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CaRMS Guide


boringem

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Hey team PreMed101,

 

As those of you that frequent the blog probably know by now, I have been posting CaRMS advice on my blog for the past 10 months or so. Recently, I organized the results and compiled them into a CaRMS guide with content directed at learners in different stages of medical school and the CaRMS process.

 

You can find the guide here:

http://boringem.org/carms-guide/

 

It has sections for pre-clerkship, clerkship, CaRMS applications and CaRMS interviews. I hope it helps some of you as you go through the process this year.

 

Best of luck and happy CaRMSing!

 

-brent

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Sorry AuxButtesChaumont,

 

The big server that holds many of the medical blogs (~40 of the moderate sized ones) was having issues for the past few days.

 

Everything should be working now - let me know if you have any trouble!

 

Best of luck!

 

-brent

 

 

Hey brent, can you do one on 'how to ask for letters of reference?'

Like what kind of stuff ought I be providing to my referees; is it better to do it in person or is email cool? Should I be mentioning deadlines for the referees inthe request?

 

Thank you!

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Those are some great questions! Absolutely. But it probably won't happen right away, sooooo, in brief:

 

Like what kind of stuff ought I be providing to my referees?

I think this depends slightly on who they are. Check out my Reference Letter Triple Crown post for different types you might like to ask. Generally, if they are very involved in a residency program and/or have been on a selection committee recently they will know what is included in a good LOR. If they haven't it might be worth providing them with some guidelines like these:

https://www.carms.ca/pdfs/Instruction_sheet_for_early_references_en.pdf

 

Is it better to do it in person or is email cool?

Again, i think it depends a bit on the person. Are they a tech savvy new doc? Or someone that still prints out all of their e-mails? If they're at either end of the spectrum you'll know what to do. If they are somewhere in the middle consider asking them what they would prefer. Often even the best references seem to be a bit slow on e-mail and that can be unnerving - don't let a slow reply dissuade you from using their letter if you have every reason to think they'll write you a good one.

 

Should I be mentioning deadlines for the referees in the request?

Absolutely. Regardless of how often they do this a reminder doesn't hurt. I'd suggest getting the stuff to them as early as you can and letting them know that it would be really helpful for you if they were able to send it by, say, November 15th, at the latest. That's not lying because you're not telling them that's the absolute deadline, you're telling them it would be really helpful for you. It's true because med students go a bit nuts around the reference letter deadline with qid refreshing of the CaRMS page!

 

Hope that's helpful! Good luck!!

 

-brent

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