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2019 CaRMS unfilled spots


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Talked with my previous contact with the CAF and they're aiming at doing the MOTP surge for "3rd round" again. Talk to the medical officer recruiters, prep your application/find references, and see if you medically qualify. It's not a bad gig. 150k signing bonus and the benefits package of the gods.

Edit for non-armed forces people: The military will be recruiting unmatched again this year. Preference is given to those who can quickly apply and pass background checks. If this at all interests you start now and call the recruiters 

Edited by 2019CaRMS
non-CAF people would say Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
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38 minutes ago, 2019CaRMS said:

5 at UofA from what my friend has said. Heard Calgary was double digits unmatched

 

21 minutes ago, sWOMEN said:

6 at McMaster

22 at Calgary

Rather than unmatched rates, I would be more interested in the number of people that did not match to their first choice speciality and had to settle for their backup?

22 at Calgary? that is huge considering the smaller class compared to UofT and UBC 

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36 minutes ago, ralk said:

For those who went unmatched (and are still reading this thread despite the directions the conversation has turned), please reach out to any and all supports that are available to you, when you're in the mindset to do so.

This year's 2nd round is different than in previous years, which provides both some challenges as well as some opportunities. For CMGs, there are now a lot of dedicated CMG spots in the 2nd round, many of which I know would have typically been filled by IMGs in the 2nd round in the past. This means a CMG flexible about location and/or specialty probably has a much better chance of matching in the 2nd round than in previous years, but as others have noted, the unfilled spots are mostly in less competitive locations or specialties. These locations and specialties are typically less competitive for valid reasons, but can still be excellent fits for many students. Please take the time to look into as many of these as possible before writing them off as poor options, especially for FM residencies that are a (relatively) short 2 years in duration. Many CMGs who look at their options, their preferences, and weigh the pros and cons will choose to wait until next year rather than try to match in the 2nd round to an available spot, and that can be the right choice in many cases. Still, it's worth exploring as many of the available 2nd round spots as possible, especially with the reduced competition for CMG spots this year.

Anyone who's unmatched and needs to write out their frustrations or bounce ideas off someone, my inbox's open. There are many paths forward from going unmatched, and while none of them perfect, yesterday's result should never be viewed as a dead-end.

Great advice. And look at Ottawa, they have a large number of desirable spots in the Nations capital open

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5 minutes ago, JohnGrisham said:

Great advice. And look at Ottawa, they have a large number of desirable spots in the Nations capital open

Looking at those Ottawa spots, they look kind of suspicious. 19 FM (English speaking) spots open is basically half of their 38 spot total quota in the first round. What's going on? Are they just being extra picky this year or is there some other motive? Saving the spots for after second iteration and giving them away in the opaque 'post match process's?

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22 at Calgary is unreal. I remember my class had around 6 unmatched. Even with the absurdly generous assumption that they get the 11 fam med spots in town, there’s precious little left across the country. I would agree with the other post and start looking at USMLEs and US electives at this point to broaden horizons. The system is fucked, at this point and at specialty employment.

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3 hours ago, rmorelan said:

they really don't - it is easier to tell them you are working in a hospital now ha. 

Also of note - no one will understand the royal college study year unless they did it or in rare cases something extremely close. The closest I have come to describing it is it is just like studying full force for finals except it goes on for 12 months ha. I mean this because when you vanish during that year they won't understand why. 

12- 24 months of non stop work and studying. Like literally work for 8 hours, then study for 6 when you get home. Every weekday. Weekends were 8 hours of study each day. It was actually insane. 

 

My wife was a single mother for the year. 

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10 minutes ago, NLengr said:

12- 24 months of non stop work and studying. Like literally work for 8 hours, then study for 6 when you get home. Every weekday. Weekends were 8 hours of study each day. It was actually insane. 

That was the worst year of my life without a doubt. I agree that it is very difficult to convey to medical students what lies at the end of residency (although my FM friends tell me that their exam is much more reasonable). 

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16 hours ago, Cuttlefish said:

Lol come on now... becoming an engineer? I can count so many people who are making 70k+ as engineers straight out of undergrad.

You need to survive engineering school, which is no easy feat. Back when I did my engineering degree over half the people who started with us failed out. Attrition rate >50%. And that was among the people who actually got into engineering school. 

Law is also another field where I hear it is flooded with too many students right now. 

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29 minutes ago, NLengr said:

12- 24 months of non stop work and studying. Like literally work for 8 hours, then study for 6 when you get home. Every weekday. Weekends were 8 hours of study each day. It was actually insane. 

Yup - 

 

6 minutes ago, NLengr said:

You need to survive engineering school, which is no easy feat. Back when I did my engineering degree over half the people who started with us failed out. Attrition rate >50%. And that was among the people who actually got into engineering school. 

Law is also another field where I hear it is flooded with too many students right now. 

Yeah we had a pretty steep failure rate in computer science as well - all of these professions have road blocks along the way. Not everyone can be a top rated programmer. 

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21 hours ago, shematoma said:

I think most CMGs would agree that the CMG quota needs to be increased (and at the expense of IMG spots if need be), but we've been too scared to make a fuss and too busy trying to make ourselves competitive to try and match again. The people who do match in the first iteration have no incentive to act. Now that it's finally hurting to have so many of us go unmatched, perhaps we will take up the fight in court too.

