CaRMS Stats

[yeezy]

Originally Posted by aKGDH

If this is true then isn't that more reason to be even more conservative and invest some energy into securing a backup position, ie: doing a 2 week elective at your home school family med?

One elective doing family med is one less elective doing the specialty you are gunning for. It's a messed up game we play, and with that game you have make decisions to take risks. Being conservative can mean spending less resources on your first choice specialty.

Having no idea what these guys are like, what their values are, and what they want with their life, i don't think anyone has the right to tell them they've wasted their time. To be honest, I took the same risks as these guys and I'd probably do the same if I had to do it over.

[yeezy]

Originally Posted by Blackadder

1) Especially for the ROAD specialties, a lot of weight is put behind your elective experience and letters of reference - it's really difficult to put together a competitive application for both family medicine and a subspecialty. The FM program directors aren't dunces; if they see you're CV with 16 weeks of dermatology and a pithy 2 weeks of family medicine squeezed in, they're going to put two and two together. Similarly, a lot of specialties (despite their assurances to the contrary on the CaRMS website) DO reward students who have done mostly electives in their specialty areas.
2) I don't think my effort was wasted. The experience/contacts/education I acquired while pursuing my initial interest dont just magically disappear now that I didn't match in the first round. There are still a number of ways to achieve my goals - match somewhere in the second round and transfer, take a year off and apply again, make a series of animal sacrifices to various gods and hope for the best - and all of the steps I took to get to this place can still help me out in the future.
3) Of course I considered what would happen if I didn't match, but at the end of the day, I am passionate enough about what I wanted to do for a living that I didn't want to settle for something else. Yes, I considered what would happen if I didn't match, but I rejected the dichotomy of "my specialty of choice or family medicine". Why should I "accept" that I must now go into family medicine? If we actually thought this way, can you imagine how many miserable, unmotivated family doctors there would be? People should go into a specialty because they care about it, not because it's the best of what's leftover; it's rather demeaning to the specialty of family medicine to just assume that it should be the global scrap-heap for those of us who didn't match.

At the end of the day, what I want to do ISN'T family medicine, and I'm going to keep pushing until I find myself in a position to do what I'm truly passionate about. It may mean a lot more rejection, it may mean a lot more struggle, but if you're not willing to fight for the specialty you want, then how dedicated were you to begin with?

Amen. Best of luck.

One thing I was thinking about is the choice to do 2nd iteration versus a year off. I believe if you to apply in 2nd iteration and god forbid don't match, you are not eligible for 1st iteration next year (correct me if I'm wrong). It's a difficult decision to make especially since you have a very short amount of time to get your 2nd it appplication in.

[Blackadder]

Originally Posted by lostintime

Like I said before sometimes a program gets cocky and there are normally "competitive" spots that become unfilled, e.g. Mac emerg (not sure what's up with that).

So sometimes second round has better options than potential bck-ups in first round.

I have heard some rumours about why spots went unmatched at Mac Emerg, but at this point, I'm just grateful for the chance to apply there.

Blackadder:
Fair enough. I assumed going unmatched was worse than getting a 2nd choice, which I suppose isn't true for everyone.

I hope you end up getting the specialty of your choice in the end! Good luck.

That's exactly it - I think going unmatched (in this situation) IS worse than matching to something you don't want to do. Thanks for the wishes; we'll see how it goes...

[rogerroger]

Originally Posted by lostintime

Like I said before sometimes a program gets cocky and there are normally "competitive" spots that become unfilled, e.g. Mac emerg (not sure what's up with that).

Not directly on topic but those Mac EM numbers puzzle me. I know several people who were looking quite seriously at this program. The program must of offended the CaRMS gods.

[1234]

Originally Posted by rogerroger

Not directly on topic but those Mac EM numbers puzzle me. I know several people who were looking quite seriously at this program. The program must of offended the CaRMS gods.

Every school probably had tremendous overlap with respect to interviewed applicants - like ENT two years ago - leaving some EM applicants unmatched despite available spots. I'm sure they will be gobbled up by some serious EM applicants.

[NLengr]

Originally Posted by ellorie

Wow, there was such a short peaceful interval between medical school admissions terror and CaRMS terror.

Once thats over it's on to jobs/fellowship terror.

That comes with the ever so sweet financial pressures too.

Someone remind me again why I left my stable professional career to become a physician?

[lostintime]

Originally Posted by 1234

That is not much of an argument to not back up - Especially when there are likely EM gunners that didn't match first round that will easily outcompete an unsuccessful radiology or plastics applicant.

It's jut something to consider and every year weird cases happen. Last year, a bunch of people took McGill IM spots (yea yea their program has issues but still 9 unfilled spots is a lot). If they had backed up with family or something, they wouldn't have those spots to pick from.

[justletmein]

Originally Posted by lostintime

It's jut something to consider and every year weird cases happen. Last year, a bunch of people took McGill IM spots (yea yea their program has issues but still 9 unfilled spots is a lot). If they had backed up with family or something, they wouldn't have those spots to pick from.

True, I know someone who was thrilled to take one of those spots last year, but the leftovers are so unpredictable from year to year...

[The student]

Originally Posted by 1234

Most people feel the way Blackadder feels. You spend the better part of 4 years thinking about your specialty (for example, Radiology). You focus more when radiology content is presented during a lecture because you feel that is where you will end up. You do 14 weeks of electives in radiology, studying every night so you can impress your elective preceptors. Nearing the end of your electives, your knowledge with respect to radiology allows you to actually interpret imaging in a valuable way - and more capably that med students around you. You friends, family and collegues associate you with radiology before you have matched. You are on IM core, and a fellow core or resident comes to you asking for your opinion as they recognize your knowledge in radiology.

That is they way it is when people decide early on a specialty, especially moderate to extremely competitive specialty. And the time spent, studying, and reinforcement around you makes you feel as though you are in a particular specialty before you are actually there. It is tough to feel passionate about something you are pursuing as a backup. And for the great majority, it works out absolutely fine. For the small group, it is a tough reality. And that scenario cannot be avoided.

I hear what you are saying, but it dosen't have to be that way. I kept an open mind to a bunch of disciplines, did 6 weeks of Rad, in addition to family and internal pre carms. Ultimately I matched to my first choice. When it came interview time I was honest in saying I considered a bunch of areas, but rad was for me because of reasons z, y and z.
Also, the interview panels (with the exception of uoft and ubc who were more business) seemed more interested in the non-rad stuff and wanted to make sure you're a good fit, not that you have special knowledge about how to read an X-ray.

[mm88]

Someone help me understand this: with the Mac EM (or UWO Ortho) spots, could that be that the people they ranked ended up ranking Mac too low? Or that they ended up in a different speciality altogether?

Originally Posted by NLengr

Once thats over it's on to jobs/fellowship terror.

That comes with the ever so sweet financial pressures too.

Someone remind me again why I left my stable professional career to become a physician?

I hope to god I won't be asking myself the same question 3 years from now because I went unmatched :/