Competitiveness for IM or Academic Primary Care

[Beetles]

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[evilbooyaa]

You'll be fine. Sure the step 1 will stop you from upper-tier programs, but any program without a Step 1 cut-off (which is relatively rare for IM I believe) that sees the massive jump you made to Step 2 will appreciate that.

Just don't apply to top-tier places alone and you'll be OK. People match in IM with red flags all the time. You have one red flag (sub 200 Step 1) which can be explained in your personal statement and in interviews.

If you want an idea of what programs to target, check out the IM forums here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forums/internal-medicine-and-im-subspecialties.41/

There should be a WAMC (What are my chances) thread you can post this in.

 

[Beetles]

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[scarletgirl777]

Hello,

I have a strong interest in Internal Medicine and, HIV-Primary Care, and Primary Care Track Residencies. I will give you my profile below, but I am wondering realistically what I can aim for and any advice as I enter my 4th year.

In a snapshot:
-top 15 medical school
-have a sub-200 Step 1 score
-241 Step 2 score
-Passed all of my 3rd year rotations with a HP in Medicine and Primary Care
-Won a prestigious award during medical school and obtained a Research Masters degree at Oxford
-Enjoyed research, and took one more year to perform research at the NIH
-Very Good-Excellent clinical letters of recommendations, Outstanding research letters of recommendation
-2 publications

During my second year, I lost my father but decided to stay in medical school to 'keep busy'. In retrospect, I regret that as I didn't give myself the opportunity to cope with the loss and pushed through Step 1 and 3rd year while having difficulty concentrating. My classmates perform very well on standardized exams, and while I did well clinically, it was difficult for me to do well when performing at the bottom of my class on exams. Any advice for fourth year?

I would really like to do Academic Primary Care or General Internal Medicine, but am worried about matching with my clinical greats and step 1 score, despite any outside achievement. Any advice would help!

Do a medicine subi. If you honor it, PDs will be impressed and may be less critical of your HP in medicine. Also I've heard people advise a MICU or CCU rotation as well but am not sure that would be important if applying to the primary care track.