4th year - what to do?

[RNA]

Hello fellow future and current pathologists! I am a med student just finishing up the last week of 3rd year clerkships. I am about to begin my fourth year electives and I have scheduled 6 weeks of path electives - 2 in CP and 4 AP. I am about 98% sure that i want to do a path residency. I will graduate next year with an MD/PhD from a mid level med school. I have a few first author publications, junior AOA and expect good reqs from path and non-path faculty. My future interests are to be involved at least 50-80% of the time in academic basic science research and the rest in clinical service in path. I am seriously considering doing CP rather than AP/CP. I really want to do my residency in the NJ/Phila/Maryland area. My questions are as follows:

What can i do over the next year to make myself competitive for the BEST residency programs in the area that i specified above?

What does everyone here think about CP alone vs. AP/CP for someone interested in academics?

Any comments about Penn, Hopkins, Univ Maryland as potential places to apply? Are there other great programs in the states that i mentioned that i am leaving off my list?

Thanks! Any advice will be GREATLY appreciated.

RNA

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[yaah]

Truthfully I don't think you will have any trouble. Any of those places, including Johns Hopkins, may well be trying to convince you to come there, especially if you want to do CP only, which is pretty non-competitive. A lot of the spots that did not fill in the match this year (Wash U, MGH, Brigham) were CP only spots.

The fact that you have (or will have) an MD/PHD as well as good grades makes you doubly competitive. I don't think you really have to worry a ton about doing anything else. Just make sure you pass step I. And make sure you know how to answer the "why pathology" question you will be getting at interviews.

If you do CP only, you had better be fairly certain that you either 1) want to do academics or 2) have a job already lined up. Because a CP only residency will not get you much outside of the academic world. CP-only folks generally are research focused in their careers, as it sounds like you may be. From what I have heard, if you are certain about CP-only, you can often choose your residency program, regardless of how "competitive" it is. There are a limited number of programs that do offer a CP only track, however, and make sure you look into this. I am not sure Johns Hopkins offers this. Penn does. Maryland probably not. There are only a handful. However, given your credentials (at least the ones you have posted) you would probably be competitive just about anywhere, provided that your interview goes alright.

Congratulations on being done with the crappola that is 3rd year of med school. I remember that fondly....NOT!

But hey, I graduated today. So I'm a real doctor now. I guess I'm supposed to be smarter or something. 2+2=5, right?

 

[Brian Pavlovitz]

But hey, I graduated today. So I'm a real doctor now. I guess I'm supposed to be smarter or something. 2+2=5, right?

Great job, Yaah! I am honored to call you "Doctor" (and just slightly green with envy -->see??).

Enjoy the rest of your summer before Residency begins!