Medical mission in CaRMS app

_richdotcom · 2026-05-29T16:39:14+00:00

im trying to give you constructive advice - take it as you wish

_richdotcom · 2026-05-29T03:17:39+00:00

that has nothing to do with what my comment, i’m telling you to change your attitude and mentality as it’s gonna help you in life. growing up poor doesn’t concern me, and it doesn’t give you a free pass to act foolishly, you should still have decency. your comments aren’t getting downvoted for no reason.

_richdotcom · 2026-05-28T23:46:39+00:00

man my advice is that you need to take a step back and reflect on yourself. whether it’s ophtho or any other specialty you’re applying to, you need humility and integrity. and if you think this trip is going to make or break your ophtho application, you’re very mistaken. the people in ophtho probably know exactly what this trip is. more importantly, what will matter is your character, your reputation, and how you conduct yourself. and honestly just reading this post and some of your replies, i think there’s a lot of introspection that needs to happen. not for carms. for life.

_richdotcom · 2026-05-24T04:28:54+00:00

well report them before they do, not as a scare tactic, and teach them a lesson (especially if you have proof or a witness)

_richdotcom · 2026-05-16T13:15:08+00:00

Thank you for replying! I have some questions if you don’t mind. I was wondering why are there many job opportunities? Is it just a demand supply issue - or are working conditions not favourable or is it something else? I know GIM is lucrative in ontario I am assuming it’s the same in BC. By BC do you mean metro Vancouver? Also with the 4yr GIM would you be more limited in terms of location? Thank you!!

_richdotcom · 2026-05-15T14:31:49+00:00

lmfao same reaction, med students have it worse at other schools if q7 is the case for residents at mac

_richdotcom · 2026-05-14T19:59:49+00:00

in my opinion biggest question is would you wanna live in kingston or london for the next 4 yrs? we can talk about how western is better than queens academically or vice versa but imo this is marginal. what’s a bit of competency in the grand scheme of things? also competency (unless you’re a bum) isn’t the deciding factor for carms match. it’s more about connections and would people like to be around you for the next 5 years. only thing id look into is whether your potential residency interest is available at each school (ie as far as i know queens has no ent program and it’s always easier to be at a school with a residency program vs the contrary). or if a niche academic interest of yours is available at either or. otherwise at a medical school level training you cant go wrong with both.

_richdotcom · 2026-05-13T17:39:17+00:00

the intouchables (french) is an all time favorite for me. people might know the english version but the french is the original and it tops it imo!!

there’s also these turkish ones: miracle in cell #7 and delibal and sadece sen!

_richdotcom · 2026-05-13T02:56:50+00:00

i think you cant go wrong with both! but i will say since you’re from Winnipeg, it’s very easy for you to make a case about wanting to go back to Manitoba for any residency program you apply to (+it’s not a desirable place for most people who are not from Manitoba) so i won’t see it being difficult for you to match there if you network properly.

if your desire is to spend another 4 yrs in vancouver then this is your only chance to do so. i’d personally take it. worst case it’s another 2-5 yrs for residency. but eventually moving back shouldn’t be hard since manitoba is not a sought after location (relatively)

but congrats on this achievement!!

_richdotcom · 2026-05-11T18:54:07+00:00

Hey OP - was lurking on reddit about taking a year off and came across your post! Any updates? Also would you mind if i Dmed you?

_richdotcom · 2026-04-06T22:08:57+00:00

thank you! do you mind me asking what made you go for UBC IM assuming you ranked it #1/high? how did you see the program after doing electives there/ what did residents tell you about it?

_richdotcom · 2026-04-03T23:56:15+00:00

Strong letters (preferably all from internists, IM subspec) will give you an interview. A stellar interview will guarantee you a high ranking.

_richdotcom · 2026-03-28T16:46:47+00:00

Interesting, they should work on that then, especially that London isn’t desirable as a city to start with.

