Questions about applying for the anesthesiology residency

[Reignmaker]

Hi everyone,

I'm a MS4 applying for the anesthesiology residency this year and had a few questions; I would appreciate any help/advice you could offer. I tried going to my advisor yesterday with the same questions and though sweet, she seemed pretty clueless (I go to a Caribbean school - my cross to bear).

1) Everyone talks about a prelim year in anesthesiology, do I have to apply separely for this year (ie transitional, IM, surgery . . .etc) or can I just apply to anesthesiology?

2) What kind of scores would make me, as a caribbean grad, competitive? I had a 225/97 on Step I, and should have that or higher on Step II which I took a 2 weeks ago (crossing fingers/says a prayer)

3) Should I apply to another specialty as a backup? I feel like I've found my calling in anesthesia and don't really want to do anything else but am a little nervous considering how competitive the specialty is.

4) I have LORs from Psych, IM, Peds, FM, Anesthesia and will get one from ICU - which would you recommend including in the app other than the obvious?

5) Let's face it, I'm at a big disadvantage going to an offshore school, what can I do to be more competitive for this residency? I have good grades, decent scores, strong LORs (but everyone has those) and a winning personality What else do you recommend I do to strengthen my application?

I would appreciate any input and really hope I get a chance to join this field. Thank you!

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[Reignmaker]

The ASA conference in Chicago - should/can I go? Dr. Atul Gawande is speaking and I'm a huge fan (I know, a surgeon . . . ). What do you guys think?

 

[geogil]

This has been discussed ad nauseum.

1. Caribbean grad: disadvantage. Too late to fix.
2. Steps: Check out the "charting the outcomes" for the Match. 227 is the average for US allo grads. There are charts and tables detailing the averages for foreign grads. There are also graphs showing the number of ranks v. probability of matching for both US and foreign grads. Apply accordingly so that statistically you are on the asymptote portion of the curve.
3. Smile, be nice, and interview well. Have a good, real, answer to "why anesthesia", "why program X", and "why city/state X".
4. Apply places you want to live.
5 . LOR: anesthesia, medicine, ICU, and anesthesia PD letters are better than psych, OB, etc. Most places require 3, some require 4.
6.Prelim years: some programs are categorical (all 4 years at the same program), some are advanced (only the 3 clinical anesthesia years). SOme are a combination. For the combo programs, you can apply to either the advanced, categorical, or both. SOme applicants apply only categorical so they don't have to risk moving, have to learn multiple hospital systems, etc.. The advantage to ranking both types of programs (or both tracks in a combo program) is that your probablity of finding somewhere you like and matching there is higher.
7. Prelim cont'd: If you decide to interview at programs where you will need to have a separate intern year, you can do medicine, surgery or transitional year programs. Each have their various strenghts and weaknesses.
8. Ranking: Rank the programs you want in the order in which you wish to attend them. Seriously. Don't game the match. It's set up to your advantage. IF you have programs in different cities which require separate intern years, you make a sub-list for each program in which you can define the rank order for the intern years for that program.

For example: you wish to attend WashU and OHSU. Both require intern years prior. There are multiple internships in each city. For WashU you can rank all of the St Louis internships first, to minimize the likelihood of moving twice in two years. FOr OHSU, you can rank all the programs in Portland that you want to do internship at.
This will all become immediately obvious when the rank lists open.

Good luck.

 

[Reignmaker]

Thank you geogil for all the help. You're right - I did more digging and found more information. I appreciate the advice and will take it to heart. Have a good day.