residency/CaRMs matching

[Guest kooty]

Hello,

I heard from somewhere that if you go to a particular school, say Western, that it would be very difficult to get a residency outside of Ontario (ex. BC) unless you were at the top of your class....is this true? Because I would really like to return to BC after i am done, for a residency...would this also depend on the residency that you want?

Thanks

[Guest aneliz]

It is not difficult at all to match wherever you want from UWO. It is difficult to give you exact stats to support this, but you can check out Ian's post here:

 

p084.ezboard.com/fpremed1...=221.topic

 

And the unofficial 2004 results from UWO (as released by the 2004 class themselves)

 

UWO

 

Total: 98

Unmatched: 6

 

Anaesthesia 4

Cardiac Surg 2

Comm Med 1

Diag. Rad. 3

Emerg Med 3

Family Med 15

Fam Med Rural 7

General Surg 4

Internal Med 22

Lab Med 1

Ob Gyn 9

Orthopaedics 4

ENT 1

Paediatrics 6

Psychiatry 6

Radiation Onc 3

Urology 1

 

This is pretty typical compared to other schools...the 6 that were unmatched pretty much suicided themselves (ie ranked plastic surgery/derm/ent with no backup) and their unmatched status was not entirely a surprise to them or their classmates.

 

This list does not tell you where they matched...but there were quite a few going to BC....and a bunch to Alberta, some to Dalhousie, lots to Toronto, lots to Ottawa, quite a few to Hamilton and scattered people to pretty much any other school in Canada. Choosing UWO for med school should not impact on your chances of matching anywhere in Canada...Western grads do very well and are usually in demand from program directors because we have a lot more responsibility as clerks than some other schools and are a little more 'advanced' when we hit residency. That said, if you are really set on doing your residency in BC, you should definitely make sure that you do 4th year electives their in your chosen field.

[Guest UofT Student]

Hey aneliz,

 

This is just a general question, but I was wondering, what happens to the people who are unmatched? Do they now have a year off doing nothing and have to apply via CaRMS again next year?

[Guest UWOMED2005]

They often do research for a year or volunteer overseas and then match again the following year.

 

Some match to the US.

 

The odd one decides to go into business or research instead.

 

You can definitely get into any program across Canada graduating from UWO.

 

For some of the smaller competitive programs (ie Derm, Ophtho, Emerg) you have an edge having gone to that school. However, that advantage is a school specific and not a province specific phenomenon: in other words, you have a slight advantage at UBC coming from UBC over U of T and UWO, but U of T would have no advantage over UWO.

[Guest aneliz]

People that are unmatched in the first round (which those 6 were) have the opportunity to match in the second round... The second round gets started right after the first round match results are released and unmatched students, IMG's and people that want to retrain in another discipline compete for the remaining 'unmatched' programs. Unfortunately, about 70% of the seats are family med in the second round, so there is not a lot of choice/variety.

 

If they choose not to enter the second round, they can do research, enter the US match, take a year off to travel/work (not clinically), do a masters degree, get married, have a kid, etc and then reapply in the first round match to following year.