I'm a 3rd year trying to get a feel for where I should try to get my foot in the door during 4th year aways. Hopeing i'm not to late; as I understand it you need applying for externships very early in the year. Aiming as high as I can without committing personality theft, I'd be grateful if anyone can help me get a feel for my "reaching/top" and "sure-bet" Medicine programs, interview-wise, when I apply in a few months based on my profile.

Allopathic not well-known school in the south, 238/98 step 1, just out of the top quartile rank with mostly B's in 3rd year clerkships, basic science biomedical research during undergrad and medical school with 2 pubs and 3 conference presentations (as a medical student) under belt, 2 clinical case reports.

Any other suggestions of how to make-the best of my time before applying to become a better applicant? I keep hearing that aways at good programs are a chance to score a great rec-letter if you come from a not-so-great school thus can't get it from home. Seems like you would have to have some crazy charm and mad networking/bow-hunting skills to score this. What's the trick? Does attending Medicine conferences as a student help at all?

From reading other posts on this sub-forum, I can see how "non-traditional" med-students have a major leg up... seems like the higher we go in education scores/grades get you face time but who-you-know and where you come weigh in the most, like the real world.


Thanks in advance!

I would chill out. You sound like a solid applicant for IM.

Try to get good recs from your school -- I'm from a non-top tier school, got interviews at all but one place I applied to, and many many interviewers commented on how great my recs were. They were all from my school, from people that either knew me really well, or were impressed by me and were generally thoughtful and nice people. Sure it would be great to have someone famous, but that's where we end up with the old theory that it's better to have someone that can sound like they know you. Some of mine had titles -- i.e. a chairman of another department, assistant clerkship director, etc. The other thing might be if you know anyone who went to residency at a program you want to go to. If you do aways, do them because you want to check them out, not to get a rec, as I imagine that will always be a crapshoot.