How difficult is it to match into residency in California as an OOSer?

[eyejust]

Hi Everyone,

I am an incoming medical student and will be attending a Top 20 school in the Midwest this upcoming fall. I have family in California, specifically the Bay Area, and am very interested in moving out there for residency to be with them and ultimately settle there. I never lived in or attended school in California, so my only tie would be non-immediate family (think aunts, cousins, uncles, etc.). Is it difficult to match into a residency in California with just these ties? Do these ties even give any advantage, considering they're not immediate family or a significant other,compared to someone without any ties at all?

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[ERDOC555]

Hi Everyone,

I am an incoming medical student and will be attending at Top 20 school in the Midwest this upcoming fall. I have family in California, specifically the Bay Area, and am very interested in moving out there for residency to be with them and ultimately settle there. I never lived in or attended school in California, so my only tie would be non-immediate family (think aunts, cousins, uncles, etc.). Is it difficult to match into a residency in California with just these ties? Do these ties even give any advantage, considering they're not immediate family or a significant other,compared to someone without any ties at all?

Getting into California is challenging, especially when you don't go to school there. Matching into places like SD, LA, SF is going to be exceptionally hard as these are some of the most competitive locations.

Some loose family connections may help minimally, but I would imagine every applicants says they have "family and friends" in the area. We don't know whether they mean their parents or a random classmate they knew in 5th grade, so I'm sure PDs take that with a grain of salt. My advice to you is to work super hard and check all the boxes to be a great applicant and hope for the best.

If you're trying to match anywhere in Cali, I'm sure that's not too hard. It's a massive state with what I assume are lots of community programs. If you're looking at a desirable Cali city, it'll be an uphill battle.

 

[eyejust]

Even if coming from a top 20 and with all the boxes checked? I'm trying to match into an academic program in whatever specialty I decide to pursue.

Getting into California is challenging, especially when you don't go to school there. Matching into places like SD, LA, SF is going to be exceptionally hard as these are some of the most competitive locations.

Some loose family connections may help minimally, but I would imagine every applicants says they have "family and friends" in the area. We don't know whether they mean their parents or a random classmate they knew in 5th grade, so I'm sure PDs take that with a grain of salt. My advice to you is to work super hard and check all the boxes to be a great applicant and hope for the best.

If you're trying to match anywhere in Cali, I'm sure that's not too hard. It's a massive state with what I assume are lots of community programs. If you're looking at a desirable Cali city, it'll be an uphill battle.

 

[mcloaf]

Even if coming from a top 20 and with all the boxes checked? I'm trying to match into an academic program in whatever specialty I decide to pursue.

If you are a baller applicant in your field nobody is going to care that you're applying from OOS. Perhaps geography could help or hinder if you were a borderline applicant, but I think generally its importance is overstated and I wouldn't expect anyone to care much either way that you have a cousin in the bay area.

 

[Mad Jack]

I've noticed for the community programs (at least the ones that put up bios) >90% are usually from CA, but for academics this is probably a lot different, and it sounds like you aren't willing to go to a community program anyway

Community programs are going to draw a more local crowd wherever you go

 

[Raryn]

Hi Everyone,

I am an incoming medical student and will be attending a Top 20 school in the Midwest this upcoming fall. I have family in California, specifically the Bay Area, and am very interested in moving out there for residency to be with them and ultimately settle there. I never lived in or attended school in California, so my only tie would be non-immediate family (think aunts, cousins, uncles, etc.). Is it difficult to match into a residency in California with just these ties? Do these ties even give any advantage, considering they're not immediate family or a significant other,compared to someone without any ties at all?

CA is a big place. This is going to depend a ton on your specific goals.

Lets say you end up applying to IM. There are 38 programs in the state, ranging from UCSF at one extreme to some of the former DO programs or some of the newer/rural/community programs at the other extreme. If you are a US student of any stripe, even if you're at the bottom of your class, you will be able to match at one of those 38. Many of those weaker programs are majority FMG/IMG, and it wouldn't be an issue to match there.

If on the other hand your goal is not just CA, but a true academic program in CA, then you're more limited. Depending on how you count, there's maybe a dozen programs in the state. If your goal is top academic programs? You're at maybe a half dozen. They don't have that much of a local bias, but they're popular, so you'll need to be near the top of your class by various measures to do it.

Other specialties will also vary a ton. FM? Tons of programs that aren't super selective, especially if you're open to less popular areas of the state. Derm? Lol. Good luck to anyone, from CA or not. Everything else is in between.