2017 Carms Applicants

[hkmedic]

Huge internal year again

 

Yes ditto this statement. Seems like lots of medical students I've talked to are applying to internal medicine.

[ralk]

wow, well good luck everyone! by the laws of musical chairs someone else must be having it easier because of that. 

 

uh CARMS. 

 

Kind of wondering what specialty that'll be, because I can't think of an obvious one. Maybe FM will have another year of declining interest from its recent historical highs?

[Sarvish]

It may just be a lot more people backing up with internal compared to previously. It seems to be a more popular back-up than it was for the year above us, at least at Mac.

[hamham]

ON announced, 2 years ago, that they had plans to reduce the number of PGY-1 spots in the province by 50 by 2017. If I recalled correctly, family and internal medicine were most affected by the cuts. Fewer spots + More/Same interest = more competitive?  

[#YOLO]

ON announced, 2 years ago, that they had plans to reduce the number of PGY-1 spots in the province by 50 by 2017. If I recalled correctly, family and internal medicine were most affected by the cuts. Fewer spots + More/Same interest = more competitive?  

Theyre not doing the cuts for CMGs this year. 

[amichel]

Didn't get the first interview that came out for my speciality. Knew I wouldn't get all of them, but missing the first one (then having all weekend to stew about it) stings a little!

[jbf]

Didn't get the first interview that came out for my speciality. Knew I wouldn't get all of them, but missing the first one (then having all weekend to stew about it) stings a little!

I feel your pain.

[Sarvish]

Same for me I did an elective there and had a reference letter so it stung quite a bit. I just want 1 as reassurance that I don't have a giant red flag hiding somewhere in my application

[amichel]

Same for me I did an elective there and had a reference letter so it stung quite a bit. I just want 1 as reassurance that I don't have a giant red flag hiding somewhere in my application

Exactly. Makes you overanalyze every aspect and think you'll get no interviews somehow.

[LittleDaisy]

Hey guys, rejections are really harsh on us. But please don't over-analyze what could go wrong, or wondering if your application were not strong enough.

CaRMS period is so stressful for all of us, the process is not so transparent and objective in my opinion.

Who knows, sometimes your file reviewer just doesn't like your personal letter, or had a rough day and decided to be strict on the interview list.

For Family Medicine, I was rejected from McGill, and got invited to Toronto....which was surprising...because I am from Quebec Medical Student, and I did IM elective at McGill. I was perplexed, and kept thinking what went wrong. After one day, I just told myself that there are more important things to focus on

I think that it is their loss, and you guys will be happy somewhere else! 

Feel free to rant on this thread!

Same for me I did an elective there and had a reference letter so it stung quite a bit. I just want 1 as reassurance that I don't have a giant red flag hiding somewhere in my application

[Sarvish]

Well I just got an email telling me that they interviewed about 1/3 of the applicants which makes me feel a little better. Could still be an average applicant and match so it's a nice boost.

[LittleDaisy]

You would be a strong applicant to other programs!!! I know that it is really hard to do, but try to think about other things, or do something else, to get rid of the negative thought.

When I got my first rejection email, I was feeling very down and could not understand what went wrong...but you will feel happier when you receive invites from other schools!!

Well I just got an email telling me that they interviewed about 1/3 of the applicants which makes me feel a little better. Could still be an average applicant and match so it's a nice boost.

[amichel]

Well I just got an email telling me that they interviewed about 1/3 of the applicants which makes me feel a little better. Could still be an average applicant and match so it's a nice boost.

Nice! I haven't actually gotten a reject email yet (program notifies all applicants) so there is still a tiny sliver of hope in my mind, just waiting to be crushed tomorrow morning haha.

[Sarvish]

Nice! I haven't actually gotten a reject email yet (program notifies all applicants) so there is still a tiny sliver of hope in my mind, just waiting to be crushed tomorrow morning haha.

I haven't heard from a school that says they only notify successful applicants so it's an assumed rejection but you'd think they could send us a courtesy email. Like come on, they know how stressful this is for us, just a generic email to everyone would be nice

[amichel]

I haven't heard from a school that says they only notify successful applicants so it's an assumed rejection but you'd think they could send us a courtesy email. Like come on, they know how stressful this is for us, just a generic email to everyone would be nice

Yup. It seems like unnecessary cruelty.

[LittleDaisy]

A lot of programs only notify successful applicants though...Without the forum interview thread, I won't even have a slight clue what programs' invites have come out..

It would be really nice if programs notify everyone at the same time, whether good or bad...Basic courtesy..After all, we would be their future colleagues, would be nice to know that we are not invited!

[hamham]

Hey guys, rejections are really harsh on us. But please don't over-analyze what could go wrong, or wondering if your application were not strong enough.

CaRMS period is so stressful for all of us, the process is not so transparent and objective in my opinion.

