I was considering applying to Pediatrics as well, and set up a number of electives in the field to keep that option open. I enjoyed them thoroughly and was encouraged to consider applying by my preceptors, but ultimately decided against it. I love working with kids and the people in pediatrics I found to be particularly caring and compassionate, but the extra years of training, the high focus on inpatient care, and the comparatively worse job market (it's not bad in pediatrics, but not nearly as favourable as Family Medicine) was enough to dissuade me. I spent weeks going back and forth on whether I would apply, and if I did, how highly I would rank Pediatrics programs - this was not an easy decision.
I had a somewhat smaller conundrum after a Psychiatry elective which was similarly enjoyable and also resulted in a preceptor encouraging me to apply to the specialty. I wasn't really set up to do that - not enough elective experience, no real opportunities to get enough good LORs in the field, a CV that wasn't particularly well-tailored to Psychiatry. Still, similar to Pediatrics, I could envision a happy career in Psychiatry. It's hard not to wonder what opportunities would have been in store if I followed these preceptors' advice to enter a field beside Family Medicine.
Still, I'm quite happy with my decision. Family Medicine offers a rather quick path to a good job, with flexibility in opportunities, and a wide variety of patients to take care of. Having a relatively stress-free CaRMS application cycle doesn't hurt either. The match rate to Family Medicine is over 95% and I'm not banking on overly competitive locations. I don't feel nearly the same pressure a lot of my classmates are feeling.
Nevertheless, I'm not taking anything for granted. Family Medicine is what I want to match to and I'm not taking it anymore lightly than those in my class going for super-competitive specialties like Dermatology, Plastics, or Emergency Medicine. It's been reassuring to start getting interviews. I only applied to 5 schools, though there are 14 programs on my list between those 5 schools. I've been lucky enough to receive invites for interviews at 4 of these schools so far and am waiting to hear back from the fifth school. I'm fairly confident in my interviewing abilities, but have still been casually going over some questions and have set up some interview prep sessions offered by my school as well as the CMA. I didn't apply all that broadly, so I need to make each application and each interview count.
On the plus side, my smaller number of interviews means I'm going to have a lot of time off during the CaRMS interview period. My school gives those three weeks entirely off - an amazing and welcome decision on their part - and I'll likely only need a week or so of that time. Gives me both plenty of time to do some last-minute preparation, as well as time to recover afterwards!
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