 

20 hours ago, sWOMEN said:

Why would we need to sue to increase CMG spots at the expense of IMG spots? IMGs do not fundamentally have a right to enter our residency spots, given the amount of investment and high, standardized quality of education CMGs receive, it is a no-brainer that the first round should be limited to CMGs only. I have absolutely no respect for premeds that fail to matriculate to a Canadian medical school and go abroad to take the easy way out and expect to match back when so many of our own struggle. Just take a look at how much of RCSI and Carib is filled of Canadians - absolutely ridiculous.

Sure we could just bury our heads and make ourselves as competitive as possible but we should also address this broken aspect of the system that can be fixed relatively easy before matching turns into an even bigger arms race of pubs and letters.

I’m surprised 1- by how little do you know about IMGs and their situation in Canada,  2- by the condescending tone to other doctors just because they didn’t have the same « education » as you. 

I won’t be defending my situation here but just few notes fyi ...

- There are thousands of internationally trained doctors who live here in Canada. (It’s an immigration country). We are not here for the medicine, most of us live here to have a better life for our families and kids, we just happen to be very skilled doctors. It would make totally no sense at all that skilled persons live in a society and have to work jobs that are not into their qualifications. 

- The IMGs residency match process in Canada is the most brutal and unfair one in the world. US give better chances, UK, Germany, France, Australia. Everywhere But Canada... which is a shame honestly since again it’s an immigration country. 

- The amount of money we as IMGs invest into the process of obtaining our equivalence and matching is insane, and we are tax payers who pour our life long savings just to have a good future. 

- Yes arriving to Canada we were told there is no guarantee for us to work as doctors, but I for one, will do the impossible to be one. Since I know I am a good doctor and it would be a waste of my life and hardwork to live here for the rest of my life and not be able to work as a doctor. 

- Residency training is where you learn most in your medical career (not med school) so actually having Internationally trained doctors be willing to start over should be valued not condescended. 

So ... 

Saying that CMGs should always have a priority over IMGs while responding to an IMG asking a question about being unmatched and needing help, is quite offensive and rude imo. 

Creating enough jobs and opportunities for everyone (mostly CMGs of course) is the problem here not IMGs, since every other medical system in the developed world knows how to address this situation. 

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19 hours ago, la marzocco said:

"The greatest barrier for IMGs to access postgraduate training positions in Canada is the fact that international medical school education and training is not necessarily comparable or equivalent to Canadian medical school education." <-- see the case I cited above; i.e., not my words. 

The fact is that Canadian and USMD schools are LCME-accredited. If meritocracy is to be applied strictly, then we should get those IMG-schools LCME and CACMS accredited. Maybe then we can have the discussion about unification of the streams. 

So if the solution is that simple, why do you think people immigrate to Canada in the first place? If their country of origine would actually give them and their kids good quality of life and education ?! 

My thought process is, since most immigrant doctors want to practice here, Why not put together a system/program that helps IMGs get an equivalent training before residency? Quebec started doing one for the residents of QC and it’s a genius concept imo. 

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31 minutes ago, JuniorDr90 said:

 

I’m surprised 1- by how little do you know about IMGs and their situation in Canada,  2- by the condescending tone to other doctors just because they didn’t have the same « education » as you. 

 I won’t be defending my situation here but just few notes fyi ...

- There are thousands of internationally trained doctors who live here in Canada. (It’s an immigration country). We are not here for the medicine, most of us live here to have a better life for our families and kids, we just happen to be very skilled doctors. It would make totally no sense at all that skilled persons live in a society and have to work jobs that are not into their qualifications. 

- The IMGs residency match process in Canada is the most brutal and unfair one in the world. US give better chances, UK, Germany, France, Australia. Everywhere But Canada... which is a shame honestly since again it’s an immigration country. 

- The amount of money we as IMGs invest into the process of obtaining our equivalence and matching is insane, and we are tax payers who pour our life long savings just to have a good future. 

- Yes arriving to Canada we were told there is no guarantee for us to work as doctors, but I for one, will do the impossible to be one. Since I know I am a good doctor and it would be a waste of my life and hardwork to live here for the rest of my life and not be able to work as a doctor. 

- Residency training is where you learn most in your medical career (not med school) so actually having Internationally trained doctors be willing to start over should be valued not condescended. 

So ... 

Saying that CMGs should always have a priority over IMGs while responding to an IMG asking a question about being unmatched and needing help, is quite offensive and rude imo. 

Creating enough jobs and opportunities for everyone (mostly CMGs of course) is the problem here not IMGs, since every other medical system in the developed world knows how to address this situation. 

Well said. 

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1 hour ago, YesIcan55 said:

just want to chime in...its very frustrating how short-sighted some people in this thread are at the difficulty of finding good, steady employment in other fields... some of you think that if you were not in medicine...you would walk straight into a full-time engineering job at Google straight from undergrad or get work at Bay street if you went into law etc.....grossly underestimating the difficulty of other professions. Sure the barrier to enter engineering, law, etc degrees are much lower than medicine but the difficulty and competition once inside, the difficulty in finding your prefered job in a desirable area, being worried about layoffs, and a plethora of other things are things that can't be understated...also just because you got into medical school doesn't mean you can stroll into another field and be in the top 10%....there are differences in the skill sets required among other things.

lol I swear half the people in med school that I've met think that anyone who "goes into business or banking" is an automatic millionaire or something. And that every other profession has it so well. The reality is, every other profession has it worse or wayyyy worse. And going into the business/finance/banking arena often requires far more work than any surgical residency. The end of the tunnel has far less success waiting than in medicine. Sure, the top 10% in that field kill it and are very rich. But most people who start a business or go into investment banking don't become anywhere near that successful. Most actually fail. 

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