robclem21

You should get references from people who can speak to your personal qualities and attributes that will make you a good medical student and physician in the future. Typically, someone who you have followed around for a few hours is not the best person to provide this type of reference letter (unless you have interacted with them in a way that they can speak to the important CANMEDS roles based on things you have done). I have seen them before and they are the weakest letters. There are no set number of hours for shadowing that are important for your application or for a reference letter. It's

To be honest this problem sounds a bit immature and whiney.... Like others have said, unless this person was verbally abusive or blatantly targeting you during a small group session, you need to develop thicker skin and learn to work with people who you don't "click" with. That is part of being a mature professional (in any career). There are many times in medicine that we encounter preceptors, admin staff, patients we don't click with and you can't simply avoid these people and run to work somewhere else because it's slightly uncomfortable. Learn to work with them in a professional envir

The short answer is, it probably doesn't matter. Both seem like good opportunities that will provide good personal experiences that could contribute to a well-rounded medical school application. What is more important is which option you are more passionate about and are more interested in doing. I have reviewed applications for medical schools and served on interview committees and to be completely honest, I have yet to be impressed by any single applicants research or clinical volunteering experience. Clinical volunteering and research are great to show your interest in the field of med

In general, my experiences in dealing with junior learners has been very positive. As @Butterfly_ said above, I do find most to be very hardworking, polite, and respectful towards staff and residents. Obviously with anything there is variability in personalities, but overall I don't notice that they are less personable. I also think that whats equally important is the way that seniors and staff interact and treat this new generation of learners. There are many different ways to show respect and humility. If we treat junior medical students as equals (seems obvious but not always is in thi

I would love to know where you are getting a house for less than the limit on a med student line of credit....

all documents are reviewed pre-interview and constitute your pre-interview score. That is then combined with your interview score for final admission decisions. Referees aren't necessarily contacted for all applicants, but can be contacted at any time before offers of admission are sent out.

I think maybe your expectations are also a little bit unreasonable here. I don't think anybody is "mastering" a skill in 4-5 minutes, regardless of what your classmates are telling you. Consider that it takes many residents and staff surgeons their entire residency and well into their career to master anything. Who cares if it takes you 15 more minutes to get good at something, when the grand scheme of things when you spend 80 hours a week in the hospital for 5+ years. That 15 minutes is a drop in the bucket. To answer your question, you master any skill in medicine by doing it over and over a

You have no obligation to disclose this. Just apply for jobs and if you get in to medicine then quit. I am sure your employer would be understanding. If not, you don't owe them anything. If you have a job and a company decides they don't need you anymore, they wouldn't hesitate to let you go...

As far as I can remember it's just regular registration requirements that you don't need to worry about until you are accepted: CPSO, CMPA, registration payment, etc. It will all be outlined by your program after match day.

Exactly this. You are way too early to be stressing about what specialty is right for you. Especially with no experience in any of them other than speculating what you think they entail. The only thing you should consider at this point is if MEDICINE is right for you. Every specialty (that sees patients frequently) will have very sick patients to manage. That is part of the job. With exposure you may find that you get desensitized to it a bit. If not, there are specialty options with minimal patient contact.

Not really a problem unless there are any red flags. Being quiet is not a red flag. "doesn't understand limitations", "poor work ethic", "challenging to work with", "doesn't take responsibility for patients". Those are red flags. Otherwise, most programs don't particularly care about comments from clerkship rotations (aside from the specialty maybe that you are applying for). 90% are the same generic comments. That being said, as a clerk you should always be trying to impress on all your rotations, regardless if you are interested or not. You never know who you may come across and who tal

It depends on your individual schedule. On certain rotations like EM, you may have days off during the week, or certain days where there is teaching scheduled (and may leave your afternoon free). Post-call days would be any day after you finish working overnight and can fall on any day of the week.

You should expect to schedule these on days when you are not working or when you are post call. I'm sure you could take a day off if you needed, but usually it wouldn't be granted unless its impossible to schedule in your off time. Check with the policy of your individual school.

These two things are not mutually exclusive. The truth is many residents do love what they do and are very patient-centred and passionate about their work. That doesn't mean that being worked to the bone doesn't make you fatigued, or a little bitter, or question what you are doing sometime. GPA and MCAT scores have nothing to do with passion or burnout or being overworked. That's a very pre-med thing to think about and bring up because as soon as you start medical school all those things mean nothing. Nobody here was complaining about working 80-100 hours, but we were a little put off by

It may not be 80 hours every week, but there are certainly many weeks where hours worked top 80-90, even as medical student. Furthermore, those hours don't even include when you are coming up to an exam as a clerk and your "not-at-work-hours" are spent studying. As a resident, the number of weeks where you clock 80-90 hours is increased and when you work 1 in 2 weekends, it doesn't take very long for those 80-90 hour weeks to go back to back. If you want to do any 5 year speciality you better be CAPABLE of doing extended work weeks. As far as how to get to 80 hours per week.... easy... 2