How did you decide where to apply?

[amberopolis]

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Having just recovered from the match process and its stress, I'm wondering how other people chose their rank order list. Program quality, of course, but quality only distinguishes programs so much. Family considerations? Other location preferences? What other factors did you consider to help make this huge decision?

Maybe this will help others in the future, as they decide what is important and what is not. I spent more time thinking about this than I care to remember, to be honest!

 

[Chakrabs]

Depends on a ton of things. First off, which field are you applying to and how good a candidate are you? If its a competitive specialty with a small number of programs like plastics, or neurosurgery etc, you have far fewer programs to choose from than say internal medicine or peds. For the latter, you can choose based on what city or part of a specific state you want to end up in. For the smaller specialties you kind of have to apply on a national or regional basis.

Next, how good an applicant are you? If you're top of your class, AOA, top med school, then you'll probably have your pick of interviews and can be more picky. You'll apply to maybe 10-20 if a "non-competitive" specialty or maybe ~30 or so if a more competitive specialty. Conversely a more avg applicant for neurosurgery (such as myself) would have to apply all over the country to about 50+ programs. Internal med or peds etc. applicants will also have to choose between community programs and more academic programs as well.

 

[mlw03]

Having just recovered from the match process and its stress, I'm wondering how other people chose their rank order list. Program quality, of course, but quality only distinguishes programs so much. Family considerations? Other location preferences? What other factors did you consider to help make this huge decision?

Maybe this will help others in the future, as they decide what is important and what is not. I spent more time thinking about this than I care to remember, to be honest!

Welcome to adulthood. I'm not saying that in a mean way, but a serious one. Every applicant is different, and you have to consider your unique circumstances in where to apply. That includes your professional goals, but also your personal ones, which includes the family and location considerations. So one's thinking will be entirely different for a 35-year-old peds applicant with a spouse and school-age kids versus a 26-year-old ENT applicant who is single. Do you care only about getting into the best program (however one chooses to define that), or do you want to be in a city you like for 3-6 years?

One thing I would say is that if you're in a specialty where fellowships are common, having competitive fellowships are you home program is a HUGE advantage for an applicant, as internal applicants have a much higher chance of getting in than external ones. In my field (pathology) where 1-3 fellowships are common, this is a very big thing for residency applicants to consider.

 

[cowme]

Pick the locations you want to be in (or at least could tolerate for residency)

Apply to programs above and below your perceived level of competitiveness.