Real Beef Posted September 26, 2011 Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 There ... finally I completed my OMSAS application and submitted it!! Since I only applied to NOSM due to owning a home on Manitoulin and not wanting to move elsewhere in Canada ... all eggs in one basket deal ... NOSM or bust Now the waiting ... or rather distracting myself to forget about it for a few months. With all kinds of other things in my life swirling and moving it wont be hard to forget about my med application. Good luck everyone on getting to the next stage ... the interview .... Beef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiga gal Posted September 26, 2011 Report Share Posted September 26, 2011 good luck, i am sure u will receive an interview...same for me, it's NOSM or nothing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Real Beef Posted November 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2011 Wow, how frustrating .... its Nov 16th and I am still chasing my referees to write and send in their reference letters. I gave them their reference packages in August to give them plenty of time to write them. I made the mistake of telling them that they had until Dec 1st to send them in ... well guess what they are certainly waiting until the last minute. One of my references Ive reminded 3-4 times now. I spoke to her on Monday and she said that she was going to work on it that night but had a proposal come up and will have to delay a bit and asked me to remind her AGAIN!! Argh! Another referemce just had the reference package I provided on his desk for months now ... Ive reminded him twice now .... even gave him a self stamped/addressed letter. It is very frustrating. If I have to apply next year I will falsely tell them it is due Oct 3 rather than Dec 1st .... Hope no one else is suffering a similar fate. Beef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoote Posted November 16, 2011 Report Share Posted November 16, 2011 Actually I received the OMSAS letter reviewing my application and it says they didn't get one of my referee's letters. He said he sent it in so I don't know why they don't have it. I sent him a letter and asked him to send it again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chicklets3 Posted November 16, 2011 Report Share Posted November 16, 2011 Wow....If at all possible, I wouldn't wait for your last referee to finally have the time to write your reference letter. It sounds like they have a severe case of "procrastinitus" and I wouldn't take the chance that your letter may not arrive on time, if it arrives at all. You have an excellent chance of getting in this year and I wouldn't want your neglectful referee to ruin this for you. You can switch referees if need be. Find someone who will write your letter right away and then change the information on the OMSAS site. With your work in the healthcare field you should be able to easily find a great reference from amongst your colleagues. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb123 Posted November 16, 2011 Report Share Posted November 16, 2011 the key is to lie and tell them it's due sometime in Nov. I told mine that they were due on the 15th, and one of them arrived directly on the 15th. Something to definitely remember applying next year or to other positions if I use him again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiga gal Posted November 16, 2011 Report Share Posted November 16, 2011 i would change your reference stat! because you will not be applying next year, you are going to get in!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayward son Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 I didn't think that you could switch referees after October 3rd? I hope I am wrong on that. I don't think that one needs to flat-out lie to your referees. They know that this is important to you. Plus, I am pretty sure that it says on the form that it is due on October 3rd (Of course they are accepted up until December) so referees should automatically assume that is when they are due. I have found that the key was to give them a short window. That sounds less accommodating, but in my experience they prefer having a deadline that is not too far ahead. When I applied last year only one of my letters was in well before the October pseudo-deadline. This year they were all in well before. The key I learned from the one early letter writer the year before was to give him a time and a day that I wanted it done. He said that he was a very busy person and that this letter would continue to fall to the bottom of the pile if I didn't give him a time and a date to put on his calendar, and then phone him at the time and make sure that he was writing it. He phoned me back an hour or two later to tell me that it was written, sealed, and mailed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiga gal Posted November 17, 2011 Report Share Posted November 17, 2011 i am fairly certain you can change your reference(s) if it looks like letter will not be written/submitted on time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Real Beef Posted November 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2011 I checked my OMSAS account today and I have two references that have been received with one still outstanding. I know which one that is ... she sent the document Tuesday Nov 22nd. I told her to send it by Express Post or Purolator. I guess she contacted OMSAS and they said not to send it by Purolator or "registered mail" what ever that is ... not sure why they told her that? Did they think I was going to track it somehow, intercept it and change the contents? I couldnt interpret my references email ... "sent out your letter this afternoon. They told me not to send it by purolator or registered mail - that was interesting." She said she was going to send it by Purolator but from that email on the 22nd I am not sure she did. Almost like OMSAS convinced her to take the slower route ... regular mail takes 3 business days in province so it should already be there ... 