Peds Late Decision

[manager]

Hey forum,

I am really needing some good advice. I'm a 3rd year, and I just got off my peds rotation and I loved it! (well not outpatient, but that is neither here nor there). I think I want to be a peds heme onc doc. I really want to know if I have any shot at top notch programs, so I could really use your insight! I am looking to live on the coasts, and go to a top 30 program, if possible.

About me:
Good state school
248 Step 1
Top 25%ile in class
HP in all rotations except...P in peds (i know, this hurts!) We have high cutoffs for shelf exams and I missed it by 2 points
Research: tons in rad onc, which is what I thought I wanted to do
LOR: great ones...for rad onc. I will need to get myself together for the peds match.
Leadership/volunteer: quite a bit of these, nothing crazy, but more than average probably.

What can I do to make myself more competitive and what programs are best for heme/onc?

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[manager]

Is my plight this bad? I imagine that my pass in peds hurts me pretty bad, huh?

 

[michigangirl]

what is the highest grade you can get in rotations at your school? High pass or honors?

 

[Cookie Queen]

Is my plight this bad? I imagine that my pass in peds hurts me pretty bad, huh?

I had to post because my story is so similar and I can say things turned out great for me. I thought I was going to be a general surgeon through most of medical school. I decided sometime mid-3rd year to go into peds, and also knew that general outpatient peds was not for me. My research was in thoracic surgery and urology and only one of my letters was peds. My stats were not that far off from yours and I ended up at a fantastic east coast program. I'm currently interviewing for peds heme/onc fellowships and have gotten a lot of great interviews.

The best advice I can give is to get a peds adviser who can help you mold your application and then apply to tons of programs. I tell everyone to apply to a ton of programs though. You spent 1/4 mill getting to this point, this is not the place to get cheap. The problem I've see happen, if you apply to less and you're getting less interviews than anticipated, by the time you realize that many places have filled their interview spots so adding more programs won't necessarily help. I was told to apply to 10 or 15 residency programs, so I applied to 26 I think. It feels good to turn down interviews when you have too many, much better than not getting enough and being behind.

Take-home point - follow the advice of a good adviser and I think you'll be fine. Peds is not that competitive so I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Best of luck - you chose an awesome path!!

 

[WilburSK]

Thanks so much for your kind and informative comments!

You can get P/HP/H at my school. The cutoff for H is 90th percentile on the shelf though, and I've never been able to get it.

 

[manager]

Thanks for the information!

My school is also P/HP/H. Maybe if I make an H in my sub-I it would help me out?

 

[GoSpursGo]

You're going to be just fine. You have a great step 1 score, and the fact that you have research at all will probably be more than a good number of other applicants--if you have publications, that will look stellar. The P is not ideal, but you're certainly not going to be the first person who had that issue. Do a sub-I early on next year and get honors and you'll be absolutely golden. I can't think of any reason why you shouldn't have a good shot at pretty much any peds program out there--you can never guess which programs are going to choose to give you an interview, but you should be competitive for just about any program out there.

 

[manager]

Thanks GoSpursGo! Do you guys think I should do an away at a top program? In my old field it was a necessity, I'm not sure about the approach in peds.

 

[Rutgers06]

Thanks GoSpursGo! Do you guys think I should do an away at a top program? In my old field it was a necessity, I'm not sure about the approach in peds.

Doing an away in peds is not a necessity like it is in rad-onc. It's very hard to impress on an away rotation and I've seen it hurt people more than help people in pediatrics. As long as you do well on your sub-I and get strong LORs you should be fine. Good luck!

 

[GoSpursGo]

Will echo that an away really is not necessary. If you have some compelling reason to want to go to one specific program (ie significant other needs you to match in a particular city), you can go for it. Otherwise you're looking at an expensive rotation at a program you ultimately might not like, and where a bunch of random factors beyond your control (ie unfamiliarity with the institution's EMR, unhelpful senior resident, random grumpy attending) could hurt your chances.

 

[dbeast]

Thanks GoSpursGo! Do you guys think I should do an away at a top program? In my old field it was a necessity, I'm not sure about the approach in peds.

Also the fact that you aren't into gen peds won't help you on an away. It's totally reasonable not to like gen peds... after you're already in internship. It's hard to fake an interest in something and people may pick up on that. At your home institution you're more likely to get your pick of subspecialty sub-I's.