PSYCHIATRY COMPETITIVENESS - help

[jtlover3]

according to the CARMS data, psychiatry is not that competitive, i.e. most people who rank it as their first choice will get it. 

and according to the program descriptions, the % invited to interview is quite high in certain programs, such mcmaster, uoft , UBC who claim 50-75% or 75-100% get invited to interviews. 

well... that got my hopes too high i guess. I applied to psych this year, to about 10 programs, and so far only got 1 invite, 1 waitlist, and about 5-6 reject. I did decide to apply to psych a bit late into the 4th year, and have 4 weeks of elective (2 x 2 weeks). Im definitely not the most competitive out there, but given the stats, i really thought i had a shot for the interviews. needless to say the results were very deceiving. 

if i had 1 invite (not home school), i am guessing there isnt any red flags in my file, but i am wondering for people who are applying to psych this year or the past years, either in ur experience, or the people around you, do most people get interviews? and what did your application look like in general (very psych gear, vs more general). feel free to leave a message here is you are willing for me to ask some questions in PM. just trying to get comfort and not feel too bummed by the results so far. 

honestly it is just for my peace of mind i guess, because nothing will change at this point. i am just looking for  a word of advice but also just ranting haha. i applied broadly for FM too, which is what i wanted to do for the most part before i decided to apply to psych. 

thanks allll

 

[JohnGrisham]

Keep your head up and persevere.  You only need one to say yes. That waitlist may convert to an interview, and you still stand a chance.

How many FM interviews are you getting? If you're also getting rejections across that front ,then maybe need to ask around see if any red flags.

[Britster]

I applied broadly to psych this year, with a heavily psych geared application. I've only received 2 invites (luckily one from my 1st choice), 1 waitlist, and 4 rejections so far. It's pretty discouraging, especially as you mentioned based on stats most people match/get invites in the past. Perhaps psychiatry is just really competitive this year. However, as JohnGrisham above pointed out, you only need one yes to match. So hang in there!

[jtlover3]

18 minutes ago, JohnGrisham said:

Keep your head up and persevere.  You only need one to say yes. That waitlist may convert to an interview, and you still stand a chance.

How many FM interviews are you getting? If you're also getting rejections across that front ,then maybe need to ask around see if any red flags.

i haven been getting fm interview offers  to the places i applied, no reject so far. i emailed 1 school for feedback and they said we cannot give individual feedback .. 

[Od-in]

Wish you all the luck, friend. Hoping here you got the match you wanted the most. Give us feedback if you can, a lot of other students may be going for the same hardship and will benefit from hearing your experience.

[polarbear123]

23 hours ago, Od-in said:

Wish you all the luck, friend. Hoping here you got the match you wanted the most. Give us feedback if you can, a lot of other students may be going for the same hardship and will benefit from hearing your experience.

Psych made it to the competitive specialties this year (more demand than supply at 0.94) according to the new CaRMS data, so that might explain some of what the OP went through back in Dec. Looks like the CaRMS landscape is changing, with gen surg being barely competitive (0.92) while Psych and others traditionally non-competitive specialities (eg, PHPM) now are. http://carms.ca/pdfs/2020-carms-forum.pdf

[thethirdlaw]

2 hours ago, polarbear123 said:

Psych made it to the competitive specialties this year (more demand than supply at 0.94) according to the new CaRMS data, so that might explain some of what the OP went through back in Dec. Looks like the CaRMS landscape is changing, with gen surg being barely competitive (0.92) while Psych and others traditionally non-competitive specialities (eg, PHPM) now are. http://carms.ca/pdfs/2020-carms-forum.pdf

It was 0.89 last year.