I'm a 3rd year DO student who just received my usmle score of 198. (disappointing) I have still yet to wait for my comlex score. I want to stay in Southern California. Is this still possible? Will my score hinder me from going into any residency program?
Can I get into a Psych residency with my usmle scores?
- Thread starter cutiee23
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A DO degree combined with a Step 1 that low is going to all but rule out a lot of the more competitive allopathic programs in SoCal and many SoCal programs are pretty-to-very competitive. I have no idea about osteopathic psych programs.
For allopathic, there are 16 psych programs in California. Rule out the Navy one at Balboa (unless you have a hankering to commit eight years to the military) and the 5 in NorCal and that leaves you 10.
The uber-competitive one I would absolutely not bother applying to is UCLA (NPI). The ones that are going to be very competitive and should be considered true stretches that you would probably only want to apply to if you are a superstar applicant otherwise (nearly all honors, fan-tas-tic ECs and pubs, etc.) would be UCLA-Harbor and UCSD.
That leaves you seven. Most are fairly competitive just by the nature of being in southern california and will also be stretches. UCSF-Fresno and UCLA-SFV might be worth a shot (both are in less-than-typically-desirable locations, though I think they're more competitive because of their prefix). USC is a good program that failed to fill two or three years ago, and that made some folks gun-shy about applying, so they might be worth a go. UCI and Loma Linda are probably going to be a pretty big stretch, but if you have the available slots and are dead-set on SoCal, you might as well give it a shot. The ones I'd personally consider less competitive (though this isn't an indication of lesser quality) would be UCLA-Kern and Cedars-Sinai.
You'll find some useful advice on this thread that is still active, about a DO applying to SoCal programs (but s/he didn't indicate a bad Step 1).
Lastly, consider casting the net a whole lot wider. Psych residency is only for four years and California ain't going anywhere.
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