Chances of matching in a specific city (to FM, or another specialty)?

[MDee2B]

What is the probability of matching at a specific location in carms, if location is more important than specialty? If I want to “plant roots” during med school and not have to move (far) based on carms results, I assume I’d be hoping to at least match to FM at my desired location.

If there are only a couple of schools I’d be willing to attend for residency, each in a larger city, in general what are my chances of matching by specific location? Assuming I’m willing to relinquish any chance of a competitive specialty, and assuming I’d be fine with FM.

thanks

 

[Bambi]

I wanted only 1 city, so I applied to FM and 2 specialties in that city only. I got my interviews and was selected for a competitive surgical specialty where I was the least qualified interviewee but had great soft skills.

I knew I was taking a chance of not matching and preferred this to doing residency elsewhere. I was lucky!

[MDee2B]

59 minutes ago, Bambi said:

I wanted only 1 city, so I applied to FM and 2 specialties in that city only. I got my interviews and was selected for a competitive surgical specialty where I was the least qualified interviewee but had great soft skills.

I knew I was taking a chance of not matching and preferred this to doing residency elsewhere. I was lucky!

Out of curiosity, did you get offers for FM as well?

i understand you count yourself as lucky. But as far as your strategy went, was backing up with FM in only one city a more or less guaranteed fallback plan, or does luck also play a large factor when trying to match to FM in just one location?

when applicants back up with FM, does this usually mean applying to ~5+ different FM programs across the country, or is applying to just 1-2 FM programs a reasonably safe bet for matching?

[fmgunner]

Chances are typically good for FM, although of course it isn't strictly a probability game, so focus on getting good FM letters, prepare for the interview, etc.

Your chances will likely be better if your other speciality is at least similar in some ways to FM, so it doesn't look like you are obviously backing up (e.g. likely better chances parallel planning with IM, EM, Peds, vs surgical)

[bearded frog]

It's all relative to overall competitiveness of the specialty and the city. Gunning ENT in toronto? Very difficult. Gunning family medicine in Regina? Extremely reasonable.

[CaRMS2021]

1 minute ago, bearded frog said:

Gunning ENT in toronto? Very difficult. 

Curious what makes you say this because they have 5/20 ish spots in the country and rarely have even close to 5 home applicants

[bearded frog]

1 hour ago, CaRMS2021 said:

Curious what makes you say this because they have 5/20 ish spots in the country and rarely have even close to 5 home applicants

ENT is an overall compeditive specialty - there are two first choice applicants for every spot around the country, and Toronto is an overall desirable place to live/work in. I have no idea about the U of T ENT program specifically, so any quirks not withstanding, if you're trying to be an ENT you should apply as broadly as you can.

[frenchpress]

Even for FM, likelihood of matching depends on the location - for example, the number of students from UBC who matched to fm residencies in Vancouver/Lower mainland is actually pretty low. I assume other competitive locations like Toronto are similar. 

[jb24]

Way too many variables and really depends on the location . Several of my colleagues who wanted to match to FM locally, did not. CaRMS is a crapshoot.

[fmgunner]

1 hour ago, frenchpress said:

Even for FM, likelihood of matching depends on the location - for example, the number of students from UBC who matched to fm residencies in Vancouver/Lower mainland is actually pretty low. I assume other competitive locations like Toronto are similar. 

I think this is partly because there just aren't a lot of spots total in Vancouver/Lower Mainland. UBC scatters their FM across the province (compared to U of T, for instance, which has 114 spots in the GTA itself)

[frenchpress]

9 hours ago, fmgunner said:

I think this is partly because there just aren't a lot of spots total in Vancouver/Lower Mainland. UBC scatters their FM across the province (compared to U of T, for instance, which has 114 spots in the GTA itself)

For sure. But even matching to the program is tough, and BC as a whole has over a hundred spots. Competitive varies a lot by desirability of location. 

[shikimate]

You could look at some of the esoteric specialties (hematopathology, medical microbiology, nuclear medicine, neuropathology etc). Those usually have maybe <5 applicants across the country per year (Excluding francophones), so it should be rather easy to match to those (Assuming they are available at the place you desires).

[Bambi]

22 hours ago, MDee2B said:

Out of curiosity, did you get offers for FM as well?

i understand you count yourself as lucky. But as far as your strategy went, was backing up with FM in only one city a more or less guaranteed fallback plan, or does luck also play a large factor when trying to match to FM in just one location?

when applicants back up with FM, does this usually mean applying to ~5+ different FM programs across the country, or is applying to just 1-2 FM programs a reasonably safe bet for matching?

FM was not a back up. I selected fields where I felt I would be happy and fulfilled personally and professionally. I applied to only 1 FM position, and 1 specialty position each in 2 fields. I got all 3 interviews, 1 in each field. I had to rank them, although in my mind, I would have been happy with any of them. They all were located in 1 city, which was essential. I was selected for the competitive surgical specialty, and that is all I know. By narrowing my options, I took a high risk. And I won the lottery. There were absolutely no guarantees for any of these positions. Luck plays a critical role in my view. Where I was selected, I was told to be prepared for a 45 minute interview, the interview lasted 10 minutes and was simple and straightforward, similar to a conversation.