Help on getting a California Residency

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psych

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I really want to get a residency in California.
I have lived here my entire life but I am willing to move away temporarily to go to med school (I'm not happy about it though).
Would it be better to go to Western in Cali or an oos MD school?

I don't really care about the MD/DO debate, I really just care about where I end up practicing (near my family). All 3 MD schools I'm highly considering would require me to become a resident in another state to obtain in-state tuition. So if I leave I'll be applying as an ooser.

I think I'll be pursuing a moderately competitive field (nothing like derm or orthopedics) but I don't want to be limited to primary care fields.

If Cali is too tough, is it hard to get a residency in CO, AZ, NV, OR, or WA? I at least want to be closer to CA. I can't imagine being away for 7+ years!

I found a little info on this but there was no clear answer as to whether residency program directors give preference to in-staters... Someone also said its easier to get Kaiser residencies. Has anyone gone through this or know? I imagine there are tons of Cali natives that had to go elsewhere for med school.

thx
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Wow, sorry. I wasn't really sure you wanted to help me. Some people on SDN aren't very altruistic.
 
it really depends on what specialty you decide upon. What are the MD schools u are considering?
 
Let's not forget that state citizenship is not nearly as big of a deal in assessing residency applications as it is for medical school. You could easily use your parent's home address as your permanent address for applications (although if it were my parents I would not trust them to forward me or open my mail in a timely fashion, so would take my chances with an oos address).

If you have significant ties to California, going to medical school out of state will not make it that much more difficult to get a residency there, especially if you go to a nationally recognized program.

The only advantage I can see to staying in California for medical school (outside of being close to home) is that if you are choosing between Western and an MD program not well known nationally, your faculty at Western probably knows more people around California than the MD faculty would. YMMV.
 
psych said:
Wow, sorry. I wasn't really sure you wanted to help me. Some people on SDN aren't very altruistic.
Click to expand...

Why else would I PM you and ask for more specific info?

I went to Western, but came from the East Coast, and returned to the East Coast for residency by choice. You need to figure out what's more important - location or tuition. If you can figure that one out, you're on your way.
 
The OP is reminded that the SDN Pre-med population is a LOT different from those in the residency and professional forums.

We are a bit more likely to be altruistic. After all, if someone is a resident and still posting here, they are generally interested in spending what little free time they have to help others.

Don't judge us because of those rabble-rouser pre-meds.:rolleyes:
 
Winged Scapula said:
The OP is reminded that the SDN Pre-med population is a LOT different from those in the residency and professional forums.

We are a bit more likely to be altruistic. After all, if someone is a resident and still posting here, they are generally interested in spending what little free time they have to help others.
Click to expand...

And when they are attendings and still post here - they're not altruistic - they're craaazzzeeeeeeee. ;)

Just kidding. Attendings who post are a very rare commodity. Take their advice seriously.
 
psych said:
I really want to get a residency in California.
I have lived here my entire life but I am willing to move away temporarily to go to med school (I'm not happy about it though).
Would it be better to go to Western in Cali or an oos MD school?

I don't really care about the MD/DO debate, I really just care about where I end up practicing (near my family). All 3 MD schools I'm highly considering would require me to become a resident in another state to obtain in-state tuition. So if I leave I'll be applying as an ooser.

I think I'll be pursuing a moderately competitive field (nothing like derm or orthopedics) but I don't want to be limited to primary care fields.

If Cali is too tough, is it hard to get a residency in CO, AZ, NV, OR, or WA? I at least want to be closer to CA. I can't imagine being away for 7+ years!

I found a little info on this but there was no clear answer as to whether residency program directors give preference to in-staters... Someone also said its easier to get Kaiser residencies. Has anyone gone through this or know? I imagine there are tons of Cali natives that had to go elsewhere for med school.

thx
Click to expand...

I'm not clear...are you a DO? If so, I assume you saw the post in the Psych forum regarding the Arrowhead Psych residency...if not, get down there, stat!
 
Blade28 said:
Wow! Owned!

;)
Click to expand...

Heh. Actually, my wife and I are both from MA, so Buffalo was a good compromise between location and affordability. Everyplace else would have been house renting for a family of 4 + large dog. Hard to do on an intern's salary.

It hasn't snowed nearly as much as we expected so far.

I know that I'll pay for saying that sometime down the road. :scared:
 
I'm a California native, and started med school this last fall across the country. I did it mainly for the experience of living somewhere else - and well, I love Cali now more than ever, and I am definitely planning on going back. :D

Here's my own personal understanding of the factor that residency plays. For applying to medical school, it's all/mainly about how interested the medical school thinks you are (1) in them and (2) in staying in the area for residency. I would say #1 is true for all schools (at literally all of my OOS interviews, I got "Why would you leave California to come here?") and #2 is mainly for public schools, because they get funding from the state, and have an interest in producing doctors to serve in their area.

Now, my guess is that the game will be the same for residencies, with the main concern being - will this person stay here after residency, or will they ditch us? But in your case, being a native California trying to COME BACK to CA, I don't think you will have to worry about explaining yourself too much. Many, many students have to leave CA for medical school, so it's an understandable & common situation.

So then for you I think it comes down to the connection factor - is it better to have LORs from local DO's who know people in CA, or is it better to go to an allopathic school, given that the more numerous allopathic residencies may have a preference for MD's? Well, that gets into the whole MD vs. DO debate, which I don't know too much about. I would maybe try and get some attention from other DO's who went to school in CA, and see if they found it challenging to match into a residency in CA.

In any case, best of luck, and congrats on getting in! Choice is a beautiful thing! :thumbup:

P.S. If you want to PM me the specific OOS schools you're considering, I might be able to give a more clear-cut opinion.
 
babel said:
I... and #2 is mainly for public schools, because they get funding from the state, and have an interest in producing doctors to serve in their area.

