DOs Aiming CA need Sub-I?

[TheOther]

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4th year DO student. I’ve been all over the place in terms of choosing a specialty during 3rd year because I enjoyed every rotation. I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to pick one, but in the process, came to a few realizations:

1. I can see myself enjoying almost any speciality (no rads, OB, derm, some others).
2. My #1 priority in life is my wife and growing family.
3. My #1 priority for residency is staying in Southern CA — see reason 2. My wife’s work is in Orange County and all of our closest friends and family are here.
4. Because of reasons 1-3, I might as well pursue a field that will give me a wide variety of practice, afford me ample flexibility/time outside of work, and maximize my chances of staying put.

So for the first time, I’m seriously considering FM. And my question is this: do I need sub-is/auditions if I want to match in the Orange County/Los Angeles area? Particularly interested in Kaiser Anaheim and Harbor UCLA.

Stats:
-Step 1 235-240
-Step 2 pending (hoping 245+)
-Passed Step 2 CS equivalent
-2nd quartile, all honors 3rd year except 1 IM pass
-1 ortho poster and 1 EM first author pub
-SSP (DO honors society)
-Letters: strong gen surg, neuro, psych. I’ll probably ask for a FM one too now that I’m considering it.

Thanks for any insight/advice!

Edit: I'm going FM for more reasons than just location. This will be fleshed out in my personal statement. Overall, it's the best fit for me -- I love the variety and the continuity. Doing some more FM rotations now in a heavily underserved area and loving it.

 

[hallowmann]

4th year DO student. I’ve been all over the place during 3rd year and enjoyed every rotation — went from wanting to do gen surg to anesthesia to ortho to psych to EM. I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to pick one, but in the process, came to a few realizations:

1. I can see myself enjoying almost any speciality (no rads, OB, derm, some others).
2. My #1 priority in life is my wife and growing family.
3. My #1 priority for residency is staying in Southern CA — see reason 2. My wife’s work is in Orange County and all of our closest friends and family are here.
4. Because of reasons 1-3, I might as well pursue a field that will afford me ample flexibility and time outside of work while maximizing my chances of staying put.

So for the first time, I’m seriously considering FM. And my question is this: do I need sub-is/auditions if I want to match in the Orange County/Los Angeles area? Particularly interested in Kaiser Anaheim and Harbor UCLA.

Stats:
-Step 1 235-240
-Step 2 pending (hoping 245+)
-Passed Step 2 CS equivalent
-2nd quartile, all honors 3rd year except 1 IM pass
-1 ortho poster and 1 EM first author pub
-SSP (DO honors society)
-Letters: strong gen surg, neuro, psych. I’ll probably ask for a FM one too now that I’m considering it.

Thanks for any insight/advice!

If you have your heart set on a specific program (Harbor for example), I would audition.

Either way, you'll get plenty of interviews in SoCal with your stats, and there are enough programs that the less competitive ones will likely rank you to match. That said Kaiser and Harbor-UCLA were a little more selective, but still very doable for DOs. Doing an audition would be helpful for both you and them, but again may not be necessary.

If you don't like OB, I would think about the types of programs you apply to. I don't remember off the top of my head, but I recall there being "more" OB at Harbor than some other programs. I never applied to Kaiser-Anaheim, so I have no idea about them.

 

[TheOther]

If you have your heart set on a specific program (Harbor for example), I would audition.

Either way, you'll get plenty of interviews in SoCal with your stats, and there are enough programs that the less competitive ones will likely rank you to match. That said Kaiser and Harbor-UCLA were a little more selective, but still very doable for DOs. Doing an audition would be helpful for both you and them, but again may not be necessary.

If you don't like OB, I would think about the types of programs you apply to. I don't remember off the top of my head, but I recall there being "more" OB at Harbor than some other programs. I never applied to Kaiser-Anaheim, so I have no idea about them.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! When I was considering other fields, I applied through VSAS and have honestly become incredibly frustrated with it. But I guess I'll give it a shot again.

And I don't mind OB! I actually really liked my rotation. I just couldn't see myself as an OBGYN doc.

 

[hallowmann]

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback! When I was considering other fields, I applied through VSAS and have honestly become incredibly frustrated with it. But I guess I'll give it a shot again.

And I don't mind OB! I actually really liked my rotation. I just couldn't see myself as an OBGYN doc.

Good luck with it! Like I said, if you don't audition there, it doesn't kill your chances, you'll just have to make a bigger effort getting face time with people in the program.

 

[Tozanzibarbymotorcar]

4th year DO student. I’ve been all over the place during 3rd year and enjoyed every rotation — went from wanting to do gen surg to anesthesia to ortho to psych to EM. I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to pick one, but in the process, came to a few realizations:

1. I can see myself enjoying almost any speciality (no rads, OB, derm, some others).
2. My #1 priority in life is my wife and growing family.
3. My #1 priority for residency is staying in Southern CA — see reason 2. My wife’s work is in Orange County and all of our closest friends and family are here.
4. Because of reasons 1-3, I might as well pursue a field that will afford me ample flexibility and time outside of work while maximizing my chances of staying put.

So for the first time, I’m seriously considering FM. And my question is this: do I need sub-is/auditions if I want to match in the Orange County/Los Angeles area? Particularly interested in Kaiser Anaheim and Harbor UCLA.

Stats:
-Step 1 235-240
-Step 2 pending (hoping 245+)
-Passed Step 2 CS equivalent
-2nd quartile, all honors 3rd year except 1 IM pass
-1 ortho poster and 1 EM first author pub
-SSP (DO honors society)
-Letters: strong gen surg, neuro, psych. I’ll probably ask for a FM one too now that I’m considering it.

Thanks for any insight/advice!

I am going to disagree with the previous poster. While your board scores look good you have not shown any dedication to family medicine in the past. Many of the programs you refer to want people who have shown some interest and are not just using it as a backup or for personal reasons (just wanting to live in CA).The people who match into CA also have competitive stats and have shown dedication to working with the underserved. For Kaiser you’ll need an audition as a DO but those are difficult to obtain this late in the game. Everyone wants to match there.

 

[TheOther]

I am going to disagree with the previous poster. While your board scores look good you have not shown any dedication to family medicine in the past. Many of the programs you refer to want people who have shown some interest and are not just using it as a backup or for personal reasons (just wanting to live in CA).The people who match into CA also have competitive stats and have shown dedication to working with the underserved. For Kaiser you’ll need an audition as a DO but those are difficult to obtain this late in the game. Everyone wants to match there.

Thanks, I appreciate the honesty. But I do wonder how one would show dedication to family medicine as a med student apart from sub-is -- I don't imagine clubs or research would yield much. I have tons of ECs working with the underserved locally and internationally.

But point taken: schedule an audition, if possible.