Does URM status matter for residency

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tyrabanks

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Does being a URM matter at all to residency programs like it did when applying for medical school?
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Not as much but in my experience to some degree. Programs do like to advertise diversity but I don't think it's as heavily emphasized as with med school admissions.
 
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DarkHorizon said:
Only if you’re a competitive candidate for the specialty and a good fit. Not just for the sake of diversity.
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Yea if one has the scores and research and happens to be a minority then it is a benefit? Is it at all significant
 
tyrabanks said:
Yea if one has the scores and research and happens to be a minority then it is a benefit? Is it at all significant
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Can only speak for my speciality. Certain programs are looking for more women and actively recruit, as long as the candidates are competitive and a good fit. But you won’t get in if there were concerns about whether you’ll fit in and be a good resident, just because you’re a woman.
 
DarkHorizon said:
Perhaps at some programs. But most ortho programs have a such a hard on for step 1 scores, they don’t even interview awesome rotators a lot of times if they didn’t make the cutoff. However if you were a minority woman with 240 plus score and were nice and well liked, you’ll likely be ranked to match pretty much at all the programs you interview. So in essence you’re not wrong, given the candidate is qualified.
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Do I have to be a minority woman. Can i be a minority male lol
 
It does matter but from the vibe I get it's really program dependent. Some will emphasize it. Some will not. Also the fact that the match is based on an algorithm dilutes the predictability of it a bit.
 
OraclePL said:
Not as much but in my experience to some degree. Programs do like to advertise diversity but I don't think it's as heavily emphasized as with med school admissions.
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Even in med school its mostly just lip service unfortunately. My school loves to talk about diversity but every year in a class of 270 there is only ever about 3-4 URM in the whole class.
 
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not nearly as much as in med school. it probably factors in a little bit if 2 candidates are very similar.

choosing the wrong residents can really hurt a program so they choose who they want based on what criteria they think makes a good resident.
 
I think it's very program specific and probably also in flux given all the events of the last year. Even so, it probably buys you less leeway than it did for med school admissions. The key difference is that you need strong residents or else you as the attendings will personally suffer. A weaker medical student isn't such a big deal provided they have the chops to pass and graduate. The bar to enter med school is much higher than the ability level needed to successfully complete medical school, so schools can relax their GPA/MCAT standards to meet other recruitment goals. Residency is a different beast.

For us, we probably had one of the more diverse programs in our field. A program that's too homogenous in any direction will become a recruitment liability, so most programs want to showcase a dynamic and diverse group in order to recruit top talent. To my knowledge, we never lowered our standards to boost our numbers as all our applicants had 90+ percentile scores, but we definitely did a little more outreach to URM candidates in hopes of convincing them to rank us highly. We also moved our interview days earlier so that URM applicants could attend an institutionally sponsored second look if they desired and there were some post-interview calls and emails to candidates and their mentors.

So yes, it's important but it's not going to let you coast into a competitive field with a 225 and no research.
 
Dr.Bruh said:
Even in med school its mostly just lip service unfortunately. My school loves to talk about diversity but every year in a class of 270 there is only ever about 3-4 URM in the whole class.
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Is it a possibility that most URM with DO stats likely got into an MD school? We also see a large number of asians at DO schools and it is not because DO schools recruit asians more than URM.
 
MDMechEngr said:
Is it a possibility that most URM with DO stats likely got into an MD school? We also see a large number of asians at DO schools and it is not because DO schools recruit asians more than URM.
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You're really threatening to tailspin this thread, there's threads that argue this at length. OP asked about residency specifically. If you want to fight the URM vs ORM thread for med school (which is a ridiculous argument and microaggression-worthy to assume someone URM at an MD was less qualified), there's a bunch of ugly threads for that.
 
Yeah URM is a distinct advantage in residency application process too. Gets you more interviews and gets you ranked higher.

Nobody has the numbers to say what the bonus is compared to med school admissions and it probably depends program to program based on who is making the rank list for how much they weight it.
 
drducky. said:
Does that mean guys can get into obgyn easier?
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Anecdotally, yes. I LOVED my Ob rotation. When I talked to residents about potentially applying they told me that being male with good board scores would get me into basically any program I wanted. Idk how true that actually is, because I didn't end up applying to obgyn.

Edit: There's also actually another more insidious but potentially more powerful advantage for male applicants in obgyn, which is that although men are underrepresented at the resident level, senior obgyn attendings are still mostly male. I definitely benefited from positive stereotyping for my gender from those attendings when I mentioned my interest. This is in contrast to male dominated specialties like ortho or urology, where programs are trying to recruit female applicants but those same applicants may end up negatively stereotyped by senior leadership.
 
FindersFee5 said:
Anecdotally, yes. I LOVED my Ob rotation. When I talked to residents about potentially applying they told me that being male with good board scores would get me into basically any program I wanted. Idk how true that actually is, because I didn't end up applying to obgyn.

Edit: There's also actually another more insidious but potentially more powerful advantage for male applicants in obgyn, which is that although men are underrepresented at the resident level, senior obgyn attendings are still mostly male. I definitely benefited from positive stereotyping for my gender from those attendings when I mentioned my interest. This is in contrast to male dominated specialties like ortho or urology, where programs are trying to recruit female applicants but those same applicants may end up negatively stereotyped by senior leadership.
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That’s awesome although i don’t really see the need for it. I get that minority patients might want to see minority providers, but how many females only want to see a male obgyn? Lol
 
Once step 1 is pass/fail it will be one of the biggest boosts you can have on your application other than attending at T20 med school
 
drducky. said:
Step 2?
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I suppose everyone will have to take it before ERAS once step 1 is pass/fail.

Obviously doing well on a step exam will help you but IIRC step 2 has a smaller range and SD than step 1 so possibly less of a differentiator than Step 1 in practice
 
It does not matter as much for residency, though it should. Programs say they want to be diverse, but they more often than not take the most competitive candidates over the most diverse candidates. Does change by institution.

Note to everyone here: being underpresented in medicine means that we need MORE of these providers in all specialities, including and especially the most competitive (i.e., white) specialities--looking at you derm/plastics/ENT

Racial concordant care matters. Having URM providers in position of power matters. And, for all non-URM medical, pre-medical, and especially admin who complain about any initiatives to increase URM representation, please retire get out of this field, or get with the program

edit: removed quote
 
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