ER NY RESIDENCY COST OF LIVING?? IMPROVE FUTURE ER APP?

[ER23]

Hi Everyone,

I am a second year medical student interested in Emergency Medicine. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get advice from current ER residents on how to be competitive. I also have additional questions:

1) Is research required or recommended to specialize/match into emergency medicine?
2) What Step score should I range in to match into Columbia/NYU ER Residencies?
3) Are Grades in first year important? Will they hurt you when matching into a top ER Residency?
4) Columbia has an ER Resident salary of 71K and NYU is around 65K, where do ER Residents in NY live? How much do you pay a month in rent? Is the salary enough or will you be living like a broke undergrad student again? What is your monthly/bi weekly check look like after taxes?
5) For those who are NY ER Residents, what program are you in and do you get to pick day/night shift schedule?


I really appreciate your advice!!



Thank You!!!

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[OneTwoThreeFour]

1) Research is always recommended for anything to make your application more competitive but if it will in any way cut into your board/clinical performance then it is certainly not required. Honestly it is probably a better way to get to know residents/attendings at your home program.
2) It is pointless to shoot for specific residency programs at this point. Aim for the highest score you can, try to do an away rotation at one of these programs early in your fourth year, and hope for the best. There are a multitude of ED (by the way, the preferred nomenclature is ED or EM rather than ER) programs in NYC. Ones that are as strong as NYU or Columbia (Sinai, SLR, Kings).
3) No unless you failed multiple classes.
4) My resident friends in NYC live typically near the hospital, paying 1500-2000/mo for rent. You will be spending half your time in the hospital and the other half living like a regular person earning 65-70k in NYC. Not extravagant but not broke if you are at all responsible with your spending.
5) No program anywhere ever lets you pick your shift schedule as a resident.

 

[ER23]

1) Research is always recommended for anything to make your application more competitive but if it will in any way cut into your board/clinical performance then it is certainly not required. Honestly it is probably a better way to get to know residents/attendings at your home program.
2) It is pointless to shoot for specific residency programs at this point. Aim for the highest score you can, try to do an away rotation at one of these programs early in your fourth year, and hope for the best. There are a multitude of ED (by the way, the preferred nomenclature is ED or EM rather than ER) programs in NYC. Ones that are as strong as NYU or Columbia (Sinai, SLR, Kings).
3) No unless you failed multiple classes.
4) My resident friends in NYC live typically near the hospital, paying 1500-2000/mo for rent. You will be spending half your time in the hospital and the other half living like a regular person earning 65-70k in NYC. Not extravagant but not broke if you are at all responsible with your spending.
5) No program anywhere ever lets you pick your shift schedule as a resident.

Cool! Thank you for your response!

 

[Groove]

Get to know this document. It contains answers to a few of your questions. It will also be your friend as you approach the MATCH and prepare to successfully attain a residency program in your chosen specialty. I think it's great that you're getting an early start on developing a winning strategy.

Charting Outcomes for the Match

 

[gro2001]

Hi Everyone,

I am a second year medical student interested in Emergency Medicine. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get advice from current ER residents on how to be competitive. I also have additional questions:

1) Is research required or recommended to specialize/match into emergency medicine?
2) What Step score should I range in to match into Columbia/NYU ER Residencies?
3) Are Grades in first year important? Will they hurt you when matching into a top ER Residency?
4) Columbia has an ER Resident salary of 71K and NYU is around 65K, where do ER Residents in NY live? How much do you pay a month in rent? Is the salary enough or will you be living like a broke undergrad student again? What is your monthly/bi weekly check look like after taxes?
5) For those who are NY ER Residents, what program are you in and do you get to pick day/night shift schedule?


I really appreciate your advice!!



Thank You!!!

1) Research is not necessary. And research for research's sake isn't even beneficial. It is immediately obvious whether something on your CV was a passion project or done for CV buffing. The former is interesting for some programs. The latter nobody cares about at all.

2) You should think of step scores as something that can close doors, but not necessarily open them. So the higher you go the fewer doors will be closed for you, but there is not score that will make programs drool over you. I'd expect that in general scores over 230 for Step I, 240 for Step II, will keep most doors open. However, people have matched at great programs with lower scores, and failed to match with higher ones.

3) As above, really only if you failed multiple things or had professionalism issues that will make it into your dean's letter.

4) I lived across the street from the hospital, paying around 1500/month for a studio in a building owned by the hospital. In our program about half lived across the street from one of the hospitals we rotated at, a quarter lived at a point equidistant from the two main sites, and the rest were scattered randomly (East Village, few in Brooklyn, Long Island City, few in Washington Heights, Harlem, and one in Connecticut (not recommended)). To put income into perspective: median income in NYC is $57k. So you won't be rich, but if you budget and are generally responsible with money, you should be fine. Particularly if you don't have dependents you need to support on your one income.

5) I don't think any program will let you pick your schedule exactly. At my program we were allowed to make a few day off requests for each block and the chiefs would do their best to accommodate that. I generally got all my requests honored.

The main piece of advice I'd give you if you want to match in NYC is to do at least on away elective there. Most importantly because it will show you what EM in NYC is like and whether you like it. It will also let you get letters from NYC program which will carry more weight at other NYC programs. NY EM is a very small world and everyone knows everyone.