Least Selective Prelim medicine and Categorical Medicine residency programs?

[Redsoxj64]

Hi everyone,

I would really appreciate some advice. I went to a top 30 Med school and graduated in 2021. I was a mediocre Med student. My step1 220 and step2 230... Mediocre I know.. I got really depressed during third year and my psychiatrist refused to prescribe antidepressants, which I desperately needed. I had to take a LOA. I came back and finished strong my fourth year (8/11 honors in rotations).
I applied for psychiatry in the 2020-2021 cycle and I didn’t match. After graduation, I had a HORRIBLE back injury and was in severe pain all year until June 2022, when I FINALLY got my PCP to give me a referral for surgery. For the past year I did a lot of volunteer work and also worked for my father’s finance company, but because of severe pain I was only able to work part-time. I was in so much pain last year I couldn't even apply to residency, let alone interview.

I am now 100% pain-free and my depression is in complete remission. I'm ready to apply to residency! I'm now working as a medical interpreter (Spanish). It is very fulfilling to give patients a voice and connect them to care as well as keep up my medical knowledge.
This time I am going to apply to internal medicine. I love medicine. It is challenging for me, but I plan to review a lot this year before residency would start.

I am not sure if any categorical medicine programs would take me at this point after these LOAs and red flags on my application. So I think I will apply to medicine preliminary programs as well as categorical ones.

Does anyone know which medicine preliminary programs are are the LEAST selective? Same for categorical internal medicine? I live outside Boston but I am willing to travel pretty much anywhere, I guess, if I need to! I know that with the time I’ve taken off it will be hard for me to find a residency spot. I’m trying to stay positive. I worked really hard in med school and I have overcome a lot of obstacles.

TLDR: what are the residency programs that are the least selective / most forgiving to applicants with LOAs due to medical problems in prelim medicine and categorical internal medicine? Please list as many programs as you know because I need to apply broadly.

Thank you so much for the help! I really appreciate it!

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[Ubba]

The truth is that it's hard to predict, because if you write a kickass PS, it might be read by a faculty member at a decent program who sympathizes and supports your app.

As you doubtless already know, you need to apply broadly. As in spending-thousands-of-dollars-on-your-application broadly. Your chances are best for programs in crappy little towns where nobody wants to live (think rural Mississippi, Louisiana, etc.).

BTW, your red flags aren't nearly as bad as those of many who've matched.

 

[Redsoxj64]

The truth is that it's hard to predict, because if you write a kickass PS, it might be read by a faculty member at a decent program who sympathizes and supports your app.

As you doubtless already know, you need to apply broadly. As in spending-thousands-of-dollars-on-your-application broadly. Your chances are best for programs in crappy little towns where nobody wants to live (think rural Mississippi, Louisiana, etc.).

BTW, your red flags aren't nearly as bad as those of many who've matched.

Thanks!

 

[mszzeta]

Hi everyone,

I would really appreciate some advice. I went to a top 30 Med school and graduated in 2021. I was a mediocre Med student. My step1 220 and step2 230... Mediocre I know.. I got really depressed during third year and my psychiatrist refused to prescribe antidepressants, which I desperately needed. I had to take a LOA. I came back and finished strong my fourth year (8/11 honors in rotations).
I applied for psychiatry in the 2020-2021 cycle and I didn’t match. After graduation, I had a HORRIBLE back injury and was in severe pain all year until June 2022, when I FINALLY got my PCP to give me a referral for surgery. For the past year I did a lot of volunteer work and also worked for my father’s finance company, but because of severe pain I was only able to work part-time. I was in so much pain last year I couldn't even apply to residency, let alone interview.

I am now 100% pain-free and my depression is in complete remission. I'm ready to apply to residency! I'm now working as a medical interpreter (Spanish). It is very fulfilling to give patients a voice and connect them to care as well as keep up my medical knowledge.
This time I am going to apply to internal medicine. I love medicine. It is challenging for me, but I plan to review a lot this year before residency would start.

