I am an Osteopathic student who will be applying for an Allopathic match, due to the limitied number of Osteopathic residency positions in my state of Colorado. I have lived in CO for 16 years, and my husband has a business here, so I am starting a search for residency programs in a circuit around Fort Collins, CO, hoping to keep within a 1.5 hour radius, which reaches to Denver, Greeley, and Cheyenne. However, I realize that this is fewer than the suggested 15 or so residency programs to which I need to apply. So I am looking for a residency program that will be worth a relocation, even if it as least just for me with opportunity to come home now and then. I am not going to have any more kids–mine are in Jr. High & High School. As an older student, I value sleep and family time a bit more than my younger colleagues, and although I am a bit of a workaholic, I do not think that days without sleep, a shirt of hair, or self-flagellation will make me a better physician 
. I deeply enjoy holistic medicine that focuses on the mind/body/spirit balance, and am passionate about Family Medicine and the full spectrum that it involves, with an opportunity to help people start out healthy, remain healthy, and reverse early disease. I like procedures, OB/GYN, advocate diversity, ask lots of questions, and am sometimes overly thorough. Any suggestion for good fit programs? 
I’ve worked with residents in the Columbia-St. Mary’s Family Med program in Milwaukee. People seem to be very happy, residents are treated with great respect by attendings and staff from what I was able to see, and residents really did run much of the inpatient service I was on. Not so sure about holistic, but know that you can do a lot of Ob-Gyn, and being in Milwaukee, definitely diverse.
If you like to work and appreciate autonomy, I’d also recommend the Broadlawns program in Des Moines, Iowa. Residents are very well taken care of, and again, treated with a great amount of respect and autonomy.
Sadly, these aren’t close to Colorado, but perhaps would be of interest to others pursuing family medicine.
Before you write off the osteopathic match, check again with all the programs in your area. A lot of family med programs added AOA accreditation this year, and there may be some dually accredited programs in your area. You can apply through either or both matches. OM skills are something you will use daily in practice. I know of several docs who regret letting them lapse during their MD residencies (and that’s coming from an MD).
I would also suggest looking at the 1-2 programs, where you do your first year at a large “parent” program, and then the last 2 years at a community hospital, usually in a rural underserved area. You’ll get tons of experience with OB, procedures, grassroots seat-of-your-pants medicine.
Congrats on getting to this point, and enjoy these next few months!
15 programs is a PLENTY long ERAS application list for match into family medicine. I don’t think it’s necessary to go beyond Colorado if staying there is your true desire.
The Dean of our med school spoke to us this week on securing a residency and said "more than about 4 or 5 programs becomes unwieldy. You can actually do rotations at that many sites. But practically speaking, most students do apply to about 10.
Trying to get a 4th year rotation at your top choice schools and striving to be all that they could want (while getting to know the Director of Medical education and the residency director and the office staff and the chief resident, etc, etc) is probably the best thing you can do (per him). Save your additional applications for places that do not expect to meet you ahead of time.
Kate
Just a note that this is applicable to family medicine and not necessarily all areas of medicine. Residencies that are extremely competitive require that you apply to more programs. For example, the average MD applicant in Emergency Medicine applies to 30-40 programs, more if you are less competitive (mediocre grades, board scores, etc). The hope is to interview at enough programs to be able to rank 10. FMGs routinely apply to double that amount of programs (for EM, at least).