My husband is in the top third of his class and has decent step scores. He is applying for Internal Medicine Residency at places like Duke, vanderbuilt, Emory, UAB, Maryland and about 20 others. I'm am currently a third year, but thus far i'm in the bottom third of my class and my first step score is less than average (201). All my evals are great, but i cant seem to transmit that via grades. Can anyone give me any insight as to what my chances are when I apply for these residencies next year. Do programs really look at family situations to keep couples together? Or are we kidding our selves? Are there any resources out there that could help me answer these questions?

I am assuming from your post (and it's presence on this thread) that you are both interested in IM.

This is very common -- many couples have applications of different strengths.

Since you are separated by a year, you can't use the couple's match to help sort this out. The couple's match would allow you to both interview at a variety of programs, and allow you to rank combinations of matches in the order that you wish. I guess your husband could take a year off, and then enter the match next year --> I've seen that done several times. It avoids a potential year apart (you in 4th year and he's in his residency elsewhere), and helps control the match process.

If he does plan to match this year, he can try to match in a larger urban area -- that would afford you the best chance of getting a proximal spot.

It's hard to say whether you will get a spot at many of the programs you have listed. Step 2, the remainder of your MS III rotations, etc will all play a role. The better you do on these, the mlore options you will have.

Programs will look favorably on a family situation, but probably will not waive their minimum requirements.

try to rank programs that have more than one im program in the city. chicago, new york, la would be good.

try to rank programs that have more than one im program in the city. chicago, new york, la would be good.

My wife and I are matching together next year as well and looking for cities with a lot of programs, I'd add good cities to consider:

Baltimore/Washington (tons of programs)
Houston (UT, Baylor, UTMB)
Cleveland
Temple/Austin area (Scott & White, UTMB-Austin)
Dallas (UTSW, Baylor)

thanks for the replies thus far. My husband is indeed applying this year and has begun interviewing at schools. He has applied for Internal Medicine, however I have not chosen what I will be applying for yet, It will probably be Internal Med, Fam Med, or Psych.

Does anyone happen to know if there is somewhere where I could find each program's "minimum requirements" for residency applicants? I'm not even sure if minimum requirements are made available to applicants. If so, is there a compilation somewhere or can I look them up individually? My husband is in the middle of deciding which interviews he should attend. It would make it easier if there were someway I could gauge a program's likelihood of taking an applicant of my status next year (assuming that I do everything right this year) or whether certain programs are out of my reach right off the bat.

Another question, As my husband interviews at these programs should he let them know that his wife will be applying next year or is this something that should be brought up at a later date when I'm applying next year?

thanks again for all of the help