CaRMS 2020 Interviews -- DISCUSSIONS

[garlic]

13 hours ago, The Enthusiast said:

I remember reading that applicants match to one of their top 3 choices ~87% of the time I believe. I would be a little scared too, but statistically speaking you should be fine! It’s always more difficult to speak/think objectively when you’re emotionally invested. Keep your head up!

I've heard this statistic several times too but have trouble wrapping my mind around it. E.g. for the rads OP, they got 5 interviews. Based on the program pages, most schools have 4 spots. So to match to their top 3, they would be in the top 20 of ~120 rads applicants? I'm godawful with math, so that doesn't sound right hahah

By the way to OP, hang in there! Based on what my buddies are telling me, it's a very competitive year for radiology. So 5 interviews is very respectable.

 

[1D7]

12 minutes ago, garlic said:

I've heard this statistic several times too but have trouble wrapping my mind around it. E.g. for the rads OP, they got 5 interviews. Based on the program pages, most schools have 4 spots. So to match to their top 3, they would be in the top 20 of ~120 rads applicants? I'm godawful with math, so that doesn't sound right hahah

By the way to OP, hang in there! Based on what my buddies are telling me, it's a very competitive year for radiology. So 5 interviews is very respectable.

 

1. Most applicants are FM applicants which 'boosts' that number (almost everyone I know who applied for FM first choice got one of their top 3 FM schools).

2. Most applicants self sort themselves via strong geographic preferences to their home province/medical school province. E.g. West coast would prefer to stay out West, Ontarians prefer Ontario, Francophones prefer Quebec, etc.

[BistroMongre]

17 minutes ago, garlic said:

I've heard this statistic several times too but have trouble wrapping my mind around it. E.g. for the rads OP, they got 5 interviews. Based on the program pages, most schools have 4 spots. So to match to their top 3, they would be in the top 20 of ~120 rads applicants? I'm godawful with math, so that doesn't sound right hahah

By the way to OP, hang in there! Based on what my buddies are telling me, it's a very competitive year for radiology. So 5 interviews is very respectable.

 

Nice. I'm hoping surgeons are backing up with rads, and that they all match to surgery instead. 

[medabe]

MATCH question:

If a program has 10 spots

You are their number 10 choice

Do you have a better chance of matching to that program if you rank them #1 instead of #2 ??

[BistroMongre]

9 minutes ago, medabe said:

MATCH question:

If a program has 10 spots

You are their number 10 choice

Do you have a better chance of matching to that program if you rank them #1 instead of #2 ??

Technically yes, because if you put something else as #1, you could well match to the place you ranked #1.

[bearded frog]

28 minutes ago, medabe said:

MATCH question:

If a program has 10 spots

You are their number 10 choice

Do you have a better chance of matching to that program if you rank them #1 instead of #2 ??

If you're ranked to match (within the number of seats) at school X, and assuming school Y does not rank you, your chances of matching at school X are exactly the same regardless if you rank X or Y 1 or 2. The algorithm is set up to be applicant favoured, and is open source. There is no way to "game" the system, rank fully in order of preference.

[medabe]

12 minutes ago, bearded frog said:

If you're ranked to match (within the number of seats) at school X, and assuming school Y does not rank you, your chances of matching at school X are exactly the same regardless if you rank X or Y 1 or 2. The algorithm is set up to be applicant favoured, and is open source. There is no way to "game" the system, rank fully in order of preference.

That's what I thought. Although I still have difficulty believing it! haha. Thanks

[PM333]

Hi everyone, 

I was wondering if someone could please share on a "safe" number of FM programs to rank. What are most applicants doing? 

 

Thanks

-CB 

[JohnGrisham]

9 hours ago, PM333 said:

Hi everyone, 

I was wondering if someone could please share on a "safe" number of FM programs to rank. What are most applicants doing? 

 

Thanks

-CB 

You should rank everywhere you would see yourself going over being unmatched.

