odds of ending up in a particular city?

[wannabmed]

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hey, i'm a current m1 who knows little about the residency app process -- and i realize that i have a long way to go -- but i was just curious of the chances of ending up in a particular georgraphic area for someone interested in a non-competitive specialty...

i miss home and am hoping to hear that i won't have too much difficulty returning home in three and a half years 😉 ...

p.s. from looking at the list of residency placements, it looks like in my hometown area there are about 5 placement sites for my non-comptetitive specialty of interest. with ranking all 5 of them would that give a good shot at one of them?

 

[jennyboo]

i miss home and am hoping to hear that i won't have too much difficulty returning home in three and a half years 😉 ...

If home is your first priority, here's an approximation (pulled out of my head, not backed up by data) of how good your chances are of ending up near home:

Not guaranteed (i.e. you may need to apply all over to guarantee getting a job): Specialties that have few residencies and few spots, such as Radiation oncology, dermatology, plastic surgery, radiology, urology, ophthalmology, ENT, orthopedics

A decent shot (i.e. you can probably go home): Anesthesia, emergency medicine, general surgery, maybe ob/gyn

Easy: Specialties with many residencies and many spots, such as Internal medicine, Family medicine, Pediatrics

Remember that the subspecialties require tertiary care centers, while general specialties like IM can have residencies in non-tertiary settings. So there are fewer programs overall.

p.s. from looking at the list of residency placements, it looks like in my hometown area there are about 5 placement sites for my non-comptetitive specialty of interest. with ranking all 5 of them would that give a good shot at one of them?

Yes, if they are all in the top 5 on your rank list your chances of matching there are I think >90%. Most people match within their top three.