CaRMS 2021 Interviews--DISCUSSIONS

[Dr.swagster]

Just curious on everyone fared for their IM invites or know more about it? It wasn't really what I expected today but grateful to get the invites I did. 

[bread]

10 minutes ago, chateau22 said:

Anyone else just receive a Manitoba FM invite? (Updated on CARMS, but haven't received any e-mail from the school and it seems invites were sent last week based on the tracker)

I did! Was convinced it would be a no because the other invites went out last week, so it was a nice surprise (also have not gotten an email from the school yet)

[chateau22]

1 minute ago, bread said:

I did! Was convinced it would be a no because the other invites went out last week, so it was a nice surprise (also have not gotten an email from the school yet)

Good to know! I wonder if there was a response deadline for the initial invites and they realized they had some extra interviewing spots but this was some good news

[bread]

3 minutes ago, chateau22 said:

Good to know! I wonder if there was a response deadline for the initial invites and they realized they had some extra interviewing spots but this was some good news

That’s what I was wondering too! For sure, super happy to hear.

[ArthurMcArthur]

12 minutes ago, Dr.swagster said:

Just curious on everyone fared for their IM invites or know more about it? It wasn't really what I expected today but grateful to get the invites I did. 

Fared very poorly tbh. Much, much lower than expected and very disappointed

[Dr.swagster]

6 minutes ago, ArthurMcArthur said:

Fared very poorly tbh. Much, much lower than expected and very disappointed

In a similar boat tbh  . I hope it goes well for us

[bellejolie]

21 minutes ago, ArthurMcArthur said:

Fared very poorly tbh. Much, much lower than expected and very disappointed

 

14 minutes ago, Dr.swagster said:

In a similar boat tbh  . I hope it goes well for us

you guys are not alone - record number of applicants it seems. lots of people parallel planned from surgical specialties and what not. it is very hard and such a weird year. so many new factors - no away electives, COVID, electives cap etc. really tough year. 

[Ji Ah]

Does anyone know if we can trade IM interviews after we sign up tomorrow?

[bundleofhers]

7 hours ago, Haribo7173 said:

A lot of disappointed people....  

Apparently Queen’s IM had 1000 applicants?!?!

How do you know?

[chateau22]

Even with a record # of applicants and the parallel planning though, shouldn't the priority of invites go to people who are clearly interested for IM especially if their electives demonstrate that...

Sorry to hear all those who were disappointed by the results today - just remember it does not define your worth!

 

[Med_NOR]

41 minutes ago, ArthurMcArthur said:

Fared very poorly tbh. Much, much lower than expected and very disappointed

Same, I thought my applications were strong but ended up with only 1 invite...

I really do think the pandemic and virtual interviews contributed to this, with people applying more broadly and parallel planning with IM. I'm wondering if this means there will be more spots in 2nd iteration.

[NoMatchNoProblem]

12 minutes ago, chateau22 said:

Even with a record # of applicants and the parallel planning though, shouldn't the priority of invites go to people who are clearly interested for IM especially if their electives demonstrate that...

Sorry to hear all those who were disappointed by the results today - just remember it does not define your worth!

 

Not necessarily, in fact program directors have repeatedly stated that it is difficult to discern which applicants are legitimately interested in Internal Medicine and those who are not. Many people back up with IM when applying to more competitive specialties and they themselves are extremely competitive candidates. 

Last year there were 1000 applicants to internal medicine as well at Queen's. The specialty is becoming increasingly competitive as there is a decrease in the amount of surgery positions available. Coupled with the COVID situation, my belief is that schools increasingly focused on admitting their own students or people who they were familiar with in order to defend their own interests. 

[chateau22]

1 minute ago, NoMatchNoProblem said:

Not necessarily, in fact program directors have repeatedly stated that it is difficult to discern which applicants are legitimately interested in Internal Medicine and those who are not. Many people back up IM with more competitive specialties and are extremely competitive candidates. 

Last year there were 1000 applicants to internal medicine as well at Queen's. The specialty is becoming increasingly competitive as there is a decrease in the amount of surgery positions available. Coupled with the COVID situation, my belief is that schools increasingly focused on admitting their own students or people who they were familiar with in order to defend their own interests. 

Interesting point - if I saw someone with 8 weeks of Surgery Electives and 8 weeks of Internal Medicine electives, it'd look different than 8 weeks of Internal Electives with a Peds, Surgery, Family elective - the latter would seem more dedicated to IM? But I guess the 1st candidate could be just as happy in IM but torn between 2 specialties.

I wonder if self-selection for their own students is happening in programs like IM and FM. 

 

[Ji Ah]

2 minutes ago, chateau22 said:

Interesting point - if I saw someone with 8 weeks of Surgery Electives and 8 weeks of Internal Medicine electives, it'd look different than 8 weeks of Internal Electives with a Peds, Surgery, Family elective - the latter would seem more dedicated to IM? But I guess the 1st candidate could be just as happy in IM but torn between 2 specialties.

