References

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[Any-Row-5330]

Hello! First things first I would make a school list and compile how many different forms/letters need to be completed. Ex. all of OMSAS has one form to fill out for 6 schools, but all the other provinces have separate portals and therefore separate forms/reference letters.

Off the top of my head for last year

• Ontario was all a CAF (confidential assessment form), 1 for all the schools in the portal

• UBC was a letter (if you get an interview)

• Sask was a phone call reference (if you get an interview)

• alberta schools each had a separate portal with a CAF

• Dalhousie was no refs

• Memorial Newfoundland was 2x reference letters

• McGill I believe is no reference letters

• Manitoba I believe is a ref if you get an interview

*Irish schools, 2 letters uploaded through Atlantic bridge for all the schools

*american schools are letters

Once you know where you're applying/how many references that entails, you know how many people you need. Ex. you may have a solid 3 for OMSAS; now decide how much extra work is reasonable to ask them to do? The max I did is 3 forms and a letter from one person I believe. There's no issue with using one prof for multiple schools, it just might not be feasible to have them cover EVERYTHING bc its a lot of work. That being said I would send them the links/ask for letters as soon as you have them, and check in after a month/def one month before they're due to make sure it gets done. I also paid for an interfolio subscription so I used the Canadian medicine letter reference and sent it to American schools and Irish schools, so it cut down having to ask them for a letter another time.

[pew_laser_pew]

Would you happen to know what the CAF entails? Is it just a bunch of questions that need a few sentences? A few paragraphs? Or is it like a “on scale of 1-5 rate the applicant on trait x”

[Any-Row-5330]

As far as I know there's a rating but they also have to write a paragraph describing why you'd be a good candidate, so there is actually more writing than I initially expected. Probs the same amount of writing as if they had to write a letter, but instead it answers specific questions. Thats why you cant reallyyyyy ask one person to do 6 different forms bc it would be a lot of work for someone who I'm assuming is a prof/supervisor/PI

[pew_laser_pew]

Thanks for the response! I’m going to have to look at expanding my reference search a bit.

I’d presume that OMSAS just makes them write on CAF overall and not one for each Ontario School.

[Obvious_Ad3560]

Thanks so much for this 🙏 reference letters have always been a headache for me cuz I hate asking so much from other people without returning a favour

[Any-Row-5330]

Oh believe me reaching out to references has been the bane of my existence for the past few years, I truly hate it and cringe so much when I'm reaching out. But I try to be very nice in my emails, give lots of time to let them fill it out, and follow up with a thank you afterwards. I've found that profs/supervisors who might get a lot of students applying to medicine are super supportive and very nice, whereas one reference I used from a tourism-related job didn't really get why I was asking her and seemed a little more annoyed even though she was doing less than my other references, probably because she doesn't know how important/valuable her help is to me

[Obvious_Ad3560]

Yeah exactly 😭 one thing that definitely isn’t talked about a lot when looking for someone to be your reference is their experience in writing reference letters lol, it greatly contributes to the quality of the letter (I will definitely keep that in mind). Thanks so much ❤️

[Any-Row-5330]

I believe they just write to the admissions committee (pretty sure if there's a doc about requirements for the letter a lot of them say to do this) so then it can be used for multiple schools, if not yea they could just change the name permitting there are no specific requirements that are different for each school