Is family medicine residency competitive?

[Monmonmons]

Hey Everyone,

When you break it[1] down, in family medicine, ~300 non-US IMGs matched in 2014 while ~600 non-US IMGs did not. When you look at surgery its 158 matched;150 unmatched or in internal medicine ~1,700 matched;~1,850 unmatched.

In summary, 1/3 of non-US IMG applicants who apply to fam med match and yet ~1/2 applicants in other specialties match...

does this mean family medicine is more competitive than IM or surg?!?!?



Source:
[1] http://www.ecfmg.org/resources/NRMP...atch-International-Medical-Graduates-2014.pdf

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[DrMidlife]

You'll want to get a more comprehensive understanding of residency and the match than what the match percentages can tell you. Assuming you're an FMG, you'll want the guidance of successful FMGs, and there are better places to find that info than this subforum.

FM is selective and there are some FM residencies that are very competitive. This is a huge country with tremendous regional variance.

A subset of those going after primary care are doing so because they have no chance at more competitive specialties. This subset includes many of the US-MDs and DOs who don't match, and it includes many of the US-IMG's and FMG's who did not prepare well for residency. But many US-MDs and DOs who go after primary care could have chosen any specialty and succeeded. Be wise and know your competition.

You may want to review the general recommendations in the report, before you look at FM vs. IM vs. other:

Some general observations apply to all of the specialties in this report. IMG applicants who are successful in matching to their preferred specialty are more likely to:
· rank more programs within their preferred specialty
· have higher USMLE scores
· have fewer attempts at ECFMG certification examinations
· be U.S. citizens
· speak English as a native language
· have obtained ECFMG certification closer to the Match year (2013)
· have graduated from medical school closer to the Match year (2013)

I also recommend learning how to evaluate a residency program. Pick one that did not fill, find the program website, look at where the residency is located on a map, look at where the residents went to medical school. Repeat 1000 times. The programs that have FMGs now are the ones that are more likely to take FMGs.

Best of luck to you.

 

[Monmonmons]

Thanks for your help DrMidlife!

 

[BestDoctorEver]

@DrMidlife ... Do AMGs have a better chance of matching to places that usually take a lot of FMG and/or US-IMG? I just want to maximize my chances when it is time to apply for residency... By the way, I will be an AMG from a low tier school...

 

[DrMidlife]

AMG could mean at least four different things. Your competitiveness for residency depends on much more than whether you went to a school in the US. You may want to get onto AAFP.ORG and read their general guidance for med students.

And as I suggested to the previous poster, start looking at the websites for residency programs. Some program directors offer thorough guidance.

There is an official and good source for match rates of the various graduate types across residency types: NRMP.ORG. At least browse the tables and charts in the NRMP "Results and Data" report that comes out after the match.

The AOA match, which is where about 1/3 of DO's go, is not yet part of NRMP, but that's supposedly coming in a year or so. I don't go looking for that match data, but I think it's around.

Best of luck to you.