teacher/nurse/etc." Is this perspective actually accurate? Excluding OSAP, there is absolutely no pressure to pay off your debt - the bank LOC does not convert into a loan, and all you're forced to pay is the monthly interest (which for me is currently about 750 dollars a month on a 230k debt). In fact, very few other careers offer (potentially) lifelong access to a 350k LOC - of course this should be handled extremely responsibly but its still a beneficial thing to have. Others have also not considered the small (but still relevant) effect that tuition credits will have on helping you make a bit of a dent in your loans early out of school. Dentistry is an opportunity to make a higher income and it's honestly up to the individual to decide what they'd like to do with their earnings. A fixed 80k/year salary is not the same as a 150k salary where you can choose to pay off your debt (or not). It's like being offered an 800k mortgage by a bank - it's a blessing to have this option, though you may choose to rent instead. Not everyone is presented with this option or this choice. From how I look at it, dentistry is not a golden ticket with a guaranteed 6-figure salary and comfortable lifestyle. Nothing in life gives that kind of guarantee. And personally, I don't feel entitled because I'm a graduating dentist - I don't deserve a specific income and lifestyle. I am fortunate to have grown up in a country which has offered me the opportunity to become a dentist and a line of work which is rewarding and challenging. I am also fortunate that I have the option to do any and all of the things which were mentioned in this thread - I could move to the US, work up north or in Alberta or Saskatchewan, go abroad and help people, own 20 clinics or none, work 3 days a week or 7, I can make make bad or good financial decisions. I have OPTIONS - it's up to me what I do with them. I grew up in a poor immigrant family and I don't think people realize that having these options and opportunities is a blessing in and of itself. People are speaking about working at McDonalds... you have the opportunity to choose between being a Dentist and a McDonald employee, I would hazard to guess that a lot of McDonald employees do not have a similar choice. I realize that I speaking from a place of doey-eyed optimism and that I haven't experienced the (probably very difficult) realities of the real world. Take what I say with a grain of salt.

x

Dang, I'm sorry to hear... your ECs sound great to me and to be honest at the end of the day it's whoever they want to arbitrarily pick to get an invite.

Would they tell us even if they did know? Its not like we currently know what UofA is weighting everything.

On a weekend? Wouldn’t it make more sense for it to be Mon-Fri

Hey, can I ask why you chose to give up the offer even after you paid the deposit? I'm just wondering because I'd like to know why people decided not to attend while I'm trying to make my decision as well.

Lol I guess now that it’s after the interview I’m being haunted by it and just seeing post-interview even where it’s not. But thanks that clears up a lot haha

I’m going to be optimistic and assume that it will still be this month, just no idea to know when!

Si on se fie à plusieurs personnes sur ce forum, il semblerait que oui! Idem pour ULaval. Cependant, ça ne veut pas dire grand chose par contre, car rien ne nous garanti qu'ils ont fini d'acheminer ces refus. Et même si on a survécu à la première coupure, ça ne veut pas dire qu'on ne sera pas refusé d'ici fin mars. On se croise les doigts!!

NOSM had a school wide meeting this morning (that clerks were not excused from duties to attend). They made no changes for clerks currently still on clinical activity from my last post - the message was basically to keep calm and carry on and that "the situation could resolve quicker than expected." I'm unimpressed to say the least - it's a pandemic, things are not going back to normal in the next couple days.

As a Dal employee who works in & around the Tupper Building, as of right now "all staff are expected to continue to report for work" (unless experiencing symptoms). So as of this moment, any members of the admissions committee would still be expected to be present for any meetings they may have. If Dal does end up closing (including all research, teaching, and administrative staff), then that's when the delays would occur. This is just my opinion, of course, knowing what I know

This is what someone I know received from the admissions office today when they emailed to ask bout the release of the decision letters. Not really sure what that means though :/ it says disruption is inevitable bu they are still working to release it in a timely manner. Thank you for your email. During this time of heightened concern surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all taking pause about what can be done to keep our families and ourselves safe and healthy. Unfortunately, given the magnitude of some of these changes being introduced, some disruption in student and work life is inevitable. The Admissions Office will continue to work towards having applicant decision letters distributed in a timely fashion under these ever-changing circumstances while also fulfilling our obligations to the university and following the best advice from public health. At this time, we cannot confirm when letters will be distributed. Please take care of yourselves and your families. We will work through this incredibly challenging time together.

shall we continue to hold on to the minuscule hope that we'll receive good news this week in the midst of this apocalypse?