Now, my guess is that the game will be the same for residencies, with the main concern being - will this person stay here after residency, or will they ditch us?
Click to expand...

Residency is federally funded, not by state taxes...so residence doesn't make a difference in that regard.
 
Well I just wanted to say thank you for everyone's posts. There seems to be hope that I'll be able to come back. I'm going to try to do as many 4th year rotations as I can in CA. Maybe I'll end up liking the midwest or eastcoast, but I really want the option of coming back before I leave.
Thx again
 
once you get into med school and start doing rotations, you really find out what you like. i changed my mind at least 4 different times before I settled on my specialty. my advice to you is to not close off your chances -- go to the best medical school that you get into, then apply back for residency. tons of residents in california came from somewhere else. so don't worry about that.
 
Pretty gungho if you are already concern about residency at this point. I'm sure you'll do fine.
 
tkim said:
It was pretty darn cold last April when I was here looking at houses. But May on was perfect.
Click to expand...

Like May 16th, right?

Then it was cold like a... Well, you know.
 
I'm in a similar position as the OP, but 3 years later! This thread has been very helpful and gives me hope of returning to CA one day. I am at a DO school all the way across the states and am currently doing most of my 3rd year rotations over here. My question is if anyone here is a DO who got into an allopathic residency. Any tips, advice? Anyone know how to find which residencies accept DO's? I am having trouble finding these programs. I am not sure which specialty i will go into yet, but wanted to see my options. Thanks for all the help!
 
Winged Scapula said:
Residency is federally funded, not by state taxes...so residence doesn't make a difference in that regard.
Click to expand...

I didn't know that. But doesn't this mean that you don't have an advantage at CA residencies (or any other state) even if you are a resident there? The only advantage I see is networking with people who might be responsible for accepting you into their program. Other than it wouldn't matter. But this is not the case though, right? What is the explanation here then?
 
Excelcius
The networking is a BIG factor in getting most residencies.
Also the PD's like people who they think will be "happy" at their residency program, and often assume those familiar with a particular geographic area, and/or who have family there, will be happy and contented residents. So though you don't NEED to be a state resident, I think being a resident of a particular state (or at least general region) can be advantageous in the residency selection process.
 
Excelsius said:
I didn't know that. But doesn't this mean that you don't have an advantage at CA residencies (or any other state) even if you are a resident there? The only advantage I see is networking with people who might be responsible for accepting you into their program. Other than it wouldn't matter. But this is not the case though, right? What is the explanation here then?
Click to expand...

The advantage is exactly as you and dragon note...the connections which can be helpful. A PD would rather take the person who has family nearby when faced with two identical candidates (which never happens but lets pretend).

Connections tend to help in smaller fields like surgery where people know each other more than say IM. Going to medical school and staying for residency at the same program is not uncommon although its also not a bad idea to experience life outside of "home" so you realize there are other ways to do things. Also residency programs are privy to the "warts and all" of their home students; we always took one of our own but there were a few lean years when the pickins were pretty slim.

But in the grand scheme of things, matching is more about your USMLE scores, and not your state of residency.
 
Very interesting. I guess it is possible to argue that for a popular state like CA the happiness factor is not going to be as much of an issue. It is well known that a lot of people want to live here, even the native east coasters. This leaves the networking route to be the most important and raises a question: wouldn't a more famous medical school have more networking options to get the residency you need? That school doesn't even have to be in the same state you want your residency in. So if someone is going to medschool somewhere in the midwest about which the CA programs don't know about (much less have any connections to) wil be at a disadvantage when applying to out-of-state residencies vs someone who goes to a nationally known medschool like UPenn that might have connections to programs all over the US. Combine that with a competitive residency like neurosurgery, that makes networking even more crucial.

I am assuming here that the Step scores are within the competitive range for a given residency. Would it be incorrect to assume that a more famous school will give you more networking opportunities (especially out-of-state) and therefore be more advantageuous in getting the residency you need (especially competitive)? I do realize that some "non-famous" schools have a lot of connections with specific states, but in general, it seems that fame goes together with networking. If I am wrong, I hope that the experienced residents/attendings can correct me. If you are considering a competitive residency or a competitive location, would it not be worth to pay the extra money to go to the more famous institution?
 
Yes, all other things being equal.
IF you do well at said famous institution. I went to a "famous" school like that and I can tell you that people who ranked high up in our class, and got a LOR from someone famous in a particular dept. (like ortho, derm, etc.) matched very well, and at places like UCSF and Penn and Hopkins. However, you gotta factor in the difficulty of doing "great" at a med school where the GPA average is 3.85 and the the MCAT average is 39 or something. That's AVERAGE. Guess what, nobody at that school has EVER not been in the top 10% of their class and nobody wants to not be...it can get VERY VERY competitive. And yes I know that there are competitive students at all schools, but some schools like this take it to a new and different level, particularly when so many of the people want to be derm, radiology and surgical subspecialists and they know the states are high.

However, even if you go to a nonfamous school, if there are "famous" people in a particular department (i.e. neurosurgery dept. is well known even though med school overall isn't) and you get a great surgery grade and do great on the USMLE, you'll probably get a neurosurg residency, no problem. Whether it's UCSF is a whole other story.

But yes, if you go to Harvard and get AOA, and you want to go to UCSF neurosurg residency, you'll probably have a better chance than someone from a random/not well known midwestern private med school, even if that person was AOA also.

If somebody just wants to do internal medicine though, I think he/she can get back into California somewhere if he/she does OK in med school and pushes hard for Cali residency and applies widely. And that is from pretty much any med school...

Noncompetitive specialties = a totally different animal than something like derm, ortho or neurosurgery, where there are just not many spots and there are LOTS of applicants.
 
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