There are two main hurdles in the Queen’s Ophthalmology CaRMS selection process:
- being shortlisted for an interview
- being ranked on the final rank order list
In order to be shortlisted for an interview, the selection team reviews every aspect of a medical student’s CaRMS file. Areas we pay particular attention to include:
- academic record
- research and scholarly activities
- volunteer activities, leadership roles, and initiatives
- letters of reference
- personal letter.
The personal letter should give us insight in to who you are, your interest in ophthalmology and the Queen’s program, as well as your career aspirations.
After carefully reviewing each file, we have the very difficult task of paring down the long list of highly qualified applicants to 16–18 students for our interview shortlist. Although each individual applicant will have a very impressive file, we cannot interview every applicant. As such, we shortlist the students we feel have not only the qualifications, but also the qualities we believe will allow them to flourish in our program. These students are then notified by email of their invitation for an interview on the predetermined date in January.
On the day of interviews, each candidate will have three ~12-minute standardized interviews. These interviews generally explore the candidate's reasoning skills, interpersonal skills,interest in ophthalmology, Queen’s, as well as other areas of interest. At the time of final ranking, all aspects of the applicant's file, coupled with their interview, are taken in to consideration.