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backing up with family medicine - trends this year?


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I've heard that family medicine programs are increasing becoming more discriminating in terms of the candidates they interview and are more weary of those who back up with family.

 

For this just year, just wondering if any one can comment on:

 

1) Increased interest in family medicine over all?

2) Programs requiring at least 1 elective in FM for interviews?

 

 

Thanks!!

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There was a definite increase in the popularity of family medicine among the Ontario universities this year. In the UWO Class of 2009, 43% of us matched to family medicine. Universities like UofT, Mac, Queen's and Ottawa have all filled up their family medicine spots in the first round. UWO, which last year had some difficulties in filling its spots, this year had no difficulty whatsoever, filling 59/65 spots.

 

I can't speak to the other medical school classes, but for the UWO Class of 2009, the upward trend toward family as a career seemed to be partially due to increased awareness of what the career involved thanks to the work of the Family Medicine Interest Group, as well as people's desires for a career with a "better lifestyle" in terms of personal time, as many in our class are settling down with spouses and families of their own.

 

With regards to electives, from what I have heard (so this may not be 100% accurate), most Family Medicine programs unofficially assign your application a greater score if you have done at least one elective in family medicine, as it seems to "prove" that you are somewhat interested or at least knowledgeable about the career and not just blatantly backing up with family. To my knowledge, none of the Ontario Family Medicine programs require you to do an elective at their school to be considered.

 

I hope this helps.

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The average percentage of family medicine in a class is usually quoted as 40%.

 

Your know I love you man, but I don't think you're right about that. 43% is higher than any school matched to FM last year, even granola-nutty-crunchy Mac.

 

http://carms.ca/pdfs/2008R1_MatchResults/16Proportion of Canadian Graduates Choosing Family Medicine as a 1st Choice by Faculty_en.pdf

 

Did 43% of us really match to family? That's huge!

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I wouldn't be surprised if adcoms have been accepting more people to medical school who fit the "likely to match into family medicine" demographic: female, older, married, with children, from rural areas. I observe such a trend at my own school, where the young hip sexy types have gunned for specialties, while the older, more world-weary types prefer the short road and relative freedom family medicine offers.

 

Anyone else see similar trends at their schools?

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I wouldn't be surprised if adcoms have been accepting more people to medical school who fit the "likely to match into family medicine" demographic: female, older, married, with children, from rural areas. I observe such a trend at my own school, where the young hip sexy types have gunned for specialties, while the older, more world-weary types prefer the short road and relative freedom family medicine offers.

 

Anyone else see similar trends at their schools?

 

World-weary??? Maybe more like world-wise! :D

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Your know I love you man, but I don't think you're right about that. 43% is higher than any school matched to FM last year, even granola-nutty-crunchy Mac.

 

http://carms.ca/pdfs/2008R1_MatchResults/16Proportion of Canadian Graduates Choosing Family Medicine as a 1st Choice by Faculty_en.pdf

 

Did 43% of us really match to family? That's huge!

 

I stand corrected, my friend. :) 31% overall matched to family last year, and only 29% of UWO's Class of 2008 did, according to that PDF.

 

But yes, 43% of us matched to family this year!!! :D Go FMIG! ;)

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I wouldn't be surprised if adcoms have been accepting more people to medical school who fit the "likely to match into family medicine" demographic: female, older, married, with children, from rural areas

 

LOL, I'm the exact opposite of those criteria. :D And so are a lot of my friends going for family medicine. So I wouldn't say that there are any hard and fast rules for who is going for family and who isn't.

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  • 2 months later...

Well at my school, the older world weary type is NOT what we see in family medicine. I'm from Quebec. Every family medicine staff or resident I've seen is a) young B) female c) pretty d) wears beautiful clothes e) is completely happy with their life f) and really nice. My sister is family medicine at Mcgill, she fits right in to criteria a,b,c,d, e, and f as well as all of her friends.

 

At Universite of Montreal this year, there were 4 good candidates WITH family medicine electives that didn't put any other school as a backup and actually went unmatched (for family medicine-montreal) So our school was proud of our performance in the 1st iteration of Carms. We weren't able to fill our spots in out lying regions though. Although after the second iteration we were able to 50% of those spots as well. I believe after it was all said and done we had 3 spots left over (although the regions are REALLY undesireable)

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Ally, I'll send you a PM, it's not my msn address.

 

The city isn't that bad, the opposite rather, and it's quite a nice area, calm, little traffic. People in the program are super nice, great place to learn. I do come to Mtl most weekends (when not on call).

 

noncestvrai

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Noncestvrai,

 

I added you. You have the same picture on FB as on messenger (and both are cartoons!). Randomly are you at Charles Lemoyne? Or actually in Sherbrooke? I can't remember. I know you are in radiology though.

 

I ended up at Mcgill which is great, because it's the program I wanted but didn't have the guts to apply to Mcgill in the first round. The program director was laughing his *butt* off at me. But really, it's even better then I could have EVER dreamed, so I'm really happy. 1st choice program, and what would have been my first choice school. I'm really thankful I didn't back up and get matched to my second choice.

 

I hope you have real pictures on FB, it would be nice to put a face to a name of someone I've talked to for so many years.

 

A bientot!

 

Ally

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I am a cartoon in real life. =)

 

I am mainly in Sherbrooke (the 2 university hospitals), but with rotations at Ste-Justine as a R4 with the possibility of some in Moncton, Charles-Lemoyne, HMR (Mtl), Institut de cardio de Mtl...i.e. a few electives.

 

I'm really happy for your match!

 

noncestvrai

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Noncestvrai:

 

I'm really happy too. I might say different after doing 9 on calls a month (at home but apparently we end up coming in anyways, hence the car as a graduation gift.) for 6 years, but I really LOVED my rotation. For me, nothing compares to this.

 

My sister knows your friend. She met him a few months ago actually. He's often at Saint Mary's with her. Small world no?

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