Here at Queens, all PT1s have this upcoming week off. We are in the midst of transitioning to online lectures starting next week but we still don’t have any information in regards to practical lab components yet.

Updated - thanks everyone

Écris moi en PV

Je suis contente de t'avoir rassuré Omg merciiiii beacuoup honnêtement ton message m'a vraiment rassuré pour vrai!! Milles merci et bonne chance à toi aussi!

Hey everyone, hang in there, I know it’s super stressful waiting! I just wanted to weigh in as a Med 1 and let you know we’re thinking of you guys. In terms of admissions and COVID, I don’t think they’ll be super affected either. Admissions is separate from UGME - the people that figure out our curriculum - so letters likely won’t be delayed because it’s not undergraduate admissions that is going to scrambling to figure out what to do with current students in light of COVID 19. That said, every year it just depends when they’re ready so that could be tomorrow or the very end of March! The wait is painful so take care of yourselves <3 (and wash your hands, avoid public areas, etc!)

I feel like McMaster chose to simply cancel the interviews because they didn’t want to switch to a panel one. They know switching to an online panel interview would have been more fair. They knew it would have been feasible since every other school is doing it. They simply wouldn’t make the switch because they’ve been promoting the MMIs and CasPer for years since they founded them. A part of me feels they’d rather be unfair over not risking their reputation (and profits).

I think it makes sense to pull the clerks. We need to conserve PPE for providers who can do more independently. Also, realistically, if they are in the hospitals, some will get sick, which creates more vectors who can spread the virus. I think the exchange of the work they can do for potential increased transmission, increased people needing hospitalized/ICU, and increased PPE use isn't worth it unfortunately. Even if this continues, there will come a time when we know more about it and are more organized to handle it. Then we can re-introduce the clerks once we know how to make it safer. Right now everything is going to be in chaos.

Moi qui pensait ne plus jamais appliquer à l'ulaval après ne pas avoir passé la première coupure cette année encore... C'est sûr que mon raisonnement est un peu égoïste, mais je suis très contente de cette nouvelle. Je pense sincèrement que n'importe qui ayant une cote au-dessus de 31 est intellectuellement très capable de bien réussir en médecine, et que c'est triste de refuser complètement de considérer ces gens là. Après, évidemment que le casper et les MEMs ne sont pas parfaits, mais je trouve ça beaucoup mieux que le processus actuel. Merci du partage!!

If they do forgo interviews entirely and just use pre-intervew stats, I'm looking forward to all the papers in 3-8 from now analyzing the Class of 2023 and their clerkship performance, match performance, LMCC1 performance, LMCC2 performance, and residency performance, etc. to see what effect in-person interviews has on selecting a medical student, if any.

Same, 2 of them were smiling, 2 of them were kind of cold. It also seemed super quick, ended like 25 minutes after abruptly. Really don't like how impersonal/short it felt because of current limitations and it being online, but oh well what can you do

Hey! Obviously it's hard to offer a complete perspective unless someone has gone to both schools, but I can do my best as a current 4th yr at western. For me the biggest aspect of the decision was finances. In London I got an apartment for 1k per month (all-included) which was spacious for my wife and I, and within walking distance of school. Other than that, I personally knew that I would hate the hustle and bustle of Toronto, and I'm not really too social, so that whole nightlife thing wasn't that appealing to me. Keep in mind, you'll probably form really close bonds and friendships with your classmates and even a small city won't feel too boring when you're keeping busy with schools and social gatherings with your classmates. Clinically, I can tell you for a fact that you will not graduate from ANY school feeling totally competent to practice. Toronto and Western are probably pretty comparable in terms of clinical experience, but I would say that Australian and US grads likely have much better clinical experience than their Canadian counterparts. I wouldn't use clinical as a deciding factor, you will find your fair share of issues and frustrating experiences whether you go to Western or Toronto. There is definitely some kind of systemic problem at Western for example that has to do with distribution of resources and access to patients, but they have been making tremendous strides towards equalizing everything - for example, this year they moved from a random lottery of cubicle assignment to a balanced assignment of cubicles to all students. One thing is that Western does allow its students to do molar endo (root canals for molar teeth) because they don't have an endo specialty program, but I've heard that Toronto excels in other clinical disciplines as well, so this is something to keep in mind but shouldn't be a huge deciding factor. I honestly don't think there's any benefit in terms of access to jobs for either school. If you plan to work in Toronto or London, it may be beneficial to consider studying there so that it's easier to apply/shadow prospective jobs, but again this isn't too big of a factor. I don't plan to work in either city, and I haven't found that clinics expressed a preference for one school over the other. It was really down to personality and if you click with the principal dentist at the clinic. There's a lot more to say, but let me know if there's another specific question you have, and I'll do my best to answer. Goodluck!

