Location, location, location!

[camisho]

Hello, I was wondering...does the region of the country where you attend medical school heavily impact which region of the country you are most eligible to go to for residency? Note, this does not include the case of going to a school that will be loved by any residency director like Hopkins or Harvard, but rather the scenario of going to med school at UMDNJ or VCU and then going to residency in California (e.g., UCLA)? Will going to a state school on the East coast hinder your chances of doing residency on the West Coast?

Thanks for your responses!

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[klubguts]

I really don't think this has a heavy impact. I applied for residencies this year and received interviews on both coasts. Your performance in med school is the most important factor (also boards) in determining your competitiveness for residency. That being said, i found that places in closer proximity to my home med school were more likely to have PDs/chairs that personally knew the authors of my LORs which can be helpful. There is some regionalism in the process, but if you are a good candidate than i think you will have the opportunity to go to residencies all over the country. Good luck.

 

[rhinosp_33]

i sorta disagree. having gone through interviews, i've realized that coming from a better 'named' academic school gives you the leverage for residency. if you look at match lists from schools you'll see what i'm talkin about. further, a state school in the east coast wont necessary prevent you from residency in california, but it would be much easier if you were comin out of say ucla or ucsf.

 

[GopherBrain]

Hello, I was wondering...does the region of the country where you attend medical school heavily impact which region of the country you are most eligible to go to for residency? Note, this does not include the case of going to a school that will be loved by any residency director like Hopkins or Harvard, but rather the scenario of going to med school at UMDNJ or VCU and then going to residency in California (e.g., UCLA)? Will going to a state school on the East coast hinder your chances of doing residency on the West Coast?

Thanks for your responses!

Hola fellow Bluejay. I'm class of 2001.

I went to medical school at U of Minnesota, now I am off to UCSF for residency (neurology). I've never lived in California, or anyplace in the west, and it didn't seem to make any difference.

 

[scootad.]

It depends on how competitive the specialty is.

 

[ptolemy]

I also think it depends on how willing you are to move. A lot of places I interviewed at wanted to know how serious I was to move to their city, and the more competitve/better name the program is, the less they care about where an applicant is from, but instead how good the applicant is both in credentials and fit at the program. IMHO

 

[Gut Shot]

This is a complex issue, without many hard and fast rules. I'm at VCU, applying to a less-than-competitive specialty (pathology), and got interviews from Miami to Portland, OR. Mine is a rather close knit field, so PD's and faculty knew each other from coast-to-coast, often seemingly irrespective of distance. My girlfriend (a classmate doing OB) actually got a better response from programs west of the Mississippi, including California.

I personally believe that regional influences can cut both ways. For larger fields like IM, nearby programs that have a track record of producing solid residents can be very favorable. It is also certainly easier to get people to move shorter distances. But you also may be competing with more people from your region, which isn't necessarily a plus. For instance, at least three of my classmates ranked UVA very highly for pathology this year, which I believe has three open spots. Somehow I can't see them taking all three, no matter how good they are.

Furthermore, many programs love to snag some folks from faraway as a way to validate their drawing power. Similar to how undergraduate colleges and universities will brag about how many states are represented in their classes.

Good luck!

 

[IV Doc]

This is a complex issue, without many hard and fast rules. I'm at VCU, applying to a less-than-competitive specialty (pathology), and got interviews from Miami to Portland, OR. Mine is a rather close knit field, so PD's and faculty knew each other from coast-to-coast, often seemingly irrespective of distance. My girlfriend (a classmate doing OB) actually got a better response from programs west of the Mississippi, including California.

I personally believe that regional influences can cut both ways. For larger fields like IM, nearby programs that have a track record of producing solid residents can be very favorable. It is also certainly easier to get people to move shorter distances. But you also may be competing with more people from your region, which isn't necessarily a plus. For instance, at least three of my classmates ranked UVA very highly for pathology this year, which I believe has three open spots. Somehow I can't see them taking all three, no matter how good they are.

Furthermore, many programs love to snag some folks from faraway as a way to validate their drawing power. Similar to how undergraduate colleges and universities will brag about how many states are represented in their classes.

Good luck!

What you are saying is so true because I go to school in NY and have seen half my class applying to the programs in NY city. I think part of the reason is the ease of doing this because why fly to a program when you can take a subway. This is actually a problem for me in getting a preliminary spot because 30% of the class needs a preliminary spot and we are applying to the same 8 programs. But having said this there are also problems with going back to CA because programs will always ask why are you coming to CA and why did you leave in the first place. So in the long run there are no easy answers.

 

[NinerNiner999]

To some extent yes, the location of your training and the location where you grew up can weigh heavily in a programs assessment of your "commitment" to considering their program, i.e. will this person REALLY want to move to the northeast even thought they grew up in Florida and trained in the deep south. That being said, I think it is an excellent idea to do an away elective in a different region than where you train, and to do the elective before you apply to any other programs in the area. It shows you can 1) tolerate the pace, change of lifestyle, and type of people, 2) you have experienced the region and thought through the application and 3) if you do well, there is more likelyhood that those writing your recommendation will be more recognized by other programs close within their region. Crossing regional boundaries to do away elective will open more doors for your application...