FM residency Global Health tract vs Regular track

[Bobbbyyyy]

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A few of the FM residencies that I've come across are offering a global health track. Could someone provide insight into their competitiveness vs regular family track? Does training in the global health track for an FM physician give them any extra credentials or is it only for personal experience/knowledge?
If I mention my interest for their global health track in my PS, am I hurting my chances of possibly getting an interview for their regular track position?

sorry, having trouble articulating my thoughts, but you get the point

edit: track* not tract typo in the title

 

[Bobbbyyyy]

It probably varies from program to program but in my experience with a handful of programs I interviewed at that have "tracks" in various areas available, you don't actually pick a track til after you match, and the application is the same regardless. They don't try to match like 3 people for the global health track and 7 people for the regular track, they just try to match 10 people and then go from there.

There's definitely no harm in mentioning an interest in global health, and bear in mind that doing a "regular" track does not prevent you from getting experience in global health as well. If you mention an interest in doing a global health track in your PS and send your application to a program that doesn't have one, that may hurt you because they'll see that the program may not be a good fit for you.

thanks, so the specific tracks are assigned after matching, that's comforting to hear
yes, only thinking of adding it for programs that offer that specific track

 

[Bobbbyyyy]

I think if you just express in your PS a strong interest in global health and that you're looking for a residency with opportunities to explore that, that will get your point across. When it comes time for interviews or even just to send a letter of interest, you can mention the track. If you're already planning to tailor 10+ (or however many places you're applying) personal statements to individual residency programs, go for it, but otherwise, I think you'll be fine being a bit more general, and save yourself some time, effort, and room for a possible mistake.

yes, my PS overall does broadly mention an interest in global health and I am tailoring my PS's specifically for some of the programs that I'm applying to, I figured if I'm taking the time to make the PS program-specific might as well mention that I like their global tract as it does somewhat fit with my PS's overall theme