COMLEX Friendly PM&R Programs

[murfturkleton]

I am in a bit of a unique position as my wife and I are attempting to find suitable residency locations for PM&R and OB/Gen Surg. PMR seems to predominantly require USMLE and those programs that do not, require the USMLE for OB/General Surgery. We have both taken the COMLEX and done well, but are now realizing this bottleneck situation. So, the help I am looking for is this:

1) Are there PM&R programs out there that are COMLEX friendly and take COMLEX for OB/Gen Surg? (besides the obvious Osteopathic residency locations)

2) Do we just need to buckle down for two months and take USMLE?

Thoughts/suggestions would be much appreciated.

-Murf

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[cbest]

First, this has been discussed many times so its probably also worth a search. Second, PM&R may be the most DO-friendly specialty in the game and I'd imagine a large chunk of programs accept COMLEX. Having said that, I definitely think its worthwhile to take at least step 1 of USMLE to allow program directors to compare your credentials to an MD candidate (apples to apples). Just my 2 cents!

 

[cbest]

Read your post more carefully (my bad)... no idea about OBGYN or Gen Surg but my advice would be for both of you to take USMLE and do well on it in an effort to boost your opportunities and chances of matching as much as possible.

 

[murfturkleton]

Thanks for your reply. Aside from the four Osteopathic PM&R programs, I am having a difficult time finding other sites that are COMLEX friendly for both PM&R and OB/Gen Surg. I see no other way around this than taking the USMLE; convincing my wife the same remains the task at hand. We have both just completed our third year rotations and have two months off in the near future. Having already been scheduled to take Level 2 COMLEX in mid August, would studying for USMLE Step 1 have considerable enough overlap to justify studying for both at once?

There was a time that I thought deciding what we wanted to do would be the biggest problem; little did I know...

 

[cbest]

Oh man, if you're already done 3rd year don't bother with Step 1!

 

[Tromner]

Thanks for your reply. Aside from the four Osteopathic PM&R programs, I am having a difficult time finding other sites that are COMLEX friendly for both PM&R and OB/Gen Surg. I see no other way around this than taking the USMLE; convincing my wife the same remains the task at hand. We have both just completed our third year rotations and have two months off in the near future. Having already been scheduled to take Level 2 COMLEX in mid August, would studying for USMLE Step 1 have considerable enough overlap to justify studying for both at once?

There was a time that I thought deciding what we wanted to do would be the biggest problem; little did I know...

I agree that it would not be worth taking step 1 after finishing 3rd year if you did well on COMLEX. Use the time you would have spent on step 1 to improve your step 2 score or spend more time on your personal statement/interview prep.

In general your wife is going to be the more difficult fit. PMR is very DO friendly (ps if a website says they require USMLE scores, 9 times out of 10 they mean USMLE or COMLEX but just didn't bother to list both. I worried about this too and every program I called said that they accept either.) She'll have to get advice on OB regarding how many accept COMLEX.

My only other advice would be to focus on cities where there is a osteopathic school so the programs are more familiar with DO's. Its likely that a PMR program will already be filled with DO grads from the local school so they'll know what to expect (and I'd bet this holds true for OB programs to some degree.)

You've likely already spoken to residents or interns that have gone through the couples match, but if not, do it. the strategy of couples matching sounds like a whole different animal in many ways. It's best not to be surprised by it.

 

[nonotphysicist]

I agree with everything above as well. Don't bother with USMLE, you're likely to lose your mind going over all the step 1 material again. Tromner's thoughts on programs just not telling their web administrator to throw COMLEX in the requirements sounds right to me too.

When in doubt just call them up and ask.