Guest therealcrackers Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Tomorrow is the deadline for programs to submit THEIR lists to CaRMS. Graduates' rank lists have to certified and in by next Thursday. Anyone else agonizing over the "finality" of submitting their rank list? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest not rex morgan Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Well it's not too final yet. I have certified, but I'm sure everybody knows that you can change and recertify up until the 17th. I found it was actually good to certify it, to print it off and see how it feels. Give it a try. That being said, yes, this is terribly agonising. I was thinking the other day that it would be nice just to get it over with and know what's going to happen. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest endingsoon Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Well for me the first couple of choices have been set in stone since before medical school started (as is the case for most people in my class in terms of location I would think) so I am just trying to iron out the details of the bottom part. Most of the programs have had their lists in for a while now (some over 2 weeks ago) so I doubt many of them are waiting until tommorrow to make it official. The nerves will only get worse from here on out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest not rex morgan Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Just to clarify, the rank lists are due the 17th at 9PM EST for our part...not tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Sarah371 Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 I feel for you about the rank lists.....I sat there for an hour on the phone with my family last year trying to psyche myself up to make it final.....remember if you can rank deeply.....but don't rank anywhere you do not think you will be happy....even at the bottom of your list.......good luck to all. SARAH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 I haven't done anything with my rank lists. I'm clearer than I was halfway through my interviews - at one point, I was considering trying to rank the programs all #1 and then let them sort out where I'd go! I'm pretty sure I know my #1, but after that I'm quite undecided. What happens if I don't submit a rank list?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest therealcrackers Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 If you don't submit one, I don't think you are considered to have ranked any programs, you will go unmatched, seize like a hooked tuna, and DIE. :eek Maybe not the last part... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest endingsoon Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 'm pretty sure I know my #1, but after that I'm quite undecided. Well I would rank that no.1 for sure. You cannot match to a program you do not rank. If you really are not decided then you could wait until the second round and see if any of those spots are still there, but that is VERY risky. My advice would be to bite the bullet and figure out some way to rank them (might have to involve ETOH if it is that close Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest not rex morgan Posted February 12, 2005 Report Share Posted February 12, 2005 Another point of clarification. When ranking your choices, there can't be any ties...ie you can't rank everything #1. Get it down on the computer, certify it, see how it feels. It's actually quite helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted February 13, 2005 Report Share Posted February 13, 2005 Rather than EtOH, I was thinking maybe dice would work. Or maybe Ian could set up a poll here "what program should UWOMED2005 rank highest." I could then form my rank list in terms of whatever program received the most votes. :lol But seriously, there is no danger of me not submitting a rank list by thursday. I will put something down, I'm just not sure what yet. The good news is my problem is I'd be happy pretty much anywhere I'm going to match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kirsteen Posted February 14, 2005 Report Share Posted February 14, 2005 Hi there endingsoon; What do you mean by the following: Well for me the first couple of choices have been set in stone since before medical school started... Cheers, Kirsteen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest endingsoon Posted February 14, 2005 Report Share Posted February 14, 2005 Well for me the first couple of choices have been set in stone since before medical school started... What I meant about that was that for me (and most of my class I would imagine) we probably already knew exactly what we would be ranking near the top of our rank lists in terms of location before we even knew what rank lists were. All that we needed to do was spend 4 yrs of medical school trying to figure out what we wanted to do. Its quite interesting to comapre rank lists within the class; although we all have so many different specialities, almost everyone has a very similar preference for location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted February 14, 2005 Report Share Posted February 14, 2005 Really? I had no idea where I'd want to be 4 years ago. I haven't exactly lived in every program center in Canada yet. I'm very impressed most of