I wonder if self-selection for their own students is happening in programs like IM and FM. 

 

 

Large programs like IM probably read through applications extremely quickly, and these differences may not stand out when you skim. 

[MedZZZ]

48 minutes ago, Med_NOR said:

Same, I thought my applications were strong but ended up with only 1 invite...

I really do think the pandemic and virtual interviews contributed to this, with people applying more broadly and parallel planning with IM. I'm wondering if this means there will be more spots in 2nd iteration.

I am sorry to hear that! I am in a similar boat and I thought I am a strong applicant but ended up with only few interviews, way lower than I expected ... Did you only apply to IM?

[cookie_m]

3 hours ago, bellejolie said:

Yup! You can also add new documents if you find your letters weren’t that great but gives you the flexibility to choose 

I'm actually mindblown. I thought I read this somewhere, but I called carms to see if I could get an idea as to what my letter said, and they didn't even give me a hint so I thought I was wrong... Definitely interested to know what it said

[MrWesting]

Are there reliable stats available for the average number of interviews CMGs actually attended on CaRMS tours in years past? With everything being virtual, there is very little disincentive to attend every interview that you receive an invitation for, so long as the scheduling lines up. I personally know of a couple classmates who applied quite broadly, and will probably attend 13+ interviews during the interview period.

I can imagine that number may seem excessive for some people, particularly those who are feeling the disappointment of not receiving interviews today. But the process and outcomes seem so opaque and uncertain, especially this year. I know that our school explicitly choose not to comment on how many interviews could be considered "enough", leaving it up to the personal choice of each student.

During the American match, there was talk about the problem of "interview hoarding". I wonder to what extent this may be a factor at play this year for CaRMS.

[gumballs]

11 minutes ago, MrWesting said:

Are there reliable stats available for the average number of interviews CMGs actually attended on CaRMS tours in years past? With everything being virtual, there is very little disincentive to attend every interview that you receive an invitation for, so long as the scheduling lines up. I personally know of a couple classmates who applied quite broadly, and will probably attend 13+ interviews during the interview period.

I can imagine that number may seem excessive for some people, particularly those who are feeling the disappointment of not receiving interviews today. But the process and outcomes seem so opaque and uncertain, especially this year. I know that our school explicitly choose not to comment on how many interviews could be considered "enough", leaving it up to the personal choice of each student.

During the American match, there was talk about the problem of "interview hoarding". I wonder to what extent this may be a factor at play this year for CaRMS.

Hey! Interestingly enough I happened upon this earlier today https://www.carms.ca/data-reports/r1-data-reports/cmg-interview-experiences/  Don’t know if this answers your question. I think one think despite the murkiness of the actual stats one thing is for certain we’ve had a pretty unconventional match year. Wishing everyone good luck. Remember in the grand scheme this is a small portion of all wonderful things you have/will accomplish(ed). 

[bundleofhers]

Exactly. With all the uncertainty with this particular cycle in the midst of COVID, it also depends on every individual's risk tolerance. Depending on one's confidence level in matching, they may or may not be secure with certain number of interviews. It's hard to say since the process is so unpredictable in general.

[aray623]

This is pretty interesting data from last year, too. Specifically the section "Interviews offered by application – Discipline view". Unfortunately not broken down by school but it is by discipline. https://www.carms.ca/data-reports/r1-data-reports/interview-offers/#1602253692894-b7c85e07-4e95

[Maverick]

.

[chateau22]

7 minutes ago, Maverick said:

For what its worth, IM applicant here with no back ups (8 weeks CTU, 8 weeks IM subspecialty), I applied to 14 programs, an am interviewing at 12. Many of my equally amazing peers have done the same but ended up with 3 or 7 or more/less more interviews. Highly variable crapshoot it seems but shocking to say the least given how committed my peers were to IM. Best of luck to all. Been a very long time since I've posted here, feels weird man. 

Congrats! Did you application outside of electives scream IM?

[Maverick]

On 3/1/2021 at 8:22 PM, chateau22 said:

Congrats! Did you application outside of electives scream IM?

.

[bearded frog]

Looking at some of the data from the above CaRMS links and cross referencing match data we can see that in 2020, the average CMG IM applicant applied to 7.7 programs and received 4.4 interviews. (6846 applications with 3910 interviews for 885 total applicants). Now this includes both first choice IM and back-ups and can't break it up with the data we have. But might be some helpful context.

I also thought the following charts are interesting, as they seem to suggest that last year was a significant outlier for number of interviews attended.

This next graph is number of applicants who had a conflict and had to miss at least one of their interviews:

[AAAmeds]

1 hour ago, Maverick said:

with 3 or 7 or more/less more interviews

@Maverick congrats on your interviews! Can you clarify this? 3-7 interviews or 3-7 more than you or less than you?