Forced to repeat a year - still have potential to match to competitive specialty? (Quebec + rest of Canada)

[MilwaukeeProtocol]

Hey everyone,

I'm a med student from Quebec who started their 2nd year (med 1) of a 5 year program this fall. Unfortunately, I had mental health difficulties and was hospitalized for 1.5 months. Once I got out, I was told that I had missed too much class and that I would have to repeat the year. On my transcript, it will show that I withdrew from all my courses of the first semester of med 1 (in French - notation "abandon").

Does anyone know how this is looked at by adcoms for CaRMS? I have received conflicting advice from various people. My psychiatrist told me that she anecdotally knew someone who repeated a year for academic reasons (not sure if this is better or worse than repeating for health reasons, can anyone chime in?) who still matched to their first choice psych program, but I also met with the vice dean of my school, who told me that I will likely be automatically disqualified from competitive residencies because of this blemish on my record.

Even though I am still just starting my medical school journey, my interests lie mainly in competitive specialties (data from 2023 match, quebec universities only) - derm (0.83 spots per applicant), psych (0.59 spots per applicant) and rad onc (0.27 spots per applicant). However, since I have a black mark on my record, does it still make sense to pursue these specialties, or should I already settle for path/FM and not waste my time.

For reference, I have already secured a position in a lab for the rest of this year that should get me a few publications in epidemiology, but I'm not even sure if I should pursue this opportunity if it won't mean anything in the end because of my subpar transcript. Also, does anyone know if my situation will be seen more or less favourably in the rest of Canada compared to Quebec?

Would welcome comments from everyone, and please be honest, don't feel the need to sugar-coat anything.

[anonymouspls]

Idk about rad onc in french canada, but at my school which is a rad onc program in Ontario this would not sink your application. Im not going to lie rad onc is becoming more competitive so it probably does decrease your chances a little bit, but nothing that cant be overcome with a stellar cv or interview.

[bearded frog]

If you otherwise have an unblemished record and you just say that you had to withdraw in your first year for medical reasons causing you to delay a year, which is true, I can't imagine it would be held against you.

[MDinCanada]

Absolutely not. 

I did med school in Quebec as well.

People need to take a leave of absence for many different reasons, you don't have to tell anyone why you took a leave.

The most important thing is that you perform really well in your clinical rotations as the comments on your DREM will be a huge factor. As well, try to find a few supervisors to start working with in your desired specialty, and later do rotations with them, that way they can write you a STRONG letter and root for you. This is far more important than your pre-clerkship transcript.

I know many people who matched into very competitive specialties with "blemishes" on their record. 

Btw I was initially interested in derm and then later switched interest to psych, so I have an understanding of the competitiveness, and the strategies required to get into both. I'm a psych resident now.

[MGN]

I echo what others are saying. Lots of people have to take time off at various stages of their training, so don't think that you are alone in this. I know someone who had to repeat a year in medical school for academic reasons (he/she is also from a 5 year Quebec program), and eventually matched to general surgery in a competitive Ontario location. Just make the most out of your year off and you will be fine later on, don't worry, it will all work out.

[MilwaukeeProtocol]

On 11/4/2023 at 10:36 PM, MDinCanada said:

Absolutely not. 

I did med school in Quebec as well.

People need to take a leave of absence for many different reasons, you don't have to tell anyone why you took a leave.

The most important thing is that you perform really well in your clinical rotations as the comments on your DREM will be a huge factor. As well, try to find a few supervisors to start working with in your desired specialty, and later do rotations with them, that way they can write you a STRONG letter and root for you. This is far more important than your pre-clerkship transcript.

I know many people who matched into very competitive specialties with "blemishes" on their record. 

Btw I was initially interested in derm and then later switched interest to psych, so I have an understanding of the competitiveness, and the strategies required to get into both. I'm a psych resident now.

Thank you for your response and for sharing your insights! 

I'm particularly curious about your suggestion to find supervisors to work with before clinical rotations. I'm not sure I understand how one can go about doing this...

Also, you mentioned switching your interest from derm to psych and understanding the competitiveness of both fields. I'd be very interested to learn more about the strategies you found effective for pursuing both of these specialties. Is there anything in particular students should know before pursuing these specialities (especially in Quebec)?

Of course, I fully understand if you don't want to go too much into detail given the public nature of this forum. Thanks again for all the info!

 

[MilwaukeeProtocol]

23 hours ago, MGN said:

I echo what others are saying. Lots of people have to take time off at various stages of their training, so don't think that you are alone in this. I know someone who had to repeat a year in medical school for academic reasons (he/she is also from a 5 year Quebec program), and eventually matched to general surgery in a competitive Ontario location. Just make the most out of your year off and you will be fine later on, don't worry, it will all work out.

That's an impressive story, thanks for sharing!

[Edict]

I wouldn't listen to what your vice dean said, they may not be in touch with the actual admissions process for residency. Programs are going to look at your application holistically, taking into account everything else you have done. Usually, programs that look at your application holistically will treat you the same as any other applicant, because they understand why you took a year out. 

Anyone who knows med school knows these programs are ruthless, i've seen school admin force a student to give up a valuable two week elective because they missed 2 call shift on a rotation. A lot of programs don't ever look at the transcript at all because every med school is so different in the way they report a transcript, that they find it useless to try and interpret it.