Increasing Chances for Anesthesiology Residency During MS in Pharmacology/Toxicology

[MDforMee]

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Hi, I'm a masters student in Pharmacology and Toxicology at a UC; I'm writing a thesis that compares several cardiac drugs by writing programs (C++) that model their interactions at various ion channels and receptors.

However, since I'm in an academic department of the School of Medicine, and I've heard that research is favorably looked at for residency matching, I'm curious if any of you have opinions you'd like to share on what it is that I can do to maximize my time spent here?

Try and beef up my thesis? Do a poster? Find an academic in the anesthesiology department to mentor me? Take on additional projects?


If you're curious, my background is as follows:
I attended UCLA (Biochemistry) and did okay (3.5), but much better in upper division chemistry/biochemistry (3.8). MCAT is alright (30, with a 12 in PS). But, early on in community college I had a low GPA, and it's given me a 3.1 cumulative in spite of me completing 160 semester units since (enough for 1.5+ bachelor's degrees) with a 3.6c and 3.6sci through mostly science classes. My graduate GPA is good so far (3.9), and I'm getting the highest/nearly highest scores in my class on on exams that are more strictly pharmacology (and not environmental toxicology).

In the past I've done very limited (academic only, not lab) research in pharmacology and organic synthesis. I may end up going DO, and I suspect that it will be harder to match into anesthesiology if I do (this is part of the reason why I'm doing the MS to begin with). I'm a California resident, so I have a home state disadvantage as far as medical school admissions is concerned.

Oh, and before UCLA, I was in nursing school with the goal of becoming a CRNA. But, I dropped out to pursue medicine. I earned a 4.0 while in nursing school; and, I knew that I'd never have the chemistry or pharmacology background to feel competent in administering drugs without a chemistry based degree and medical school.

 

[countingdays]

Sounds like a good start to a career as a cardiologist.

 

[deleted87051]

You are over thinking this and getting ahead of yourself.

Nothing you do now will really influence your residency match, which is dependent on your med school, class rank, deans letter, and board scores. The research you are doing is more important for medical school admission than for matching residency. By the time you are applying for residency the research will be ancient history. Personally your thesis topic would make my eyes glaze over, but that is irrelevant. That's why I'm an anesthesiologist and not an academic pharmacologist.

If you want to become a doctor, focus on getting into medical school. If you think you could do better, retake the MCAT. Keep your grades up. Other than that, find stuff you really enjoy, be COMMITTED, follow through and excel.

 

[BobBarker]

Should have went DO last year. None of this stuff that you are doing now is going to matter.

 

[cognitus]

Is it that hard to get into an allopathic school with a 30 MCAT score and an improving GPA? I figure you address the improvement and your renewed focus in your personal statement and apply to allopathic schools. With that said, your research and MS will NOT mean squat for residency. All you need to do is get good grades in medical school and do really well on USMLE Step 1 and you should not have a problem matching. Besides, you may change your mind regarding your specialty during medical school. I wouldn't concentrate on anesthesiology yet until you've experienced other rotations.

 

[BobBarker]

He won't be able to get into any allopathic medical school. His only chance would have been at an in-state school and that isn't an option in California.

 

[MDforMee]

He won't be able to get into any allopathic medical school. His only chance would have been at an in-state school and that isn't an option in California.

There are some out there with stories like mine that did matriculate into MD schools. My story isn't actually all that bad, and luckily, all of my bad grades were in liberal arts community college courses when I was 18-20 (there were financial reasons, pretty much).

Anyhow, on this topic, I've heard that admissions people will be more inclined to actually read my file when I have a graduate degree (and graduate GPA); besides, I receive free tuition in California from Veteran's benefits, so the masters is basically free. And even if the MS won't help me match, I'm not too bothered. None of these reasons are really why I'm doing it.

As long as I'm talking, here, I'm doing the MS because I've always been interested in pharmacology and applied chemistry, and may want to teach further on in my career. I also think that knowing more pharmacology will help me be a better doctor, residency matching aside. This is why I've titled my original post as increasing chances for residency during my MS, and why I've said that I want to maximize my time spent here by doing things on top of my thesis research such as mentoring, projects, posters, and what not (in other words, I'm not doing the MS to boost my residency chances).

I could go on, since I like talking about it, but I do like receiving feedback from this forum, so thanks, so far. It's good hearing feedback.

 

[Maverikk]

Retaking your MCAT is probably your best chance. Med schools receive 1000s of applications, the initial weeding happens by the numbers/home state/race. I've sat on committees that did selection and you basically have to weed down piles until they're manageable enough to read.

 

[POW16]

OP has a 30 MCAT. Why would he have to retake it ? Isn't the nation's average for matriculated applicants at 30/31 ?

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[countingdays]

OP has a 30 MCAT. Why would he have to retake it ? Isn't the nation's average for matriculated applicants at 30/31 ?

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The average is lowered by minority, legacy, and otherwise altered admissions standards. Plus you have people with 30 mcats with high gpas from good schools who may be admitted.

If your application isn't going to get special consideration and you don't have an extra high gpa and you aren't in a state with lower average admission standards, your options are limited. You can still get in, but it's tough. Establishing residency in an easier state during the masters would have been good.

 

[POW16]

There are also tons of private schools outside of the Ivys. Or he could bite the bullet and go for out of state. Masters in sciences with a nearly perfect GPA, Ucla undergrad will land him a spot. He just needs to apply broadly.

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[BobBarker]

His cumalative GPA is 3.1 after 160 credit hours. This will hurt him more than anything and was the basis of my previous posts. If he wants to be an anesthesiologist going to a DO school will not hurt him. He has already wasted probably $1,000,000 in lost salary by not applying to DO school 2 cycles ago.

 

[chmd]

His cumalative GPA is 3.1 after 160 credit hours. This will hurt him more than anything and was the basis of my previous posts. If he wants to be an anesthesiologist going to a DO school will not hurt him. He has already wasted probably $1,000,000 in lost salary by not applying to DO school 2 cycles ago.

My undergrad GPA was probably a 3.1-3.2 in English literature. I took all my premed science courses as a postbacc and had a 4.0, but half of the courses were done at a community college and half were done at my undergrad institution (middle of the road private school). I had multiple acceptances depite only a hand full of applications (started med school 2005). I'd be shocked if OP can't gain acceptance at an average school.

Retaking the MCAT is a good idea. I bet a lot of my interview offers came because I had a good -- but definitely not spectacular -- MCAT score.

As far as already losing 2 years of attending salary, you have to consider the current disparity in pay between easier to match into residencies and the ones that are far less likely to take a DO.

 

[koan]

As far as already losing 2 years of attending salary, you have to consider the current disparity in pay between easier to match into residencies and the ones that are far less likely to take a DO.

This is news to me. Is there non-anecdotal data that graduates of top tier residency programs are getting significantly higher salaries?

 

[BobBarker]

There are DO residency programs in every subspecialty. I graduated with 80 people from my small DO school and 5 got DO ortho residencies and all 5 are going to make bank. Allopathic anesthesia obviously takes plenty of DO's as does EM and IM which is a necessary step to complete on the course to being a highly paid private practice GI doc.

 

[Yo GabbaPentin]

Just apply to both and see what happens. What a freaking waste to get a masters just trying to get into med school. The only thing you could do to improve your chances of matching into anesthesia while earning your masters is to meet a program director out at a bar an sleep with her/him.

FWIW I am a lowly DO who graduated as a chief resident from an allopathic program. I didn't even have to sleep with a program director.