allycat0303 Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 Hey everyone, I was wondering, did anyone get any of these? My worst one was: a) Let's say, the University of Montreal offered you a spot, but said you had to do a 2 year Master's BEFORE you could start the program, and the University of Toronto offered you a spot right away (with no master's) which one would you choose? (Are you CRAZY??? I ALREADY have a master's degree). And you pick uofT (arguably the best medical school in Canada) as the other choice? Are you planning to have children? Because it's going to be difficult to do this with children. (Yup. Straight out illegal question). The room went dead quiet. But let's be honest, that's probably the ONLY question the whole panel REALLY wanted me to answer. They were all men. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molas Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 wow, unreal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noncestvrai Posted February 5, 2009 Report Share Posted February 5, 2009 I have had VERY strange questions from the panel at UdeM last year... The children thing is prob b/c having somebody out for a few mos will screw call/manpower... AND I hope you answered to the other one "Yes, I would do anything to come to your wonderful program..." ;/ noncestvrai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juicyprunes Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Allycat, Was this for a surgical program (in regards to question #2) and how did you respond? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploughboy Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 Are you planning to have children? Because it's going to be difficult to do this with children. (Yup. Straight out illegal question). The room went dead quiet. But let's be honest, that's probably the ONLY question the whole panel REALLY wanted me to answer. They were all men. So if you haven't already, you need to tell your school about this. After CaRMS has closed your Dean needs to formally complain to that program about their illegal questions. Otherwise they'll keep trying to pull that crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploughboy Posted February 6, 2009 Report Share Posted February 6, 2009 My strangest questions: 1) What is your personal life philosophy? [i babble something random] How have you applied this to your medical education? [i drool mindlessly as I try to think of an example] 2) Are you going to rank our discipline ahead of another discipline? [the resident on the panel just about jumped out of his skin when the staff person asked that, and I didn't have to answer the question] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 There is a post-match survey administered by CaRMS that asks about illegal questions as well. I don't remember if they asked you to identify the program. I like pb's first question though. It's much more interesting to discuss questions that people can't prepare for. You don't learn much from common questions that everyone has scripted answers for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ploughboy Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 I like pb's first question though. It's much more interesting to discuss questions that people can't prepare for. You don't learn much from common questions that everyone has scripted answers for. Ya, I guess it's not a bad question, and random babbling aside I had a decent answer for it. I just couldn't really connect it to my medical education in the follow-up. Still can't, actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allycat0303 Posted February 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Well I am not going to compain, because I really want this program. But with the 8 men in the room, I told them it was a valid question, because I DO think it's a valid question for that discipline. But I think it freakin stinks. It's pretty obvious to me they would rank the guys ahead, but I don't necessarily think they will GET the guys ahead of me (all from Mcgill) and I feel the other 3 guys from Mcgill MIGHT choose better schools. However, there is another girl from UdM applying (an amazing candidate) so I assume she got the same questions. As for the UofT, UdM thing, I told them UdM was my first choice (it is) but I ALREADY have a Master's degree, and UofT is an excellent school. So I'm sorry, but UofT because I feel that another Master's degree wouldn't be advancing my career. I slippped in that a phd though, would be open to discussion. He let it go though. But what a silly question. Seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kate Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Hi allycat, You're not alone. Last week I was asked: 1. Are you married? 2. Are you planning on having children during your residency 3. How are you going to rank us? I was actually shocked. In my surprise, I answered questions 1&2 with an honest "no," but since then I've been beating myself up. The more appropriate (and pointed) answer would have been: "I don't see what these questions have to do with the task at hand." While I feel that some ïllegal questions get asked innocently, I find it hard to believe that family planning was just a simple ice-breaker question. Not to mention, I find it hard to believe that such a question would have been asked of a male candidate... However, I believe this to be the only example of overt sexism I have faced during medical school, so we have come a long way! On more than one occasion over the past two weeks, I have been asked how I plan to rank the particular school I'm applying to. I agree, allycat, this is also quite uncomfortable, as sometimes the answer the school wants to hear involves lying. Oh well! I'm sure that this process will work out for us in the end! Kate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blinknoodle Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Hmm.. is Quebec exempt from the illegal questions? (j/k I know it isn't) I also had a slew of illegal questions when I was at McGill. 1. Are you married? 2. Do you plan on having kids? 3. Did you apply to any other disciplines? Is this a back-up? 4. You are from <city>, why bother coming here? (not so illegal) 5. No really, did you apply to any other disciplines? And I think that was my entire interview one-on-one with the program director. What irked me more, when I asked the other applicant I met that day whether he had similar illegal questions, he hadn't. I figured it was based on his gender. Men planning on raising their children - never! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allycat0303 Posted February 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 Kate, I wouldn't beat yourself over it, for answering the question truthfully. While preparing for interviews, I said to myself, "I know they won't ask me those questions, because they were illegal" so you're kind of put in the spot. Should you answer an illegal question? Does it make you look worst or better? And you don't want to anatgonize the committee, so you answer truthfully. I don't think that my response to the question is the deal breaker. But I think being a girl most definitely put me at a disadvantage in this interview. Oh yeah, they also asked me, "Don't you worry that your boyfriend will get fed up with this type of work scheduale and leave you?" At that point (it was the third boyfriend question) I got a little fed up and said. "Let's clear this up right now, you don't know my boyfriend, and this is absolutely not an issue." At that point, nervous laughter around the room and the senior resident sat back in his chair. And they FINALLY dropped it. I wonder if they ask things like that to male candidates. They didn't concentrate all that much on me personally, or the stuff I had done. They were more intrested in knowing about that. It was kind of annoying. Blinknoodle: so the question is, did you get in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrKovac Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 In the US I was asked "if there was a man standing outside the ED with magic potions that could give you any super power, which would you pick and why?" A definite WTF?