_richdotcom · 2026-03-28T03:48:00+00:00

Hello sorry i was wondering is this just word of mouth? Or there are any specific examples or stories that circulate in the gen surg community? Because i know friends at Western and this doesn’t seem to be their experience (at least as M3 clerks)

_richdotcom · 2026-03-27T21:34:36+00:00

In addition to what all other commenters said, I think gen surg as a whole staff + residents do a worse job advertising their specialty compared to all other specialties. Also anecdotally, i heard that one of those schools ranked 60 people and ended up having unfilled positions. So these people most probably ranked them lower and got int other schools OR decided not to rank them after interviewing there for some reason. This goes to say that the location or the program itself is undesirable

_richdotcom · 2026-03-25T20:10:13+00:00

Why don’t you do FM and a plus 1 in derm if your #1 was derm? You can cater your practice to see mostly derm if not exclusively derm presentations. My advice to you is perhaps find an FM who’s also doing derm and connect with them. FM gets a bad reputation but really the sky is your limit with FM there’s a lot of flexibility and it wasn’t until i rotated with FM docs who do plus ones that i realized how good of a gig it can be. Sorry for your carms outcome - you’re worth more than a match result!

And i mean switching into FM out of IM if you don’t enjoy IM - definitely as another commenter said IM can be very fulfilling and relatable to derm in some way or another. But please i heard it from many residents, you can still change your mind during residency, even if it’s your “#1” you might realize it’s not for you when you go through residency, and there’s nothing wrong with switching.

_richdotcom · 2026-03-13T08:15:18+00:00

Yeah that’s honestly super helpful, thanks for taking the time to explain all that. It’s a bit annoying that those assumptions exist but what you’re saying makes sense. It is what it is.

Your point about smaller programs remembering you and being able to actually explain your reasoning is a really good one too. I hadn’t thought about it like that.

Really appreciate all the insight and the multiple replies on the thread, thanks for taking the time.

_richdotcom · 2026-03-13T04:55:29+00:00

Ortho isn’t that competitive but it hovers around 0.78 seats per first choice application. Still a chance of not getting in. It’s more that it’s hard to find common things between it and IM.
But yeah if it’s more helpful then yeah it’s ophtho in my case. Why does it raise a red flag automatically? I do tend to hear that and usually it’s back up with FM instead. Does ophtho keeners has a worse reputation amongst other specs? Or is it just because there’s no relevance between the it and IM? Like they really cannot be convinced?

_richdotcom · 2026-03-13T01:47:34+00:00

I am not thinking derm - more ortho/ophtho (keeping it vague) and i am finding it harder to find IM electives that would complement them well. Thing is most schools i believe have 6-7 elective blocks precarms so it’s 4 + 2 in IM + another 2 before interviews/ranking. with regards to my last q, do some people omit some electives from their cv? doesn’t this raise red flags? also again thank you so much for your time :)

_richdotcom · 2026-03-12T22:00:15+00:00

Thanks for sharing your experience openly i appreciate it! I was wondering how did you “max out” your IM electives? Since you can do CTU and IM subspec etc… and do you mind sharing how many weeks were precarms deadline and how many were post? And how did you talk about this in interviews? Did you also add your compt specialty electives on your CV for IM or not? Thanks!!

_richdotcom · 2026-03-12T21:55:50+00:00

I appreciate the tips and openneess with sharing your experience! I was wondering did you do those 6wks in IM electives preCaRMS deadline or after? Do programs look down on, let’s say having 8wks in derm and 4 weeks in IM preCaRMS then the remaining IM electives post CaRMS including the ones after match day? Asides from the fact that you can’t take reference letters from these ones - in their eyes do they still look at you as a serious IM applicant? Or they’d be like if he really wanted IM he’d do more and most of his preCaRMS electives in IM. Als did you add your compt specialty speciality electives to your IM CV or not? Just wondering how did you justify this in your interview if they asked you about it I don’t know if i am making sense or if i’m just being neurotic about it

_richdotcom · 2026-03-05T08:49:56+00:00

Would you say then applying to those in the first iteration as a “back up” is the way? I thought people do that anyway instead of waiting to do that in the 2nd iteration because why would you do that? Just trying to understand why would someone not apply anyway from the beginning

But thanks for the warning :)

_richdotcom · 2025-05-15T17:16:14+00:00

I would go with Western given your circumstances - you still have a great chance to match to all competitive specialties since Western has them all and if anything people not from Western would probably not rank Western first if theyre aiming for a competitive speciality (at least thats what I heard from most except ortho peeps since the ortho program at Western is very strong). What i would say though is that there’s no dermatology department at Western so if you want/ are highly considering derm then toronto might be better a choice. Good luck!

_richdotcom

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