Advice needed - applying to IM residency, wife applying to medical school

[WaitingfortheKnicks]

Hey all,

I am a long term SDN user posting this under a new username to try and get some privacy from my classmates. I am coming to an end of my MS3 year and trying to get some advice as I have found myself in a bit of a difficult spot when it comes to applying to residency.

I will be applying the following year, but my wife has decided to go change careers and go to medical school with her applying in and matriculating the same year that I apply to residency. This is the situation a couples match was designed for but we will obviously not be able to avail ourselves of that luxury.

A little about me: applying in IM with interest in university based programs with plans for cards fellowship and interest in academics. We very much value living together during residency/med school especially with thoughts of starting family at some point in the next 5.

My stats: top 20 medical school with full ride, 260 step 1, honors in all rotations so far with effusive comments written for deans letter (neurology and surgery left to go), 2 first author publications in med school + few posters, several basic science middle author pubs from undergrad, unclear AOA status.

Wife stats: 3.9 cumulative and science gpa in Econ from Cal, 519 mcat (equivalent I guess to 38 on old mcat???), couple of abstract pubs, mediocre ECs, mediocre LORs. CA resident.

Ideally would love to end up in Ca to take advantage of wife's residency for the cheap tuition but would not prioritize this over being together in strong program.

So far, my plan has been to pick cities with major IM programs and med schools as I have listed below. I have saved up a good amount of cash and blocked off 3 months of MS4 to interview as I know this will cost a fortune in money and time to interview and apply for us both. The most important thing to me is that we end up together and that we both get into the highest caliber programs we can. Wife not interested in academic career nearly as much. I have a few questions for the community and would love to get peoples thoughts.
1) Anyone faced a similar situation personally? Know anyone who has?
2) When is the best time to bring up to programs this unique personal situation?
3) Any thoughts on IM programs and schools based on preliminary list below?
4) Is it worth it for me to apply to programs like Colorado/UW which have strong IM training but that are not OOS friendly for wife who is Ca resident? Do you think they would overlook that in the situation that I am considering it for residency?
4) Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

UCSF, Stanford, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, Cornell, Columbia, NYU, Mt Sinai, MGH, BWH, BIDMC, BU, Tufts, NW, UoC, Penn (also other Philly schools for wife), Wash U, Vandy, Michigan, UVA, Emory, Duke, Yale

So essentially list boils down to as many of the top IM/university programs as I can find plus all the associated medical schools in those cities.

Thanks for the help in advance!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[MyTachyBradyHeart]

Hey all,

I am a long term SDN user posting this under a new username to try and get some privacy from my classmates. I am coming to an end of my MS3 year and trying to get some advice as I have found myself in a bit of a difficult spot when it comes to applying to residency.

I will be applying the following year, but my wife has decided to go change careers and go to medical school with her applying in and matriculating the same year that I apply to residency. This is the situation a couples match was designed for but we will obviously not be able to avail ourselves of that luxury.

A little about me: applying in IM with interest in university based programs with plans for cards fellowship and interest in academics. We very much value living together during residency/med school especially with thoughts of starting family at some point in the next 5.

My stats: top 20 medical school with full ride, 260 step 1, honors in all rotations so far with effusive comments written for deans letter (neurology and surgery left to go), 2 first author publications in med school + few posters, several basic science middle author pubs from undergrad, unclear AOA status.

Wife stats: 3.9 cumulative and science gpa in Econ from Cal, 519 mcat (equivalent I guess to 38 on old mcat???), couple of abstract pubs, mediocre ECs, mediocre LORs. CA resident.

Ideally would love to end up in Ca to take advantage of wife's residency for the cheap tuition but would not prioritize this over being together in strong program.

So far, my plan has been to pick cities with major IM programs and med schools as I have listed below. I have saved up a good amount of cash and blocked off 3 months of MS4 to interview as I know this will cost a fortune in money and time to interview and apply for us both. The most important thing to me is that we end up together and that we both get into the highest caliber programs we can. Wife not interested in academic career nearly as much. I have a few questions for the community and would love to get peoples thoughts.
1) Anyone faced a similar situation personally? Know anyone who has?
2) When is the best time to bring up to programs this unique personal situation?
3) Any thoughts on IM programs and schools based on preliminary list below?
4) Is it worth it for me to apply to programs like Colorado/UW which have strong IM training but that are not OOS friendly for wife who is Ca resident? Do you think they would overlook that in the situation that I am considering it for residency?
4) Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

UCSF, Stanford, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, Cornell, Columbia, NYU, Mt Sinai, MGH, BWH, BIDMC, BU, Tufts, NW, UoC, Penn (also other Philly schools for wife), Wash U, Vandy, Michigan, UVA, Emory, Duke, Yale

So essentially list boils down to as many of the top IM/university programs as I can find plus all the associated medical schools in those cities.

