Internal Medicine Open versus Closed File Interviews?

[ClassicMilkTea]

Hey Everyone!

I was wondering if anyone knew how to go about finding out which school's interviews will be open or closed? Its difficult to elicit this from the CaRMS program descriptions as I noticed most schools' interview descriptions do not specifically note it. 

Any advice is appreciated!!

[robclem21]

My advice is that it doesn't matter. You should know your CV inside and out for every interview and be able to talk about anything on it in detail.

[1D7]

7 hours ago, robclem21 said:

My advice is that it doesn't matter. You should know your CV inside and out for every interview and be able to talk about anything on it in detail.

If it is a back up specialty, you can definitely interview differently if you know that the interviewers don't know what kind of applicant you are on paper.

 

[IM2024]

On 1/8/2024 at 5:17 AM, robclem21 said:

My advice is that it doesn't matter. You should know your CV inside and out for every interview and be able to talk about anything on it in detail.

Would it be considered repetitive to talk about stuff almost verbatim as what's already written in your personal statement/CV though? Eg. If my personal statement has a "why this program" paragraph and an interesting patient case, can I give those as answers still in an open-file interview? 

[robclem21]

3 hours ago, IM2024 said:

Would it be considered repetitive to talk about stuff almost verbatim as what's already written in your personal statement/CV though? Eg. If my personal statement has a "why this program" paragraph and an interesting patient case, can I give those as answers still in an open-file interview? 

I would think chances are if they have the file in front of you they would specifically ask you about something from it or ask a completely different question altogether. But yes, in that situation I would say it's fine to answer with something that you have already written in your application.