I am in a LTR with a Osteopathic medical student in her second year. I am a a law student at a good law school very far away. I was wondering what I could do to assure that post-graduation we both end up in the same city. Is it best to interview in:
1. NYC, its a huge city, the default place for lawyers to get jobs, and I would assume has an overflow of residencies.
2. The city where her medical school is: secondary market (think Baltimore/SF/Philly etc.). Harder for me to get a job, but I would assume easiest for her.
3. My city, easiest to get a job for me, hardest for her, but still a major city with plenty of hospitals (and med schools).
Really, I guess what I am asking is, will she get to choose where she works, or are you tied to your school's markets as much law students are? Or do I have to wait for her board scores to have any idea?
Welcome to SDN. Have you tried talking to your girlfriend about these questions, or are you just trying to do research to determine future options?
Anyway, the medical field is different than the legal field, and medical training is certainly different than legal training.
In terms of "location", really depends on if you are looking at location for residency or location for post-training work. I know that in Big Law, area such as NYC, Washington, Boston, and San Francisco are really hard to get unless you get into big law, or graduate from a T14 school, made law review, order of the coif, etc. In medicine, it gets more tricky (and hence why the previous posters ask about what specialty, what score)
Basically residency is a whole new ballgame, with applications, interviews, and even tests scores factored into the decision. The main difference is "the match", which throws a wrench in people's plan because unlike applying to med school (or law school), you apply to multiple programs, and wait for a computer algorithm to determine where you end up. You don't have the option of holding multiple offers and deciding which one to attend. Plus in the osteopathic world, there are two matches (for now) - the DO match and the MD match (known as the AOA Match and NRMP Match respectively), which your girlfriend will be eligible. Making it harder is the fact that the AOA Match occurs several months before the NRMP Match (and matching AOA means automatic withdraw from the NRMP match). To add to this uncertainly, there is a possibility that the two matches will disappear in the future as the AOA and ACGME residency merger begins.
And that was just the logistics of her situation. To get more specifics, it really depends on what field she wants to go into, and how competitive she is. It also depends on what her priorities are (location? specialty? family?) Radiology is semi-competitive, especially for an osteopathic student, so she may need to cast a wide net and go where she match (can be NYC, can be Philly/DC, can be middle-of-nowhere). Neurology is not really competitive for DO students so as long as she has decent grades, decent exam scores, good clinical rotations with good letters of recommendations, she may have more options when it comes to where she may end up (there are 3 neurology programs in DC, and 10 in NYC and surrounding areas - and that's just MD residencies not including AOA programs). If she wants to do Endocrinology or GI, those are fellowships that are done once she completes an Internal Medicine residency. It gets tricky here. Internal Medicine can or cannot be competitive, depending on where she wants to go. First, there are AOA and ACGME Internal Medicine residencies (and AOA and ACGME fellowships). Then afterwards, if she wants to do a fellowship, it is generally recommended that she does her IM residency at a large academic hospital or a large community hospital with close affiliation with a medical school. (getting a fellowship from a community hospital is possible, but definitely harder than someone going to an academic university medical center). So getting any internal medicine residency is possible, but getting into an academic program in NYC or DC (or SF) becomes harder (it's like trying to become a law clerk for a federal judge in NYC or DC)
If she wants to do Internal Medicine in NYC, it is definitely possible - but there is a difference in doing IM at Flushing Hospital (Queens) and at New York Presbyterian/Columbia or NYU Langone. However, all is not lost because there are plenty of high power academic programs (and large community programs with strong academic affiliation) that have sent many residents onto fellowships (such as NSLIJ, a very large tertiary care center that is affiliated with NYU, Einstein, SUNY Stonybrook, and NYCOM/NYIT). It even hosts multiple fellowship programs (including endocrine and GI)
Sorry for the long post, but essentially there are a lot of variables when it comes to her options, and a lot to consider for yourself. But essentially I would talk to her about what she wants, where she wants to train, and where she picture herself afterwards when done with training (academic medicine, private practice, non-clinical activities, etc). But medicine is a lot more flexible than law when it comes to where to work and she is not limited to her school's influence or reach (although reputation and large alumni network certainly does help). Plus I didn't even talk about "preliminary medicine" or "transitional year" if she wants to do Neurology or Radiology, but that's another topic for another time as it is beyond the topic of discussion.
Since you are a law student, I will post the following for your benefit as well as mine
😛 😀
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