Not quite a perfect match
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* Shelley Martin

In 2002, 95.6% of medical students registered with the Canadian Resident Matching Service were assigned to a program during the match's first round. Among successful applicants, 62% were matched to the program they had ranked first, and 90% were matched to their first-ranked discipline.

![Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/168/2/212.2/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/168/2/212.2/F1)

Figure. 

Students from McMaster and Memorial universities were most successful in the latter category (96% and 95% respectively), followed by those from the University of Western Ontario (93%), the University of Ottawa (92%) and the University of Calgary and Queen's University (91%). About two-thirds of Memorial and McGill graduates were matched to positions at those same schools. Elsewhere, many more students packed their suitcases: 21% moved to a residency position within the same province, while 36.4% left for a position in another province.

Among *all* applicants, women were slightly more successful than men at being matched to their first choice of discipline (86.7% vs. 82.7%). More than one-third (34.4%) of women were matched to family medicine positions, while less than one-fifth of men (18.2%) will be taking that route into practice.

Family medicine accounted for 38.8% of the 1260 available positions, but 109 of them remained unfilled after the first round; 62 were subsequently filled during the second iteration. Eighty-three residency positions were filled by international medical graduates, who could enter only the second iteration. Overall, 1 in 6 international applicants (16.7%) was matched successfully, with 47 family medicine positions being filled by these applicants. — *Shelley Martin*, Senior Analyst, CMA Research, Policy and Planning Directorate