Is applying to 6 schools enough for Family Medicine?

[Butterfly_]

Is applying to 6 schools reasonable for Family Medicine?

My top picks are UBC, Mac, UofT, Queens, Western, and Alberta.  

I’m only interested in non-rural programs and hence would be applying to about 16-18 programs in total.

Many of my classmates are applying to way more and tell me I should apply to more schools.

Am I being risky/missing out on chances by applying only to 6 schools?

Thank you in advance for your advice and responses!

[zxcccxz]

I think it ultimately is a consideration of would you rather settle for a program that is not on that list or choose to go unmatched in the first round?

The stats show that 85% of applicants will match among their top 3 choices (and the specific numbers for FM may be higher since it's less competitive and has the most seats), so in all likeliness you will match among one of your chosen programs. But in the rare circumstance that you were not to match and you didn't rank anything else, you would go unmatched and either have to consider going for one of the very limited number of possibly undesirable seats in the second round or re-apply the following year. 

So if you absolutely wouldn't consider going anywhere outside of those 6 schools, then don't rank any more. But on the off chance that you don't get offered a seat from any of them, and you would consider going somewhere less desirable to you over being unmatched, then rank more programs. By doing this, your chances of matching to your top choices stay the exact same, but your overall chance of being matched increases. The only downside of applying to more programs is the additional cost and time, but paying an additional $300 is a pittance for the peace of mind IMO.

[Butterfly_]

 

13 hours ago, zxcccxz said:

I think it ultimately is a consideration of would you rather settle for a program that is not on that list or choose to go unmatched in the first round?

The stats show that 85% of applicants will match among their top 3 choices (and the specific numbers for FM may be higher since it's less competitive and has the most seats), so in all likeliness you will match among one of your chosen programs. But in the rare circumstance that you were not to match and you didn't rank anything else, you would go unmatched and either have to consider going for one of the very limited number of possibly undesirable seats in the second round or re-apply the following year. 

So if you absolutely wouldn't consider going anywhere outside of those 6 schools, then don't rank any more. But on the off chance that you don't get offered a seat from any of them, and you would consider going somewhere less desirable to you over being unmatched, then rank more programs. By doing this, your chances of matching to your top choices stay the exact same, but your overall chance of being matched increases. The only downside of applying to more programs is the additional cost and time, but paying an additional $300 is a pittance for the peace of mind IMO.

Thank you so much for your advice.

Much appreciated!