Competitiveness of Ob/GYN

[bruinkid]

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How competitive is Ob/Gyn? At our school, they divided up specialties into categories. Specialties like Derm, Rad Onc , Neurosurg being the most.
Then came Ortho, ENT, Ophtho, then ER, and lastly all the primary care ones like Medicine, Peds, Ob/Gyn, etc.

 

[ny skindoc]

How competitive is Ob/Gyn? At our school, they divided up specialties into categories. Specialties like Derm, Rad Onc , Neurosurg being the most.
Then came Ortho, ENT, Ophtho, then ER, and lastly all the primary care ones like Medicine, Peds, Ob/Gyn, etc.

Overall for various resons OBGYN is not a competitive field to enter.However the better and/or more presitigious places will still be quite compeittive.but unlike some of the other specialties you listed getting an OBGYN position at some program should not be a problem.

 

[ohbee gin]

I think NY Skindoc is correct. I think OB is probably somewhere between IM and Gen Surg in terms of competitiveness but others may disagree and there is more speculation than data to support it. Like any specialty however, matching a top program can be extremely competitive.

 

[Faebinder]

OGYN is as hard to get into as categorical internal medicine... might be even easier insome cases. Both are no where near surgery...

2006 match... percent unfilled IM was 2.1% percent unfilled OBGYN was also 2.1% but IM had 34 open positions vs 19 in OBGYN...

That difference is very minor. You might even think that OBGYN probably screened off less people than IM.

Prelim medicine was less filled but that doesnt mean it was easier (mainly because less people want to rank it probably.)

2005 if I remember had even more unfilled OBGYN than cat medicine.

Of course things are becoming tough on everyone now.

 

[juddson]

Of course things are becoming tough on everyone now.

What do you mean by this? Are you suggesting that it is becoming more difficult to match across the board?

Judd

 

[Faebinder]

What do you mean by this? Are you suggesting that it is becoming more difficult to match across the board?

Judd

Number of applicants increasing way more than the number of programs. That makes applicants less able to pick and choose.

e.g Last year the number of PGY1 positions went up by 205. The number of active applicants that ranked something went up by 1367 (I'm including IMGs and everyone).

Looking at it in another way.... In 2006, there was 26715 active applicants to 21,659 PGY1 positions.... (net difference 5,056) this is vs the year before (2005) there was 25,348 active applicants to 21,454 PGY1 positions (net difference of 3,894).


Too many applicants or too few positions... whichever way you feel like looking at it.

 

[pathdoc68]

OBG is like.....the least competetive field, the residents are usually...well I'll hold my tongue (or typing finger as the case may be.) They do their thing I guess.

At my institution let's just say OBG residents aren't what I'd call the best and the brightest. From what I have seen, if you have a pulse you'll match in OBG, even at "well known" (LOL) programs.

 

[bruinkid]

ouch...
that's a pretty harsh thing to say about ob/gyns. what is your reasoning for saying that? i've heard that ER docs are the least competent

 

[Wednesday]

People on SDN LOVE to visit the ob/gyn forum and bash. Keep that in mind.

The poster above is wrong about there not being any top programs that are difficult to get into. He/she is also wrong about to say that there are no quality applicants going into ob/gyn.

Fields change in competitiveness somewhat randomly. In the past few years a focus on a good lifestyle has made things like rad onc (which was NOT hard to get into fairly recently) ultra competitive. General surgery was fairly easy until about two years ago, when the work hour restrictions went into effect. Ob/gyn has been rumored to be easy, but last year a lot of people were suprised by their fate in the match because the competitiveness increased for some reason all of a sudden. Do your best, that's all you can do. It's true that a solid applicant can most likely match, but you might not get exactly the university program that your heart is set on.

 

[Spittz03]

Pathdoc68, stick to path ... doors are wide open in that field for anyone, including you. 🙄

Last year ob/gyn pool was very competitive, but nowhere near the level of ortho or derm. I enjoyed both Ob and IM in med school and so applied to both. Having tested both pools I can safely say that Ob was much tougher at the top. Also if you look at the list of unfilled spots (16), you will be disappointed as none of them were at any university programs.

Having said that, every year things are different, so don't stress over competition, just find the school and profession that best suits you and go for it. 🙂

 

[kauai]

At this time OB/GYN is not too competitive -- although if last year is the beginning of a trend it is getting more competitive. Most specialties go through highs and lows. Ten years ago, "good quality" applicants sometimes didn't even match at university programs and American grads actually had to worry about matching!

 

[SurgeryChef]

Pathdoc68, stick to path ... doors are wide open in that field for anyone, including you. 🙄

Last year ob/gyn pool was very competitive, but nowhere near the level of ortho or derm. I enjoyed both Ob and IM in med school and so applied to both. Having tested both pools I can safely say that Ob was much tougher at the top. Also if you look at the list of unfilled spots (16), you will be disappointed as none of them were at any university programs.

Having said that, every year things are different, so don't stress over competition, just find the school and profession that best suits you and go for it. 🙂

what do you need for a spot at a "good university program"? Everyone is talking in generic statements, but does anyone know what test scores, grades, etc you need?

 

[Apollyon]

i've heard that ER docs are the least competent

Thanks for yet another ding on my specialty.

To paraphrase someone here on SDN - "Doctors that insult other doctors are dinguses."

 

[randomedstudent]

ouch...
that's a pretty harsh thing to say about ob/gyns. what is your reasoning for saying that? i've heard that ER docs are the least competent

I love how this idiot is getting all defensive about someone insulting his/her specialty and then goes on to bash another one. Nice.......

 

[sophiejane]

hi, just driving by the food fight here and noticed that nobody has bashed FP yet! unbelievable!

we're such an easy target...well, maybe it's like when the bully on the playground has beat up the nerdy kid so many times that he's become bored with it.

i guess OBGYN is becoming the new nerdy kid. you guys can come sit at our table if you want. 😍

as with all things broad and vague, determining the "competitiveness" of a field is pretty ridiculous. your individual application with all it's associated strengths and weaknesses comes together to either impress or not impress certain programs. the folks in the largest part of the bell curve (that would be most of us) are all going to be "competitive" for every field except the most exclusive that everyone knows about. period.