23,24,25,28 ... hopefully the OMSAS database is not yet updated to reflect its arrival. On to better news, my graduate degree is conferred as of Nov 11 and I resubmitted my grad transcript to get my extra 0.2. I got my OMSAS GPA assessment for my undergrad which downgraded my 3.70 to a 3.69 .... so my NOSM GPA will be 3.89 rather than a more impressive looking 3.90 Oh well, much improved since my '07 application. I am definitely crossing my fingers for an interview this year ... of course dreaming of admission! Beef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoote Posted November 29, 2011 Report Share Posted November 29, 2011 Hey Real Beef! Congratulations on all your hard work getting to this point. You are proof that determination and hard work can land anyone in a very favourable position for med school! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tb123 Posted November 29, 2011 Report Share Posted November 29, 2011 Congrats man From everything I've seen you'd make an awesome doc, hopefully you get in and stick around to give out advice next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Real Beef Posted November 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 Thanks for the kind words, Hoote & tb123. First off I hope that I am eligible as my 3rd refernce is STILL not in. I made clear to my reference person on Monday that the letter had still not arrived and would appreciate if she faxed it as well. Yesterday she emailed me to say that she would fax it tomorrow (today)... with her scattered brain its hard for me to believe that she can maintain a promise like that when there is more than 2 minutes between her promise and action, considering I gave her 4 months to write and send in the reference package ..... now here I am likely with my application on the verge of disqualification due to being one reference letter short. I called OMSAS, spoke to a nice and helpful lady who stated she couldnt tell from her computer, due to limited access, what was all in ... though there was some mention of a 'data sheet'. She forwarded me to the processing department which has more power but was less helpful, "Did you check your online account" ... OF COURSE I DID YOU IDIOT!! "Yes I already checked several times today" .... I told her that a fax might have arrived as well as a letter recently re: my application. She didnt even ask my name or application ID to investigate this and just told me to call back tomororow as it is likely amongst the 100s of documents received ... really? well that was the most amazing and helpful piece of information WELL that was useless. Heres hoping .... if not .... well my application will be easy to complete next year ... LOL ... might as well look at the humor of it. Interestingly, this reference who is also my boss doesnt realize how much producivity she has lost from me because of this situation as I have spent most of the morning worrying about this, checking my OMSAS account and after lunch calling OMSAS and checking my OMSAS account some more. Ive been practically useless at work; luckily I dont have any patients booked today and it is really just an admin day. Beef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoote Posted November 30, 2011 Report Share Posted November 30, 2011 I believe OMSAS will send your file without the last letter to NOSM regardless so I'd give NOSM a call to see if they will accept your application with only two references until your boss gets the last one in. Fingers crossed!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Real Beef Posted December 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2011 YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At 12:00 pm it had not been received yet .... at 12:27 pm it is marked as received ................ WHAT A BEAUTIFUL THING!!!! I screen captured it because it is such a beautiful, symmertical thing to see 3 "Received" words one on top of the other. If you are interested in the story behind getting this read on ... if not dont read on. Last night I was flipping out!!! My girlfriend told em to calm down because I was very agitated and couldnt relax. I had planned to do some reading on ethics last night but couldnt concentrate so I just decided to curse, swear and rant for a while than blow the night watching a few episodes of X-files on Netflix. Once my girlfriend told me that since there was nothing I could do about it tonight that I should just let it go tonight and save my energies for tomorrow ... I appreciated and followed her advice. This morning comes ... check my OMSAS account ... NOT received .... I have my breakfast, travel to work (30 minute commute) ... check my OMSAS account.... NOT received ... do you think I am OCD ... LOL. I check the OMSAS contact numbers and they state they only start taking calls at 10 am ... its 9:18 am ... damn it. I am sittig there without a patient wondering how i can proceed to get this resolved. A patient arrives .... do some diabetes education with them - they need to lose weight, do more activity .... they leave. Its after 10 am ... I call OMSAS ask if they have received my reference letter or fax of my reference letters. Their system says they havent but they say that if she faxed it within the last two-three days they would have entered it by now ......... it dawns upon me I BET SHE DIDNT FAX IT AFTER I ASKED HER TO FAX IT .... she said she would but she didnt .... DAMN IT .... so OMSAS told me to cal my reference, get them to fax it and then call back (either me or her) to confirm it was received. I said I would call (I am more reliable and have more invested in ME getting into med school, obviously my boss wants me to remain what I am at the organization indefinitely). Ok ... I thought Ill call my boss and was rather calm about it then I get an email from my boss (outstanding reference letter person) asking me to clarify a Leave Request Form I submitted on Nov 19th .... I NEARLY BLOW A GASKET!!! I had sent her three emails about clarifying that Leave Request form and she seems not to remember or something .... I am flipping out in my mind that she couldnt submit my letter in time but she has time to harass me about a stupid Leave Request form that I told her about 3 times now. So being pissed now I decide to call my boss about the reference letter she sent last week and seemingly didnt fax 3 days ago. I get her on the phone and indicate to her that her reference letter has still not been received and the fax she faxed (or rather didnt) has not been input and requested that she resubmit please. She states that she was