Is a Medicine AI necessary?

[Multifidus]

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Does not doing an Internal Medicine AI hurt you when applying for residencies? I'm thinking of doing a PM&R AI instead. I'm wondering if applying to prelim medicine spots will be harder without the medicine AI. I am going to also be doing a MICU month. Any advice?

 

[littlepurplepil]

Does not doing an Internal Medicine AI hurt you when applying for residencies? I'm thinking of doing a PM&R AI instead. I'm wondering if applying to prelim medicine spots will be harder without the medicine AI. I am going to also be doing a MICU month. Any advice?

I'm assuming that AI stands for acting intern or sub-i; I think you should definitely do a medicine AI. It will look a little strange when you apply for that medicine prelim year if you don't have it. And what is your medicine chair going to write about when he put together that medicine chair letter of rec? Plus you can carry your own patients and write orders and do stuff you couldn't as a 3rd year.

If AI stands for something else then disregard this post.

 

[SleepIsGood]

I didnt do a senior AI in medicine. Instead I did Heme/Onc.

However, I did do a CCM/Pulm rotation.

Bottom line....I still matched into Anesthesiology. Don't sweat it.

 

[Multifidus]

Yes, AI stands for acting internship. My school requires that you do at least one.

I would much rather do a PM&R AI (no call, much more relaxed) than a medicine AI. From the above posts it isn't really clear if that is okay to do. The only other medicine rotation I will have is a MICU month which I look forward to much more. As lazy as I may want to be my 4th year, I certainly don't want to hurt my chances of matching a prelim medicine or anesthesiology spot. Does anybody else know about this?

My medicine chair knows me pretty well and I think he would write me a very good letter, AI or not.

The last issue is if I will be lacking the beginning of my intern year without having done a medicine AI. My thought is I am going to be clueless either way, and doing an AI almost a year before I start won't help.


thanks

 

[jennyboo]

Does not doing an Internal Medicine AI hurt you when applying for residencies?

I had no acting internship under my belt when my applications went in, and didn't do one until February of senior year -- too late for it to be mentioned in any of my interviews, transcripts, LORs or dean's letter.

The anesthesia residencies did not care and nobody asked about it.

I'm wondering if applying to prelim medicine spots will be harder without the medicine AI. I am going to also be doing a MICU month. Any advice?

Once again, I didn't have one completed when I applied. I got a prelim with no problem. I didn't get a prelim at an elite medicine residency (say, the MGH), but not many people actually want that anyway.

The thing that I think might affect your prelim medicine interviews is whether or not you get a medicine letter (some say "medicine chair letter" whatever that means). Look at the program's requirements as listed in FREIDA -- some medicine residencies require a medicine letter in order to interview, and many people applying to medicine prelims may not have such a letter. If you have a good relationship with a potentially good writer in your IM department, go ahead and get that letter because it may go a long way in getting you prelim interviews.

Still, I didn't have any trouble getting a prelim or interviews for prelims without one.

 

[cloud9]

Yes, AI stands for acting internship. My school requires that you do at least one.

I would much rather do a PM&R AI (no call, much more relaxed) than a medicine AI. From the above posts it isn't really clear if that is okay to do. The only other medicine rotation I will have is a MICU month which I look forward to much more. As lazy as I may want to be my 4th year, I certainly don't want to hurt my chances of matching a prelim medicine or anesthesiology spot. Does anybody else know about this?

My medicine chair knows me pretty well and I think he would write me a very good letter, AI or not.

The last issue is if I will be lacking the beginning of my intern year without having done a medicine AI. My thought is I am going to be clueless either way, and doing an AI almost a year before I start won't help.


thanks

You may want to see if your MICU month is an AI. My month of ICU was AI. The only individuals who ever asked were the prelim medicine spots and doing the AI in the unit didn't bother them.

 

[chicamedica]

I did my medicine ai/sub-i in March of MS4. I really dont know whether the lack thereof in my transcript during application time was seen as a weakness in my application, but fortunately I matched well so the point is moot i guess. For prelim year, like jennyboo said, it probably doesn't matter as much for programs other than the very "elite", but hey that might explain my THREE rejection emails from Brigham and Women's internal medicine 😛 . Oh, but i did do a CCM month early though.