Newbie-ish question--How are we evaluated for residency positions?

[hastin11]

I have always left this question as sort of a "cross this bridge when I come to it" type thing. Its seemed sort of silly to think about it as I thought I may not get into a med school anyway.

 

But now I have been accepted for next year and am sort of clueless about how this works. Since med school is pass/fail, how the heck do they evaluate you?

 

Say I wanted to get into a competitive specialty like dermatology (I dont, but just hypothetically). I know there are interviews, and I know that your clerkship performance is evaluated. But is this all? What do med students do to make themselves good vs bad candidates? Is it familiarity with the specialty through electives? Im just a little confused about it, thanks to anyone who can clarify!

[rollester]

I'm actually really curious about this as well. I've heard of people taking on roles like class rep in med school just so it looks good on their carms applications... I wouldn't want to waste my time on something that I don't want to do. Is it like med school applications where you should do what you like (as long as you can talk about it passionately in the interview) and not worry about doing things just for the application?

 

Also, are research papers (published after you get accepted into med) considered in the interview process?

[spiderpig]

I'd love some insight into this as well. If there are also any resources for exploring different specializations (to help one decide), that would be a big help too.

[WaveSense]

Do what you're interested in doing.. shadow so you have an idea of what different specialties do. Here is a document showing what specialty directors thought of certain aspects of applicant's application... note that the actual questionaire was given only to Toronto directors, so there MAY be an academic/research bias in their responses.

 

http://www.facmed.utoronto.ca/Assets/ume/studentaffairs/CanMedRes_Guide.pdf

[Guest viscous]

Wave, nice link. (y)

 

I am looking at brief description of specialties in that pdf file. For example Derm residents spend first 2 years of rotations in Internal Medicine. How are these first 2 years different from someone who is an Internal Medicine resident? Pardon me if this is a "stupid" question, I am just getting used to the idea that first 2 years of Internal Medicine are also the first two years of many other specialties such as derm, radiology etc.

[Lactic Folly]

Check out the CaRMS subforum here (as well as the specialty-specific ones) - many relevant threads.

 

Each specialty has its own set of rotation requirements as set out by the Royal College. Derm would be expected to be internal medicine-heavy, as would neurology or any other field which requires a strong background in internal medicine. Radiology would spend at most a few months in internal medicine and its subspecialties during PGY-1, no more.

[rogerroger]

 

http://www.facmed.utoronto.ca/Assets/ume/studentaffairs/CanMedRes_Guide.pdf

 

 

Yeah just to push this guide more, I consider that guide the gold-standard document on this topic. It is not perfect. But it is worth a read by every med student who will be participating in CaRMS down the road.