ARMY Residency Competitveness

[caarmymed]

Hello all. Im a 3rd yr HPSP student and thinking about residency options. I wanted to know if there is a resource that has the number of slots per program at each med center. Is there a list of which ones fill and which do not? Lastly, what board scores make one "competetive" for each of those programs. I have not been able to find a complete database with these answers. Thanks for the help.

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[colbgw02]

There is a powerpoint slide somewhere on the web (maybe try GME HPSP site?) that has the applicants/slot for the army residency programs (assuming you're army based on username). Perhaps someone has a URL directly to that powerpoint?

Anyway, it covers data from over a few years, giving you some idea of a specialty's trend. In general, I think those numbers tend to underestimate the level of competitiveness (I think they list 1.4 applicants for every dermatology slot, which sounds outrageously low to me even for the military). However, in the military the number of applicants for a specialty in a given year varies so drastically that it's difficult to predict exactly how competitive one has to be to match.

For a definitive answer, I think you're better off finding an experienced military program director and asking him/her directly. These folks have worked in the system for years now and have a decent idea of where you would stand. Plus, they understand how difficult it is to gauge your competitiveness, so most of the time they're willing to be honest with you.

 

[delicatefade]

It's on the HPSP website, but I agree, there has got to be something else to those numbers. Derm and anesthesia are two that come to mind immediately - on the website it looked like a very low applicant to slot ratio, but that's not the impression I got at Brooke this summer. Also, PM&R looks rather non-competitive, but apparently it was pretty competitive this last year.

 

[caarmymed]

I saw it on the hpsp website, but it all looked way to good to be true. Plus, whenever Ive called the 3 of the medical center's gme office, i get the "we dont have that info." The folks handling hpsp dont know either. I just wanted to know if there was any real info to help us decide what we can think about. Any help is appreciated.

 

[delicatefade]

Have you tried calling/email program directors?

 

[Mirror Form]

I saw it on the hpsp website, but it all looked way to good to be true

Yeah, here's the deal with it. The army has "preselect" positions for most of those competitive specialties. So you apply for the preselect intern year position out of med school. Then, assuming you're lucky enough to match into a preselect position, you apply for the residency during intern year and the application process is supposed to be a formality. So, the competitive bottleneck is during the application for the preselect position. But the army lists the applicant ratio for people applying to residency. Most of these people are already preselects and have hence already been accepted.

The good news is that there is a new head of gme who doesn't seem to be so full of $h*t like our old one. I asked him a few questions and he gave me some very honest answers (unlike the previous colonel in charge of gme). Also, most programs are moving to continuous contract anyway, so the preselect program will soon be gone.

 

[colbgw02]

Yeah, here's the deal with it. The army has "preselect" positions for most of those competitive specialties. So you apply for the preselect intern year position out of med school. Then, assuming you're lucky enough to match into a preselect position, you apply for the residency during intern year and the application process is supposed to be a formality. So, the competitive bottleneck is during the application for the preselect position. But the army lists the applicant ratio for people applying to residency. Most of these people are already preselects and have hence already been accepted.

The good news is that there is a new head of gme who doesn't seem to be so full of $h*t like our old one. I asked him a few questions and he gave me some very honest answers (unlike the previous colonel in charge of gme). Also, most programs are moving to continuous contract anyway, so the preselect program will soon be gone.

yeah, my understand was that for the upcoming match all the army preselects would be offered a continuous contract for the full length of the residency. no reapplying during internship, thank God.