garlic Posted August 25, 2019 Report Share Posted August 25, 2019 CaRMS online will be opening in a little over a week, so I thought it'd be fun to have a place to vent/share knowledge/be anxious anonymously. Pretty self-explanatory title...but anyway, my buddy and I are going for the same specialty and were talking about our chances of matching back to our home school. There are ~13 people going for 5-7 spots at our school. Pretty good odds I guess, without taking OOP into account. (I'm still feeling anxious af about not matching anywhere though lol) How are you guys feeling about the upcoming match season? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aetherus Posted August 25, 2019 Report Share Posted August 25, 2019 I don’t know what specialty you are going for, but I would say if it’s more than a 1:1 ratio of people interested in the specialty vs spots at your home school, you are looking at a potentially though match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardHammond Posted August 27, 2019 Report Share Posted August 27, 2019 On 8/25/2019 at 7:25 PM, Aetherus said: I don’t know what specialty you are going for, but I would say if it’s more than a 1:1 ratio of people interested in the specialty vs spots at your home school, you are looking at a potentially though match. I agree with this. I know a couple people in my year who were hoping to ride the "home school advantage" in a specialties with roughly 2:1 ratios but they ultimately matched to 2nd choice discipline or unmatched after 1st iteration. So 13:7 isn't really good odds IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robclem21 Posted August 27, 2019 Report Share Posted August 27, 2019 On 8/25/2019 at 7:17 PM, garlic said: There are ~13 people going for 5-7 spots at our school. Pretty good odds I guess, without taking OOP into account. (I'm still feeling anxious af about not matching anywhere though lol Agree with above. This ratio would place your specialty at one of the most competitive in the country, if not the most competitive. So if those numbers are from your home school only, without even considering others across the country, then no, those are not "good odds". In fact, they are terrible. I would start with a solid backup plan now if you don't already have one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rmorelan Posted August 27, 2019 Report Share Posted August 27, 2019 (edited) On 8/25/2019 at 7:17 PM, garlic said: CaRMS online will be opening in a little over a week, so I thought it'd be fun to have a place to vent/share knowledge/be anxious anonymously. Pretty self-explanatory title...but anyway, my buddy and I are going for the same specialty and were talking about our chances of matching back to our home school. There are ~13 people going for 5-7 spots at our school. Pretty good odds I guess, without taking OOP into account. (I'm still feeling anxious af about not matching anywhere though lol) How are you guys feeling about the upcoming match season? It is really hard to still to see where you would end up with that - obviously just considering your school alone those aren't great odds but limiting yourself to one school (or even just saying having a one school mentality in CARMS) is dangerous. Is there any particular reason you can think of that your school has double the number of people applying to that field? luck, it's competitive, job market...... In my year for CARMS we had 7 people apply to plastics - that was roughly 1/3 of the entire countries supply of spots. We actually did ok but it wasn't overall a great year for the field. Edited August 27, 2019 by rmorelan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1D7 Posted August 27, 2019 Report Share Posted August 27, 2019 There's a lot of heterogeneity in interest across schools—other schools may have few or no one interested in the specialty. Definitely not much of a home school advantage though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garlic Posted August 28, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2019 11 hours ago, rmorelan said: It is really hard to still to see where you would end up with that - obviously just considering your school alone those aren't great odds but limiting yourself to one school (or even just saying having a one school mentality in CARMS) is dangerous. Is there any particular reason you can think of that your school has double the number of people applying to that field? luck, it's competitive, job market...... In my year for CARMS we had 7 people apply to plastics - that was roughly 1/3 of the entire countries supply of spots. We actually did ok but it wasn't overall a great year for the field. Hah yeah it's pretty much just as @1D7said. My school traditionally has ++ applicants to this specialty, last year it was about a 3:1 ratio. I think it's because the staff make a conscious effort to offer good shadowing experiences, mentorship, projects, etc. early on = it's easy for med students here to feel connected to the program/specialty and get a great CV along the way. The ones who start early in M1-2 generally don't bother changing their minds, and then you have the people who discover it later on as well. Friends at other schools say this is not really the case for them, and they have a 1:1 ratio or less at their programs. Of course this is all hearsay but I don't really see a harm in discussing rough numbers anyway lol I will be applying across the country but would prefer to match back as my gf is a resident here. I have no illusions about home school advantage, me being a top 1% applicant, having an amazing personal story, etc. and am backing up with another specialty. The words of wisdom/honesty above are appreciated nonetheless though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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