Competiveness of IM

[bustbones26]

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High all, thsi thread is just a discussion, so lets see what you all have to say. An IM residency grad that I recently talked to stated that his program filled all of their spots last year for the first time in 20 years. He believes that IM has become more competitive in the recent years, not because people want to become general internist, but because they seek high paying specialties like cards, gastro, and hem/onc has a high salary these days!!

So my question is, if any of this is true, how many people "crap out", that is, go through the three year IM program and decide they've had enough, they do not seek another 3-4 years of training, 6-7 years total? And also, if any of this is true, why do these ppl assume they will be handed a fellowship in a high paying specialty? Wouldn't you think those fellowship spots are just a little difficult to come by? In my opinion, IM residents are a dime a dozen, don't assume you're gonna get that big fellowship in cards at mayo and make the big bucks just because you did IM somewhere for three years. Any thoughts on this from you others?

 

[buddym]

I agree. IM is still not very hard to get into, at least for AMG (less that 2% went unmatched last year, I think). But, Cards/GI are VERY hard to get into (maybe harder that some of the more competitive residencies because there are fewer positions). Also, some people do not realize that many of these programs use step one and step 2 scores, AOA, etc to judge candidates, so don't just relax and settle for medicore scores because you want to do IM and then GI/Cards/etc.