Jump to content
Premed 101 Forums

Tips for First Year Med Student


Recommended Posts

I’ve heard people mentioning that because of Calgary’s 3 year program, a person wanting to pursue a competitive specialty should have their act together with a plan formed early on in med school (less time to explore various specialties). Would any UofC med students further along in their journeys be able to provide insight on what a new med student should do in the first few months of medical school if they are interested in a competitive specialty?

Thanks!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

First, CONGRATULATIONS on your offer. UofC has an amazing family of students and staff and I'll miss so many of the people I've grown to love in my graduating class. 

My biggest piece of advice for most of first year is to just get used to the new language you'll be learning, get to know your classmates, discover what works best for you for study and organization, and develop a solid wellness routine that can hopefully be carried through to the end of clerkship. Once you feel you have these things on lock, then consider taking on ECs, research, and what-have-you to help make you competitive for the CaRMS match if you are choosing to focus on a competitive specialty. There are also a lot of great student run groups that are specialty specific that you could become involved with. I do think it's a reasonably good idea to shadow docs in specialties that you think you might want to pursue in first year. Just know that your knowledge in the first year obviously isn't the best. The main idea would be to see if you enjoy the bread-and-butter and day-to-day work that the doc you're shadowing deals with.

I think if you start building your CV towards the end of first year (which is around February, I think?), then you'll be fine. Also keep in mind that oftentimes you will do well during the CaRMS match if your personality matches whatever group you're applying to and you're teachable. There are examples where this hasn't worked out, clearly, but I wouldn't underestimate these attributes. 

If you have any specific questions, fire away. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...