g4m3r2 Posted December 20, 2019 Report Share Posted December 20, 2019 Hi everyone, Currently, I'm interested in psych and derm, but I haven't completely ruled out family medicine yet. Reading the CaRMs website, most of these programs want diversity in their electives. However, how do you balance showing interest in the program by taking the max number of electives in one specialty (8 weeks) vs having diversity in electives? For the 20 weeks of electives we are allowed, I'm thinking of taking 6 weeks in each of psych and derm, 4 in family, and 2 weeks IM and 2 weeks emerg, or 4 weeks emerg. I would still enjoy a short rotation in IM or emerg and would not be taking them just for the sake of showing diversity. I would not pursue either specialties as a career though. I have also thought about 8 weeks in psych and derm, and then 4 in family, but wonder how much difference two additional weeks in each specialty will make and whether it is better to use the extra four weeks to explore careers/show diversity. On the other hand, I would assume that for a competitive specialty like derm, schools would prefer (some more explicitly than others) that you have taken electives at their location. Taking 8 weeks in derm would let me take derm electives at more schools. Also, I would assume it is ideal to take an OOP elective in a specialty you're interested in applying to, but how much does it matter if you take an OOP elective in another specialty? Is taking an OOP elective at another school enough to show interest? Any thoughts would be appreciated! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X Æ A-12 Posted December 21, 2019 Report Share Posted December 21, 2019 20 weeks?!?!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insomnias Posted December 21, 2019 Report Share Posted December 21, 2019 18 minutes ago, swoman said: 20 weeks?!?!?! Eh, that's not that much. My university apparently gives 18 weeks over years 3+4, and we have the option to take 6 weeks over the summer between 2-3 (which are counted as pre-CaRMS electives) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thethirdlaw Posted December 22, 2019 Report Share Posted December 22, 2019 FWIW I've had a difficult time getting interviews (in a competitive specialty) outside of places I did electives at... In retrospect I may have done shorter electives at more schools in the specialty. On the other hand, my diverse strategy gave me a lot of FM interviews that colleagues who went all out on competitive specialties didn't get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galaxsci Posted January 14, 2020 Report Share Posted January 14, 2020 I'd do the two additional weeks in each specialty. Psych is increasing in competitiveness year over year and derm has always been one of the most competitive, so it could feasibly become tough to get interviews in those specialties without the full 8 weeks to demonstrate interest. I'd imagine a lot of the "diverse electives" talk (FM notwithstanding) originates from programs that didn't want students doing all their electives in those specialties, which happened occasionally prior to the creation of the cap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Total Gunner Posted May 18, 2020 Report Share Posted May 18, 2020 On 12/20/2019 at 7:34 PM, insomnias said: Eh, that's not that much. My university apparently gives 18 weeks over years 3+4, and we have the option to take 6 weeks over the summer between 2-3 (which are counted as pre-CaRMS electives) Just curious what school is that and is this something unique to just your school or would others have this too? How may I find out? Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insomnias Posted June 7, 2020 Report Share Posted June 7, 2020 On 5/18/2020 at 12:50 PM, Total Gunner said: Just curious what school is that and is this something unique to just your school or would others have this too? How may I find out? Thank you. Sorry for the late reply. U of A, although recent curriculum changes to deal with covid19 have brought this down to ~15 weeks total (with no y2 summer electives allowed, at least for this year). Only time will tell if that number increases for future years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edict Posted July 10, 2020 Report Share Posted July 10, 2020 On 12/20/2019 at 3:43 PM, g4m3r2 said: Hi everyone, Currently, I'm interested in psych and derm, but I haven't completely ruled out family medicine yet. Reading the CaRMs website, most of these programs want diversity in their electives. However, how do you balance showing interest in the program by taking the max number of electives in one specialty (8 weeks) vs having diversity in electives? For the 20 weeks of electives we are allowed, I'm thinking of taking 6 weeks in each of psych and derm, 4 in family, and 2 weeks IM and 2 weeks emerg, or 4 weeks emerg. I would still enjoy a short rotation in IM or emerg and would not be taking them just for the sake of showing diversity. I would not pursue either specialties as a career though. I have also thought about 8 