If you already applied and interviewed for programs, there is no reason to not rank them unless you absolutely hated the place after going through the process and would rather be unmatched.

So the concept of s safe number is irrelevant and not a useful metric. 

[alextrebek]

13 hours ago, PM333 said:

Hi everyone, 

I was wondering if someone could please share on a "safe" number of FM programs to rank. What are most applicants doing? 

 

Thanks

-CB 

Depends on your risk tolerance! I mean 80-some percent of fam med applicants match to top three (I think, someone can correct me if I'm wrong), but there's always some that go far down the list or don't match at all. 

I am quite risk-averse and open to going anywhere over not matching, so applied broadly and plan to attend all interviews and rank every program and site. That'll give about 15 to my rank-list, maybe more if there are more options to add sites after interviews. 

Best of luck!

[The Enthusiast]

On 12/24/2019 at 4:52 PM, garlic said:

I've heard this statistic several times too but have trouble wrapping my mind around it. E.g. for the rads OP, they got 5 interviews. Based on the program pages, most schools have 4 spots. So to match to their top 3, they would be in the top 20 of ~120 rads applicants? I'm godawful with math, so that doesn't sound right hahah

By the way to OP, hang in there! Based on what my buddies are telling me, it's a very competitive year for radiology. So 5 interviews is very respectable.

 

Yeah, I see what you mean. The numbers are skewed because FM makes up ~1/2 of the data, but rads will likely be closer to those numbers than plastics/derm/ophtho. Out of 120 applicants, maybe 80 will have it ranked first. Then if you have an interview at 5 schools, you will be ranked among ~40 students who got interviews. Even then, some students may have rankings based heavily on geography. Ex) #1 Rads Dal, #2 Rads Memorial, #3 Family Dal, #4 Family Memorial, #5 Rads McGill. In my opinion there could be a lot of variables that don't make it as clear cut as the top 20 will make it, especially considering the subjectivity of the process (not only file review + interviews, but even electives and who one worked with).

[RadiologySWITCH]

Found this on a USMD forum, but seems like a fair thing to wonder about for Canadian schools??

"How much does the interview change a program's rankings? All my interviews have been very conversational and benign, with majority of time spent on hobbies and interests outside of medicine. Not sure how much a program is influenced by the interview and how much it changes things prior to the interview. I can certainly see how if you said something off-putting or can't hold a conversation how it negatively affects you, but my impression is vast majority of applicants are normal pleasant people and based on my interviews I can't see how program directors use these interviews to differentiate applicants."

 

[Lactic Folly]

47 minutes ago, RadiologySWITCH said:

Found this on a USMD forum, but seems like a fair thing to wonder about for Canadian schools??

"How much does the interview change a program's rankings? All my interviews have been very conversational and benign, with majority of time spent on hobbies and interests outside of medicine. Not sure how much a program is influenced by the interview and how much it changes things prior to the interview. I can certainly see how if you said something off-putting or can't hold a conversation how it negatively affects you, but my impression is vast majority of applicants are normal pleasant people and based on my interviews I can't see how program directors use these interviews to differentiate applicants."

 

In my experience it's fairly true that the interview doesn't do much to distinguish the majority of applicants (unless someone is exceptionally winning or inadvertently says something off-putting), but this is in the setting of a smaller field where many people are already known through electives. For the rest, it seemed that the interviews served more to put a face to the name, allow more people on the committee to meet them, and get a sense of their personality and how they might fit with the program. Could be different in larger fields - I can't comment directly.

That being said, this is not to say that anyone should underprepare for interviews as a result -- assume that your colleagues (who have all previously successfully interviewed for medical school) will also be prepared, and try to put your best foot forward as it's easier to come up with a smoother delivery of higher quality answers when having thought about them beforehand.

[1D7]

American interviews are different.

47 minutes ago, RadiologySWITCH said:

Found this on a USMD forum, but seems like a fair thing to wonder about for Canadian schools??

