Competitiveness of specialties?

[Mastashake]

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How do you guys (and girls) know how competitive certain residencies are? Is there a website that tells you the numbers, or is this just through the grapevine or personal experience?

Can anyone steer me in the right direction as to know how competitive they are?

Mastashake

 

[DrBowtie]

The Wash U site has a competitiveness gauge I believe.

 

[Smurfette]

It is more of something you learn along the way and varies over time.

Very competitive: Derm, Ortho, Rad-onc, ENT, Urology, Ophtho, Neurosurg
Competitive: Rads (on the upswing), Gen surg (on the upswing), Anesthesia (I think this may be starting a downswing?), ER?
Not competitive: PMR, Peds, IM, FP, Psych, OB/Gyn, Neuro, Med-Peds, Path

 

[Wahoos]

Search for my Posts. I have writtened about the competitiveness of Orthopedics surgery..... just went throught the Ortho Match this year. I would also aggree with the above posts that grouped the sub-spec with their competitiveness. Definitely, Ortho, Plastics, Derm, ENT, Rad-Onc, and NeuroSurg are the most competitive ones. In the 2004 match, there was 150 US seniors that did not match in to Ortho surg, with about another 300-400 IMGs and Carribean, PR, medical school applicants not matching as well. Usually, each year, there is about 600 PGY-1 spots in Ortho, and about 1100-1200 total applicants (include all of the IMGs). In NeuroSurg, 2004, there was about 30 US seniors that did not match, with only 150 PGY-1 spots available. It is still competitive, but the shear number of people wanting to do Neuro Surg is dropping (Our school had none applying to neuro surg this year). But we had 11 apply to Ortho, and I know other schools like Georgetown have like 25-30 apply to Ortho each year. The number of Apps to has increased alot this year. My home school received about 650 apps for 5 spots, and that is the case for most schools in the country, 100-150 apps per 1 Ortho spot. Given that each applicant throws in about 40-50 apps, which means much harder to get an interview, and when I interviewed this past year, I saw pretty much the same people over and over again. I have heard a lot of stories of people with 240-250 step I, good EC, top 1/4 of class, research, and strong LOR, from a top 25 US med school, not matching this year. IN fact, it happened to one of my friends from my school.

 

[ambrosia]

Ok, so this may be a dumb question, but what happens if you dont match? Can you still start a residency in another field and then try again the following year, or do you have to take a year off or what?

 

[YzIa]

Ok, so this may be a dumb question, but what happens if you dont match? Can you still start a residency in another field and then try again the following year, or do you have to take a year off or what?

I think that you can apply, interview, and rank programs in different specialties. So it would probably benefit one applying to Ortho residencies to apply, interview, and rank (near the bottom of their list) a few G surgery or other programs as backups.

 

[Smurfette]

Ok, so this may be a dumb question, but what happens if you dont match? Can you still start a residency in another field and then try again the following year, or do you have to take a year off or what?

if you don't match, you can:

1. scramble (i.e. get a leftover position---it may be in a different field or different location than you were originally looking for). You can get a position that is only for 1 year and try again the next year, or you can try for a full-length residency--it depends on what you scramble into.
2. take a year off and do something else (most do research in the field of their choosing, some pursue other degrees, etc.)
3. give up and do something else entirely

 

[ERJunkie]

http://www.orthogate.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=2329
2005 Match Credentials for Ortho.

Search for my Posts. I have writtened about the competitiveness of Orthopedics surgery..... just went throught the Ortho Match this year. I would also aggree with the above posts that grouped the sub-spec with their competitiveness. Definitely, Ortho, Plastics, Derm, ENT, Rad-Onc, and NeuroSurg are the most competitive ones. In the 2004 match, there was 150 US seniors that did not match in to Ortho surg, with about another 300-400 IMGs and Carribean, PR, medical school applicants not matching as well. Usually, each year, there is about 600 PGY-1 spots in Ortho, and about 1100-1200 total applicants (include all of the IMGs). In NeuroSurg, 2004, there was about 30 US seniors that did not match, with only 150 PGY-1 spots available. It is still competitive, but the shear number of people wanting to do Neuro Surg is dropping (Our school had none applying to neuro surg this year). But we had 11 apply to Ortho, and I know other schools like Georgetown have like 25-30 apply to Ortho each year. The number of Apps to has increased alot this year. My home school received about 650 apps for 5 spots, and that is the case for most schools in the country, 100-150 apps per 1 Ortho spot. Given that each applicant throws in about 40-50 apps, which means much harder to get an interview, and when I interviewed this past year, I saw pretty much the same people over and over again. I have heard a lot of stories of people with 240-250 step I, good EC, top 1/4 of class, research, and strong LOR, from a top 25 US med school, not matching this year. IN fact, it happened to one of my friends from my school.