hesitatnt to follow OMSAS's directions to send it by regular mail ....... ITS OUT SHE DIDNT SEND IT EXPRESS POST OR PUROLATOR like I asked her to get there it 2 days ... instead she sent it regular mail late Nov 23rd (5 bussines days only left), she did not mention she faxed it or didnt ... ARGH. Then she starts mumbling about her being swamped at work today ... I indicated STRONGLY that infact it was the FINAL FINAL FINAL day that these items could be received and it NEEEEEEEEEDED to be sent today. She stated that she would drop everything and fax it and then send me an email confirming this .... oh no another promise .... sounds great I tell her. A patient arrives .... oh NO I cant await the email obsessively and call OMSAS right away. Initial diabetic .... means lots of diabetes education ... perhaps an hour .... initial assessment, med review, diet history ..... do some carbohydrate counting teaching, label reading, give out some tracking forms ... follow up for 2 weeks. She leaves .... sweet .... I check my work email, boss says that the secretary faxed it. I dont trust her .... so I call the secretary, ask her if she faxed my reference lettre and forms, she says yes she sent 5 pages and the fax machine states that they were sent and completed. Ok I feel more at ease. Check OMSAS (obviously too soon) .... NOT RECEIVED.... I call OMSAS to confirm that they arrived. I get a different lady this time, this time this lady says that they will not look to see if it was received .... DAMN IT her co-worker I got earlier said they would! She says call back in afternoon if it doesnt say received then .... man why me? By this time its lunch time so I go out grab some lunch ..... get back its 12:20 pm .... check my OMSAS account ... NOT RECEIVED .... eat some of my lunch .... OCD kicks in .... check OMSAS account at 12:27 pm ..... RECEIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you read all that you just wasted some of your life ... sorry ... but at least you learned the moral of the story, which corresponds well with X-files .... "TRUST NO ONE" .... follow up and harrass your references even if they say they faxed something, if it shows up not received after a few days ... they lied ... if you asked them to send it Express post and it doesnt get there soon ... they lied and didnt .... "TRUST NO ONE" and harass your references until the only reason they do what you ask is so you stop harassing them. Beef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Real Beef Posted December 1, 2011 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2011 I believe OMSAS will send your file without the last letter to NOSM regardless so I'd give NOSM a call to see if they will accept your application with only two references until your boss gets the last one in. Fingers crossed!! I called NOSM yesterday to find out to see if just what you suggested would be possible. They said my application would be considered incomplete and would have been disqualified. Which makes sense as they have another 1800 applications that probably are complete so why mess around with incomplete ones ..... luckily Im good now. Beef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jojoluvsu2 Posted December 1, 2011 Report Share Posted December 1, 2011 YAYAYAY!! I was honestly feeling a little panic on your behalf. As much as one less strong competitor would have been nice I'd rather deserving applicants be given the chance to compete for admission. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayward son Posted December 1, 2011 Report Share Posted December 1, 2011 Wow! Incredible story Beef! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaronjw Posted December 1, 2011 Report Share Posted December 1, 2011 Thats awesome RB! I hope you get what you dserve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taiga gal Posted December 2, 2011 Report Share Posted December 2, 2011 omg....right on december 1st...and it would have been disqualified!! yikes! totally reminds me of my CD release party...I was waiting for the CD's to arrive from the U.S. right up until 5pm the night of the show!!! yah, a little stressful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalkeener Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 So how is everyone feeling? I am nervous and excited... I couldn't go to my NOSM interview last year because of finances/my mom being extremely sick and I really hope I am invited again this year. :S When do invites come out, anyway?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lekarza Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 So how is everyone feeling? I am nervous and excited... I couldn't go to my NOSM interview last year because of finances/my mom being extremely sick and I really hope I am invited again this year. :S When do invites come out, anyway?? I am starting to get nervous too! NOSM is my first choice so I really hope I get an interview. On their website they say that they will email everyone around mid February for invites and then hold the interviews in March. I hope you get an interview and are able to go to it! Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumanmacbook Posted January 8, 2012 Report Share Posted January 8, 2012 Good luck everyone Don't worry, you guys are fantastic candidates for NOSM! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamboVipi Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 Mid February? Ekk I can't wait that long! I hope they come early like they did last year. But then again, I'd wait longer to actually get an interview (unlike last year..) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalkeener Posted January 9, 2012 Report Share Posted January 9, 2012 I am starting to get nervous too! NOSM is my first choice so I really hope I get an interview. On their website they say that they will email everyone around mid February for invites and then hold the interviews in March. I hope you get an interview and are able to go to it! Best of luck! Thanks lekarza!! I really hope you do get an interview too, especially since it's your first choice. I will go to my interview this year, as my situation has improved!! That is, if I HOPEFULLYYYYY get one. Good Luck Everybody!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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