How difficult is it to match into internal medicine in California?

[sanfran256]

Hi all,

I am a CA transplant (grew up in Bay Area, went to UCLA) on the East Coast at a decent (top 35 ish ) med school.
While I am enjoying myself here, I also would like to get closer to my aging parents (who live in Southern California now), as well as my extended family.

I did decent in my preclinical curriculum (probs in 2nd quintile) and on step 1 (got around 250) and have some research /that i'm working on . Am in third year now struggling a little but I hope to get distinction/honors on some of my later rotations.

Any advice to make myself competitive?

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[libertyyne]

bro, you got a 250 on step. chill, your gonna be fine just apptly broadly in california incase you are still unsure of yourself. Maybe get a good IM reseach project in.

 

[Oso]

All you can really do is try to get good clinical grades, do well on your IM sub-I, and get strong letters. Research may help a little at some of the top tier programs but the other stuff will be more important.

You can definitely match somewhere in CA. How selective you can be and what caliber program will depend on the stuff I mentioned. It is way too early to advise you on where you should apply.