Thanks for the help in advance!

Congratulations on a stellar application. You will be competitive at most, if not all, of the programs on your list. Your wife seems like a good candidate as well. As a couple, you guys will be more at the mercy of her choices rather than yours.

1) No, but I know multiple people who did the residency/fellowship combination. It is a nerve racking and difficult process. The one good thing in your situation is that she will (hopefully) get acceptances before your rank list is due (or get a sense of which programs she is competitive for) and you can rank accordingly. This may mean your ranking a very good, but not your favorite, program first based off of her acceptances but that is the most important thing for you guys.

2) The one thing among my friends who went through a similar process was that it is better to be honest. It really depends on your rapport with your interviewers, but if you had a good conversation and clicked with the PD/APD, I would bring it up in the middle of the conversation if they ever give you an opening like "so what makes you interested in our program/our city" or "what more can I tell you about our program/our city." Also, try not to cancel any interviews until your wife finds out about a program; this way, if she gets asked a similar question, she can say "oh my husband is applying to residency and is interested in so and so city... yes, he is actually interviewing here next week."

3) Your list seems reasonable. I would focus certainly on the coastal schools with multiple IM programs and multiple medical schools as well as CA schools (NY,Philly,Boston). I don't think you would need to apply to programs like UC/UW as she would only have 1 choice in those cities and furthermore, she seems a strong non-traditional candidate that medical schools would love to have.

4) Good luck. Both of you are strong candidates and I hope everything works out for you.

 

[DokterMom]

What about Texas? Specifically Houston or Dallas. Medical school tuition is cheap and even though they're OOS unfriendly, they'll love your wife's 519.

 

[wiloghby]

Hey all,

I am a long term SDN user posting this under a new username to try and get some privacy from my classmates. I am coming to an end of my MS3 year and trying to get some advice as I have found myself in a bit of a difficult spot when it comes to applying to residency.

I will be applying the following year, but my wife has decided to go change careers and go to medical school with her applying in and matriculating the same year that I apply to residency. This is the situation a couples match was designed for but we will obviously not be able to avail ourselves of that luxury.

A little about me: applying in IM with interest in university based programs with plans for cards fellowship and interest in academics. We very much value living together during residency/med school especially with thoughts of starting family at some point in the next 5.

My stats: top 20 medical school with full ride, 260 step 1, honors in all rotations so far with effusive comments written for deans letter (neurology and surgery left to go), 2 first author publications in med school + few posters, several basic science middle author pubs from undergrad, unclear AOA status.

Wife stats: 3.9 cumulative and science gpa in Econ from Cal, 519 mcat (equivalent I guess to 38 on old mcat???), couple of abstract pubs, mediocre ECs, mediocre LORs. CA resident.

Ideally would love to end up in Ca to take advantage of wife's residency for the cheap tuition but would not prioritize this over being together in strong program.

So far, my plan has been to pick cities with major IM programs and med schools as I have listed below. I have saved up a good amount of cash and blocked off 3 months of MS4 to interview as I know this will cost a fortune in money and time to interview and apply for us both. The most important thing to me is that we end up together and that we both get into the highest caliber programs we can. Wife not interested in academic career nearly as much. I have a few questions for the community and would love to get peoples thoughts.
1) Anyone faced a similar situation personally? Know anyone who has?
2) When is the best time to bring up to programs this unique personal situation?
3) Any thoughts on IM programs and schools based on preliminary list below?
4) Is it worth it for me to apply to programs like Colorado/UW which have strong IM training but that are not OOS friendly for wife who is Ca resident? Do you think they would overlook that in the situation that I am considering it for residency?
4) Any other thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

UCSF, Stanford, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, Cornell, Columbia, NYU, Mt Sinai, MGH, BWH, BIDMC, BU, Tufts, NW, UoC, Penn (also other Philly schools for wife), Wash U, Vandy, Michigan, UVA, Emory, Duke, Yale

So essentially list boils down to as many of the top IM/university programs as I can find plus all the associated medical schools in those cities.

Thanks for the help in advance!

You will match wherever you rank #1..
as someone with a way more mediocre app who just did (at a program near the beginning of your list)

The limiting factor will be where your SO is admitted to med school. The nice thing is she will likely get her admission offers before the rank list deadline...so you should have no trouble coordinating this.

I suspect your best bet is to rank UCSF and Stanford at the top if your SO gets into one of them....that way you have the other as a backup in case you somehow manage not to match #1 with the world's best application. Haha.

