3rd year DO student Competitiveness for PM&R and Relevant Questions

[PMRapplicant22]

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Hey everyone,

I've just recently made my final decision to pursue PM&R after narrowing my choices down to PM&R, neurology, and anesthesia! With that decision comes many more questions (as always). I was hoping some of you guys could let me know how competitive an applicant I will be and maybe answer some of my questions regarding applying and residency.

Some background:
3rd year DO student, Step 1 210, Level 1 600, haven't done a formal rotation in PM&R yet since my electives start next year, but I plan to start my fourth year with 3-4 PM&R rotations. On 3rd year rotations, I've got all honors with a couple high passes. I have a publication in an unrelated specialty, but that was before medical school. My goal is to end up in the Northeast region for residency which includes MA, NY, NJ, PA, DC, MD (with a particular preference of NY, NJ).

First question: I want to do my first rotation at my home program in order to get all my learning done before my aways, and to get a LoR as well. However, there's no residency program at my home institution. Will that mean my letter will carry less weight?

Another question I have is are categorical programs significantly more competitive than advanced?

Also, how many programs should I plan to apply to? I would like to match in the Northeast region preferentially. Will it be difficult to match in that region/should I branch out and apply to other regions as well?

Lastly, what do you think would make my app more competitive? And will a LoR from an unrelated specialty such as obgyn or peds be useless?

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[PMRapplicant22]

bump?

 

[DMBandFan86]

First question: I want to do my first rotation at my home program in order to get all my learning done before my aways, and to get a LoR as well. However, there's no residency program at my home institution. Will that mean my letter will carry less weight?

I don't think so. I did the same thing and matched.

Another question I have is are categorical programs significantly more competitive than advanced?

Not really, depends on the program. A lot of people prefer advanced positions because they can do a TY / PM at a different institution. Many categorical intern years are more work heavy than if you found an ideal TY / PM year. They can be more competitive at locations that don't have competing intern hospitals because people don't want to move twice in 2 years.

Also, how many programs should I plan to apply to? I would like to match in the Northeast region preferentially. Will it be difficult to match in that region/should I branch out and apply to other regions as well?

I would apply broadly, esp since you are a DO student. Eat the higher cost and have a higher probability of matching. You can always narrow your interview down to the northeast as invites come in. Follow the stats from last years match, but probably a good idea to apply to 35+ programs. Overall it's harder to get the TY / PM interviews than PM&R interviews.

Lastly, what do you think would make my app more competitive? And will a LoR from an unrelated specialty such as obgyn or peds be useless?

Not useless, but certainly not highly beneficial. Better to have IM, ortho, neuro or family medicine.

 

[SpinALL]

I agree with all of the answers above, but wanted to add one thing on the LoR from my personal experience.

I used a random specialty (unrelated) for one of my letters because previous students all talked about the quality of letter this attending wrote. And I knew I performed well on the rotation. My point is if you have reason to believe you have an outstanding letter in another specialty I'd use it. Half of my interviews mentioned specific comments from the letter that they liked.

As far as how many to apply to, J4PAC wrote an excellent summary that is a sticky thread on this forum. It should be your reference for PMR, and I also made the mistake of not applying to enough prelim / TY programs that I was realistically competitive for. These are much more competitive than PMR interviews. This made for some stress until opening the email today.

Best of luck.

 

[Mash43]

Agree completely with the above posts. Your COMLEX score is solid. Your Step 1 score is slightly below the average. You may want to consider taking step 2 and boost that. Although I still think you are a good candidate overall. I think adding a strong LOR from PM&R will be EXTREMELY beneficial. That, in addition to strong performances during your away electives will make you stand out, especially in thos einstitutions. The northeast/mid-atlantic region has tons of programs you can apply to. Just by picking all the programs in the states you have mentioned will probably get you to 30. PM&R has gotten very competitive. As I understand it, 100% match this year (someone correct me if they have better info on this). Good luck

 

[RangerBob]

Congrats on your decision to pursue PM&R--you won't regret it!

If you really want to match to the Northeast region, you can apply to all of the programs in the Northewast, but I'd recommend still applying very broadly. As mentioned above, PM&R is getting quite competitive (to my knowledge, this match only one spot went unfilled)

A LOR from your home instrubution without a PM&R program won't hurt you--plenty of medical schools don't have a PM&R residency program. And a LOR from an unrelated specialty is definitely not useless. You definitely want at least one PM&R letter, but the others should be from people who know you well and can write a strong letter for you. I asked my primary mentor (a family physician), and another physician I worked with really well (transplant surgeon). Despite transplant surgery being quite unrelated to PM&R, that letter seemed to really impress a lot of PD's as a number specifically cited how strong it was (and that compared to other surgeon's letters, rather long at a whole page)