Breaking into big East/West coast programs from Midwest?

[PillsburyDoughBoi]

[deleted]

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[deleted162650]

As long as grades and test s ores are competitive for “top-tier” schools that’s all you need. Unless of course you’re ok with going to one of the crappy programs of which there are a few.

 

[Redpancreas]

Pass all your clerkships, do average of Step 1, rock your anesthesia electives, and come from an MD school and you should be good for gas. At a low-mid tier MD, I've seen slightly above to average students match MGH, BWH, Stanford, etc. so it's not that hard.

 

[LunchMD]

Pass all your clerkships, do average of Step 1, rock your anesthesia electives, and come from an MD school and you should be good for gas. At a low-mid tier MD, I've seen slightly above to average students match MGH, BWH, Stanford, etc. so it's not that hard.

I understand you are trying to alleviate this person's anxiety, but this isn't good advice. To get those "top" NE or Cali programs mentioned above your probably going to need to be somewhere around 240+ step 1, mostly honor with some high pass your clerkships to be a serious contender. That FAER with LOR is definitely going to help you for the more research oriented programs. I'd say you have a shot, but don't count on it. However, there are other solid programs in NE and Cali that aren't as competitive that you will be a great candidate for, and I would predict wont have too much trouble matching too based on what you have posted. You are doing a good job, keep it up!

 

[PillsburyDoughBoi]

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[LunchMD]

Thank you all for your replies!

@LunchMD Is there a way to gauge which of the programs are more "research-oriented"? From my own research and anecdotes from seniors, I've always heard of MGH and Columbia being mentioned, but I am not sure of how to assess how research-oriented some of the other programs are? I ask because I have always enjoyed research and am interested in doing some research in residency. From what it seems, all the programs in well-known academic institutions in general tend to have tons of funding for research but I am not sure of the anesthesia research.

Also, do any of the top-tier programs in those regions use a 'hard' cutoff of 240+ or is it more general? My step 1 is 239 and I'm wondering if it will get screened out in such a case. I'm striving to match into a top-tier program but ultimately I'd be happy with any solid program that will train me well, and is located anywhere on West coast Cali and above and anywhere on East coast. Just no mo' Midwest for me plz

Just FYI, I'm basing my advice on my own personal match experience (which in this case I think is relevant). I'm a simple resident and not involved in the match process at my institution. Not sure about the hard cutoffs. Telling which programs value research is difficult. Any program with a research track is a good start. I'd say any program with a webpage for an anesthesia research division (with research focused MDs, not just PhDs) is a good sign. You can ask your home program's faculty what they think as well.

 

[agent_purple]

As long as grades and test s ores are competitive for “top-tier” schools that’s all you need. Unless of course you’re ok with going to one of the crappy programs of which there are a few.

Care to share which one you think those are?

 

[deleted162650]

Care to share which one you think those are?

LOL. Dream Big!

In CA:

"Top Tier": UCSD, UCLA, UCSF, Stanford

"Bottom of the Barrel": Harbor-UCLA

"Somewhere in the Middle": UCI, USC, Loma Linda, Davis, Cedars
- My personal impression is that after the top tier, Loma Linda is the next best program but maybe less competitive than USC or UCI simply because of location
- Don't hear much about Davis
- Cedars on paper has all the makings of a great program, but I don't know if that's translated into real life good training or not?? It's a smaller program and still on the newer side. I have yet to come across anyone who's trained there.

 

[nimbus]

For the sake of completeness, I would add that there is a new anesthesia program in Ca. There is a shortage of anesthesiologists in the Central Valley so it actually makes sense. I won’t comment on it’s tier-age.

Anesthesiology Residency Program | KDHCD

 

[bellevueperson]

I graduated from a Midwest med school with a similar step 1 score and grades and went to one of the "top tier" West Coast programs, so it's certainly doable. There were also others in my residency from schools in the Midwest. If you're interested, I can PM you a list of where I interviewed. I'm originally from the PNW, as you can probably gather from the avatar.