Sinilarly, if she ends up in Socal, you can group those programs together. This way you can live together at a place close to both your programs.

But again, you should be able to interview at and rank any program your SO is admitted to and match so it should be no issue.

ALSO, if your SO gets an interview somewhere for med school but you don't get a residency interview for some reason, explain the situation in a SHORT and polite email to the PD and PC and you should be able to snag an interview there.

I'm gonna try to predict the future and say good luck to both of you at UCSF next year.

 

[rokshana]

can she apply early decision somewhere? then at least you would know earlier where to concentrate your interviews.

I know you said you want to stay in cali, but have you though about applying to cities with a disportioncate number of med schools/resideny programs? I mean Boston has 3 in the city and UMass is just an hour away...Philly has 4 MD programs...chicago has 4? just a thought.

 

[candbgirl]

can she apply early decision somewhere? then at least you would know earlier where to concentrate your interviews.

I know you said you want to stay in cali, but have you though about applying to cities with a disportioncate number of med schools/resideny programs? I mean Boston has 3 in the city and UMass is just an hour away...Philly has 4 MD programs...chicago has 4? just a thought.

Chicago actually has five(Loyola is in Maywood but it’s surrounded by Chicago) and then Rosalin Franklin about an hour away. So technically six.

 

[deev04]

Echoing what was said above, your wife is going to be the limiting factor. She sounds quite competitive for medical school (3.9/519/decent ECs/nontrad), but medical school admissions is just so competitive and really hard to predict. You sound very competitive, but top tier IM is extremely competitive, even for people from top 20 schools. There are a lot of regional/school biases, AOA is super important for the very top programs, and who gets interviews where is always idiosyncratic. You can probably assume you'll get interviews at a good chuck of your list, or at least somewhere is most regions, but interviews at JHH/UCSF/MGH/BWH/and pretty much all the other top 10-15 can never be assumed.

I think you guys have have a couple of options depending on what you value most. You mentioned you want to be at the most competitive places, but someone is likely going to have to compromise a little bit somewhere. It's just a matter of who and how much.

1. You could do as users above suggested and see where your wife gets in early in the cycle (Sept-Feb). You would apply broadly and rank programs based upon where your wife had already been accepted. This would potentially mean sacrifices for both of you since some medical schools interview past Feb and quite a few, especially top schools, don't release acceptances until March (there's also waitlist acceptances in May).

2. You could take a research year as your wife applies to medical school and then apply to residencies in that area during her first year. If your wife really wants to get into the best possible medical school, you guys value being at a medical school in CA, or you value trying to get into a medical school in a city with the most number of appealing residencies for you, this might provide the best chances for all of those things happening. Your wife would be able to go through a full sept-june application cycle and you guys would be able to consider all of her options. There is the risk that you will then be limited to residencies in that area, but residencies are usually sympathetic to hearing legitimate reasons why they should at least interview you (i.e. spouse who will be in that city for the next 3 years) and it will only earn you bonus points during the actual interview because they'll know you're likely to rank them high. This is also the situation where you enlist the help of your dean (and potentially her dean/faculty) to help get interviews if you have trouble.

 

[HoldTheCoffee]

It's a tough situation - based on what you've provided from your app, you'd likely be able to match at a good program, but as others have already said, getting into med school nowadays can be a completely random crapshoot, with rejections/interview offers being given without any clear pattern. If you're both set on applying at the same time, she's going to have to apply extra broadly in the cities you think you'd be interested in. I think the extra cost of applications/interviews are probably worth it in that situation.

In terms of applying out of state, I'd have to say yes it's worth it. Honestly the "advantage" of being a Cali resident for the UC med schools isn't that great to begin with, just because California is a massive state and the med schools themselves aren't that large. I remember interviewing at one of the more middle-tier UC programs and during the presentation, they mentioned that there were 2000 or so "in-state" applicants for 100 spots.

 

[WaitingfortheKnicks]

Thanks all for your thoughts - I really appreciate it. Would always welcome more advice if anyone else would like to add anything. Otherwise, will keep you posted on how it works out.

 

[Gastrapathy]

Can you do a cards research year and delay graduation? Have your wife get into med school first. Once you see where she gets in, you guys can choose the place with the best options for you. As long as there is a range of choices, if she gets in somewhere, you'll be ok. I'd target Southern California and include UCI and UCR for her.

This would also align your residency graduation with her med school graduation. Fellowship match is early enough that it would give her a chance to match close to you. Alternatively, you could prioritize her residency match and work there as a hospitalist for a year prior to trying for cards.

Tricky situation. Wish you the best.