"How much does the interview change a program's rankings? All my interviews have been very conversational and benign, with majority of time spent on hobbies and interests outside of medicine. Not sure how much a program is influenced by the interview and how much it changes things prior to the interview. I can certainly see how if you said something off-putting or can't hold a conversation how it negatively affects you, but my impression is vast majority of applicants are normal pleasant people and based on my interviews I can't see how program directors use these interviews to differentiate applicants."

 

 

[UBCMD2020CARMS]

3 minutes ago, 1D7 said:

American interviews are different.

 

How so? They aren't significantly different at all.  

[btdubs]

Based on the spreadsheet, I imagine no one has heard from Saskatchewan neuro? It’s crazy looking at old spreadsheets when they generally sent invites quite early, and it’s almost January. 

[Britster]

For McMaster psychiatry applicants - what time does the interview day end (minus the social event)? I got off the waitlist so I was only given the date, no agenda. No one's in office until Jan and I'm trying to figure out logistics of flights as I have an interview elsewhere the next day. Thanks!

[denver123]

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Edited March 19, 2020 by capcom18

[MD201988]

For those who got invited to Toronto Pediatric Neurology, did you only get an update on your carms account or did you also receive an email from them? Thanks.

[rmorelan]

10 hours ago, capcom18 said:

Do programs overinvite applicants? As in invite more applicants to interview than they have slots available? I was invited to interview but it looks like all available time slots are filled

ahh that would be odd - and I would reach out to them about that. They wouldn't a have invited you to an interview if they didn't actually want to consider you for the program. 

[2020candidate]

On 12/19/2019 at 11:40 AM, moonwalker2099 said:

Anybody know if Manitoba FM is inviting people specifically to a stream or collectively for an interview? I know in past iterations that they've invited applicants for all 3 at once....not sure if it's different this year?

It is one interview for ALL the streams which is why with the acceptance they sent an offer to add other streams to your application.

[bearded frog]

On 12/26/2019 at 6:17 PM, RadiologySWITCH said:

Found this on a USMD forum, but seems like a fair thing to wonder about for Canadian schools??

"How much does the interview change a program's rankings? All my interviews have been very conversational and benign, with majority of time spent on hobbies and interests outside of medicine. Not sure how much a program is influenced by the interview and how much it changes things prior to the interview. I can certainly see how if you said something off-putting or can't hold a conversation how it negatively affects you, but my impression is vast majority of applicants are normal pleasant people and based on my interviews I can't see how program directors use these interviews to differentiate applicants."

 

Depends on the specialty/program as with everything but I think the interview is more of a supplement to your application. If you look good on paper you also have to be acceptable in person and someone that the residents staff want to work with, ie not a weirdo. If you're a borderline applicant otherwise I don't know if an excellent interview can do much to improve your standing, but if you have an excellent application but bomb the interview that can definitely take you out of contention.

[IMG2015]

I know it might be a long shot, but any chance someone would have an idea on what FM sites were left unfilled after 2nd iteration last year in Québec schools (wether McGill or the francophone schools ) ? I mean in general is it the rural sites or is it usually Montréal sites since they offer more positions ? 

Any reply would be greatly appreciated

[path82]

6 hours ago, IMG2015 said:

I know it might be a long shot, but any chance someone would have an idea on what FM sites were left unfilled after 2nd iteration last year in Québec schools (wether McGill or the francophone schools ) ? I mean in general is it the rural sites or is it usually Montréal sites since they offer more positions ? 

Any reply would be greatly appreciated

23 Family Medicine positions went unfilled in Quebec, after 2nd iteration in the 2019 match. You can find the sites on this pdf document. https://www.carms.ca/pdfs/3asv86WkbpG_R1_2_OverviewByDiscipline_EN.pdf

[drOrtho]

On 12/17/2019 at 7:55 PM, MAlexC said:

Still waiting  

Hi, I got invites for ortho in London, Ottawa and Toronto. Any other IMG's attending one of these interviews?