Matching in Canada and US??

[Guest EngineerwMasters]

I apologize if this is a silly question..I just got into med school in a couple places, and have chosen to attend U of A (alberta). I was wondering whether it is possible to match both in Canada and the US? Are Canadians at a disadvantage in the US Match system, having graduated from a Canadian Med school (or is it more based on USMLE scores etc?). I am married with a son, and need to have many doors open for my husband's career opportunities come graduation time. Do either of the match systems take family into consideration (or do they only take it into consideration when both spouses are trying to match?)

 

Thanks!

[Guest medicator007]

Since the match in both canada and the US is a legally binding contract you are not allowed to run both matches and thus cannot match to both. CARMS (the canadian match) is run first and so should you run and get matched in that system you are automatically removed from the american match.

 

As for taking into account the family situation, no match system that I am aware of does that. You only apply where you are interested, interview where you are interested, wank where you are interested and thus you cannot be matched anywhere YOU haven't put down. It certainly is a complicated process though and not at all easy with a family, but doable.

 

Hope that answered your questions.

 

Medicator

[Guest Ian Wong]

Medicator is right on. An additional comment is that Canadian med school graduates are usually at a slight disadvantage for US residency positions vs their US med school graduate counterparts.

 

The reason is that:

 

#1, Canadian med graduates are almost invariably Canadian citizens (a result of our admissions screening rules), and therefore require visas to do residency in the US. This adds additional paperwork and time investment for the US program in question, which isn't necessary if you take a US citizen.

 

#2, many US programs aren't particularly familiar with Canadian med schools (U of T and McGill may be two exceptions), and therefore again that makes you a bit of an unknown quantity.

 

#3, the match timelines for Canada and the US will conflict fairly significantly, to the point where it would be very difficult to do a significant number of interviews in both the US and Canadian systems while still in your fourth year of med school. US residency programs typically interview in the fall (from October all the way through January), while Canadian programs often interview in January/February. In both systems, you are expected to have rotations or other fourth-year requirements to fulfill. It's difficult to set up your schedule with enough flexibility to interview full bore in both countries.

Do either of the match systems take family into consideration (or do they only take it into consideration when both spouses are trying to match?)

If your spouse was also in the residency match, you can attempt to "couples match", where you basically combine your rank lists such that either you will both go to a given city/program, or neither of you will go. This may mean that both of you may not get into your top choice program individually, but end up in a program that was interested in matching both of you. If your spouse is anything else, then the onus is entirely on you to research your cities and programs, and apply to, interview at, and rank only programs where you and your spouse will both be happy.

 

This definitely can affect which programs you are likely to be interested in if your spouse has a very specialized job that requires a certain city or type of city to support that occupation.

 

Ian

[Guest moo]

Actually, interviewing in both systems shouldn't be much of a problem. I and most of my classmates are taking January off and I plan on interviewing in Canada and the US at that time. Traveling might be a headache but I think it should be doable.

[Guest byronique]

Hi, moo:

I am confused by why people apply to both matches during the same year... Say, you would get matched to a Canadian program for sure, which is legally binding and automatically removes you from the US match system.

I ask since I used to want to apply for residency in the states, but now it seems kind of pointless unless we don't apply through CARMS!

Could you clarify the issue for me please?

Thanks so much!!!

[Guest moo]

Because you only rank the programs you actually want to attend. If I applied to x Canadian programs but only rank y, then if I don't match anywhere in Canada of the programs I want to go to, then i will match to the US.

[Guest Ian Wong]

Actually, interviewing in both systems shouldn't be much of a problem. I and most of my classmates are taking January off and I plan on interviewing in Canada and the US at that time.

Part of the trouble is that many Canadian residency programs literally interview on one day only. Many of the very competitive US residency programs (ie. ENT) also have only 1 or perhaps 2 interview days. When you start accumulating interviews, you may have conflicts that make it logistically almost impossible to attend every interview you want (ie. an interview in Seattle one day, an interview in Toronto that start 16 hours later, and a third interview in San Fran the following day.)

 

If you have the money and the patience, you can probably squeeze out the very vast majority of the interviews you want, but it can be a real headache and stressful time to coordinate all the intangibles (flights, hotels, taxis/shuttles, post-interview communication and letters [more for the US programs than the Canadian ones], weather delays due to @#%$ winter weather, etc).

 

Ian