Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

Extracurricular activities and CaRMS


Guest sky100

Recommended Posts

Guest sky100

Hello.

I am a first year medical student and I see a lot of my classmates being involved in tons of extracurricular activities. I, on the other hand, am involved in only 1 or 2. Personally, I participate in extracurricular activities because I enjoy them but seeing what's going on around me I was wondering if any of the upper years can comment on how important involvement in extracurricular activities during med school is in terms of CaRMS matching. Are extracurricular activities taken into account at all?

Thanks much.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest McMastergirl

It depends on what you mean by "extracurriculars." I would say that doing electives is important. I would say that being on committees like the social committee, the grad committee, etc, is not important. I wasn't on any of these and in no way did I feel it hurt my CaRMS application.

 

Research can really give you a leg up, especially if it results in a publication.

 

Being involved in something related to a career in a specific area, like your medical school journal, a community education program (for example, one promoting rural medicine or STD education for high school kids), or the like, can look really good on a CaRMS application.

 

If you could give us some examples of the kinds of things you think you maybe should be doing, it might help sort this out for you.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest sky100

Thanks McMastergirl for your prompt reply!

I was wondering if being on the class council or organizing fundraisers or being a member of the Medical Society in one's school or being a course rep or programs such as those helping troubled youth or kids at risk, etc. count and if so, which ones will be looked upon most favorably for CaRMS matching. Sorry, I threw a lot at you but I am just trying to understand what sort of activities help with CaRMS matching and which ones don't count so much.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest endingsoon
I was wondering if being on the class council or organizing fundraisers or being a member of the Medical Society in one's school or being a course rep or programs such as those helping troubled youth or kids at risk, etc. count and if so, which ones will be looked upon most favorably for CaRMS matching. Sorry, I threw a lot at you but I am just trying to understand what sort of activities help with CaRMS matching and which ones don't count so much.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

Truth is that none of us know...I did a lot of extra curric stuff (including most of the stuff you mentionted). Did it help me get in? I have no idea! But it was fun, I met some cool people and I learned a lot of skills. Also, by tutoring kids and stuff I was able to show my interest in teaching, and through research and medical society roles I showed that I was interested in becoming more than just a regular resident. Again did it help? How knows!

 

It may sound like a broken record, but do you what you want to do b.c you like it and the rest will fall into place.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest McMastergirl

I agree with the above. If I were you I wouldn't join everything just for the sake of my CaRMS application. Get involved, but only in those things you truly want to do and can learn from. That could be any of the things you listed above. Don't spread yourself too thin though, because you still have to pass your med school rotations!

 

Unlike med school applications, where it is advantageous to have lots of extra-curriculars and show how well-rounded you are, I believe that CaRMS matching is more about how you will fit in with their particular program. I was involved this year with my program's CaRMS match (I'm a first year resident), and extra-curriculars (other than electives and research)1 didn't really figure into the equation at all. I'd say the factors we looked at (not in any order of importance) were: how interested they seemed to be in the field (evidenced by their electives and research experience), what their reference letters stated about them, and how they communicated in the interview (did they seem like the type of person we would all want to spend a lot of time with?).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest UWOMED2005

I think it totally depends on the program you are applying to (specialty AND school.)

 

The old program director for emerg medicine spoke to our class and indicated extra-curricular activities and active life outside of medicine were strong factors in their admissions decisions.

 

Someone from Internal suggested the same. . .

 

But I have one classmates was a bit stressed because they didn't have great extra-currics. They did fine in the match.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
  • 10 months later...
  • 1 month later...

To follow up on this question:

 

I will be starting a family in the near future, and also be attending medical school! :) As far a extra curricular activities are concerned, has anyone ever found activities where they could get their spouses involved? I'm thinking about my time spent away from school will want to be with my wife, but at the same time, I would like to become involved in community programs such as mentoring high schoolers, etc.

 

Any experiences, ideas?

