Competitive enough for Mayo?

[Kingfish]

I'm an M3 hoping to go to Mayo in Arizona for Anesthesia. Its pretty important to me as my fiance and I have a son. Being in Phoenix would mean we would have a lot more support from our families, who live there, and we could start settling down in a home right away. I have talked with my school's Dean and he told me that my school has never sent anyone to Mayo for anesthesia, although we match well with them in other areas. Other than that he didn't have much information for me (his words).

235 on Step I. I am just wrapping up my first rotation so I don't know about honors yet but I know that I am a hard worker and easy to get along with, more social/happy than most other students. I have a lot of research completed in undergrad, including a presentation but no publications. More community service than most for whatever that's worth, I try to work with the homeless every chance I can.

I'm pretty sure that I am competitive. but anything you could tell me would help. Getting in to Mayo would mean a much better lifestyle for my family versus anywhere else.

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[imfrankie]

I'm an M3 hoping to go to Mayo in Arizona for Anesthesia. Its pretty important to me as my fiance and I have a son. Being in Phoenix would mean we would have a lot more support from our families, who live there, and we could start settling down in a home right away. I have talked with my school's Dean and he told me that my school has never sent anyone to Mayo for anesthesia, although we match well with them in other areas. Other than that he didn't have much information for me (his words).

235 on Step I. I am just wrapping up my first rotation so I don't know about honors yet but I know that I am a hard worker and easy to get along with, more social/happy than most other students. I have a lot of research completed in undergrad, including a presentation but no publications. More community service than most for whatever that's worth, I try to work with the homeless every chance I can.

I'm pretty sure that I am competitive. but anything you could tell me would help. Getting in to Mayo would mean a much better lifestyle for my family versus anywhere else.

Why not try to go do an away rotation there.

 

[Kingfish]

Why not try to go do an away rotation there.

That's definitely on my to-do list. I am aiming to do my entire 4th year in Phoenix so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[Gern Blansten]

IIRC, that is a very small program. That will be your biggest hurdle. You might be in the top 10 on their rank list and miss because they only have a few spots. I think the away rotation will be key, as mentioned previously.

 

[B-Bone]

Should not be a problem. The scottsdale residency program is very small, very new and not particularly competitive.

Marketing/branding seems to work really well on people. People outside the system don't seem to recognize that Mayo's satellite sites in Arizona and Florida are not the same thing as the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The Mayo mothership is a gigantic world renowned tertiary/quarternary care center that has international experts in almost every conceivable field and produces lots of research and has hundreds and hundreds of residents in every specialty. The sites in AZ and FL are nice, smaller hospitals that function much more like community hospitals/private practice. They don't tend to see the same complexity of cases as in rochester, and their volumes are orders of magnitude smaller. The residency programs are decent and the hospitals tend (like the whole Mayo system) to have lots of money, lots of resources and very nice facilities.

The anesthesia case load is much smaller than in Rochester, and tends to be more like a community hospital. The Scottsdale site is the newest and smallest of the three. Their residents can rotate in Rochester or Jacksonville for some things (they usually came to Rochester for ICU), but spend most of their time in AZ.

If you have to be in AZ, U of A would provide more and bigger cases as well as research opportunities that you probably won't have in Scottsdale. Don't get me wrong; the training is fine and I have several friends who trained in both places. Just don't make the mistake that you will be at a world class facility/residency program just because of the name.

 

[Kingfish]

Should not be a problem. The scottsdale residency program is very small, very new and not particularly competitive.

Marketing/branding seems to work really well on people. People outside the system don't seem to recognize that Mayo's satellite sites in Arizona and Florida are not the same thing as the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. The Mayo mothership is a gigantic world renowned tertiary/quarternary care center that has international experts in almost every conceivable field and produces lots of research and has hundreds and hundreds of residents in every specialty. The sites in AZ and FL are nice, smaller hospitals that function much more like community hospitals/private practice. They don't tend to see the same complexity of cases as in rochester, and their volumes are orders of magnitude smaller. The residency programs are decent and the hospitals tend (like the whole Mayo system) to have lots of money, lots of resources and very nice facilities.

The anesthesia case load is much smaller than in Rochester, and tends to be more like a community hospital. The Scottsdale site is the newest and smallest of the three. Their residents can rotate in Rochester or Jacksonville for some things (they usually came to Rochester for ICU), but spend most of their time in AZ.

If you have to be in AZ, U of A would provide more and bigger cases as well as research opportunities that you probably won't have in Scottsdale. Don't get me wrong; the training is fine and I have several friends who trained in both places. Just don't make the mistake that you will be at a world class facility/residency program just because of the name.

Thank you for your input. I had done exactly what you pointed out - assumed that since it was Mayo it would be difficult to be accepted. For me, it is location that is most important. I have my family's happiness to worry about as well as my training. Medical school out of state has been hard and it means a lot to me to be back in the Phoenix area.

 

[Dawkter]

Bump, would like to know more about this topic as well.