Help with decision: MICU or $7,000?

[knightstale4]

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[Elixir6]

Depends on whether you care where you get into for residency. In my opinion, if it matters to you whether you go somewhere more competitive, you always have to take the option that differentiates you from the next candidate. 7K is a lot of money now, but if you can live without it now...

 

[Raryn]

I need some help making a decision. I got HP on my IM rotation, but am still interested in doing IM. I was originally planning on doing a gig for $7,000 during the summer which would obviously help a lot during the interview process, but now I am wondering if that time will be better spent doing a MICU rotation? SubI has been scheduled for August, but it's grade will not be available most likely when transcripts are sent out, though I do planning on getting a letter from it. Is doing a MICU rotation worth it? Would honoring it make me stand out that much more, or programs that would've screened me based on the HP will never even see it? Thanks for any advice.

I don't understand the question. You have some kind of paying gig over the summer between M3 and M4 year? What kind of gig? Your school is just letting you go do something else for a few months?

 

[knightstale4]

I don't understand the question. You have some kind of paying gig over the summer between M3 and M4 year? What kind of gig? Your school is just letting you go do something else for a few months?

It's a summer programming/teaching gig I've done a few times in the past (I come from a non-trad background). Our school has an advanced curriculum so we have more time than most other schools to pursue other interests. Students typically use the time to do an early sub-I, vacation, or externships. I am just not sure if it's worth doing the MICU. If it's not going to make a difference when I do it, I would rather take the money and do the MICU rotation later in the year, especially since I have heard a lot of programs will screen applicants based on HP. But if it will make a difference/ make me stand out, then I guess I am willing to let go of the money. I am just having a hard time judging how much difference it will actually make.

 

[IM2GI]

It's a summer programming/teaching gig I've done a few times in the past (I come from a non-trad background). Our school has an advanced curriculum so we have more time than most other schools to pursue other interests. Students typically use the time to do an early sub-I, vacation, or externships. I am just not sure if it's worth doing the MICU. If it's not going to make a difference when I do it, I would rather take the money and do the MICU rotation later in the year, especially since I have heard a lot of programs will screen applicants based on HP. But if it will make a difference/ make me stand out, then I guess I am willing to let go of the money. I am just having a hard time judging how much difference it will actually make.

I don't think it will make much of a difference either way.

 

[rokshana]

you would be better off moving up your sub i if you have free time in the summer...why wait til Aug?

 

[gutonc]

I don't think it will make much of a difference either way.

I agree that, if you can't move your SubI sooner, it probably doesn't matter much whether you take a MICU month or make fat cash. Nobody will really see or care about your MICU grade (all M4 grades other than SubI are a joke).

So if you have 2 other great LORs and are planning to bust ass during your SubI, I say go ahead and make yourself a little money.

 

[knightstale4]

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[rd31]

I agree that, if you can't move your SubI sooner, it probably doesn't matter much whether you take a MICU month or make fat cash. Nobody will really see or care about your MICU grade (all M4 grades other than SubI are a joke).

So if you have 2 other great LORs and are planning to bust ass during your SubI, I say go ahead and make yourself a little money.

This is not true. I didn't honor medicine but several top 10 programs commented during interviews: "well we don't care about your M3 IM grade since you got an H and excellent evals from both your MICU rotation and your sub-I." Additionally, more and more medical schools are requiring students to complete an ICU experience, and it was quite common (in my experience) for applicants to top IM programs to have completed a MICU rotation that made it onto their MSPEs.

I recommend moving up your sub-I (this should be a no-brainer) as well as doing a MICU rotation before MSPEs go out. If you excel in both of these, few will care that you didn't honor your M3 rotation. I did this and received interviews at 3 of the "big 4" IM programs. No I don't have a PhD, nor do I go to a top 20 med school.

However, if you're not gunning for a top IM program, it probably doesn't matter.

