Fourth year med student answering questions!

[yungdoc]

Hey all,

I'm a 4th year medical student at UofT about to start residency in July! Have time to kill during quarantine and happy to answer any questions about medical school, OMSAS, residency applications and beyond! I know that this is a nerve-wracking and exciting day for you, so happy to settle any qualms!

 

Good luck tomorrow!!

[James Nystead]

7 minutes ago, yungdoc said:

Hey all,

I'm a 4th year medical student at UofT about to start residency in July! Have time to kill during quarantine and happy to answer any questions about medical school, OMSAS, residency applications and beyond! I know that this is a nerve-wracking and exciting day for you, so happy to settle any qualms!

 

Good luck tomorrow!!

Any tips for timeline of preparation for CaRMS (assuming the usual due date of mid November) and interviews? What specialty did you match to (even a general idea like surgical subspecialty or whatever)

[coconutbread]

Thank you and congratulations on finishing medical school! In your opinion, is it enough to "do what you're genuinely passionate about" throughout (i.e. specific research, purposeful extracurricular activities) or is the atmosphere more "premed" (i.e. sense of competition / secrecy, doing things that look good on the resume). Do either help when aiming to land the residency of your choice? I know this question is a bit strange and hard to answer objectively but would love your take.

[yungdoc]

11 minutes ago, William Osler said:

Any tips for timeline of preparation for CaRMS (assuming the usual due date of mid November) and interviews? What specialty did you match to (even a general idea like surgical subspecialty or whatever)

I would definitely encourage as much exploration as you can early on and try to decide between a medical vs. surgical specialty in your first year. You really do need to continually build a narrative all throughout your time in medical school in order to have a strong CaRMS application, especially for competitive specialties. Luckily, I found myself most interested in two fairly non-competitive specialties, and ended up matching back in Toronto (I'll say it's a competitive program, but fairly uncompetitive 5-year specialty). Although explicit activities like research are "not required", some research NEVER looks bad. Be involved in your medical school and community; I find this sometimes sets apart those who match a their top choice programs vs. those who do not. 

10 minutes ago, coconutbread said:

Thank you and congratulations on finishing medical school! In your opinion, is it enough to "do what you're genuinely passionate about" throughout (i.e. specific research, purposeful extracurricular activities) or is the atmosphere more "premed" (i.e. sense of competition / secrecy, doing things that look good on the resume). Do either help when aiming to land the residency of your choice? I know this question is a bit strange and hard to answer objectively but would love your take.

I think there's a mix of both. If you think about it, there's only a few different ways for one to be a good med school applicant (GPA, MCAT, etc), but a million ways to become a good doctor. I'd like to say for the most part, I stuck to things I cared about (advocacy) but did dabble in things like research (that I don't care for as much, but never hurts to have experience in). I think moreso than any individual set of items, residency programs look at the whole individual; someone who has a genuine interest in the specialty, has the potential to elevate the field and most importantly, someone who they can work well with and are amenable to training. I'd also say med school is more collaborative than premed; you will all be future colleagues one day and it's just a bad look to be the cutthroat one. 

[coconutbread]

22 minutes ago, yungdoc said:

I would definitely encourage as much exploration as you can early on and try to decide between a medical vs. surgical specialty in your first year. You really do need to continually build a narrative all throughout your time in medical school in order to have a strong CaRMS application, especially for competitive specialties. Luckily, I found myself most interested in two fairly non-competitive specialties, and ended up matching back in Toronto (I'll say it's a competitive program, but fairly uncompetitive 5-year specialty). Although explicit activities like research are "not required", some research NEVER looks bad. Be involved in your medical school and community; I find this sometimes sets apart those who match a their top choice programs vs. those who do not. 

I think there's a mix of both. If you think about it, there's only a few different ways for one to be a good med school applicant (GPA, MCAT, etc), but a million ways to become a good doctor. I'd like to say for the most part, I stuck to things I cared about (advocacy) but did dabble in things like research (that I don't care for as much, but never hurts to have experience in). I think moreso than any individual set of items, residency programs look at the whole individual; someone who has a genuine interest in the specialty, has the potential to elevate the field and most importantly, someone who they can work well with and are amenable to training. I'd also say med school is more collaborative than premed; you will all be future colleagues one day and it's just a bad look to be the cutthroat one. 

Thanks for the insights, it's reassuring to know that everyone is more collaborative :) 

[Nurse99]

Do you know any nursing students who went into med school afterwards?

[bearded frog]

5 hours ago, Nurse99 said:

Do you know any nursing students who went into med school afterwards?

Although I'm a couple years out, we had a few nursing grads in our class.

[yungdoc]

5 hours ago, Nurse99 said:

Do you know any nursing students who went into med school afterwards?

Yes!! Although not many, this is certainly not an uncommon path to pursing medicine. And a lot of the nursing students come in with so much clinical experience that is incredibly helpful for thriving in medical school (their clinical skills are top notch). 

 

[MDanon123]

Hello yungdoc, 
I was wondering how to improve my OMSAS/uft essay for next year. I have applied three times and only receive one interview at UWO and got waitlisted. Probably applying again and would appreciate it if you could provide insight on how to make application standout for UfT. 

[bearded frog]

The essay really will only help so much. If youve only recieved one interview in 3 years I would reevaluate your GPA/MCAT and see if it is actually competitive.

[yungdoc]

On 5/14/2020 at 5:51 PM, MDanon123 said:

Hello yungdoc, 
I was wondering how to improve my OMSAS/uft essay for next year. I have applied three times and only receive one interview at UWO and got waitlisted. Probably applying again and would appreciate it if you could provide insight on how to make application standout for UfT. 

Hard to say as the essay questions change from year to year! I would recommend making sure you answer the question authentically; do not write what you think they want to hear. I also recommend injecting your own lived experiences in your answers (even if they don't explicitly ask for this in the stem). You only have so many opportunities to tell them about yourself, so take this opportunity! Just make sure it's seamlessly integrated and not irrelevant to the stem. 

e.g. If a question asks about your thoughts on a social issue, talk about a time you were an advocate for a marginalized group 

[NWL@UWO]

On 5/15/2020 at 12:49 AM, bearded frog said:

The essay really will only help so much. If youve only recieved one interview in 3 years I would reevaluate your GPA/MCAT and see if it is actually competitive.

Hi, I have wGPA for Uft 3.94/ finishing master and mcat 516 (129/127/130/130)...have done a lot of volunteer in community and on campus. Wish had 128 on CARS so could had applied OOP