Advice for building a competitive residency application

[AspiringDoc955]

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Hello everyone! So this fall I will be starting my first year at a DO school and I want to begin mapping out the next four years towards building a solid residency application. Apart from obtaining good grades and high board scores, I was hoping to get some additional advice from those who have been successful in matching to their top choices and anyone else who is willing to share some guidance.

Some information about myself:
I am interested in a wide variety of primary care and other specialities including IM, peds, EM, anesthesiology, neurology, PM&R, radiology (both diagnostic and interventional), gen surgery, and ortho surgery. I plan to obtain a MBA on top of my DO degree, as I see myself both practicing medicine and getting involved in hospital administration etc. I also plan to take the USMLE.

Questions to potentially guide this thread:
1. As someone who has diverse speciality interests (like many other medical students), what are some general ways to strengthen a residency application regardless of what field you attempt to match to?
2. How critical is research experience/publications/posters in your residency application? Because many DO schools offer limited research opportunities, what is the best way to become involved in research? When is the best time to get involved in research (1st year/2nd year)? How long should you stay involved in your research?
3. Is community volunteering an aspect of a residency application? This is imperative for medical school admission, but do medical students actually have time to volunteer?
4. Is there a general year to year structure that people have followed to be successful when it comes time to apply for residency (i.e., 1st semester only focus on school, 2nd semester begin networking for research, 3rd semester start researching, etc.)?
5. Anything you wish you would have known going into your first year or anything you wish you could have done differently during medical school?


Thanks everyone! Also as a side note, PLEASE DO NOT make this thread about how "being a DO will make it hard to match into some of those specialities or how I should only focus on my first test or getting good grades then focus on residency later". I am well aware of all of these things, and this post is simply a general guideline to get the ball rolling for the next four years.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Fortunately the outline to matching well (whatever that means to you) is pretty straightforward, easier said than done, but still straightforward. Boards, research, LORs, aways, grades, don’t be an annoying person.

1. Do well academically, and get as high of a board score as you can. For any field a high score will open many a door.

2. Do research. Obviously field dependent but if you even have an inkling of anything somewhat competitive then you need to have productive research. Start looking early for it, and try and set something up for the summer between MS1-MS2.

3. No.

 

[Ho0v-man]

5. I wish I hadn’t listened to SDN about volunteering, ECs, etc. as most scholarship opportunities depend heavily on that stuff. I won a merit based scholarship from 1st semester. However, a friend of mine got 5x the amount I did bc she is in leadership positions in multiple clubs and does volunteering. Her grades are lower than mine. Just saying that stuff isn’t totally useless.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

5. I wish I hadn’t listened to SDN about volunteering, ECs, etc. as most scholarship opportunities depend heavily on that stuff. I won a merit based scholarship from 1st semester. However, a friend of mine got 5x the amount I did bc she is in leadership positions in multiple clubs and does volunteering. Her grades are lower than mine. Just saying that stuff isn’t totally useless.

Eh this is completely school dependent.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Eh this is completely school dependent.

Not completely. There’s bigger ones like the ones on AOF or the random ones specific to your state. If you don’t know about them it’s probably bc your school hasn’t told you. There’s so much random stuff to help chip away at this monster debt burden. Most of it’s not big enough to turn heads but I’ll happily be a financial aid slum lord of sorts bc it all add up. It’s mostly just BS ECs and a good PS too. Grades rarely seem to matter.

The OP asked me about this in PM and I gave more details. This isn’t the purpose of this thread though.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

Not completely. There’s bigger ones like the ones on AOF or the random ones specific to your state. If you don’t know about them it’s probably bc your school hasn’t told you. There’s so much random stuff to help chip away at this monster debt burden. Most of it’s not big enough to turn heads but I’ll happily be a financial aid slum lord of sorts bc it all add up. It’s mostly just BS ECs and a good PS too. Grades rarely seem to matter.

The OP asked me about this in PM and I gave more details. This isn’t the purpose of this thread though.

You can send me the deets in PM too if you want. I’d be down to see if there are any available for me. My school is pretty good about sending us emails about opportunities so I don’t think I’d qualify but anything to chip away lol

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Not completely. There’s bigger ones like the ones on AOF or the random ones specific to your state. If you don’t know about them it’s probably bc your school hasn’t told you. There’s so much random stuff to help chip away at this monster debt burden. Most of it’s not big enough to turn heads but I’ll happily be a financial aid slum lord of sorts bc it all add up. It’s mostly just BS ECs and a good PS too. Grades rarely seem to matter.

The OP asked me about this in PM and I gave more details. This isn’t the purpose of this thread though.

Starting this Fall, and I'd like to know as well. Can you PM me the details too please?

Sent from my SM-G950U using SDN mobile

 

[It's lupus!]

Not completely. There’s bigger ones like the ones on AOF or the random ones specific to your state. If you don’t know about them it’s probably bc your school hasn’t told you. There’s so much random stuff to help chip away at this monster debt burden. Most of it’s not big enough to turn heads but I’ll happily be a financial aid slum lord of sorts bc it all add up. It’s mostly just BS ECs and a good PS too. Grades rarely seem to matter.

The OP asked me about this in PM and I gave more details. This isn’t the purpose of this thread though.