Who knows, sometimes your file reviewer just doesn't like your personal letter, or had a rough day and decided to be strict on the interview list.

For Family Medicine, I was rejected from McGill, and got invited to Toronto....which was surprising...because I am from Quebec Medical Student, and I did IM elective at McGill. I was perplexed, and kept thinking what went wrong. After one day, I just told myself that there are more important things to focus on

I think that it is their loss, and you guys will be happy somewhere else! 

Feel free to rant on this thread!

Is family medicine your first choice discipline? It seems that those who rejected by McGill this year are the ones that are going for an alternative specialty and are backing with family medicine.

[LittleDaisy]

It's more internal medicine, but it's getting more and more competitive ????????

I did do IM, woman health and mental health electives...with 3 LORs from family physician..I thought that it showed my interest to be a family physician...oh well

[LittleDaisy]

Hey guys, for those applying to Family Medicine at McGill. I just received an interview invite today, I guess that they are sending invites in batches. 

Most of the programs send the invites together, I guess that McGill FM is different

[datradslife]

I've learned that this CaRMS game is such a random crapshoot. I also didn't get an invite to a program I really thought I would even though I did not complete an elective there. So perhaps that was it, but in speaking with a classmate I was informed that they didn't get invites after doing an elective in the specific program and multiple electives in the province. For both of us, I would have thought our applications would have been average to above average at least.

 

Rejection really does make you over think things and the thought of going unmatched becomes real. I'm already wishing I applied for more programs even if I didn't really 'want' to go... When in reality I would go to any location than be unmatched.

 

- Keepin' the faith

[rmorelan]

A lot of programs only notify successful applicants though...Without the forum interview thread, I won't even have a slight clue what programs' invites have come out..

It would be really nice if programs notify everyone at the same time, whether good or bad...Basic courtesy..After all, we would be their future colleagues, would be nice to know that we are not invited!

 

that has bugged me for years. Ideally the CARMS system in some fashion would have a way of recording and notifying what has been sent out. In the past there have even been cases where someone was simply accidentally not emailed etc (people are human afterall). If there was some part of the system that sent you an email either way at least then you would know that there is an email error if you got nothing. 

 

I know it is convenient not to have to send out an email to potentially 100s of applicants (say for family medicine spots as an example) but still we have technology now to help with that. Really we could come up with a much better less stressful way. 

[rmorelan]

I've learned that this CaRMS game is such a random crapshoot. I also didn't get an invite to a program I really thought I would even though I did not complete an elective there. So perhaps that was it, but in speaking with a classmate I was informed that they didn't get invites after doing an elective in the specific program and multiple electives in the province. For both of us, I would have thought our applications would have been average to above average at least.

 

Rejection really does make you over think things and the thought of going unmatched becomes real. I'm already wishing I applied for more programs even if I didn't really 'want' to go... When in reality I would go to any location than be unmatched.

 

- Keepin' the faith

 

since we removed all objective criteria from the process in almost all cases then it really does come down to a crapshoot sometimes. Our pass/failure system has some advantages - helping with residency selection though isn't one of them. 

[indefatigable]

Well, we still have undergrad transcripts. To answer your previous post, wasn't there an issue on match day a few years back? Maybe there is a more systematic/ easier way to email people, but every possibility has potential flaws.

 

It seems to me that after medical school to go back to undergrad transcripts would miss a great deal of the picture. Not to mention, it would probably favour graduates from some schools where transcripts are used heavily in admission (so improved chances at residency too).

[rmorelan]

Well, we still have undergrad transcripts. To answer your previous post, wasn't there an issue on match day a few years back? Maybe there is a more systematic/ easier way to email people, but every possibility has potential flaws.  

 

true but those are 4 years min out of date, and also introduce another level of subjectivity in a sense. We have the age old problem of figuring out if program X at university Y with GPA Z is better than program A at university B with GPA C. Each one of those variables is a factor in the comparison so we once again have to process that - and each school that uses UG transcripts has to work with that. 

 

and yeah it could in theory bias the process against particular schools I suppose - if say you are using Western's best two years and the other two years not to so stellar but the target program in the end is using the entire GPA there is a mismatch. Particular since Western uses that best two years BECAUSE it knows it is really using the MCAT as a standardization tool. You could have an amazing MCAT score but it won't matter if the residency program of choice won't look at it. 

[rmorelan]

Well, we still have undergrad transcripts. To answer your previous post, wasn't there an issue on match day a few years back? Maybe there is a more systematic/ easier way to email people, but every possibility has potential flaws.  

 

if you are talking about the 2013 year the problem was their entire system crashed, no one could log in to get there results. That resulted is everyone continuously trying to log in further crashing the system for hours (plus even getting some people's results wrong). 

 

No system is perfect - but I cannot forgive CARMS that easily - they have a completely defined problem - they know exactly how many people will log in and exactly when they will log in. From a software point of view that is ideal