Is it possible to go into residency 2-3 years after graduating from med school?

[SomeRandomGuy]

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If you decided to delay residency after graduating from med school and getting your MD, for lets say 2 to 3 years. What are your chances of matching into a residency slot? I'm guessing this will be more difficult as you'll have to get good letters of recs and research etc...

More specifically, can you do an internship abroad live there for a few years and come back to do your residency?

 

[michaelrack]

More specifically, can you do an internship abroad live there for a few years and come back to do your residency?

you would have to repeat the internship year in the US in most cases

 

[Winged Scapula]

If you decided to delay residency after graduating from med school and getting your MD, for lets say 2 to 3 years. What are your chances of matching into a residency slot? I'm guessing this will be more difficult as you'll have to get good letters of recs and research etc...

Some medical schools are reportedly little to no help in assisting its former students with matching once you've graduated. And getting updated letters might be a problem, depending on what you do. Some programs have restrictions on the number of years post-graduation they are willing to accept.

But that doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't take some time off if you need it. However the more time you take, the more difficult it will be to come back.

More specifically, can you do an internship abroad live there for a few years and come back to do your residency?

No. As Dr. Rack notes above, in almost all cases, training abroad will not replace US training.

 

[SomeRandomGuy]

Hmm... I see. Are there programs that allow you to defer after acceptance? Probably not likely since the residency director would have to fill your spot with another applicant right?

 

[gutonc]

Hmm... I see. Are there programs that allow you to defer after acceptance? Probably not likely since the residency director would have to fill your spot with another applicant right?

Essentially correct. You would be more likely to get a leave of absence from your program for 6-12 months than you would be to get a deferment. And even that isn't particularly likely unless you have a good reason (e.g. a funded research project).

 

[SomeRandomGuy]

Essentially correct. You would be more likely to get a leave of absence from your program for 6-12 months than you would be to get a deferment. And even that isn't particularly likely unless you have a good reason (e.g. a funded research project).

Yeah that would probably be a no... and I can't get pregnant so I guess it's straight into the tunnel of hell for me.

 

[SomeRandomGuy]

you would have to repeat the internship year in the US in most cases

So what if you did a prelim/internship year in the US and then took your year off? For example if you matched into medicine prelim, did that for a year do you "graduate" into the 1st year of residency the next year or do you have to apply again for a residency spot?

If I understand this correctly, you have to redo the prelim year if there's a lapse in-between regardless.

 

[michaelrack]

So what if you did a prelim/internship year in the US and then took your year off? For example if you matched into medicine prelim, did that for a year do you "graduate" into the 1st year of residency the next year or do you have to apply again for a residency spot?

If I understand this correctly, you have to redo the prelim year if there's a lapse in-between regardless.

If you did a prelim yr/internship year, unless you had a special arrangement with the program you were at to take a year off, you would need to apply for a PGY-2 year (you wouldn't necessarily need to repeat internship year, depending on the specialty)

 

[SomeRandomGuy]

Thanks Michael. Well at least that's an option for those out there who has a good reason to take a leave of abscence. Not me though unfortunately. It's alright, I'll just do the best as I can and land myself a good residency. Hopefully it won't be too late after I pay off my loans and establish a career.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

You could certainly take a year off to do research or health policy work, and then apply for internship next year. Both would likely strengthen your application for next year, although it would be best to maintain some clinical activity if possible.