Peds/Med Genetics

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Anyone know anything about these programs? (Yale, UW, WU, Childrens National/NIH, UTHouston, Baylor, Mt Sinai, UCONN, CedarSinai). How many people match to these programs straight out of school?

Also do you have to first match to the peds residency before you can them both or do you apply to a separate peds/Medgenetics program?

So, this post is pretty ancient, but I'm hoping that there will be more responses now. I am very interested in doing a peds/genetics combined program but there is not very much information on these aside from what's available on FREIDA. For instance: are these combined programs very competitive? How does the experience compare to doing a peds residency and then a genetics residency separately (aside from the number of years)?
Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Originally Posted by GeneticsGoddess

So, this post is pretty ancient, but I'm hoping that there will be more responses now. I am very interested in doing a peds/genetics combined program but there is not very much information on these aside from what's available on FREIDA. For instance: are these combined programs very competitive? How does the experience compare to doing a peds residency and then a genetics residency separately (aside from the number of years)?
Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Hi, hope this is of help. Most peds/genetics programs overall are not very competitive because there aren't a lot of applicants. However, there are very few programs, and there are only 1-2 spaces per year. Most programs also aren't aiming to fill those spaces no matter what, so they'd rather not fill than match someone who wasn't a good fit for the program. There's not much difference doing the peds/genetics route versus striaght peds (that's what I did, am currently a PL-3) then fellowship. Most combined peds/genetics programs are 5 years, and peds residency alone is three years. However since most genetics fellowships are 2 years the training either way ends up being 5 years. The exception is Boston Children's/HMS fellowship which requires 3 years. A lot of places though do encourage an extra year for research though so it could extend a year either way.

The reason I liked doing peds only first was that I really got to focus on being a pediatrician and really get a good foundation for congenital/metabolic pathology (plus you have to learn that stuff anyway for the peds boards). I feel much more prepared to be a genetics fellow at this level. If you go through a combined program, you will be flip flopping back and forth (every 3-6 months peds, then genetics, then back, etc. depending on the program), and won't be eligible to take both boards until you're done with th5 years. (versus I will be taking my peds boards this October, then genetics at the end of fellowship, definitely prefer to do 1 board exam at a time). Some of my friends in combined IM-Peds programs say the back and forth can be difficult too. On the flip side, some people would prefer to stay at one program all 5 years and not have to deal with moving, applying for fellowship again, making connections at one place early, etc.

If I had known as a med student that I wanted to do peds/genetics, I probably would've applied for one of those programs. However, I enjoyed getting to see different programs when I was interviewing for fellowship, and I am going to train at my top choice, so I don't think it really made a difference at the end. If you have any other Q, feel free to PM.