How hard is it to get into Calfornia residency from non-CA DO schools?

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tony333

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I am curious about the difficulty of getting a CA residency (e.g. IM, FP, etc.). My family is in CA but I am currently attending a DO school in the east coast. I plan to do my residency either in Bay area or LA area (maybe San Diego as well).

Should I take USMLE just in case? I heard that most CA programs require it.

I know there are two DO schools in CA (TUCOM and Western). What residencies do their grad usually go into? Osteo or allopa? I want to hear from members from these two schools. It seems like they might not have that many residency slots from their own schools systems.

Any information is much appreciated.


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gas-x
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you'll notice that the DO's who did not take the USMLE probably did not receive the same number of interview invites as those who did...especially in california where it's really tough to break into.
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Hi-
I am from California too and I did some extensive research on "how to get back", since I am attending a DO school outside of California.
This is the nuts and bolts of what I learned.
1. It doesn't make any difference which medical school you go to or where (in state or out of state), allopathic or osteopathic. Calif is still going to be competitive for everyone.
2. Some programs want the "cream of the crop" and it is best to call or e-mail the programs you are interested in beforehand. For instance: Highland Hospital in Alameda tends to take all the UCSF and Yale students. Maybe its boards, maybe its the school. All I know is I contaced the ER residency program, which I may add is
run by a DO, and I was told in so many words that unless I smoke on the boards, they want only the best.
3. I was told by several programs that you will be more competitive by taking the USMLE. If they have to narrow it down to two candidates they want to compare numbers.
4. In your 4th year you should try to do a rotation in the area you are interested in at the place in Calif you want to end up in. You want to make some contacts and you want them to see you know your stuff and are someone they want to work with (very very very important). I have been told this so many times that I know I will be sure to do one, if not all, of my 4th year rotations in Calif.
5. There are several locations in Calif that will let you do your 4th year rotations, start researching it now. San Joaquin hospital is a good institution, lots of UCD med students, but I have run into several DO students as well. Several hospitals in San Francisco have spots too. Start looking on-line and start e-mailing programs to see who will or will not let you do rotations with them.
6. Also look to see which programs have accepted DO's for a residency in the past. For the record, I have not seen any DO's at Stanford or UCSF. UCD has taken in several DO'S for residency. Shannon Jenkins, DO, graduated from my school and is now one of the top docs at UCLA in neonatology. He also is on the committee for residency reviews. So they are out there, you just have to look, and don't wait until your 3rd year before you start looking. Like I said before, I have done a lot of looking around on residency pages to see who is getting in and from where.
Good luck.
 
DrSmiles, thanks a lot for sharing this valuable information.

Could you let me know what websites are good places to look for these information? e.g. "residency pages to see who is getting in and from where", more DO friendly hospitals/residencies, etc.

I am also a 1st yr. Thanks for the advices. I am sure it will pay off being "early birds". :=)
 
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You can try looking under FREIDA, under AMA's site:
www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2997.html

I had a lot of success looking under www.scutwork.com

Start looking around on scutwork and you will find links to residency programs.

I also just went into Google and did a search for various institutions. For example: I looked up Highland Hospital in Alameda, which has a link to their residency page. It even shows pictures of all the current residents and where they went to school. There were also contact e-mail addresses for more info. Some of the institutions will even let you contact the residents. For example, at UCD, there was a DO resident from CCOM doing his ER residency. They let me contact him for advice on how to get into the program. This is probably your best source of info since they actually got into a program you are interested in.

I might also suggest a book by Iserson called "Getting into a Residency". Excellent resource. Tells you where and what is competitive and what you need to do to get into the residency you want.

Hope it helps.
 
There are several California DO residencies as well. They are worth looking into.

There is one in Long Beach, one in Downey. Both are in LA. One is in Monclair one in Arrowhead.

Keep your option open about DO residencies if you want to go back to california. and yes, I head UCD takes quite a few DOs for their residency.
 
Ya know, I had several friends from my med school get into the california residencies of their choice...(all MD) OB, surg, surg, FP, IM...these guys were in the top half of class, but nothing more.
 
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