weeks in psych and derm, and then 4 in family, but wonder how much difference two additional weeks in each specialty will make and whether it is better to use the extra four weeks to explore careers/show diversity. On the other hand, I would assume that for a competitive specialty like derm, schools would prefer (some more explicitly than others) that you have taken electives at their location. Taking 8 weeks in derm would let me take derm electives at more schools. Also, I would assume it is ideal to take an OOP elective in a specialty you're interested in applying to, but how much does it matter if you take an OOP elective in another specialty? Is taking an OOP elective at another school enough to show interest? Any thoughts would be appreciated! With the 3 specialties you are thinking of, you are already diversified enough. I wouldn't do IM or emerg if you aren't interested because it could be misconstrued as not being as sure what you want to do. Every specialty you listed will want to see some dedication and maxing out is the best way to show it. Not only that, but if you want 3 letters for each specialty, keep in mind that you may not get letters from every elective. Sometimes, the electives aren't set up well, your preceptor is away, not interested, or you are bounced around and so keep that in mind as well. blah1234 and Bambi 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bambi Posted July 10, 2020 Report Share Posted July 10, 2020 I agree with Edict. Edict 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niccolo Posted October 9, 2021 Report Share Posted October 9, 2021 @Edict On 7/10/2020 at 10:33 AM, Edict said: With the 3 specialties you are thinking of, you are already diversified enough. I wouldn't do IM or emerg if you aren't interested because it could be misconstrued as not being as sure what you want to do. Every specialty you listed will want to see some dedication and maxing out is the best way to show it. Not only that, but if you want 3 letters for each specialty, keep in mind that you may not get letters from every elective. Sometimes, the electives aren't set up well, your preceptor is away, not interested, or you are bounced around and so keep that in mind as well. M1 here with a potentially stupid question (that I haven't gotten a straight answer to thus far) related to your second point: are away electives typically 2 or 4 weeks in length? That is, with 8 weeks in total, is this usually/best divided across 2 or 4 programs? If this is specialty-dependent, let's take a competitive surgical specialty (ophtho, plastics, etc.) as an example Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMislove Posted October 9, 2021 Report Share Posted October 9, 2021 1 hour ago, Niccolo said: @Edict M1 here with a potentially stupid question (that I haven't gotten a straight answer to thus far) related to your second point: are away electives typically 2 or 4 weeks in length? That is, with 8 weeks in total, is this usually/best divided across 2 or 4 programs? If this is specialty-dependent, let's take a competitive surgical specialty (ophtho, plastics, etc.) as an example Typically if you wanted to maximize exposure at as many sites as possible, 2 weeks were the norm. Now that things are local/ regional because of COVID, 4 will be more common. Plus most people will do fam with one of the rural placement organizations like ROMP or ERMEP and do 4 weeks. But generally 2 was the norm to answer your question. Sometimes people did 2 weeks in a related but not exact speciality and tried to pick up call for the speciality they were interested in (heard more in surgery based ones) but again with covid these last two years electives were whack. Niccolo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shikimate Posted October 10, 2021 Report Share Posted October 10, 2021 In the past, 2 week is the norm for competitive ones. Actually I know people used to do unofficial site visits on weekends or vacation days just to get their face known. But with COVID I don't know how that would work now. Bambi and Niccolo 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edict Posted October 10, 2021 Report Share Posted October 10, 2021 22 hours ago, Niccolo said: @Edict M1 here with a potentially stupid question (that I haven't gotten a straight answer to thus far) related to your second point: are away electives typically 2 or 4 weeks in length? That is, with 8 weeks in total, is this usually/best divided across 2 or 4 programs? If this is specialty-dependent, let's take a competitive surgical specialty (ophtho, plastics, etc.) as an example 2 weeks is perfect for almost all specialties and locations, the only time i'd do 4 weeks is if u have an absolute clear 1st choice program and it is a competitive specialty in a competitive location you want to perform and really stand out. 4 weeks can be a double edged sword if you perform well the first 2 weeks but start to lag in the last 2 for ex. Niccolo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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