Deciding between two DO schools, interest in EM

[medthodman]

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I have a strong interest in EM and have recently been accepted to two DO schools. I am currently undecided between the two of them. I have been told to compare match lists for both schools as one way of leading to a decision. Other premeds say that they have done the same but I have no idea how they recognize a residency program as better or worse as I personally don't know how to judge this. I have a feeling it's more than the name of the hospital when it comes to quality residencies, plus I don't know what the most important thing is to look for when it comes to an EM residency program. My questions:

(1) Should I consider match lists when trying to pick a school or should other factors be more important?

(2) If I should be looking at match lists, how do I go about judging EM residency programs?

 

[EM2BE]

I have a strong interest in EM and have recently been accepted to two DO schools. I am currently undecided between the two of them. I have been told to compare match lists for both schools as one way of leading to a decision. Other premeds say that they have done the same but I have no idea how they recognize a residency program as better or worse as I personally don't know how to judge this. I have a feeling it's more than the name of the hospital when it comes to quality residencies, plus I don't know what the most important thing is to look for when it comes to an EM residency program. My questions:

(1) Should I consider match lists when trying to pick a school or should other factors be more important?

(2) If I should be looking at match lists, how do I go about judging EM residency programs?

If there was a way to do it, I would see how many matched in EM that wanted to. If 12 matched, but 20 tried, that might not be a good sign compared to 12 matching out of 12. But this info you can only get from people who graduated there I think (unless the school will give you this info).

 

[WakeDoc]

Do either of the programs have a relationship with a residency? For example, I know that the osteopathic school in Texas has somewhat of an ongoing relationship with Parkland, which has a large and well known residency program. As a result, pretty much at least 2 residents a year come from TCOM. I would think that access to an EM residency program would be the most important factor. Even an osteopathic program would provide you with early exposure and allow you access to attendings who can write LORs.

 

[medthodman]

If there was a way to do it, I would see how many matched in EM that wanted to. If 12 matched, but 20 tried, that might not be a good sign compared to 12 matching out of 12. But this info you can only get from people who graduated there I think (unless the school will give you this info).

I can't find info on how successful matches are by specialty, but that sounds like it would be a good stat to know. All I can figure out is how many match their first choice. But then again, even that can be misleading if they are guiding people to rank programs they know they'll get into even if it's not really their first choice. Thanks for the advice!

 

[medthodman]

Do either of the programs have a relationship with a residency? For example, I know that the osteopathic school in Texas has somewhat of an ongoing relationship with Parkland, which has a large and well known residency program. As a result, pretty much at least 2 residents a year come from TCOM. I would think that access to an EM residency program would be the most important factor. Even an osteopathic program would provide you with early exposure and allow you access to attendings who can write LORs.

I will look into that. I think one of the schools has residency programs that are under their name.

 

[DrQuinn]

Dude. Don't worry about it. Go to whichever school gives you the best "gut feeling." Also take into consideration location and tuition. If one place is in a nicer area or has cheaper tuition, honestly, that's where I would go. Trying to base your med school decision on a match list or on an internet based reputation is folly.

I went to a DO school, BTW.

Q

 

[Greenbbs]

I'm a DO as well.

Go to the school were you get both the best gut feeling, but where you think you'll have the best education leading to the best opportunities. You're going to learn the same stuff at every school. What environment you like to learn in is entirely up to you, not what a million other EM hopefuls/residents/attendings can tell you. The only person who has control in where you go for residency is you, because you control how hard you work and how much you learn and how you apply yourself.

The DO school I went to let you rotate pretty much wherever you wanted within reason. You had to do certain core rotations within the affiliations of the school, but you were free to go to different hospitals to experiment even within those restrictions. After those core rotations, you could go anywhere.

I chose to do all my rotations within a certain geographic area, and rotated through like 7 or 8 different hospitals, and got a fantastic education.

Remember, it's not so much a factor of the schools education that leads to the match list as it is the students themselves. You could have the best education in the world, but if the students themselves aren't good, it's going to affect the way things look. Rank lists shouldn't be a huge factor because they're going to vary from year to year, as the medical climate changes. In my graduating year, almost everyone who wanted to match EM did, but now that there's increasing interest in EM every year, it's going to get harder and harder to match into EM, no matter where you go because the pool of quality applicants is deepening.

I know as someone in my program who has a lot of contact with the interviewees (I do tours and lunches), the cream of the crop students are becoming more and more. It was pretty easy to separate the first couple of candidates out from the crowd, but after the top 3 or 4, then it gets very very VERY competitive (I suspect it's getting to be that way everywhere in the DO world, possibly the MD world too).

 

[wook]

...Go to the school were you get both the best gut feeling, but where you think you'll have the best education leading to the best opportunities. You're going to learn the same stuff at every school. What environment you like to learn in is entirely up to you, not what a million other EM hopefuls/residents/attendings can tell you. The only person who has control in where you go for residency is you, because you control how hard you work and how much you learn and how you apply yourself...

...Remember, it's not so much a factor of the schools education that leads to the match list as it is the students themselves...Rank lists shouldn't be a huge factor because they're going to vary from year to year...

👍

I agree with previous posters (IMHO).



Wook