Interested in IM but not sure how competitive I am.

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Delta-es

Delta-es
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Just looking for some honest answers in order to realisticall assess where I should apply for IM residencies.

I go to Boston University and it's on an Honors/High Pass/Pass system. I've honored approximately half of the preclinical classes, and have honored Psych, Ob/Gyn, Family Med, & Medicine, and got a high pass in Peds. I also have a 215 on the boards, have 4 years of research with 2 publications. Please give some feedback as to where you think I'd be a strong applicant as I am looking in the northeast.

Thanks.. 😀
 
Delta-es said:
Just looking for some honest answers in order to realisticall assess where I should apply for IM residencies.

I go to Boston University and it's on an Honors/High Pass/Pass system. I've honored approximately half of the preclinical classes, and have honored Psych, Ob/Gyn, Family Med, & Medicine, and got a high pass in Peds. I also have a 215 on the boards, have 4 years of research with 2 publications. Please give some feedback as to where you think I'd be a strong applicant as I am looking in the northeast.

Thanks.. 😀

I think you have a decent chance anywhere especially if your research is interesting or you are otherwise unique in some way. You may be one of those people who would benefit from taking step II early. The people at your school (chair, PD, deans etc) will be able to give you a better idea than we can, and there are plenty of good IM programs in the Northeast from which to choose (at least 5 in Boston itself). Good luck.
 
When I applied 2 years ago, I was told that most internal medicine applicants with at least average Step scores would get the red carpet treatment at most places except for the big gun programs. I would agree. As for taking Step 2 earlier, if you have ambitions of going to a big named program, then you'll probably want to take it early. I sucked it up on Step 1, but took Step 2 early and crushed it which I'm sure it helped since it came up as a topic of conversation during interviews.
 
Do you feel that taking step 2 early and doing well - made the difference in getting interviews. What I'm asking is - do you feel you got interviews at places you wouldn't have with your step 1 alone?
 
Delta-es said:
Just looking for some honest answers in order to realisticall assess where I should apply for IM residencies.

I go to Boston University and it's on an Honors/High Pass/Pass system. I've honored approximately half of the preclinical classes, and have honored Psych, Ob/Gyn, Family Med, & Medicine, and got a high pass in Peds. I also have a 215 on the boards, have 4 years of research with 2 publications. Please give some feedback as to where you think I'd be a strong applicant as I am looking in the northeast.

Thanks.. 😀

Apply wherever you would like to go. You are golden, man! You will have no problems getting a top notch spot in medicine.
 
Agree with Code Blue: you have an incredible resume with the only flaw is an average board score. If you take Step II and do better than PDs will look at that over Step I. Even with that board score, you shouldn't have any problems getting a top-notch IM program.
 
having established that you are highly competitive, I would go for all the academic Boston programs, yes, BWH, and MGH too, the worst they can say is no. I know people (including self) with academic records that were not half as good as yours who got pretty much every interview they wanted and matched well.

In terms of reputation of the New England programs, I'd say MGH=BWH>BIDMC=Yale>BU>Brown>Tufts-NEMC=UMass=Dartmouth>UVM, Lahey, Maine Med, etc. This is a bit subjective and open to debate, to say the least, but during the decision making process, I would consider that programs are always changing, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worst. For example, T-NEMC is entering a less financially stable period right now, but still places its' residents into great fellowships, UMass is getting increased funding and recognition and is particularly great for primary care, but reputation tends to suffer b/c of location in Worcester.
 
Irlandesa, Where would you rank UConn on your scale?
 
Internal medicine is not super-competitive. Even scrambling in this year's match would've placed you in some really good programs.
 
think about anesthesia and ophthalmology. much better fields.
 
take step 2 early. it's easy and everyone improves on their step 1 score. you should be competitive at most places.
 
Thanks NTMed, it is interesting that I read most of his/her posts and was thinking, damn, there are a lot of pricks on these forums, it was not until your message that I realized, they were all the same person.

And to Doc05 - your comments aren't without there own merit, however, you are probably as young as the rest of us, so therefore probably lack the life and professional experience to know (enough about) what you are talking about. And if you are an experienced attending, what are you doing on these forums, that's lame.

I hate surgery - but I afford surgeons their respect, cause they do something I would hate. I also understand that there are times when they're expertise is necessary.

I respect interests - because I think they have a harder job, and that I would never want a surgeon caring for my sick parents, but I think most IM docs know when they need a surgeon to cut somthing out.

The point is, there are limits to every field, and you (doc05) need to realize that the reasons people go into these fields are different. I doubt most IM docs are like "damn, I wish I could cut this person" or that surgeons are like "damn I miss writing long-ass H&Ps". I think there are plenty of surgeons who are happy working like dogs and being absentee parents and i'm sure there are plenty of IMs that get hard ons for their palm pilots and love being considered nerds (no offense to anyone, I am in the latter group)
I also think that Anesthesia would suck, but I'm sure there are plenty of physiology lovers out there who love the lack of respect, the predictable hours, and (in many cases) the fatter paychecks than general surgeons.

Your comments (doc05) really contribute very little to these discussions, and in fact, probably confuse the hell out of some unsuspecting first or second year. All you seem to do is get a hard on by crapping on other people's plans and goals. There is a constructive way to make your claims, but you steer clear of them at all costs. It makes me think that you are the kind of guy who picked on the nerds in high school, or stole lunch money from your younger neighbor, only for it to be stolen by your older neighbor five minutes later. You seem to have some displacement issues for your frustration(s). Even better, I bet you are like Ignatius in "Confederacy of Dunces"

I apologize for the diatribe, but when I realized the same person wrote all those posts, I couldn't help but think I was contributing to these forums by writing this. I doubt I will change your ways, but hopefully, I made others think twice before they show such "TV like" lack of respect for every field that they are not in.
 
I wrote that pervious e-mail thinking I was logged on to my account, it was some other dude at my school. Sorry about that Brendan
 
ntmed said:

I could be wrong but if I recall, docoo5 is an aspiring surgeon or a surgery resident. He thinks IM is crap and anything related to IM is just inferior. He is one of the most short sighted and arrogant people on this forum. I would be weary of anything he says.
 
minoos said:
I could be wrong but if I recall, docoo5 is an aspiring surgeon or a surgery resident. He thinks IM is crap and anything related to IM is just inferior. He is one of the most short sighted and arrogant people on this forum. I would be weary of anything he says.


I think you meant "I would be wary."

And no, IM isn't inferior. Never said it was. Many med students become all-too enamoured with IM without realizing all the negatives. They eventually become bitter residents and attendings (I've worked with many) who've become very unsatisfied. So to counter all the naivete re: IM, I'm just "telling it like it is."

And p.s. there's no denying that ophthalmologists and anesthesiologists are largely happier, more satisfied physicians.
 
This forum is provided as a means for users to engage in thoughtful discussions about the field of Internal Medicine and it's subspecialties. While it is appropriate to discuss both positive and negative aspects of the field, it is not acceptable to degrade or attack the specialty in a non-constructive fashion on this forum. If anyone would like to publicly attack a field of medicine, I encourage you to do so in the "Everyone" forum.

This seems like a good time to remind users of the "report bad post" function present at the bottom left hand corner of every post. If you think that a post is inappropriate, trolling, etc, I would encourage you to use this function to report it to a moderator.
 
Mumpu said:
Internal medicine is not super-competitive. Even scrambling in this year's match would've placed you in some really good programs.

I would agree to that assessment. I had to scramble and got into a great program. Don't sweat it (too much anyway). I think you'll do just fine.
 
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