TARS

They either studied there or lived there at some point in their life. I dont know if that predicts success of matching rather than them just being good candidates and ranking where they wanted to go. Getting away interviews depend on the specialty. Smaller specialties will often invite everyone for interview. For my program, people got reasonable amount of interviews but there were some people I know that did not have that many. Having a good application on paper I am sure helps - chiefing, research, etc.

It depends on the school - UBC is relatively notorious for not accepting PGY3 IM applicants and perhaps that is where you heard it. There are anesthesia, cardiology, emerg staff applying - I can see why that is preferred over someone who has not even finished the full IM training. It has been many years since an IM PGY3 was accepted to UBC IIRC.

Many if not most cardiology fellows locum in PGY5 or 6. I am in the west coast and the locum gigs pay very very well. Depending on the province, there are also opportunities to moonlight during PGY3-4 for internal medicine/ICU which pays less but still a pretty good amount. With that being said, cardiology fellowship is very busy, and depending on your own energy level and the dynamics of your family (e.g. how often do you need to be around your family), doing extra work may be challenging. Focus on matching to residency first! There are many other more family-friendly specialties in IM and you will have time to decide.

Not from the east coast but am someone who has just gone through the process and matched in-house. I think the reason why the match data shows most residents matching back to their own school is probably a combination of what you said - wanting to stay in their home program for social reasons but also being more likely to be selected just because they are a known quantity and your 2 years worth of exposure allows for many more to vouch for you. If I did residency outside of my home program and tried to match back (competitive program), I would have been more nervous during CaRMS for sure. With that being said, I think if you are a good candidate, did an elective at the site you want, and was well-liked (as a person and also medically), you chances are reasonable with a bit of luck. My friends from other programs who wanted to come were able to match here (worked hard when they did electives here), and friends from home program who wanted to go elsewhere were able to do so as well (although they all had ties to the program they ended up in). I don't think you need to do research at your desired institution - most people don't do this. Just work hard on your electives (just be a nice reliable hard working person) and make it clear you want to be there. Just remember most programs have a mandatory requirement for your IM Program director to write a reference letter, so build a good reputation at your home site and do well on all your IM rotations. That letter matters a lot! Good luck

Honestly, it really varies between schools and your own personal experience, and how much initiative you take to try to get these opportunities. I didn't get a lot of opportunities, but some of my colleagues have gotten plenty. Mix of luck and how hard you look for these opportunities. At the end of the day, it probably doesn't matter because you'll get the adequate exposure during your residency to do these procedures, being able to do them as a medical student is just a bonus. Might be possible you get less procedure/suturing/OR assisting at larger hospitals because of time constraints/lots of learners, and theoretically harder to get good letters talking about your procedural skills if you're applying to a hands-on specialty, BUT I don't think UBC or any of the larger schools have any issues with students matching to the specialties they want, in fact I think they do quite well. One-on-one experiences really vary, but sometimes you are dealt the hand and not much you can do about it. For example, VGH is a very busy hospital, and CTU can have very large teams and be very service-heavy because of how busy it is. You may get less 1 on 1 time with the attending because there's 5 or 7 other learners on your team, and you have to be considerate of their opportunities as well. The service is very busy so sometimes you might not get time to sit down and chat about topics, but you will get to see a lot of patients, and exposure to subspecialties that smaller hospitals won't have. On other services or if you rotate at a smaller hospital, you might get all the one on one time you want. Regardless, all the students here still turn out fine and are very well trained, so its just personal preference. TLDR; it probably has minimal impact, it's just a personal experience consideration. All Canadian medical graduates are trained very well and prepared for residency.

4th year here, kinda hard to compare to other schools since our out of province electives all got cancelled from Covid. Pros Most elective time for any school in Canada. Crucial if you plan on having a parallel plan for CaRMS applications, which most people do. In my year, Covid was very disruptive to many school electives and it was nice to have a buffer and I think many felt that it was an advantage to have more clinical opportunities to get letters and exposure. Multiple sites for diversity of experience - you rotate through so many different hospitals from rural community to quaternary sites, so you get exposure to a lot of different specialties and how the health care delivery differs. Very unique inner city population served by St Paul's hospital, great learning opportunity. You also have a choice between 4 sites (VFMP, SMP, IMP, NMP) depending on what you are looking for. More laid back atmosphere - UBC really likes to have diverse students from different backgrounds and anecdotally there aren't as many gunners so its supposed to feel more collegial. BC - great place to be, offers lots of outdoor activities from winter to summer that I think other locations would have a hard time competing with. Student involvement - we are lucky that the faculty really values student input and has plenty of opportunity for students to be engaged, from the admissions committee to managing learner mistreatment, there is opportunity if you actively look for it. Cons ?Large cohort - if you thrive in smaller classes and communities, this might be difficult given large class size. This also means there are a lot of learners on service during clerkship, meaning you may get less 1 on 1 time with teachers and you might not have as many hands on opportunities when it comes to procedures or assisting in the OR. I still haven't done a thoracentesis or LP yet, but another resident from a smaller program in the East coast told me he logged a lot of procedures because there weren't many learners. ?4 years - some people might like 3 years if they're in a rush, I honestly enjoyed having a break here and there. It rains like 90% of the time here, I don't like being on call with wet socks. 24-28 hour call is a thing here, but it is a thing at most other schools. Lots of sites mean you likely need to drive a car during clerkship electives Very expensive cost of living here, kinda getting out of control Great school 5/7 would do again. Jokes aside, I definitely would have done UBC again if I had to do it all over again. DM me if you want to chat if you're trying to choose between schools.

I can only imagine how frustrating and hopeless you must be feeling, but don't give up if this is what you really want! I don't know if I have the answers to anything, but if you wanted to talk about the interview process feel free to PM me. I used to host mock MMIs for pharmacy applicants so I can try my best to help, or you can get my contact and we can talk closer to the next interview date?

Long time lurker... this thread kept me sane after every rejection so I thought I'd give back. Accepted (IP): IMP (2nd Choice) Time stamp: May 12th, 4:13 pm PST OGPA: ~83 AGPA: ~86 AQ: ~22 (last year) NAQ: ~25 (last year) MCAT: 31 (10/10/11) 5th Year UG (Pharmacy) Non-Academic Experiences: Typical community + school leadership, non-profits, multiple 5+ year commitments, long term jobs in health care, sports, music Interview: First time interviewing at UBC med, interviewed in same format for pharmacy before. Felt very ready going in, and left feeling like it was not a good reflection of how I prepared. Had some time to think about it over 3 months, and felt worse and worse about it as I picked apart my own answers. Obviously didn't do too poorly because I was accepted, but also probably why I only got 2nd choice geographic preference (still stoked!). Was pretty discouraged from 2 pre-interview rejections. The most disheartening part was probably all the work I put towards improving my application in my 2nd attempt, just to be rejected pre-interview with much lower scores than my first year. I honestly think that apart from persistent hard work, there's a significant luck and subjective component (especially pre-interview NAQ) that you are at the mercy of. So for all those who had regrets pre-interview or post-interview, keep going for it if its what you really want. Perseverance is the key...if you put in the work, its not a matter of if but a matter of when - do what you love in the meantime and don't let that passion slip away. Also anyone who wants to talk about pharmacy feel free to PM me.