canadian med school grads guarunteed a residency position?

[Guest abunoah1]

are canadian med school grads guarunteed a residency?

[Guest MrNeuroscience]

I don't think they are "guaranteed" a position. If you look at the CaRMS statistics, there are always residency positions that remain open at the end of a match, but there are usually a few individuals that did not match into a residency program somewhere in Canada (mind you not everyone matches through CaRMS).

[Guest abunoah1]

i feel dumb for asking this but i read the carms website and i still dont understand how they match you exactly??? anyone explain in it a different way maybe i can figure it out??

[Guest MrNeuroscience]

I am certainly not an expert, But I'll give it a try;

 

From what I can tell, CaRMS is a not-for-profit organization that matches students to residency positions. Basically, after the student has travelled around the country (or region) interviewing for all of the positions that they are interested in the student then ranks the institutions and programs that they have attended (With a ranking of 1 being your first choice).

From what I can tell, if you really wanted to stay in a city (Halifax for example) then you would apply to more specialties that interested you that are offered in Halifax (say neurosurgey, gen-surgery, ortho, internal, plastics etc etc). However, since most students know what type of specialty they wish to complete their training in, they apply to the same program but across the country (say neuro surgery in Halifax, Toronto, Alberta etc).

Each institution you interviewed in then ranks you, along with all the other students they are interested in. CaRMS then takes these rankings, and tries to make the best possible matches, where every student is matched to their first choice, second choice or third choice, and every institution gets their top (second, third etc) ranked students.

 

Again, I don't know if this is 100% correct, but I hope it helps!

[Guest JewelLeigh]

This is pretty close to right. The only clarification I will add to what Mr. Neuroscience described is that CaRMS does not have an aim of getting everyone (the students and the universities) one of their top 3 choices. The match is based on what the students rank, followed by what the universities rank. As a small example, let's consider 2 students, both who want Pediatrics at Dal as their first choice. Suppose there is only one position at Dal in Pediatrics (not reality, but for this example.)

 

Student #1 Rank List:

1. Dal Peds

2. MUN Peds

3. McGill Peds

4. McMaster Peds

 

Student #2 Rank List:

1. Dal Peds

2. Dal Internal Med

3. Dal Family Med

 

Dal Peds Rank List:

1. Student #2

2. Student #1

etc

 

MUN Peds, McGill Peds

did not rank student #1

 

McMaster Peds

ranked student #1 4th

 

Dal Internal Med

1. Student #2

 

Dal Family Med

1. Student #2

 

The CaRMS program will start with say student #1. It will start with that student's first choice, Dal Peds...Question 1: did dal peds rank student #1? Yes. Therefore Dal Peds' single slot is currently filled with student #1.

 

The program moves on to student #2. 1st choice, Dal Peds. Question 1: did dal peds rank student #2? Yes. Question 2: Is this student ranked higher than the student currently filling dal peds' only position (ie. student #2)? Yes. Therefore Dal Peds' single slot is now filled with student #2.

 

Student #1 is now not in any spot so the program will proceed to that student's 2nd choice. MUN peds - did not rank student #1 (ie. this student is not acceptable for this program). 3rd choice - McGill Peds - did not rank student #1. 4th choice - McMaster Peds - yes ranked student #1. So McMaster Peds spot is filled with student #1 (and will remain here only if a) there are at least 4 positions in this program or the students ranked 1-3 rank McMaster low and match to one of their higher ranked choices).

 

This continues for all students involved in the match. So, in this case, you can imagine that putting student #1 into Dal Peds and student #2 into Dal Internal Med will give the students their first and second choices respectively and the programs their 2nd and 1st choices respectively. This would result in all four entities getting one of their top 3 choices, but is not how CaRMS works. Hopefully this examples makes sense and explains why the match doesn't simply work to get everyone involved a "top 3" choice. There is a more detailed example here that will give more insight into details of the match.

 

Also to clarify - you must first apply to a program and be granted an interview. Once the interviews occur, then both the students and the programs make their ranking lists. This is just to clarify that an applicant must earn an interview and will not necessarily even be granted an interview at any or all of the programs in which he/she is interested.

 

Also, to answer your original question, as I said in the other thread, Canadian med school grads are not guaranteed a residency position. You can see this on the CaRMS site by viewing the statistics. In 2005, 7 people entered both iterations of the match and still did not match to a residency program. There were several more who did not match during the first iteration and who did not enter the second. These people are examples that just graduating from a Canadian medical school does not 100% sure result in gaining a residency position. However, given that there were over 1300 Canadian grads participating in the match that year, chances of gaining a residency position are very high. The fact remains though, that there is no "guarantee."