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Chances at FM switch late in the game


santosha123

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Hey all, 

I'm a Canadian M4 who was interested in surgery for the majority of med school. After really enjoying all of my clerkship rotations, I've recently been having some (very) last minute cold feet about surgery and starting to feel that FM might be better suited for me in terms of training time and QOL. I won't have any pre-carms electives in FM and I was wondering what my chances might be for landing an interview at Toronto, Mac or Ottawa assuming I have good LOR from my FM, pscyh and IM preceptors in clerkship and a strong personal statement?     

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Toronto is tough, anecdotally people who switched from surgery into fam med all matched in Ontario to semi rural sites which wasn't their first choice. I have honestly not heard of anyone myself who matched to Toronto FM without FM electives/interest in FM as first choice. You will match to FM though if you do apply broadly, it is just 2 years anyways. Problem with making the switch last minute is that it is very hard to prove you are not backing up with family. 

Why not surgery anymore? 

 

 

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Your chances to interview will be low at those 3 schools unless it's your home school. I do feel that your home school is more likely to interview you for FM and you'll have letters from people that are more known to the PD. From my observation your overall chance at matching in Ontario is still moderate-high as long with only 1-2 post-carms elective in FM (assuming you have 3 strong letters for FM and apply broadly).

I know people who matched to urban/regional sites in Ontario who switched last minute (had good letters for FM, at least 1 precarms elective in FM, originally wanted a generalist/primary care field like paeds/IM/psych). Your chances are going to be a bit lower than that switching in from a specialist field and without a precarms elective (meaning no elective rotation letter).

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On 10/30/2019 at 10:26 AM, Edict said:

Toronto is tough, anecdotally people who switched from surgery into fam med all matched in Ontario to semi rural sites which wasn't their first choice. I have honestly not heard of anyone myself who matched to Toronto FM without FM electives/interest in FM as first choice. You will match to FM though if you do apply broadly, it is just 2 years anyways. Problem with making the switch last minute is that it is very hard to prove you are not backing up with family. 

Why not surgery anymore? 

 

Quote

 

Honestly just worried about the length of training/culture/job prospects. It's definitely what I enjoy most but I also genuinely enjoyed a lot of other things too

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16 hours ago, santosha123 said:

 

Honestly just worried about the length of training/culture/job prospects. It's definitely what I enjoy most but I also genuinely enjoyed a lot of other things too

I would stick with surgery to be honest. Its normal to have a bit of cold feet going in. A lot of surgery doesn't fit the stereotype. Unless you genuinely think surgery isn't for you or that you like family medicine more now, I would probably trust your original instincts. 

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On 10/30/2019 at 9:54 AM, santosha123 said:

Hey all, 

I'm a Canadian M4 who was interested in surgery for the majority of med school. After really enjoying all of my clerkship rotations, I've recently been having some (very) last minute cold feet about surgery and starting to feel that FM might be better suited for me in terms of training time and QOL. I won't have any pre-carms electives in FM and I was wondering what my chances might be for landing an interview at Toronto, Mac or Ottawa assuming I have good LOR from my FM, pscyh and IM preceptors in clerkship and a strong personal statement?     

I would apply to both and then decide for your top 1 specialty later.

In your personal statement, you can be honest and said that you felt in love with FM later; and if you have post-carms FM electives; I will put it there.

Most FM programs look for well-rounded applicants, assuming that you have no red flags with great LORs, you will match to a Canadian FM program somewhere.

I know a few people who matched to UofT FM where FM is not their first choice; but they matched because they were well-rounded and shined at the interview. Obviously, as file reviewers, we will rank someone higher if they did a lot of FM electives and strong FM LORs; but you shouldn't not apply to FM because you think your chances are lower at competitive schools. 

I did notice that FM has become a popular choice in the past years, I wonder if job market and personal flexibility, and more equitable pay has to do with it?!

FM programs are great everywhere. The job market is so great, so even if you do your residency training in rural Praries, it's very easy to land a job in Toronto. You can't say the same thing about other specialties besides psychiatry TBH. Most medicine specialties are not flexible and require a lot of sacrifice and moving around. 

As of a example, I got approached by a lot of people during residency for job opportunities and I am just an average jane done resident. That's the beauty of FM. So if you are geographically limited and committed to one city for spouse or family, the two most flexible specialties are FM and psychiatry. Pediatrics has become saturated nowadays in GTA TBH. 

Just my two cents :) 

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