How hard is do residency in the West Coast if you are attending an East Coast school?

[ahk7]

I was accepted to a top 25 school in the East Coast, but want to return to the west coast for residency, and wanted to know how hard that will be? Are away rotations a must? What else can I do to improve my chances?

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[Redpancreas]

I was accepted to a top 25 school in the East Coast, but want to return to the west coast for residency, and wanted to know how hard that will be? Are away rotations a must? What else can I do to improve my chances?

Too hard to say with any certainty given the variables involved but I've seen plenty of success stories. It will depend on situations behind cases. I anticipate you'll be good with your school name.

 

[Prehealth1011]

Put your west coast address on ERAS when you’re applying for residency

 

[veebo]

Like people said before it will depend on the specialty. West coast is more competitive than other regions in general so added on top of wanting to do derm or ortho you will have to do really well in medical school. If you want to do FM, IM, Peds, etc you can easily match to the west coast somewhere with those ties. A good chunk of people at my west coast program interviews were people from california who went to the east coast for med school.

 

[agiraffe999]

Logic I've heard from a PD is if you're interested in the west coast (and am from the east, or vis versa) and you spend the time and money to fly out to interview, they will take you just as seriously as someone who is more local. n=1 though.

 

[Banco]

Plenty of people do it every year.

Your geographic flexibility overall depends on the strength of your application for the specialty you apply to. For an average (for their specialty) applicant, away rotations are a must for certain very competitive specialties (ortho, surgical specialties) but definitely not needed for others (IM, FM, Peds).

You will likely put your California address as the permanent address on ERAS - that will help a bit. You can also write in secondaries/personal statements about your connection to California and apply broadly all over the west coast to increase your chances.

 

[ace_inhibitor111]

It’s very hard except for less competitive specialties like IM and FM. Tons of students from my Top 25 school are from the west coast and few were able to get back, even those with very competitive applications.

 

[husky_doc16]

I'm from the west coast, but did medical school elsewhere and was able to match back for residency. Granted, I matched into neurology, so less competitive.

 

[jakemainstreet]

I am wondering about the reverse. If I know I want to match in NYC for personal reasons, would I be better off choosing a school like Hofstra or Downstate over UCSD or USC? (All else being equal.) My ties to NYC consist of living and working there for 13 years, doing my post-bacc and pre-med internships there, etc.

 

[aldol16]

It depends on the competitiveness of the specialty. Generally speaking, in competitive specialties you must do an away if your whole app points in another direction. For instance, if you went to college on the East Coast, med school there, and have no family on the West Coast, then you need to do an away on the West Coast to "open up" that region. Otherwise you have no credibility in saying that you want to go to the West Coast (from others' perspectives).

Once it comes time to apply, it also matters who you have calling for you (in competitive specialties). They'll make 1 call to your #1 place so that way they'll know that they're your #1 even if you can't do an away there (but would highly recommend the away route). Since that only works for your #1, other schools in the region would be less inclined to believe that you want to end up there if you have no connections to the region and did no aways there.

 

[husky_doc16]

I am wondering about the reverse. If I know I want to match in NYC for personal reasons, would I be better off choosing a school like Hofstra or Downstate over UCSD or USC? (All else being equal.) My ties to NYC consist of living and working there for 13 years, doing my post-bacc and pre-med internships there, etc.

I think if you liked UCSD/USC as a school better than the NY schools, go to those. You have strong ties to NYC that can get you interviews for residency.

 

[radsisrad]

Get kickass grades, and you'll be fine. Unfortunately, now that the geniuses at the USMLE have made Step 1 P/F, you'll have to crush Step 2. If you're a rockstar student, you'll get interviews on the West Coast.

 

[sanfran256]

Depends on the year. I was able to match back pretty easily in IM . This year I heard academic IM in CA was a blood bath so really depends

 

[Medicine Mamba]

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[Elite Medical Prep]

This is hard to answer because it depends on many factors. Couple of questions I have.

1. Are you from the West Coast?
2. Are you trying to go to CA?
3. What connections do you currently have to the West Coast? This can be academic, research, volunteer, family and friends, etc
4. To what specialty are you applying?
5. How competitive of an applicant are you?

Just a couple starter questions! I feel like I can help you more if I know more about your competitiveness as an applicant.

- Eric, Elite Medical Prep Tutor

 

[Prehealth1011]

Is having a long term partner (7+ years) who is from and goes to med school in Cali considered "West Coast connections"?

It's decent but this connection requires two things for it to work:
1) You need to send them a letter of interest early in the cycle and tell them about this connection because otherwise they won't know
2) You have to hope if they open or care about letter of interests at all

Easier way of doing this: Put down your partner's address for one of your addresses on ERAS. Then send them a letter of interest early in the cycle

 

[ahk7]

This is hard to answer because it depends on many factors. Couple of questions I have.

1. Are you from the West Coast?
2. Are you trying to go to CA?
3. What connections do you currently have to the West Coast? This can be academic, research, volunteer, family and friends, etc
4. To what specialty are you applying?
5. How competitive of an applicant are you?

Just a couple starter questions! I feel like I can help you more if I know more about your competitiveness as an applicant.

- Eric, Elite Medical Prep Tutor

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. I did my undergraduate here and have done research here as a well as worked in different hospitals
4. Planning on Ortho, but might change when I am in
5. Hopefully a strong applicant

Thank you

 

[Banco]

Is having a long term partner (7+ years) who is from and goes to med school in Cali considered "West Coast connections"?

Different programs will interpret it differently but you have to make sure you bring attention to it via an email letter of interest or if they have a secondary. Or you can do a custom personal statement. It is definitely considered by many programs.