how to get into a good IM residency in CALIFORNIA (out-of-state)

[chitown82]

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hey all,

title says it all. i go to my state school (not-cali; mid-tier) but i have every intention on going to cali fo residency and beyond (my gf is from there). i know getting into california programs are particularly competitive so i wanted to solicit some advice from people on here. im currently a M2, doing well in my classes, have solid grades, expect to do well on step 1 (>240 i my goal), lots of research (5 abstracts currently, 2 papers hopefully by the time residency application time; applying for the nih-hhmi cloisters program *cross fingers*), lots of leadership.

my dream is to go into cardiology so its important that i aim for a good program in cali. any advice on how i can give myself the best shot possible. i obviously plan on doing away electives in cali...ucla, stanford, perhaps more if i have time.

any/all comments welcome.

 

[07match]

chitown,
it sounds like you're doing all the right stuff. just a few points: you most likely wouldn't have to do an extra year of research to match into a CA medicine program, esp if you already have 5 abstracts (no publications out of these?) and descent step 1 scores. my feeling is that many programs use board scores, ms3 medicine clerkship grade, and ms4 sub-i grade heavily to screen for interviews.

if you do alright on step 1, you should have no problem setting up away sub-i's at a few places early in the 4th year- which can be a wonderful or not so wonderful thing (another topic)

i did a year of research (doris duke fellowship), w/ a focus on head and neck cancer w/ the ent department. now i'm having to explain myself on medicine interviews re: why i changed my mind from ent to medicine. i needed the time to step back and re-gather my spirit (got somewhat mangled during third year). it was a great year, i traveled out of the country 3 times, presented at several meetings, have 3 first author papers (1 published in october). but, if the main reason to do this is to give yourself an extra edge to get into competitive programs, it may be a bad idea. for me, i wanted the edge, but also really wanted to have my own project and to have a change of pace.

i am on the east coast, and interested in CA programs; interestingly, i have gotten interviews at some great places there (UCSD, USC), but haven't heard back from others UCSF, UCLA. i suspect that this is partly b/c of my not doing a sub-I in medicine (did ent), and wasn't as connected in the medicine world (but have great connections in ent thru meetings, faculty, etc).

hope that helped a bit.