[acc-trig title=”Which residency program did you match into? And where?”]
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Toronto Anatomical Pathology
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[acc-trig title=”Do you feel that your choice of electives had any impact on your CaRMS match? If yes, please give a brief description?”]
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Yes – my electives were heavily geared towards my top match choices
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[acc-trig title=”What did you do with your Med 1 and Med 2 summers? (i.e. exposures, research, etc…)”]
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Research in Toronto in Med 1, Med II research project in Med 2.
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[acc-trig title=”What was the best piece of advice you received while going through the match process?”]
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1) From Dr Horton: regard your elective time as precious investments to place in your future, esp. for competitive programs. I dual applied to pathology and internal medicine and only did 1 internal medicine elective (3 week CTU in Toronto) and got interviews for 5/6 IM programs I applied to (UBC, UT, Queens, McGill, Manitoba – no interview at Western).
2) Don’t use your pre-CaRMS elective time to learn new things. Save that for post CaRMS. If you want Internal, do a CTU elective, not a subspecialty.
3) When writing your personal letters (from a UT Internist – this probably only applies to competitive programs.) – regard it as a job application, not a personal statement. Paragraph 1: Why Internal? Paragraph 2: Vivid story that illustrates this. Paragraph 3: Why you? (What makes you a good fit? Why will you thrive?) Paragraph 4: Why Toronto (for ACADEMIC not personal reasons)? There’s no need to be creative. Just be straightforward and talk about SPECIFIC things that happened IN MEDICAL SCHOOL – this attending literally said to me that he stops reading if you mention your grandmother or the bone you broke as a kid.
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[acc-trig title=”What was the most valuable lesson or experience you had while going through the match process? Can you describe this?”]
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If, by January, you 100% don’t want to go to a program and can afford to not rank it, don’t go to the interview. There were several programs I interviewed for as “backups” or “practice” but in the end I didn’t even rank them because I strongly disliked the program. One in particular made for a very long travel day which affected my interview the next day for a program I did really want.
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[acc-trig title=”If you could go back and change anything during pre-clerkship or clerkship, what would you change?”]
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Would have shadowed more in pre-clerkship – had a very hard time deciding what to go for. Summers – I was repeatedly told research isn’t that highly valued (even by Toronto! They need clinicians too!). Go develop something you really enjoy. You’ll never have time off like that again.
Clerkship – one thing I did right – ask for reference letters right after the rotation, ask in person at your FITER, send the actual email asking again/confirming during CaRMS.
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[acc-trig title=”What did you do in your four years of medical school that you found to be the most helpful during the CaRMS process?”]
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Do a good job during clerkship and electives. I think my reference letters really helped. When writing your personal letter, draw out a clear storyline. Think about your “personal narrative”.
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[acc-trig title=”Do you have any final words of wisdom or advice? If yes, do tell.”]
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If you can’t choose between two specialties and you would be equally happy doing both, pick the one with the better lifestyle (I’m biased)
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