10 Replies to “Ask Me a Question”

  1. Hey Mark,

    Any advice on housing or extra items to bring for IMF? What will a typical day be like?
    Best of luck with interviews!

      1. Hey Terrance,
        You mean the internal medicine foundation down in Miramar right? Back in my day, you didn’t have to take step 1 before you started IMF. So half of our class was out enjoying living in America for the first time in two years while the rest of my class was studying for step 1. Now that everyone has to take step 1 before starting IMF (good move on Ross’s part so that everyone is at the same stage in their med school timeline) your day to day schedule may have changed too. Overall, they teach you some useful stuff but I felt like they wasted a lot of my time. You have like a half day of ‘class’ everyday in the morning and then a few days a week you do physical exam stuff in the afternoon. When I was finishing up they were making some improvements to the program but I don’t see it being drastically different. So be ready for half days and a lot of wasted time in my humble opinion. That being said, this was a great mini-vacation after I finished step 1 so I wasn’t really complaining (too loudly) at the time.

        Extra items? White coat and professional attire is all you need.

        As for housing, I lived in an awesome 5BR house with my friends in a gated community. We had a pool, Jacuzzi, and barbecue on the lake. Someone from Ross lives there every semester. And there are plenty of places to live in Miramar. Just look at the Rossie Rotation Facebook page.

    1. Hey man, first off congrats on being accepted to medical school! Your time on the island will fly by and before you know it you’re gonna on your residency interview trail.

      So I lived in Old Avies Ville apartments. I family friend who attended Ross suggested those apartments to me and I stayed in them for all four semesters. Here’s the good part of those apartments: they’re relatively cheap at around $500/month. You can get apartments that overlook the water with a beautiful balcony for upwards of $800/month but in my mind a penny saved is a penny earned. And seeing as how I am not earning any pennies I wanted to save some cash for when I eventually moved to New York for clinicals. It’s close to Picard Grocery store, the Barn (my favorite study spot), and also down the hill from Tomato’s (favorite restaurant) and Tulip’s (one of my favorite bars). Oh and its also near campus. It also provides cleaning services three days a week (sick!) and laundry services on the premises (they do it for you for like 20EC which is like 8 bucks). It also has a small pool which nobody really ever uses. In my opinion, it was the same as New Avies Ville but a little bit cheaper. It’s not like any apartment is gonna be THAT much better than Old Avies. Here’s a video from YouTube that shows you Old Avies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_hwDUxdCrQ. Good luck! Lemme know if you have any follow up questions.

    1. Hey Ana, unfortunately I don’t have any experience of data on IMG’s matching in Canada. I only know that it’s even harder for Canadians to match in US programs because some applicants require visa sponsors. Sorry I can’t be of more help!

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  5. Current 4th semester thinking about clinical rotations and timeline…Is it possible to go through clinicals nonstop? Meaning, little to no gaps in between. I believe for core rotations, it is straight through, but how about for electives?
    Thanks

    1. Ross does track programs for third year. Each track has their own schedule but for the most part you don’t have any major time off in between electives during third year. You finish rotation 1 on Friday and start rotation 2 on Monday.

      Fourth year is different. It is possible to go straight through but it depends on a few factors. The most important factor is the start day of electives you want to take. Some hospitals start their electives on the first Monday of the month. Others start the third Monday of the month. What I would suggest is finding out which hospitals you want to rotate at for your fourth year and when those elective start/end. Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any follow up questions.

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