tupacandbiggie Posted October 28, 2014 Report Share Posted October 28, 2014 Does anyone have any idea how this would affect my application for CARMs? I started clerkship with lots of family issues going on and it was ill all the time (but I didn't get any medical note or record for that). As a result I failed my first rotation family medicine. Then I decided to take a year off to sort out all the problems. I came back a year after completed third year no problem and now it's CARMs. I want to do family medicine but on my transcript it showed that I had a No credit (fail) for the rotation I did in third year the first time. I am really devastated. Does anyone else know anyone in the same boat? What did they do for CARMs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carazadie Posted October 28, 2014 Report Share Posted October 28, 2014 I don't know anyone in this specific situation, but I do know people who have had to take a year off or repeat a year. You should address the reason for your year-off in your personal letters. The fact that it happened to be FM that you failed is irrelevant, in my opinion--it could have been any rotation. You failed because of personal issues, not because of a lack of aptitude or interest in FM. However if you are worried about what programs will think, you could draw attention to the fact that you did well in FM the second time around and ended up falling in love with it, even though you had a rough first go. Paint it as a challenge overcome. Good luck with CaRMS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tupacandbiggie Posted October 29, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 29, 2014 Thanks Carazadie Anyone else have any advice? I checked the family medicine choice to quota there seems to be over 200 spots unfilled every year, would schools turn candidates down despite of having unfilled spots? Or do they usually always accept everyone if there's unfilled spots? Does anyone know? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-Stark Posted October 30, 2014 Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 Talk to your student affairs office. You need to give a very clear account of what happened, how you approached it, and how you overcame it. I think you have to be prepared for not necessarily getting as many interviews as you'd hope for, but applying widely is sound advice for anyone. The key will be to craft a good personal statement explaining what happened and being ready to talk about it in interviews. You don't necessarily need to go into exhaustive detail, but I tend to think that personal setbacks can leave you all the more experienced and resilient on the other side, and that's a pretty good spin on it too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 Talk to your student affairs office. You need to give a very clear account of what happened, how you approached it, and how you overcame it. I think you have to be prepared for not necessarily getting as many interviews as you'd hope for, but applying widely is sound advice for anyone. The key will be to craft a good personal statement explaining what happened and being ready to talk about it in interviews. You don't necessarily need to go into exhaustive detail, but I tend to think that personal setbacks can leave you all the more experienced and resilient on the other side, and that's a pretty good spin on it too. I second this - they are definitely the first place I would start. If you want family (which I think you are implying) and are willing to apply everywhere, and can show how you overcame things then I would be surprised if you didn't match anywhere. It may effect where you match of course but that isn't the end of all things with the residency program being so short and the freedom you would have after that. I certainly have come across people in a much worse situation than yourself get through and match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knovecc Posted October 31, 2014 Report Share Posted October 31, 2014 1) it showed that you just got better (improved right?) 2) FM won't be that competitive so don't worry Buddy, you may not match to the specific site (say downtown Toronto or Vancouver), but I don't think matching to FM will be a problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drake19 Posted November 26, 2014 Report Share Posted November 26, 2014 The fact that it happened to be FM that you failed is irrelevant, in my opinion--it could have been any rotation. You failed because of personal issues, not because of a lack of aptitude or interest in FM. I disagree with this statement if you look at the RBC residency guide - this is a major no-no on your application as reported by the course directors....to the original poster my honest opinion is that you have some important red flags (which would be indicated on your dean's letter / MSPR) you would probably have to explain why you failed your clerkship and why you took a year off, etc....for example did you fail because of some profesional issue / failed NBME exam..also depends if you are IMG or CMG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sultanator Posted November 26, 2014 Report Share Posted November 26, 2014 The most important thing is that you come clean regarding your issues during the interviews, and ideally in your personal letter. The last thing you want is for them to think that you're trying to hide or downplay the events by waiting for them to ask you about it. I know people in similar spots who matched in both FM and competitive specialities. Yes, it's a potential red flag if you don't do anything about it, but there's also a way for you to spin in to your advantage. Good luck ! :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TOalexMD Posted November 26, 2014 Report Share Posted November 26, 2014 I wasn't in your exact situation, but I had failed a block in preclerkship and had to write a remedial exam. I was worried this would affect my match, so I applied broadly and went to all interviews that I could. I addressed the issue in almost all of my interviews except ones that explicitly stated that the interview score and chart review score were independent of one another. I practiced on how to bring up the issue in an interview and how to put a positive spin on it. At the end of the day, I matched to my top ranked program! Family is usually pretty forgiving. Just make sure you "bring it" for the interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drake19 Posted November 29, 2014 Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 Thanks Carazadie Anyone else have any advice? I checked the family medicine choice to quota there seems to be over 200 spots unfilled every year, would schools turn candidates down despite of having unfilled spots? Or do they usually always accept everyone if there's unfilled spots? Does anyone know? My aunt is on a selection committee at UBC and she told me that in her specialty which is very competitive if they don't find any good candidates that year they leave it unfilled. Don't know if this is the same across the country and other specialties but bascialy they don't fill seats for the sake of filling empty seats candidates have to be fully qualified Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scintillating Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 Does anyone have any idea how this would affect my application for CARMs? I started clerkship with lots of family issues going on and it was ill all the time (but I didn't get any medical note or record for that). As a result I failed my first rotation family medicine. Then I decided to take a year off to sort out all the problems. I came back a year after completed third year no problem and now it's CARMs. I want to do family medicine but on my transcript it showed that I had a No credit (fail) for the rotation I did in third year the first time. I am really devastated. Does anyone else know anyone in the same boat? What did they do for CARMs? I would talk to student affairs about how to approach this issue. I had to take time off due to medical reasons and thus did a bit poorly some rotations when I was sick. I think( or hope) it makes you a stronger candidate that you took time to regroup and came back and did well. You must have done family medicine electives after failing the core rotation? If you did well on these it would show that you have knowledge and skills in family medicine. Best of luck in interviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted December 1, 2014 Report Share Posted December 1, 2014 My aunt is on a selection committee at UBC and she told me that in her specialty which is very competitive if they don't find any good candidates that year they leave it unfilled. Don't know if this is the same across the country and other specialties but bascialy they don't fill seats for the sake of filling empty seats candidates have to be fully qualified that is quite common. There often isn't a ton of incentive to fill spots if they are only going to be filled with inferior candidates. Often they can even reuse that spot the following year by doubling up if they find better candidates (it isn't directly held over but there is kind of an internal quid pro quo about these sorts of things). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviathan Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 The only counter I can see is that they want to have residents around to take care of all the work. I know there are subspecialties that have gone unfunded / unfilled where staff are now having to cover call. Let's just say they're not happy with it haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drake19 Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 The only counter I can see is that they want to have residents around to take care of all the work. I know there are subspecialties that have gone unfunded / unfilled where staff are now having to cover call. Let's just say they're not happy with it haha. Sure you want to have residents to take all the work but the worst is when you fill a spot for the sake of filling it and you get a incompetent resident with no idea what they are doing and then they just create more problems then they solve (i.e. call staff physicians all the time especially when staff physicians are on call) When I was doing my rotations at the VA-hospital (this particular VA-hospital was 99% IMG residents)...no offence to IMGs but these particular IMGs were horrific especially on the surgery and IM services... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-Stark Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Incompetent residents are not the ones who call staff all the time. Interns should be talking to seniors and staff whenever they feel the need to. But the really bad residents are the ones who don't have insight into their own incompetence or lack of knowledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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