How to be competitive for CaRMS - An Updated Discussion 2017

[hopefulgirl123]

Hi everyone! I thought it would be interesting to have an updated discussion on how to be competitive for CaRMS and hopefully match to the specialties we're shooting for. The medical field is constantly changing and I think it would be beneficial to have more updated discussions about how to prepare for CaRMS.

We all know that CaRMS can be a stressful time for many. I would like to hear more from others about how to prepare a strong application for CaRMS. This discussion can include anything from research, extracurricular activities (clubs, sports, hobbies), clerkship, electives, LOR, interviews, etc. I know that this topic can be quite subjective, but I would love to still hear from you all. Any information helps!

To help categorize the information, it would be great to hear if you're a current med student, resident or other. Thanks for your help!

What do you think makes for a competitive CaRMS application?

[hopefulgirl123]

I can start with some first impressions I have. From what I've heard, the only things that matter for CaRMS are clerkship evaluations, electives LOR and interviews. I heard that research and extracurricular activities has almost no impact. I find it hard to believe that research doesn't have an impact, but to what extent it does I don't know. What should we be doing in pre-clerkship in order to excel for clerkship, and electives?

[hopefulgirl123]

Bump! Would love to hear some insight!

[W0lfgang]

There is a small portion of the pre-interview score that is allotted to research in our program.

In preclerkship, focus on learning your medicine so that you can excel in your rotations. If I see in your LOR "hopefulgirl123 is among the top 5% of med students I've ever worked with" and your referee is from an academic center who's worked with many learners, that carries a lot of weight.