Competitiveness this year....higher than normal?

[Hurricane95]

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Hey guys, just fishing around for opinions or hearsay.

I have heard from various sources that this year, applicants to anesthesiology in general nationwide are more competitive than the past years. My own home program has stated that the average step 1 scores of those interviewed is like 8 points higher than last year's group. I also heard this at a few of my interviews. Numbers are going up and we supposedly have better and better candidates applying to our specialty. Is this true? Has anyone heard anything similar?

I guess match day will reveal this to some degree. Will we find ourselves matching further down on our list than expected?

 

[undisturbed]

I'll start by saying that we all know the field has become more competitive overall in the last few years, so it could just be a part of that trend.

That said, I heard this more from some of the less well-known programs, but not from the most competitive ones (specifically for this year). So its possible that the increasing competitiveness of the field has lead more of the good applicants to apply more broadly?

I guess we'll know more if they choose to do another "Charting outcomes" report.

I guess match day will reveal this to some degree. Will we find ourselves matching further down on our list than expected?

Oww.... say it ain't so.... 🙁

 

[RussianJoo]

national USMLE averages go up every year, the USMLE passing score has also hisotorically being going up. It doesn't mean that this field is more competitive than last year or the year before, it's just the natural progression of things. Every field in medicine is getting harder to match into. but overall competitiveness i would say is about the same. I call it inflation.

 

[CrazyJake]

The quality of applicants at our program was again high this year, maybe a tad better this year than last.

As said above, all of medicine is getting tougher. I tell med students all the time that if you want to get GREAT training in the 'ez' fields - Peds, FM, IM you need to be competitive and ready to fight for that spot, b/c they're not easy to get. If you just want any FM spot, ez to land..but if you want solid FM training...not as easy. Good training in any specialty is becoming more competitive.

I think Anesthesia will continue to be popular. Plenty of applicants who don't want to run an office, deal with charts, well checks/annual exams, extensive paperwork, etc. EM is another field...the shift work mentality is extremely popular as med students seek a better balance b/n career and family-lifestyle.

CJ

 

[amyl]

this year is no different than the past three or four. anesthesia is competitive, has been for the past few years....

 

[karizma098]

I don't think its any more competitive than normal. My neighbor is an MS4 from an American school , step 1 of 210 and nothing spectacular about him, had 15 interviews this year. In my class, there is definitely a lot less interest in anesthesia this year; but a huge uptick in ER interest.

 

[cp32]

I don't think its any more competitive than normal. My neighbor is an MS4 from an American school , step 1 of 210 and nothing spectacular about him, had 15 interviews this year. In my class, there is definitely a lot less interest in anesthesia this year; but a huge uptick in ER interest.

I agree, I think there are more applications out there overall, but probably the same number of applicants. The sense I got: people applied everywhere because they didn't know where they wanted to train, couples matching or thought it was more competitive this year. Someone told me their classmate applied to 90 programs for no obvious reason! In my class, we have 17 going into anesthesia, the most ever for my school, but during the interview trail, someone from a great anesthesia program had 3 total in their class. Just so random....

 

[xbulletin]

The field gets slightly more competitive every year (an increase of about a point on USMLEs year to year), but there doesn't seem to be any reason to conclude it got significantly more competitive this year.

Just looking at the rank lists posted here (104 posts, probably 60 lists), there were a lot of 10 rank lists of elite programs and I recall some 15-20 rank lists of less competitive places. These applicants havent suddenly arrived from derm, ortho, and plastics, so they probably aren't much different than those who applied last year.

 

[IlDestriero]

I think that the place where competitiveness will increase in Anesthesia is at the fellowship level. There are a limited number of fellowship level cases to go around, and a finite number of quality places to train. Everyone seems to be going into a fellowship these days, including about 2/3 of my home team residents. It's probably a smart investment/insurance policy given the way the tide is turning. There is a year of lost income, but 10 years down the line, it might be the key to getting or keeping a good job.
As much as we seem to worry about CRNAs taking the low hanging fruit, people want to take care of complex, and not so complex, patients less and less out in town. We get regular transfers of healthy teenagers with routine problems that any surgeon or anesthesiologist could handle. But they don't want to do the cases, so they get sent to the Children's hospital. I'm always happy to do an ASA 1 for a change. I'm quite sure that there will always be work for our generation, especially if we specialize and if we're comfortable working for $200-250 vs 350-550.

 

[imfrankie]

There is a lot to be said for working for $250K. You pay in other ways for the extra income.

 

[Consigliere]

There is a lot to be said for working for $250K. You pay in other ways for the extra income.

Yeah, but what sucks is when you're working at a $500k level and getting paid $250k - which is the future of anesthesia. 👎

 

[Impromptu]

In addition to increased competition, I think everyone is now consistently applying to a greater number of residency programs to ensure that they get one, which gives the appearance of greater competition. Increased volume of applications doesn't mean an increased number of applicants. We'll have to check out the stats after match day to know for sure.

 

[CardiacIntensivist]

I can't comment on competitiveness but have the current applicants also noticed a surge in numbers? From my recollection, Drexel's, UT-SW, My institution, SUNY's and other schools have noticed a significant rise in number of anesthesia applicants this year.