 

[kuuj3307]

Everything is anecdotal. I did my MICU rotation in February. I don't think it hurt me at all. I got interview invites at about half of the top ten. I'd take the money.

 

[Raryn]

I'd probably take the money and run. Are you sure the subi grade won't be available by the time your dean's letter comes out? I took my subi in July and my dean included the comments from it in my dean's letter I think (I never saw the final version of the dean's letter, but I think I talked to his secretary who said that they were going to be included).

 

[knightstale4]

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[gutonc]

This might be my stupidity, but I thought the Dean's letter only included third year clerkships? But I will ask as it's a point I hadn't even considered but would definitely be a game changer.

MSPE typically includes 3rd year clerkships plus whatever's completed and graded by the time it gets written. Mine included my SubI and 2 electives but not my surgery clerkship as I only did that in October of M4 year due to scheduling issues. Nobody seemed to care.

 

[tallash]

Take the money if you are going to take out debt for interview expenses.

 

[ArkansasMed]

I am going to play devil's advocate and argue the other point. RD31 has a good argument. PDs know that sometimes people miss getting honors out of dumb luck (off day on a shelf, bad relationship with the doctor who is filling out the subjective component to a clerkship grade etc). Your application should do whatever it can to stand out and prove that you are in fact a strong IM candidate, especially if your dream is a top program. Since you cannot move your sub-I up, it might be worth doing your ICU rotation earlier to show them what you can bring to the table. That being said, if you look at the RD31's post about his match you can see that his application was absolutely perfect except for that non-honors in medicine. Hell, I would have loved to have his other stats and see why he cleaned up! If your dream is a top IM program, my guess is honoring your ICU rotation may help you with one of those screened applications. If you do not care about that..... Take the money haha.

 

[knightstale4]

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[flipmd]

In the bigger scheme of things, 7K is nothing. If that's the price for you being sure in the knowledge you did all you could to get the best IM match possible, then skip the 7K -- especially hearing that you do have some concerns about your stats not being stellar.

 

[rd31]

I checked out rd31's stats, and let's just say I am definitely not an SDN superstar. I have a 245 (respectable but not spectacular), honors in 5/7 clerkships (again, respectable but not spectacular), none of those amazing 5+ peer-reviewed pubs with a non-trad background. So I don't think I would attract the same fanfare that he/she had. I honestly don't think I have a shot at the top 30, let alone top 10, with my relatively mediocre stats, which confuses this decision even more. Tomorrow is do or die day since I don't want to leave the employer in a lurch.

You're kidding, right? This is internal medicine we're talking about, not plastics. Your stats are consistent with applicants who match at top 20 programs.

 

[ArkansasMed]

I checked out rd31's stats, and let's just say I am definitely not an SDN superstar. I have a 245 (respectable but not spectacular), honors in 5/7 clerkships (again, respectable but not spectacular), none of those amazing 5+ peer-reviewed pubs with a non-trad background. So I don't think I would attract the same fanfare that he/she had. I honestly don't think I have a shot at the top 30, let alone top 10, with my relatively mediocre stats, which confuses this decision even more. Tomorrow is do or die day since I don't want to leave the employer in a lurch.

You are beating yourself up. To match at a top 20 program you need to be in the top half of your class. To match at maybe the top 8 or so you have to be a stud of your med school class or come from a top tier school. A 245 is solid. Penn's screen is a 220 if I recall correctly and if you read some of the match forum some people matched at Hopkins and UCSF with close to those stats (sure same is true with MGH). It's really a mix of what you bring to the table. The most "safe" guarantee for success is having 240+ step scores, AOA, honors medicine, top quartile, good extracurriculars and research to get these interviews but many of us (including myself) lacked one of these and matched/interviewed at one of these programs.

When you decide look at it from what you will regret more. Would you be more upset if you didn't put ICU first and didn't get the interviews/match results you wanted, or if you didn't put the job first and lost out on 7k? If you look at it that way then I think there is an obvious choice.