LOA and Matching

[Coolcat202]

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Hi SDN,

I had a question about how taking a medical LOA during medical school would affect chances of matching into residency? Not a super competitive specialty like derm. But perhaps something like IM, EM, anesthesia?
Will it prevent me from matching in a super competitive program for these specialties or could i match somewhere mid-tier ?

I am worried that residencies will frown upon this and make it difficult to match. Any prior experiences that someone may have with this is appreciated.

Thanks! 🙂

 

[nimbus]

It will depend on the reason. Jail or rehab would probably hurt. Building an orphanage or competing in the Olympics would help.

Oops I didn’t see medical LOA. It probably still depends on the details.

 

[Premed2295]

A medical program I want to be associated with is understanding of the fact that people have medical problems from time to time that require them to delay their goals for a little bit. And that program would want to help them get back to living those goals instead of making it impact the future of the rest of their lives. Just my 2 cents.

I’m not saying no program is going to hold that against you. IM just saying if it were me, I wouldn’t want to work for a program that would, so it would be sort of self-selective in that way.