 

[nycitygas]

I can't comment on competitiveness but have the current applicants also noticed a surge in numbers? From my recollection, Drexel's, UT-SW, My institution, SUNY's and other schools have noticed a significant rise in number of anesthesia applicants this year.

Anesthesia has been competitive for the last several years and I think its about the same as the last 2-3 years relatively. What has been happening is EVERYTHING has becoming more competitive secondary to the increase in applicants. I think in the last 4-5 years the number of MD students has increased like 15-20% with new schools/increased spots and the number of DO applicants has gone up even more (something like 50%). Throw in the Caribbean schools that have all been upping their class sizes and with new schools opening up, you have huge pressure on the spots that aren't increasing. I'm glad I got in while I did 😎

 

[Osteoimperfecta]

Preliminary statistics says no change in competitiveness..Still ~50 positions unfilled. I do not anticipate that changing any time soon. Just my opinion.

 

[Bluemoon312]

Are any of these 51 unfilled spots held for people outside the match? Just trying to understand what the number really means.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Are any of these 51 unfilled spots held for people outside the match? Just trying to understand what the number really means.

What do you mean??
Prematch slots are filled by 1/27 or something like that...

SUNY-Downstate sure didnt pimp out 13-15 slots like they did last year for derm/rads rejects.

 

[Bluemoon312]

I heard that some programs kept a few spots open for people that wanted to switch out of surgery. Was curious if those spots were part of the 51.

 

[Osteoimperfecta]

I heard that some programs kept a few spots open for people that wanted to switch out of surgery. Was curious if those spots were part of the 51.

Not sure, but to the best of my knowledge unfilled means they intended to fill those spots. This keeping of spots open did not start this year either. If you go by number of unfilled spots you would think internal medicine was more competitive than anesthesiolog this year. They had 56 spots not fill out of 5121. Anesthesia had 51 not fill out of ~1300.

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Not sure, but to the best of my knowledge unfilled means they intended to fill those spots. This keeping of spots open did not start this year either. If you go by number of unfilled spots you would think internal medicine was more competitive than anesthesiolog this year. They had 56 spots not fill out of 5121. Anesthesia had 51 not fill out of ~1300.

Doubt it... IM and FP prematches ALOT of FMGs and DOs, so they come into the match will less than 5121 slots I'd think.

 

[Osteoimperfecta]

Doubt it... IM and FP prematches ALOT of FMGs and DOs, so they come into the match will less than 5121 slots I'd think.

Well I remember when IM could not fill in the match regardless, and had hundreds of spots unfilled through out the year. Everything seems more competitive this year, except anesthesia and radiology. Even PM&R has only single digit spots unfilled. Curious to see the board score breakdown though.

 

[lilzelda2]

Geez there's 7 Derm spots, 3 ENT and over 40 Rads...crazy

 

[Doctor4Life1769]

Well I remember when IM could not fill in the match regardless, and had hundreds of spots unfilled through out the year. Everything seems more competitive this year, except anesthesia and radiology. Even PM&R has only single digit spots unfilled. Curious to see the board score breakdown though.

Well, from my classmates alone, I know more and more community and rural IM and FP programs are pushing the pre-match button especially with DOs.

Also, from the DO match, anesthesia and radiology didnt have issues filling. In fact, anesthesia had 0 open slots, radiology only 1. Maybe more DOs are hitting up the DO match for specialties, and hitting up the MD side for the primary care stuff. Not sure...

 

[Osteoimperfecta]

Well, from my classmates alone, I know more and more community and rural IM and FP programs are pushing the pre-match button especially with DOs.

Also, from the DO match, anesthesia and radiology didnt have issues filling. In fact, anesthesia had 0 open slots, radiology only 1. Maybe more DOs are hitting up the DO match for specialties, and hitting up the MD side for the primary care stuff. Not sure...

Makes sense

 

[Orin]

In addition to increased competition, I think everyone is now consistently applying to a greater number of residency programs to ensure that they get one, which gives the appearance of greater competition. Increased volume of applications doesn't mean an increased number of applicants. We'll have to check out the stats after match day to know for sure.

Nice thing about going through the scramble is that I got some face time with my PD.

It seems the categorical spots are in super high demand.

It also seems the top applicants are applying to far more programs, creating more competition for interview spots but not necessarily residency spots. Programs are now having to interview more and rank more, or aim at a certain cross section of applicants. This cycle, my home institute increased both by 30%. Some places have not fully adjusted and they got hit hard.

Even if you look at the last charting outcomes, most folks rank ~12, but that distribution is skewed to the higher end. Should be interesting to see how that number changes.

 

[periopdoc]

Are any of these 51 unfilled spots held for people outside the match? Just trying to understand what the number really means.

These spots are "Out-of-match positions" and do not appear in the match statistics. Unfilled slots are exactly what they sound like. Positions that were offered to the match but went unfilled because either the specific program did not rank enough applicants or enough applicants did not rank specific programs highly enough.

- pod