Comments on the Match

With the match now over and my class now aware of their results, we've had a bit of time to decompress and look ahead to residency preparations. On that latter point, there is a lot to get done - forms to fill out, organizations to sign-up with, some certifications to arrange, figuring out how to get paid (but yay, money!).

While I know where most of my class is headed now, it's all been through voluntary disclosures, which means I pretty much only know about my classmates who are happy with their results (and all the classmates I'm closer to all matched). Seems like my school had a pretty good year, but I know I'm only getting a partial picture. We do get a debrief on the school's overall match results soon, so I'll know more then. Here's hoping my class did as well as I think they did, and those who didn't match are getting enough support for the next steps.

I wanted to comment quickly on the only match stats we have at this time - the list of spots left unfilled from the 1st iteration. Interpretation of these is always a bit hazardous, as these positions mix both the CMG and IMG unfilled positions together. You can make some inferences, but there's naturally a bit of guesswork.

Some of the results aren't terribly surprising. There's a handful of positions left in the smaller, more technical fields with poorer job prospects. There's a few positions in typically competitive fields (like Derm) that are most likely IMG spots that were intentionally left unfilled. And there's the crush of positions in Quebec that go habitually unfilled as Quebec oversupplies its residency positions.

Some of the results aren't exactly shocking, but are notable. Internal filled almost every spot. Internal did see a jump in competitiveness last year, and the word is that trend continued in a big way this year. While this data doesn't confirm that perception on its own, it's certainly consistent with it. In the other direction, Psychiatry had a few more unfilled spots than I expected, given that it is also garnering a bit more attention. Psychiatry has been steadily gaining positions, however, and the remaining spots are generally in more remote locations - ironically, the places that are probably lacking the psychiatrists those extra positions were meant to train.

Lastly, Family Medicine had an absolute ton of unfilled spots this year. Family usually has a number, but the proportion of Family spots left open is greater than it has been in the recent past. Interest in Family, which took a bit of a dip last year, may be a bit low this year as well. That would fit with the notion that Internal has jumped in popularity - while overall competitiveness for CMGs in CaRMS has increased somewhat, Internal is a huge specialty and for it to become more competitive means other larger specialties have to get less competitive. It makes sense that a rise in interest in Internal would be coupled with a drop in interest in Family. We'll have to see when the full match stats eventually come out.