I'm a 2nd year student at a different medical school than UofT, what should I to increase my chances of getting matched to UofT IM residency?

[adrenalsufficiency]

I've made good research connections at my school and I got a couple small first author papers in low impact journals, my ECs are pretty basic but I'm not doing nothing. I'm working on more research hopefully 1 more in a slightly higher impact factor and another where I'm not a first author.

Problem is I have no connections at UofT whatsoever! I've heard CaRMS is all about who you know, and I know no one.

So what can I do? Is it good enough to impress during 4th year electives? Should I be pursuing connections right now? Perhaps try to initiate research with a GIM faculty at Uof?

What would you do if you were me?

Thanks for any advice!!

[anonymouspls]

What specialty do you want? Research is worth few points at most programs (10-20 points / 100 typically) and once you have a few first authors you've pretty much maxed that out. Impact factor doesn't really matter lol. 

Connections matter for home school but outside of that not rly. Do well in clerkship and electives, have strong letters, pray to the CARMS gods.

[adrenalsufficiency]

10 hours ago, anonymouspls said:

What specialty do you want? Research is worth few points at most programs (10-20 points / 100 typically) and once you have a few first authors you've pretty much maxed that out. Impact factor doesn't really matter lol. 

Connections matter for home school but outside of that not rly. Do well in clerkship and electives, have strong letters, pray to the CARMS gods.

IM! Do you mean subspecialty? Not entirely sure at the moment I like several IM subspecialties.

[dragoncat]

Since you are in year 2 right now, you will have the opportunity to do electives at different schools. Take advantage of that and another great way to make connections is to reach out to the residents, usually there is an email for the chiefs that can be found on the program website, or the program admin can give it to you. Ask them questions and make your interest known. It is all a delicate balance so don't seem overly eager either. No one likes a student who sucks up. 

Something else to think about: why do you want to go to UofT? Do you want to go to Toronto due to family or other personal reasons? Be open to exploring other programs as well, in Canada we have the advantage of pretty much all programs being equal across the board in terms of the strength and quality of training. UofT has great programs but it's not the end all and be all of medicine. Also, being in 2nd year, you haven't done clinical rotations yet! Be open to other specialties as well and don't close yourself off too early. However, as someone who knew what specialty I wanted before even starting medical school and ended up applying to that specialty, once you know where your passion lies, there's no going back so follow your gut and have faith that it will all work out! 

And once you get to clerkship, focus on being a good student to get strong comments on your MSPR and on getting reference letters. That's most of the game anyways. 

[bearded frog]

Do as many electives as possible at your target school. Ask your home school mentors if they have any connections there that they could introduce you to to discuss potentially doing residency there, potential research projects, etc. This applies to all programs, but U of T is particularly research-interested.

[Edict]

On 2/11/2023 at 9:01 PM, adrenalsufficiency said:

I've made good research connections at my school and I got a couple small first author papers in low impact journals, my ECs are pretty basic but I'm not doing nothing. I'm working on more research hopefully 1 more in a slightly higher impact factor and another where I'm not a first author.

Problem is I have no connections at UofT whatsoever! I've heard CaRMS is all about who you know, and I know no one.

So what can I do? Is it good enough to impress during 4th year electives? Should I be pursuing connections right now? Perhaps try to initiate research with a GIM faculty at Uof?

What would you do if you were me?

Thanks for any advice!!

Do research and try to do an elective with your research mentor. Reach out to UofT profs who do research, express interest in their research. 

This is probably the only way, but its not necessary and lets say your probability of matching UofT was 40%, doing all this might increase it to 45%, its by no means a big difference maker, so much more goes into play, including whether you do good work with them and how much influence they have in the selection process.

What matters more is doing an elective with someone who is on the residency admissions committee and impress them. There are a few names who are perennially influential on the committee, a thumbs up from them essentially means you are in. As a non-UofT student, its hard to selectively book an elective to ensure you spend time with them, but you can try to ask around or ask the coordinators to know which dates they are on service etc and see if it fits with your schedule.

Even doing all this additional work might not pan out and there will be people who didn't even care and will land in the perfect elective and secure a strong ref letter with minimal additional effort, so ask yourself how much this is really worth it to you. If your goal is UofT or bust, then try these strategies.  

 

[adrenalsufficiency]

11 hours ago, Edict said:

Do research and try to do an elective with your research mentor. Reach out to UofT profs who do research, express interest in their research. 

This is probably the only way, but its not necessary and lets say your probability of matching UofT was 40%, doing all this might increase it to 45%, its by no means a big difference maker, so much more goes into play, including whether you do good work with them and how much influence they have in the selection process.

What matters more is doing an elective with someone who is on the residency admissions committee and impress them. There are a few names who are perennially influential on the committee, a thumbs up from them essentially means you are in. As a non-UofT student, its hard to selectively book an elective to ensure you spend time with them, but you can try to ask around or ask the coordinators to know which dates they are on service etc and see if it fits with your schedule.

Even doing all this additional work might not pan out and there will be people who didn't even care and will land in the perfect elective and secure a strong ref letter with minimal additional effort, so ask yourself how much this is really worth it to you. If your goal is UofT or bust, then try these strategies.  

 

When you say there are a few names who are always influential on the committee, how could I find these names? I've seen the list of PDs for IM, but I'm not familiar with what goes into an admission committees. I assume the IM program director (Dr. Jeannette Goguen) is influential, but how could I find out who else is? I'm a non-trad student so my social capital and connections in medicine are basically non-existent. If I knew residents in IM I'd message them... but I don't. Not asking for you to do the work for me, but advice about where to go from here. 

Thank you, I really appreciate your advice and the actionable items you mentioned.

[Edict]

11 hours ago, adrenalsufficiency said:

When you say there are a few names who are always influential on the committee, how could I find these names? I've seen the list of PDs for IM, but I'm not familiar with what goes into an admission committees. I assume the IM program director (Dr. Jeannette Goguen) is influential, but how could I find out who else is? I'm a non-trad student so my social capital and connections in medicine are basically non-existent. If I knew residents in IM I'd message them... but I don't. Not asking for you to do the work for me, but advice about where to go from here. 

Thank you, I really appreciate your advice and the actionable items you mentioned.

DM me 

[bruh]

As stated above:

- do an elective at U of T with one of the big name IM committee members.

- Get in touch with IM residents ASAP to set up connection, shadowing, research

- If you are not too far from Toronto, try to set up shadowing with residents/committee members before 3rd year starts. You won't have time to travel to Toronto for shadowing in 3rd year (except maybe during christmas/march break).

- Maximize your research and show passion. Submit some abstract, present at some conferences - again make connections with UofT IM docs