Confidential Assessment Forms

All applicants for Ontario medical schools must ask three different individuals to provide a reference supporting your application – at least one of which should be a non-academic referee.1 Confidential assessment forms have replaced letters of reference in the OMSAS process. These are standardized forms that your references fill in to describe your abilities. They are submitted directly to OMSAS by the referees, and the applicant is never allowed to see them. Therefore, make sure you pick your references wisely.

When choosing your three referees, it is important to select a diverse set of individuals who can attest to different aspects of your application There are two schools of thought on this.

The first one says that your academic abilities can be spoken for by your MCAT scores and GPA, and that your letters of reference should come from people who can speak for your character, such as the people for whom you volunteer

The second says that since you submit an autobiographical sketch in which you highlight your volunteer service, and given the emphasis placed on academics in medical school, you are better off if you have a professor speak about your intelligence.

The best approach is probably to take the middle ground. OMSAS requires three confidential assessment forms per applicant, so you need not limit yourself solely to academic or personal references and can come up with a mix of both In choosing your references, keep in mind not only who will be the most flattering but also who will be the most eloquent and convincing while doing so. Do your best to select people who know you well. The idea that a reference from someone whose name ends in “MD” carries more weight is a fallacy. Medical schools give no preference or prejudice in reading the confidential assessment forms, and admissions officers would rather read a knowledgeable assessment from an ordinary citizen than one from a prestigious person who hardly knows you.