Does the medical school you go to determine the type of residency you'll get?

[Senor Hound]

Hi. I'm sorry if I'm not supposed to post in here as a pre-med student, but it seemed like the most appropriate place.

As a pre-med student, I have a desire to try and go into radiology or psychiatry. So I was trying to find out my question on my own. I started looking at the residency matches for different schools, and some of them it seemed had no matches for certain types of specialties. Does this mean if you go to "COM-A" you'll have no chance of going in to one of those specialties? This is the website I was looking at, and as an example, it doesn't look like KCOM (Kirksville) has a Radiology residency. Does that mean if I go to school there I can't become a Radiologist? As you can tell, I have no idea about any of this.

http://opportunities.osteopathic.org/search/search.cfm

I've been told as a pre-med that I'm worrying about this way too early, but if not every specialty is available from every school, I need to pick one that will cater to what I think I might want to do.

Sorry if this is somewhat wordy. I'm very confused, and I could use some guidance. Thanks to everyone ahead of time.

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[TexasTriathlete]

You will be responsible for the type of residency you get. Don't worry about this ******ed **** yet.

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[lord_jeebus]

No school will keep you from going into any particular specialty. For radiology, some programs may look down on the prestige of one school vs. another, but a strong applicant should nonetheless match in that specialty.

Psychiatry is one of the least competitive specialties.

If rads and psych are your top interests, chances are you will learn a lot about yourself and the various specialties as you go through medical school, and likely go into something different. Besides relatively short hours as an attending, I don't see what they have in commo.

 

[Senor Hound]

No school will keep you from going into any particular specialty. For radiology, some programs may look down on the prestige of one school vs. another, but a strong applicant should nonetheless match in that specialty.

Psychiatry is one of the least competitive specialties.

If rads and psych are your top interests, chances are you will learn a lot about yourself and the various specialties as you go through medical school, and likely go into something different. Besides relatively short hours as an attending, I don't see what they have in commo.

I don't even know what "short hours as an attending," means... I like the analysis of radiology and psychiatry, even though they solve issues in two entirely different ways. I was on a school trip (Survey of Health Professions class) and we saw a radiologist in this room, looking over these MRIs on a computer and dictating into a recorder what he saw. It looked really interesting. But that's the only reason for that. I wholeheartedly admit I have little to no knowledge about the field, and as a matter of fact, if anyone knows any blogs or websites that would give it more detail, I'd love to see them.

Psychiatry is really what I'd be interested in. I am infinitely fascinated with the human mind, and its the only thing that fascinates me more than the human body. But with the answers I have gotten, I still have a lot of time to figure it out for myself, which is great cause I was starting to get nervous when I saw that web page. I was thinking, "Oh no, I have no choice but to go to Michigan State to get a good chance in Radiology! I really wanted to stay closer to home!" I see now that's incorrect.

 

[Old_Mil]

As of right now, the most competitive residencies are called the "ROADE" residencies, a summary of radiology, orthopedic surgery, anesthesia, dermatology, and ER. That will likely change to some degree by the time you apply to residency, but it is what it is. And reality is that applicants who have an MD have, to one degree or another, an easier time landing these residencies. Not at every institution, but at enough to be significant.

Psychiatry, internal medicine, peds, and family medicine - particularly family medicine - aren't all that competitive and it won't really matter where you go to school as long.

Regardless of what you think now, you probably won't have a very good idea of what you want to do until you get out into clinical rotations and see what is a good fit.

 

[Shinken]

This is the website I was looking at, and as an example, it doesn't look like KCOM (Kirksville) has a Radiology residency. Does that mean if I go to school there I can't become a Radiologist? As you can tell, I have no idea about any of this.

...but if not every specialty is available from every school, I need to pick one that will cater to what I think I might want to do.

I believe you're just not familiar with how it works when it comes to choosing a residency program.

Any hospital, which may or may not be affiliated with a medical school, can offer a residency program, many times under an affiliation with a particular med school (as long as certain requirements are met by the hospital). For example, KCOM has an affiliation with a hospital, and that hospital offers a residency program in general surgery (through KCOM). Therefore, the opportunities database reports the general surgery program as a KCOM surgery residency at hospital X. Now, the residency program might have been started by KCOM, with KCOM faculty, etc. but it doesn't mean that (1) only KCOM students can participate in that residency or (2) KCOM students cannot do any residency unless it's a "KCOM residency."

Makes sense?

In other words, to answer your question the short way: it doesn't matter what school you go to, you can get whatever residency you want (as long as your board scores, etc. are competitive for that specialty).

 

[Senor Hound]

I believe you're just not familiar with how it works when it comes to choosing a residency program.

Any hospital, which may or may not be affiliated with a medical school, can offer a residency program, many times under an affiliation with a particular med school (as long as certain requirements are met by the hospital). For example, KCOM has an affiliation with a hospital, and that hospital offers a residency program in general surgery (through KCOM). Therefore, the opportunities database reports the general surgery program as a KCOM surgery residency at hospital X. Now, the residency program might have been started by KCOM, with KCOM faculty, etc. but it doesn't mean that (1) only KCOM students can participate in that residency or (2) KCOM students cannot do any residency unless it's a "KCOM residency."

Makes sense?

In other words, to answer your question the short way: it doesn't matter what school you go to, you can get whatever residency you want (as long as your board scores, etc. are competitive for that specialty).

Thank you so much. I appreciate the explanation you gave, as it really makes sense, and I was somewhat interested as to why I didn't have to worry. Thanks to everyone for their answers. I guess now the only thing I can do is study and work as hard as possible and hope that's good enough to get me what I want in life.

Thank you to everyone who posted something. You are exactly right in that I don't have a good idea of what I want, which is why I wanted to keep my options open. Which I now realize is easier than I thought after looking at that web site.