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blinknoodle Posted February 7, 2009 Report Share Posted February 7, 2009 It is definitely based on gender. The same PD asked another female, after she said she did want children.. So you and your family are from out west, and your boyfriend and his family is out west, how do you plan on raising children here in Montreal without the help from family? <shudder> Blinknoodle: so the question is, did you get in? I got in where I wanted to go. McGill wasn't high on my list in the end. I can't say the interview impressed me very much! Good luck guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satsuma Posted February 8, 2009 Report Share Posted February 8, 2009 I can't say the interview impressed me very much! This is a good point. Programs that ask these questions should realize they do so at the risk of losing good candidates. After answering that I liked to go hiking with my bf in my spare time there were follow-up questions about what my bf did and where he lived etc. And then the question about whether he would affect my choice to move. They totally took that bf "window of opportunity" and ran with it. I was not too keen on this program to start with...and the interview didn`t impress me at all. And I will very likely not be ranking this program at all. Other programs have asked illegal questions, seemingly innocently. I tend to not harbor negative feelings toward them. They either really didn`t mean it or were very good actors! But when they clearly know what they are doing...then why would you even want to be a part of a program with that kind of environment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pilotgirl Posted February 9, 2009 Report Share Posted February 9, 2009 Interviewer: I see that you're a pilot. Would you recommend that urologists have flight training? Me: Yes. Yes, they should. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0nsp Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 Interviewer: I see that you're a pilot. Would you recommend that urologists have flight training? Me: Yes. Yes, they should. HAHAHAAHAHA. That is AWESOME! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bessy Posted February 10, 2009 Report Share Posted February 10, 2009 All of my interviews have been really good about asking illegal questions, but at the pre-interview dinners, however, I have heard some good ones. 1. Program Director (PD) sits down and looks around the table and the first thing he asks is "So, where you raking this program, number one, number two, number 6?" -- Thank goodness a very politially astute applicant was sitting across from him and immediately deflected the question, saving us all from awkward "erm, it's somewhere near the top of my list" etc. etc. 2. PD looks to the end of the table where the two females are sitting and asks "So, who's married?". 3. PD asks "Where else are you interviewing?", "You must have all done many electives in _______ -- where's your favourite program?". Seriously, it was one after another -- all of the applicants just stared at eachother in horror and desperately tried to change the subject, only to be bombarded with another "Where you gonna rank us?"-type inquiry. Yikes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyEnough Posted February 12, 2009 Report Share Posted February 12, 2009 Most of my interviews were pretty "standard", but every one of them asked "where do you see yourself/life in five years?". To me, that seems like an interesting way of including, but without really asking straight out if you are going to have children, move, stay, rank them, identify where you want to practice, etc. It opens the field and you decide whether or not to offer the information to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted February 12, 2009 Report Share Posted February 12, 2009 Heh, if you're applying to a five-year program, the above question is pretty easy to answer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satsuma Posted February 12, 2009 Report Share Posted February 12, 2009 Heh, if you're applying to a five-year program, the above question is pretty easy to answer Yeah...until you answer it and they follow-up with ...yes, but that is on the professional side of things, what about your family plans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bugette Posted February 12, 2009 Report Share Posted February 12, 2009 Seriously, it was one after another -- all of the applicants just stared at eachother in horror and desperately tried to change the subject, only to be bombarded with another "Where you gonna rank us?"-type inquiry. I don't really know much about the intricacies of the Match. What advantage does the PD gain if s/he knows the rank order list of the candidates? I just know from my end I should a) rank where I'd like to go in order of preference, don't rank somewhere you wouldn't want to go, and c) submit list before deadline. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lactic Folly Posted February 13, 2009 Report Share Posted February 13, 2009 Yeah...until you answer it and they follow-up with ...yes, but that is on the professional side of things, what about your family plans? The only time that was mentioned in my interviews was in the form of "I don't know if you're married and I'm not going to ask".. It's an obviously illegal question, so you can say how fortunate you are to have a supportive family, that residency will make many demands, but with communication you are confident things will work out well. Or you can directly say you have no plans to have children, or if that is not the case, that you cannot rule out the possibility, under the grounds that if the program is hostile to such, it's better to find out now than later. I did find more interest from PDs in my ranking though. I think they are motivated to avoid matching people who would rather be somewhere else (even if applicants include the program on their rank list).. perception that unhappy residents are not going to be as good and might want to switch out later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justletmein Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 I don't really know much about the intricacies of the Match. What advantage does the PD gain if s/he knows the rank order list of the candidates? I just know from my end I should a) rank where I'd like to go in order of preference, don't rank somewhere you wouldn't want to go, and c) submit list before deadline. The advantage is that if they rank candidates they know are interested in their program higher up, then they lower their risk of ending up with unfilled spots. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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