 

MP

 

P.S --- I will be going into my first year of med at U of T this fall! :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello,

 

For activities involving the med school directly, the Toronto Meds page might provide some suggestions. I imagine that there are non-med school volunteer activities that you and your wife could get involved in as well. Classmates or the Students Affaris Office might be able to offer up some suggestions.

 

The Saturday Program, which starts in January, offers the opportunity to tutor high school students. It is restricted to U of T students though.

 

Significant others are also encouraged at pur other type of "extracurricular events" as well. It should be a good year.

 

Take care.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Hi there,

 

Ultimately, it depends on the program to which you'd like to match, since each program weighs research differently in their application process. However, within the CaRMS application itself, research activity seems to be fairly important on the basis that two sections of the application--Publications & Research Activity--are obviously focused on research-based activities. Given that though, each program takes the CaRMS application components and assigns weights to each, so even though two of the CaRMS application sections are devoted to research-y bits, the final say as to how weighty your research productivity is, remains with the program.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

This is an old thread, but commonly asked. I was IM chief resident at U of S last year, and was intimately involved with reviewing files and interviewing for CaRMS. I'm now a cardio fellow, and also did file reviews and interviews for this year's cardio match.

 

For CaRMS, we had 2 separate scores for extra-curriculars. 1. Activities within medicine. 2. Activities/interests outside of medicine. The "within medicine" ones were weighted heavier, just because I think it is easier to fake things outside of medicine. The exception might be if you have OUTSTANDING involvement in one particular area (ie. have published a novel, were drafted by an NFL team, have played in a prestigious symphony) - these applicants could get FULL extracurricular marks without ever being involved in a med school activity or committee.

 

I think I undersold myself when applying to CaRMS. I only put MAJOR things on my CV. I didn't think anyone would care that I like to make charcoal sketches and play the saxophone recreationally. Well... you SHOULD include these things on your CV. They earn you a few points, and sometimes make for interesting conversation in your interviews if you find an interviewer with common interests.

 

One thing to avoid is padding your CV too much. For example, my 2nd year med school class folded paper cranes as a cancer fundraiser. The girl who thought up the idea and organized it deserved MAJOR props on her CaRMS apps. The people who helped to organize it and man booths were also justified in putting it on their CVs... but some people literally put on their CVs that they "folded 21 paper cranes for cancer fundraiser". LAME. The file reviewers are not stupid, and can usually tell what is crap. Also, if you have a bunch of filler on your CV, some of the MAJOR, important things can be lost or skimmed over.

 

And please... do NOT put the Millenium Bursary on your CV. The file reviewers know that it has nothing to do with academic achievement, and we cringe whenever we see it on someone's CV!

 

Also, please note that research is not considered an extracurricular, and they have two separate scores on the file review. Someone who has done ALL research and no ECs will score 0 for ECs. Someone who is an EC superstar with no research will score 0 for research... so try to do a bit of both. Volunteer work is factored in with extracurriculars... at least for our scores. Not sure how it works at other schools.

 

For our program anyway, extracurriculars play a minor-moderate role in the file review, but the huge thing is reference letters - nearly 30% of file score!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

No... research does not have to be clinical at all! Health care/human resources is medically related. I know people who have done research in medical education, and basic science research with plant genetics... doesn't matter as long as you can talk about what you've learned through the experience.

 

Also, publications and presentations don't matter when applying to med school, but they look very nice on the CaRMS app.

 

Good luck :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does the research have to be clinical. I have worked for the last few years in health care human resource research and I am wondering if I should continue this or find more clinical/biomedical type work to do?

Hi there,

 

A couple of Program Directors this year noted that if you have research within the specialty to which you are applying, it is looked upon more favourably than research in other realms.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

this summer i am working for a company that does research in the physical sciences (so not really related to health/medicine unless you consider the fact that i'm applying what i learn to the natural environment) and i'm pretty sure that my confidentiality agreement won't allow me to talk about the work that i've been doing at the company...

 

has anyone ever come across this sort of problem?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...