your friends have. And I had no idea in 1st year how good the programs were in any one center in Canada, let alone what program I'd want to do. That's pretty important to me, I'm not going to go to a center unless I think they offer decent training in my program. Most of my friends who are serious (or even moderately so) about any particular specialty that is fairly competitive are applying to every center that offers that specialty. Even the Toronto boys are ranking Saskatoon, just in case that's what they need to do. My choices changed drastically through the interview process. It's not like I was able to do an elective everywhere I was interested in. 4th year interviews provided me with a chance to really get a sense for each program and interact with the residents. . . get a feel for whether they were really happy or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest endingsoon Posted February 14, 2005 Report Share Posted February 14, 2005 Most of my friends who are serious (or even moderately so) about any particular specialty that is fairly competitive are applying to every center that offers that specialty. Even the Toronto boys are ranking Saskatoon, just in case that's what they need to do. Yes of course, that it is not what I meant. Sorry if this is just coming out wrong. Really all I am trying to say (in a rather poor fashion) is that most people, when you acutally run through the top 3-4 choices, all elected to primairly apply to programs that were close to home. Now of course there are people in the class from out west and such that don't fit the model, but it would seem that most people are ranking programs in Ontario and the neighbouring Montreal highly. What differs of course is the exact order they do that (ie - london 1, mac 2, etc.) and the rest of the rank list. Acutally from what I have seen this year, ranking deep is very prevelent. I know people who are applying for not-so-competitive programs acutally ranking every program in the country, plus backups (I think we had a guy apply to 35 programs or something.) Maybe b.c we have a slightely older class or maybe bc many of us are so inbreed in Ontario, but we all seem to have a strong preference to stay close to home. Not a scientific study by any means, but just an observation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted February 14, 2005 Report Share Posted February 14, 2005 Good point - you actually did make a point of stating you were referring to "the top 3 or 4 programs." And yeah, many and most of my classmates are staying close to home. The extreme is a friend who was reallly keen on both coasts and was thinking of ranking those #1 and #2, but after a discussion with his parents before submitting the rank list, he did an about-face and ranked Ontario 1 through 5. It's particularly unfortunate as he still makes comments about like the OOP programs, but would feel guilty ranking those higher. I find it funny because I've always been willing to travel for school and like the idea of living somewhere else. In this day of e-mail, air travel, and cheap long distance, Vancouver -Halifax doesn't seem as far to me. As well, my undergrad institution in Halifax was more than 50% OOP students. I had friends from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and all the maritime provinces (for whatever reason I didn't know anybody from Manitoba.) I also have lots of friends who moved to the UK or further for work post-grad. I honestly can't see those people feeling obliged to rank in their home province if they were in the same situation. You made an interesting point about western canadians at U of T ranking by different priorities. I've noticed the same at UWO, and it somewhat applies to the east coast students as well. But I'd go one step further and suggest part of the difference is inherent in the personality of someone who chooses to go to U of T or UWO for meds when they're from out west. You're not going to get too many people who feel tied down to Vancouver or Calgary or Halifax choosing to do 4 years of medicine in Toronto or London. I'd also guess the same thing is true for some or many of the Torontonians or Londoners in med school in Calgary, Halifax or Vancouver! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mying Posted February 14, 2005 Report Share Posted February 14, 2005 Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! I don't know what I'm doing!!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted February 15, 2005 Report Share Posted February 15, 2005 It's easy if you follow this step-by-step instruction guide to generating a CaRMS list: 1) Cut out strips of paper, one for each program you've applied to. 2) Write the name CaRMS code of each program and you've applied to on one of the strips of paper. 3) Fold each paper in half. 3) Place all the strips of paper into a hat. Alternatively you can use a large bowl or small box. Really any kind of container will do. 4) Shake and or stir the strips of paper to randomize the selection process. 5) Randomly pick out strips of paper and copy the CaRMs codes into the boxes on the CaRMS site. You don't even have to write the names down - CaRMS will give you a printout of what your selected. Press "save list" and then "list done" 6) Head out to the LCBO and buy plenty of booze. You'll feel less CaRMS anxiety if your plastered right through to the March 1st match day. Alternatively, take up smoking. Yeah, it will kill you and you'll smell bad and have yellow teeth, but it's actually a pretty good anxiolytic. 