WOW, you must did a really well! Congrats! I felt I was only able to connect with one of my interview who was very nice and smiled at me. The others were very serious and writing furiously. But one of they were so indifferent and laid back that he almost lying on chair and did not even make ANY notes. Not sure if anyone also had him and felt the same way. I do not know what to make of that, and now is kind of worried.

I"m not trying to raise your hopes, but you must remember that the calculus has changed. The "2 weeks prior" rule was when there wasn't a global pandemic on our hands. Now there is, so the rule may have changed, because they may have been busy trying to figure out how to deal with this and how to conduct interviews amidst all this. Do I feel confident that I'll get an invite after I have already received no offers from the three other schools that I applied to? No, but do I still think that there are more offers to come? I think so, but I could be wrong

Peut-être qu’ils vont augmenter le nombre de places, ca serait une année qui justifierait très bien l’importance d’avoir beaucoup de médecin dispo

Entrevues ont été annulées : https://medecine.umontreal.ca/etudes/doctorat-en-medecine/admission/

The number of people who match to one of their top choices and who still aren't happy is disturbing. The only depressing thing here is the lack of resilience and gratitude on display. Sure, this will be an adjustment, but it is by no means the end of the world. If these supposedly suboptimal situations build even a little more character, then that alone would be worth it.

Unfortunately if you don't have at least 1 first author pub in sophomore year of high school you can no longer be considered competitive for ophtho.

Here's a bright idea. We're headed into a pandemic and we need more doctors, might as well just accept all of us. Who agrees?

I felt it was ok. I was thrown off a bit at the types of questions asked on the actual interview, as I was expecting more traditional style interview questions based on all I had read. I wish there had been more personal type questions to really show myself off as an individual, but I suppose those ones are harder to score quantitatively. Overall I think it was a fare mix of situational judgement questions and personal ones.

I am not sure how to answer this question. I will try to be positive and others can take on the other side of the debate. In my opinion, many Canadians do not have easy accessible access to health care outside of going to ED/urgent care center. Unfortunately, finances play a big role in running family physician clinics and walk-in-clinics. Sometimes patients may not be able to see their doctor right away. I know that's a problem for me. My own family doctor usually has a wait time of roughly 2-3 weeks. There are good reasons. My family doctor is trying his best but unfortunately he cannot work 24/7/365. There are just not enough family physicians in the area. Complexity of medicine is increasing. Mental health is on the rise. Government is cutting funding. I don't want to paint any more negatives but they exist and they are making healthcare difficult to provide in Canada. This is sometimes leading people to turn away from medicine and turn towards alternative medicine which often does not have good evidence for their diagnosis/treatment. Sometimes it can be even dangerous. Methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil) is found in many essential oils and other herbal products - people don't know that. It can lead to dangerous salicylate poisoning. In my not-so-expert opinion, we need more health care workers with proper training. I also think there should be some clear differences in scope between nurse practitioners and GPs. Overall, I think for the near future, family physicians will stay to be in high demand regardless of other professions who will have overlapping scope (NPs, PAs, Pharmacists etc). We need to figure out how to work in harmony and be on the same team at the end.

Last year they did. I know there was a wave of rejections on one day and two days later another. However there were a few interviews invitations as well. Take a look at the 2019 thread !

It is ahahaha that was so dumb, just feels like I got robbed of my weekend doing nothing so it’s Sunday part 2, you feel? But I may have angered the interview gods cause I just got slapped with an R a few moments ago while I thought it was Sunday before I even saw your reply. It all felt too prophetic. At least now we know and aren’t holding our breath any longer.

TIME STAMP: 2:24 pm Interview Date (MD or MD/PhD): MD Result: Regrets cGPA/wGPA: 3.63/3.73 MCAT: 130/127/130/131 ECs: Strongest part of my app. Research, publications, presentations, volunteerism, leadership positions, awards, extensive employment. Clearly not enough to make up for GPA. Essays: Spent about a month on them. Revised heavily over this time and received feedback from many different people, including current med students. Year: Post-Master's degree, working in research. Geography: IP Not unexpected but disappointed as always. There's just no getting around GPA. 4th time applying, off to the States we go I suppose.

Same at Sherbrooke. They literally sent us an email saying the top priority was allowing us to complete our degree in time. Not safety. Because completing 2 weeks in a rotation completely unrelated to what I matched to > safety.