Ubc Fam Med

[conan88]

Hello,

 

I would appreciate any insight people can shed regarding my situation.

 

I am a fourth year med student from Ontario who is interested in applying for fam medicine My top choices would be UBC (mostly St. Pauls) and UT. I am interested in the St. Paul's program primarily because my partner intends to return to BC. From looking at the UBC website it seems that there will likely only be around 12 spots available for CMG at the St. Paul's Website. Seeing that I have not done an elective at UBC (or any OOP electives) is it unlikely that  I will be able to get a spot at UBC (with a mediocre application and potentially mediocre interview). Since UT fam med is qutie competitive I am concerned if I rank UBC first and UT second that I would get neither and end up getting one of my last choices (or worse, become unmatched). 

 

Can anyone shed light on applying to an UBC fam med program from out of province?

 

Thank you!

[Dany]

1) Your rank list takes precedence over the program's rank. So if you ranked UBC 1st and UT 2nd and got unmatched to neither, that's NOT because of your ranking strategy, but because neither programs ranked you high enough - in which case the matching result would still be the same had you ranked the two programs the other way around.

So the best thing you could do is to rank your most desired program 1st, your 2nd most desired program 2nd, regardless your chances of being matched to that specific program.

 

2) I suppose you want to live in Vancouver. Don`t forget that there are a few other FM sites in greater vancouver: Fraser, Surrey, Coastal,... also Abbortsford and Nanaimo site which would take some time commuting from Vancouver.

I think the Aboriginal site also has 1 or 2 spots in dwntn Vancouver

 

Good luck!

[conan88]

Thank you Dany! Appreciate your help!

[vancity88]

From what I've heard, the St. Paul's program is the most competitive for FM (and more competitive than many specialty programs) in the country. Part of it is due to its excellent reputation and part of it is due to the relatively small number of seats in a highly desirable city

[jasmineblossom]

I have also heard in the past that the St. Paul's site is the most competitive.  However, I have a feeling that your competition from in-province applicants (UBC students) will not be as big of an issue now as it might have been in the past.  Truth be told, those of us who did medical school at UBC and rotated through St. Paul's Hospital don't see it as a place where we would like to do our family medicine training.  In my class, St. Paul's was actually NOT a popular choice for Family Medicine.  

 

I think your competition is more likely to come from other out-of-province applicants who want to do their training in beautiful Vancouver.  St. Paul's sounds attractive because it's in downtown Vancouver, which can sound great to anyone who hasn't been inside St. Paul's.  While I won't give you reasons why I, and many others in my class, would not want to do our residency there, (since it is not the point of this thread), suffice it to say that if you want to move out to the Vancouver area, keep in mind that there are other sites in the area, as well.

 

When I went through CaRMS this past January, there was one interview for all the family medicine sites at UBC.  If you rock the interview and have a very solid application, you stand a good chance of getting your top UBC site.

 

Good luck!

[ubcgrad12345]

^ I guess I had a different experience, but I just graduated from UBC too and know at least 10-15 people, myself included, who had St. Paul's FM as their first choice. None of us matched there, as St. Paul's didn't actually take anyone from UBC this year (which probably reinforces your point re: competition from out-of-province applicants). My takeaway from it, though, was that St. Paul's, if anything, is getting even more competitive than it has been previously..for them to not take anybody from their home school is crazy and I know it irked a lot of people in my class.

 

FWIW, I ended up matching to another program in Van and I'm super happy there; OP I would definitely suggest checking out these sites as well! But if you're thinking about applying to St. Paul's, I also did a couple electives there and absolutely LOVED IT. Sure, it's not for everyone but if you want to work with marginalized populations, inner city medicine, addictions work, etc, there are opportunities there that you simply won't get at any other program in the country (except maybe St. Mike's in Toronto). Also the site director Dr. Calam is awesome, though this seems to be the case with all of the UBC FM site directors.

[masterb]

with respect to other sites at UBC, can people comment about their experiences? 

