Compiling list of programs

[Cholinergic]

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I'm just starting the process of looking at programs I might be interested in. I'm already exhausted. 😳 There are SO many programs, community vs university, location consideration, etc. How does one begin to narrow it down to say 20-30 programs to submit the ERAS application to? Help! I'm so confused. 😕

 

[mig26x]

Location, USMLE score requirements, if they have fellowship you are interested in, if you want to go to a big program (especially for IM) or small program. Freida has all the options above (except USMLE score requirements) that you can choose to make your life easier.

 

[not me]

I can tell you how I did it for what it's worth. First I narrowed it down by places I could live for 5 years, then I looked only at the academic programs in those regions. Just these 2 things can bring it down to a reasonable number. Then I sat down with my advisor (who knows my stats/how competitive I am) and we talked about the pros/cons of each program. He helped a lot because he knows the reputation of the programs and faculty at each program better than I do. Good luck.

 

[Cholinergic]

Thanks SO much. That is a great help to me. I didn't know you could set all those parameters on Frieda. I only thought you could look at specialty and state. Lemme go check it again.

 

[Blade28]

Iserson's has a great list of criteria that you should consider.

To me, what's worth considering is:

*Location
*University vs. community hospital
*Urban vs. suburban vs. rural
*Research opportunities (if you're interested)
*Moonlight opportunities (again, if you're interested)
*Away/international rotations
*Health/dental/disability/malpractice/life insurance

Etc.

 

[canadian1234]

I'm just starting the process of looking at programs I might be interested in. I'm already exhausted. 😳 There are SO many programs, community vs university, location consideration, etc. How does one begin to narrow it down to say 20-30 programs to submit the ERAS application to? Help! I'm so confused. 😕

I am also new to this process.

So I am looking at the NRMP stats from last year's match to see which programs failed to match all of their places as an indicator of the quality and/or competitiveness of a program. I am wondering if this might be a way of deciding to rank those programs which failed, if you feel you are not that competitive or to avoid them if you think you are competitive?

Is there a fallacy to this? Do people think this is a good idea?

 

[Blade28]

So I am looking at the NRMP stats from last year's match to see which programs failed to match all of their places as an indicator of the quality and/or competitiveness of a program. I am wondering if this might be a way of deciding to rank those programs which failed, if you feel you are not that competitive or to avoid them if you think you are competitive?

Is there a fallacy to this? Do people think this is a good idea?

You could do this - it's true that some programs that don't fill their spots are less-than-desirable for some reason.

 

[jennyboo]

My take on this is that selecting a residency program if you can go anywhere is some compromise among these three things:

Location - Where you would enjoy willing. For some people, that is only one place due to family reasons, in which case my other two factors don't matter.

Prestige - How smart you'll feel to work at said program, and how the program's reputation will influence your future in terms of job interviews and fellowships. "University program vs community hospital" is included in the program's prestige.

Personality - The real "happiness factor" which includes whether you think people are nice at this program, whether you'll be treated respectfully as a resident, what the work hours are like, and so on. Sometimes you know the least about the program's personality before you apply and interview, so you end up choosing your initial list of programs based on location and prestige instead.

There is probably just one fallacy with avoiding programs that haven't filled at one point or another through the match. In my field (anesthesiology), some of the MOST prestigious programs didn't fill in the last couple of years, presumably because they simply didn't rank enough candidates in their rank list. Alternatively, one year a program filled NONE of its spots because the secretary uploaded the WRONG rank list to the NRMP match! So MOST of the time a program not filling is a warning sign, but not always.