I am not sure if any categorical medicine programs would take me at this point after these LOAs and red flags on my application. So I think I will apply to medicine preliminary programs as well as categorical ones.

Does anyone know which medicine preliminary programs are are the LEAST selective? Same for categorical internal medicine? I live outside Boston but I am willing to travel pretty much anywhere, I guess, if I need to! I know that with the time I’ve taken off it will be hard for me to find a residency spot. I’m trying to stay positive. I worked really hard in med school and I have overcome a lot of obstacles.

TLDR: what are the residency programs that are the least selective / most forgiving to applicants with LOAs due to medical problems in prelim medicine and categorical internal medicine? Please list as many programs as you know because I need to apply broadly.

Thank you so much for the help! I really appreciate it!

I am so sorry for what you have been through. You are the victim of mental and physical illness. And none of these is your fault.

Do NOT waste your money of applying for a prelim IM residnecy. Prelim IM is for those who matched in other categorical specialty who has a requirement of doing a prelim IM year (such as derm, ophtham, etc). Prelim IM will not get you board certification. In fact, prelim IM is actually more difficult to get in than categorical because those who wants to do ophtham or derm are having excellent application packages

You graduated from top 30 US Med School with no major red flag other than your illness (which is not your fault). If you are able to get strong LoR, my guess is that it should not be difficult to match into a categorical IM (take it as a grain of salt, as I have no real experience in your situation. But I have known that many IMGs with much less competitive packages than you got successfully matched)

If you are really worried, you could apply for some family medicine residency as back up. These should be even easier to get in with your credentials .

Yes, it is better to apply broadly (most IMGs apply for over 100 programs) and be less selective on geographic locations.

 

[collegestud2013]

Hi everyone,

I would really appreciate some advice. I went to a top 30 Med school and graduated in 2021. I was a mediocre Med student. My step1 220 and step2 230... Mediocre I know.. I got really depressed during third year and my psychiatrist refused to prescribe antidepressants, which I desperately needed. I had to take a LOA. I came back and finished strong my fourth year (8/11 honors in rotations).
I applied for psychiatry in the 2020-2021 cycle and I didn’t match. After graduation, I had a HORRIBLE back injury and was in severe pain all year until June 2022, when I FINALLY got my PCP to give me a referral for surgery. For the past year I did a lot of volunteer work and also worked for my father’s finance company, but because of severe pain I was only able to work part-time. I was in so much pain last year I couldn't even apply to residency, let alone interview.

I am now 100% pain-free and my depression is in complete remission. I'm ready to apply to residency! I'm now working as a medical interpreter (Spanish). It is very fulfilling to give patients a voice and connect them to care as well as keep up my medical knowledge.
This time I am going to apply to internal medicine. I love medicine. It is challenging for me, but I plan to review a lot this year before residency would start.

I am not sure if any categorical medicine programs would take me at this point after these LOAs and red flags on my application. So I think I will apply to medicine preliminary programs as well as categorical ones.

Does anyone know which medicine preliminary programs are are the LEAST selective? Same for categorical internal medicine? I live outside Boston but I am willing to travel pretty much anywhere, I guess, if I need to! I know that with the time I’ve taken off it will be hard for me to find a residency spot. I’m trying to stay positive. I worked really hard in med school and I have overcome a lot of obstacles.

TLDR: what are the residency programs that are the least selective / most forgiving to applicants with LOAs due to medical problems in prelim medicine and categorical internal medicine? Please list as many programs as you know because I need to apply broadly.

Thank you so much for the help! I really appreciate it!

Apply broadly to lower tier IM and FM programs and if you interview at a good amount (12+ or so) your chances are pretty good as an USMD. Keep in mind that these programs tend to be IMG heavy and many of them can be very malignant (with the lower tier NYC programs being notorious for this) so you may end up in a rough place for 3 years, but at least apply broadly and see where you get interviews. Coming from a lower tier IM program does make it harder to get into the competitive fellowships though so if your goal afterwards is along the lines of cards, GI, heme-onc, rheum, pulm-crit it would be an uphill battle.