[chickenfingers91]

Does anyone have any further input on the different ubc sites and how one can be competitive for st Paul's? Thanks. 

[oikos432]

I too had St. Paul's as my #1 choice in CaRMS last year and didn't match to it ... I've heard from many people including other FM program directors that St. Paul's FM is not only the most competitive Family Medicine program to get in to but also one of the most competitive programs in all of CaRMS (including most Royal College programs)   ...didn't know that when I was applying lol

 

Honestly, as others have said, there are lots of good reasons why it's the most competitive in the country and I hold no ill will toward the program for not picking me, though I think I certainly would have enjoyed the learning experiences available there. That said, I matched to another (rural) UBC site (don't want to say which one because it's pretty small), and the experience here has been phenomenal - tons of autonomy and really have the chance to see what the life of a rural family doc is like - total 180 from St. Paul's but amazing nonetheless. If you're interested shoot me a PM and I'll give you some more info.

 

As far as being competitive for St. Paul's...who knows. I did multiple electives there and had several strong letters and still didn't match there. Perhaps there was something else in my app   . I heard 5 out of the 12 that matched to St. Paul's this year are from McMaster though so if you're a Mac Med student you should be set lol..Anyways I created this acct to add my $0.02 so feel free to ask questions

[Knovecc]

I think UofT derm, UBC plastics, and UofA ophtho must be three of the tops in terms of CaRMS competitiveness

[HBP]

Anyone know if you can add more locations to UBC fam post-interview?  Some schools allow you to apply to one location, and other locations you can add for free.  Makes sense since it's not like they're interviewing separately.

[FutureGP333]

Anyone know if you can add more locations to UBC fam post-interview?  Some schools allow you to apply to one location, and other locations you can add for free.  Makes sense since it's not like they're interviewing separately.

 

Yes. At least for last year, you only needed to apply to one site pre-interview, and then you could add any of the 15 or so sites after (you had a couple of weeks to do this if my memory is right).

 

You do, however, have to pay the caRMS fee for each and every site you select (a bit of a money grab if you ask me). The other programs are the same, but most only have 2-4 sites (unlike UBC's 15). In the end, I applied and interviewed for 6 schools, but ended up ranking (and paying for) 35 sites. It was pretty expensive, especially considering I got my first choice in the end However, word to the wide - don't mess around with family med anymore - I know quite a number of people who went unmatched last year because of silly caRMS choices I have no regrets for ranking so many programs as I slept pretty well from interviews to match day...

[HBP]

Yes. At least for last year, you only needed to apply to one site pre-interview, and then you could add any of the 15 or so sites after (you had a couple of weeks to do this if my memory is right).

 

You do, however, have to pay the caRMS fee for each and every site you select (a bit of a money grab if you ask me). The other programs are the same, but most only have 2-4 sites (unlike UBC's 15). In the end, I applied and interviewed for 6 schools, but ended up ranking (and paying for) 35 sites. It was pretty expensive, especially considering I got my first choice in the end However, word to the wide - don't mess around with family med anymore - I know quite a number of people who went unmatched last year because of silly caRMS choices I have no regrets for ranking so many programs as I slept pretty well from interviews to match day...

 

Yeah, I don't mind paying the fee after I've interviewed. Just seems stupid to pay for 10 sites if you don't even land an interview.

[jojo123]

Hello! I'm a current CaRMS applicant applying to family medicine and trying to decide between some UBC sites since there are so many! 

I am interested particularly in St. Pauls/Vancouver Fraser/Surrey/Victoria/Abbotsford/Regional Okanagan 

Is anybody able to shed some light on a few questions: 

How much service versus learning is there at each of these sites (genuinely)? What are the call schedules like at each site? 

With respect to Surrey/Vic/Abbotsford, what's the city life like? Is the downtown young and active and are there other young professionals in the cities?  

After reading this thread I'm learning that St. Pauls is a lot more competitive than I had initially thought.... I think I would be interested in addictions/inner city health but don't have a ton of exposure/experience.