Carms app and extracurriculars

[Guest Gill0927]

Hi all,

 

I know it's really early for me to be thinking about this kind of stuff, but I have another week of work, and days are long, and the mind wanders...invariably to the next 4 years.

 

I was wondering whether it's important (if at all), when matching, that you've done extracurriculars (not med-related) in med school. Do you even put it in the app? Does it detract from the app? Add? Neither? I'm planning on doing non-med related stuff while I'm in meds anyway (so my head doesn't explode), but I was wondering about how that looks/doesn't look for the match. From what I understand, 1st and 2nd year electives don't play a very important part in the matching process, so I would guess that I wouldn't be at a disadvantage if I only did those electives in the summers (which I plan to do) so I could do more ecs (non-med) during the year? Any insight would be great.

 

Thanks a lot,

 

Gill

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there Gill,

 

As far as I've seen and heard, non-medical extracurriculars are included in the CaRMS application.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest McMastergirl]

ECs are included, but I don't think they carry much weight. Your electives would carry more weight than your extracurriculars, unless your extracurriculars are related to what you are planning to do for a living. CaRMS applications are different than med school - they're not looking for "well-rounded" as much as "knows what they're getting into."

[Guest Ian Wong]

To be honest, I think extra-curriculars are under-appreciated. If you really wanted to stand out, spending the time getting some published research or getting great clinical grades will take you much farther than lots of extra-curriculars. Of course, there's the whole interview process as well, so if you come across as too one-dimensional and not interesting/well-rounded, that doesn't help you either. It's a very arbitrary system.

 

Ian

[Guest dakar]

I was given a hard time in the interview for med school BECAUSE I had a lot of extracurriculars.

 

That particular interviewer questioned my focus and ability to devote myself to medical studies, given all my other interests.

 

Just another viewpoint...