Residency in another province

[Guest goodgye]

Hope I'm not bothering all you guys already in med by posting in this forum.

I'm a 4th yr UBC student (hoping to get accepted may 15th!).

My question: If i were to complete my MD undergrad outside of BC (eg. UofM or UofS), would I have any more difficulty getting a residency postion in BC than someone who completed their MD in BC??

 

(I'd be willing to go out of province to get my MD, but only if i knew i'd be able to come to BC)

 

Thanks guys

[Guest aneliz]

There are never any guarantees of where you will end up for residency regardless of where you do your MD. Many of my classmates wanted to stay at UWO for residency, many of them did not match here and are going to other schools/provinces for residency. This happens every year.

 

Generally, where you end up doing residency has more to do with the quality of your application than where you did med school. That said, you can increase your chances of matching to a particular location by doing electives there and doing them well.

 

This however still does not offer any guarantees that you will match there...

 

I wouldn't turn down a med school seat in another province if that was the only acceptance I had... however, doing med school in BC doesn't guarantee that you will get a residency spot there either.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hey there,

 

I agree with what aneliz has said, above. Your first priority at the moment should be to get into medical school, and if you have multiple offers then to figure out which school would be the best fit for you.

 

Regarding residency spots, you just never know what will happen, even if you think you have a good feeling during your electives. For example, I have a pal who is currently in her surgical residency at UofT. She completed a surgical elective at UBC during her clerkship and loved it. At that time, she was told by the Program Director that they loved her and she would be at the top of their rank list. Given all of these factors, she was quite keen to snag a spot in the UBC program and to live in Vancouver, and she ranked the program as her number one pick. As it turned out, she didn't match there--she matched to UofT which was her second choice. This means that the UBC folks didn't rank her among their top choices at all. So even though she had what she felt was a good experience, and this was coupled with assurance from the program that she would be ranked highly, she didn't match there.

 

Situations such as the above don't always work out so adversely, but it helps to demonstrate how these things can happen, no matter how ideal your chances of securing a spot appear to be.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen