How competitive is Ob/Gyn as a specialty?

[Giggledthemonster]

Hi everyone, I'm an incoming M1, and i was wondering how competitive ob/gyn is to match into? And what can I do from the get-go to increase my chances of matching down the road?

TIA!!

 

[bearded frog]

It's highly compeditive. In the 2021 match (don't have full data for 2022 yet), it was the 9th most compeditive discipline based on ratio of first choice applicants to spots, with 1.3 applicants with it as their first choice speicality for every spot, and 1.7 total applicants for every spot (ie ~1/4 of all who apply to it as their first choice either don't match or match to a second choice specialty. That said, it's clearly not impossible.

For context, the most competitive, ENT, had 2 first choice applicants for every spot, internal medicine had roughly 1:1 ratio, and family medicine had more spots than first choice applicants with ~1.5 spots for every first choice applicant.

In terms of gunning, not sure about obgyn specifically, but finding mentors early, early exposure, elective rotations, ideally research/involvement in obgyn, etc.

[abcd1288]

9 hours ago, bearded frog said:

It's highly compeditive. In the 2021 match (don't have full data for 2022 yet), it was the 9th most compeditive discipline based on ratio of first choice applicants to spots, with 1.3 applicants with it as their first choice speicality for every spot, and 1.7 total applicants for every spot (ie ~1/4 of all who apply to it as their first choice either don't match or match to a second choice specialty. That said, it's clearly not impossible.

For context, the most competitive, ENT, had 2 first choice applicants for every spot, internal medicine had roughly 1:1 ratio, and family medicine had more spots than first choice applicants with ~1.5 spots for every first choice applicant.

In terms of gunning, not sure about obgyn specifically, but finding mentors early, early exposure, elective rotations, ideally research/involvement in obgyn, etc.

 

Will you be doing a 2022 CaRMS match analysis in the future? I've always found your 2021 super helpful.

[Xbox Skully]

One of my friends went to a low tier us md school and matched to it in the states-he’s Canadian. So I don’t think it’s as competitive in the us if you really want that specialty. However, if you are in the class of 2026 you will be considered img in the us now. And it’s 4 years in the us but 5 in Canada. I always thought there where a lot of opening in the field- pun intended  

[bearded frog]

20 hours ago, abcd1288 said:

 

Will you be doing a 2022 CaRMS match analysis in the future? I've always found your 2021 super helpful.

At some point maybe!

[Bambi]

My knowledge is stale as I was a M! more than 10 years ago. At the time, the school in which I had interest had 13 Ob/Gyn residency spots, it reduced to 8 and by the time CaRMS came for me, there were just 3 spots, 40 interviewees and 80 applicants. I was a gunner, stellar candidate, publication et al and I was not selected. Instead, I was selected for a surgical specialty where there many gunners, 80 applicants, 40 interviewees for just 3 spots; I was the least qualified on all interviewees, my strength was my soft skills, not one gunner was chosen. My interview lasted 10 minutes. I concluded that the most important ingredient of where one ends up is pure luck! I had wanted Ob/Gyn since childhood and lucked out where I ended up, virtually no night work, excellent work/life balance, enjoyable work in a community hospital and very decent income (higher than Ob/Gyn). I would have been happy as Ob/Gyn and am happy where I am. I applied to 3 fields and would have been happy in any of them. Had I applied only to Ob/Gyn, I would have been out in the cold. 

 

[kingmaker]

On 5/18/2022 at 12:56 PM, bearded frog said:

It's highly compeditive. In the 2021 match (don't have full data for 2022 yet), it was the 9th most compeditive discipline based on ratio of first choice applicants to spots, with 1.3 applicants with it as their first choice speicality for every spot, and 1.7 total applicants for every spot (ie ~1/4 of all who apply to it as their first choice either don't match or match to a second choice specialty. That said, it's clearly not impossible.

For context, the most competitive, ENT, had 2 first choice applicants for every spot, internal medicine had roughly 1:1 ratio, and family medicine had more spots than first choice applicants with ~1.5 spots for every first choice applicant.

In terms of gunning, not sure about obgyn specifically, but finding mentors early, early exposure, elective rotations, ideally research/involvement in obgyn, etc.

1:1.3 is not too bad of a ratio, especially if one plans to apply broadly across the country. 

[jb24]

It's not that competitive, but you probably want to show some interest by doing a bit of research or at least networking.

[bearded frog]

15 hours ago, kingmaker said:

1:1.3 is not too bad of a ratio, especially if one plans to apply broadly across the country. 

Keep in mind that's first choice applicants, ie a full quarter of people who want to do obgyn and do electives in it, get letters for it, fully orient their application around it, will not match to it. Yes, obviously there is a 75% chance that they will match, so better than a coin toss, but it just ups the ante, and so everyone is going to be trying to get research, go the extra mile, etc, which means that any prospective applicants will have to play that game as well, or end up in the bottom quartile and not match. Also keep in mind 20% of spots are french speaking programs (and without doing the math in terms of applicants from french schools), unless you're bilingual that also limits your options.