Help! Advice on applying to 2 diff. residencies?

[itsallgood]

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I hope I'm not alone in that I am still trying to decide b/w 2 different programs.
Can someone offer me advice on applying to 2 separate specialties?

I would like to apply to both IM categorical and Anesthesia (w/ a Medicine Prelim year).
Will programs know that I am applying to both?

The main issue I am confused about is:
If I decide to apply to both, I would essentially be applying for a Prelim year and IM categorical at the same place.
Example: Applying to both the Medicine Prelim yr at UCLA and the IM categorical at UCLA.

Will the PD/DME know that I checked both the Prelim & Categorical boxes when I submitted my application?

Advice & help would be much appreciated!

 

[amyl]

I had previously considered myself to be in the same boat. The advice I was given by a senior surgery resident is: figure out which one you want. anes and im are VERY different specialties in residency and practice. my advice is try to figure out which one you want...medidate, shadow someone, whatever it takes. uncertainty might be seen as lack of dedication to the field which can count against you. they might find out, they might ask you where else you have applied (don't lie!). Applying to both at the same place is probably a no-no. I know this is not the answer you want but you really should decide between the two. Or do a traditional internship to get some exposure to both and then decide (after all that was part of the traditional years purpose).

 

[2ndyear]

The problem with 2 specialties comes in ranking them. When you make your rank list you can put whatever you want, but they go in order. So you place community hospital IM first and an average anesthesia program second. You match your first choice and that's it. You're in IM. Place MGH IM first, average anesthesia program second on the list. You get turned down at MGH so the program goes to #2. You match anesthesia. As you can see, when it comes time to rank the fact that you applied to 2 specialties really makes you decide what you want to do. So then why did you apply to 2 in the first place?

Here's some possible reasons:
Profound geographical restriction. Someone in my medschool class was bound by spouse to one city. She applied to both Med-Peds and Family Medicine to broaden matching chances.
Competitiveness- A buddy of mine applied to Rad-Onc. Insanely competitive, but he'd like Heme-Onc as well. Ranked Rad-Onc 1-3 on the list, and filled 4-10 with medicine programs. I've known of similar Radiology/Path combos as well.