7) If notified on Feb 29th that you didn't match, repeat steps 1-6 with your new programs. Buy less booze as there's less time between rank certification and 2nd round match day. But seriously, putting my rank list together was very tough. I understand what you're going through. For a couple of the spots I was undecided between #3 and #4, I actually did draw names out of the hat. Not so much to make and actual decision as to tease out my feelings between two programs I thought I was undecided - ie if I couldn't decide between Ottawa and Queen's for #4 and #5, I'd draw their names from a hat. . . if I was disappointed I drew Queen's, then that was a pretty good indication I should rank Ottawa higher! Good luck with all this CaRMage. And just be glad you're not involved with the couples fiasco. . . a couple of classmates have a rank list that's over 200 possibilities long! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest endingsoon Posted February 15, 2005 Report Share Posted February 15, 2005 Great story UWOMED, another idea might be to base it on what the hot girls are applying to... Did not knwo that there was an offical 'unmatch' day this year on Feb 29th..is that unqiue to UWO or is that universal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest UWOMED2005 Posted February 15, 2005 Report Share Posted February 15, 2005 I think traditionally CaRMS lets ALL applicants who haven't matched know the day before match day so that there are no nasty surprises, and so they can get working on the second round. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest endingsoon Posted February 15, 2005 Report Share Posted February 15, 2005 I think traditionally CaRMS lets ALL applicants who haven't matched know the day before match day so that there are no nasty surprises, and so they can get working on the second round. To the best of my knowledge that was true up until this year, when they did away with that tradition. maybe someone can confirm this; I would hate to think I had matched when in fact I had not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest therealcrackers Posted February 15, 2005 Report Share Posted February 15, 2005 Two things: it's 2005, so there is no February 29th this year. And CaRMS has done away with UnMatch Day, which used to be two days before match day. This year, every applicant for CaRMS can find out on the same day, Tuesday March 1st. Yikes! Two weeks and 12 hours away! :eek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest not rex morgan Posted February 15, 2005 Report Share Posted February 15, 2005 Only med students would start counting down the HOURS two weeks outside of countdown time. As for unmatch day, I think in the past, it was set up for devastation/privacy reasons. You used to have to show up at the Dean's office on your match day and be handed a letter. It was apparently a zoo. People were elated in one direction and devastated in another. The devastated people were those that got spots lower on their list as the unmatched people were counselled a couple of days earlier to give them a bit of time to get used to it before their classmates were getting ready to set up shop somewhere. I guess with the computer delivery system, there's no public displays of utter panic. Speaking of the computers. Don't forget to get your stuff in well before the deadline. Think about it. Our match lists are due the 17th, and we don't hear anything until the 1st of March. I don't know what that lag period is, but I'm assuming a good part of it is running the permutations of everybody across Canada's matches. If it takes that long, I'm assuming the computers cannot be THAT fast. Get your lists in before the whole system crashes at the last minute when everybody logs on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest endingsoon Posted February 15, 2005 Report Share Posted February 15, 2005 As for unmatch day, I think in the past, it was set up for devastation/privacy reasons. You used to have to show up at the Dean's office on your match day and be handed a letter. I was told today that another possible was that some people were only ranking 1 program in the country b.c they would find out if they matched a couple of days eariler. Call it crazy, but medical students are hardly the sanest bunch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mying Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 Well, I certified my list earlier today and haven't had total misgivings about it yet. Just, well, little niggly feelings, but I can't think of any better way to do it. Anywas. Good luck to all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest not rex morgan Posted February 17, 2005 Report Share Posted February 17, 2005 All I know is that I can't wait until match day. I honestly feel that I'd be very happy with a few choices I make, and I'd be happy just to match at all. It's really hard to decide where your best match would be. I guess it's just up to fate for now. Best luck to everyone. May your match be a match you'll be happy with for the next few years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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