I guess since we are requesting PMs I'd be interested too! Lol

Sent from my Pixel XL using SDN mobile

 

[AspiringDoc955]

Not completely. There’s bigger ones like the ones on AOF or the random ones specific to your state. If you don’t know about them it’s probably bc your school hasn’t told you. There’s so much random stuff to help chip away at this monster debt burden. Most of it’s not big enough to turn heads but I’ll happily be a financial aid slum lord of sorts bc it all add up. It’s mostly just BS ECs and a good PS too. Grades rarely seem to matter.

The OP asked me about this in PM and I gave more details. This isn’t the purpose of this thread though.

Wait I never asked about this in a PM lol but I definitely am interested!

 

[Ho0v-man]

Wait I never asked about this in a PM lol but I definitely am interested!

Oh sorry, I thought the guy I was talking to in PM was the OP. My bad.

 

[Ho0v-man]

I don’t have specific tricks, just my school is good about signing us up for scholarships. We fill out one super long application and the administration uses that to apply us for anything in our state or any and all DO specific stuff. It’s all available to everyone to apply for at every school. I never thought anything of this until yesterday bc I assumed every school did this. Below is some of the PM I was talking about.
———————————————————
Our school had a ton of scholarships we could apply to in between first and second semester. It was one long application that just entered us into everything possible. Some were specialty interest dependent, some based on age, race, SES, research, etc. but all seemed to give points for “leadership”, “service”, or the big one “commitment to the osteopathic profession”(this last one is more like joining SOMA, going to your state DO advocacy whateverthef*** meeting, as well as the volunteering type stuff that falls under “service”.

My friend and I are both doing well but my rank is higher. I only qualified for a few hundred and she got several thousand from the same scholarship.

This is the only scholarship I qualified and it’s primary focus was gpa. This is not the only scholarship award she received. She deserves every penny though bc that officer stuff does seem to take tons of free time at the worst possible moments. Like 4 hours of emails during a finals week. Eff that!

This doesn’t consider how someone who is just getting by in school can still get some $$ just by padding this stuff onto a scholarship app. It’s all about service, research, and ECs. If I bust my butt to score really well and someone else scrapes by but comes out in less debt and we both match into FM, who’s really the smart one?😉

My point was mostly about how SDN focuses so much on residency apps and this stuff never gets mentioned. Extracurriculars are often written off as useless. By the end of med school I might acquire enough in funds to buy a used 12 year old Toyota Camry while at the pace my friend is going, she’ll pay off AT LEAST a semester of school! Hardly useless don’t ya think?
————————————————————-

Sorry this thread has gone so far off the rails. Also, AnatomyGrey, until yesterday I assumed all schools applied all their students for everything so in a sense I suppose it is in a way school specific. Barring the few school specific ones, if I were at another DO school in my state I’d have the exact same opportunities. But my school sure does make it convenient I guess. I don’t fill out multiple applications or do google searches for them.

 

[AnatomyGrey12]

I don’t have specific tricks, just my school is good about signing us up for scholarships. We fill out one super long application and the administration uses that to apply us for anything in our state or any and all DO specific stuff. It’s all available to everyone to apply for at every school. I never thought anything of this until yesterday bc I assumed every school did this. Below is some of the PM I was talking about.
———————————————————
Our school had a ton of scholarships we could apply to in between first and second semester. It was one long application that just entered us into everything possible. Some were specialty interest dependent, some based on age, race, SES, research, etc. but all seemed to give points for “leadership”, “service”, or the big one “commitment to the osteopathic profession”(this last one is more like joining SOMA, going to your state DO advocacy whateverthef*** meeting, as well as the volunteering type stuff that falls under “service”.

My friend and I are both doing well but my rank is higher. I only qualified for a few hundred and she got several thousand from the same scholarship.

This is the only scholarship I qualified and it’s primary focus was gpa. This is not the only scholarship award she received. She deserves every penny though bc that officer stuff does seem to take tons of free time at the worst possible moments. Like 4 hours of emails during a finals week. Eff that!

This doesn’t consider how someone who is just getting by in school can still get some $$ just by padding this stuff onto a scholarship app. It’s all about service, research, and ECs. If I bust my butt to score really well and someone else scrapes by but comes out in less debt and we both match into FM, who’s really the smart one?😉

My point was mostly about how SDN focuses so much on residency apps and this stuff never gets mentioned. Extracurriculars are often written off as useless. By the end of med school I might acquire enough in funds to buy a used 12 year old Toyota Camry while at the pace my friend is going, she’ll pay off AT LEAST a semester of school! Hardly useless don’t ya think?
————————————————————-

Sorry this thread has gone so far off the rails. Also, AnatomyGrey, until yesterday I assumed all schools applied all their students for everything so in a sense I suppose it is in a way school specific. Barring the few school specific ones, if I were at another DO school in my state I’d have the exact same opportunities. But my school sure does make it convenient I guess. I don’t fill out multiple applications or do google searches for them.

Nah its good. Yeah we do the same thing and fill out this application that qualifies us for all the scholarships, but no one I know has seen a dime. For me anyway stuff like that would be a complete waste of time, however my goals aren't those of the average DO student so I can see why for some people it might be useful.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Nah its good. Yeah we do the same thing and fill out this application that qualifies us for all the scholarships, but no one I know has seen a dime. For me anyway stuff like that would be a complete waste of time, however my goals aren't those of the average DO student so I can see why for some people it might be useful.

To each his/her own. I for one am not too exceptional to take free money