Long-term planning for residency

[HorseObsessed]

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Hi, if you've seen me on here, you know that I'm always worrying about something, so here goes:

Broadly, what to do to prepare for residency applications? Specifically large animal surgery. I'm honestly not sure I even want to specialize but I want to keep it on the table.
What matters?
Grades/ Class rank?
Publications?
Externships?
Letters?
Clubs?

I'd love to chill out a little bit about always getting an A (academic advisors said 3-4 people a year get an A in our anatomy class). I'm currently on track for an A-, but I know harder classes will come. I could stand to focus less on grades if it doesn't matter as much as other things. Do I need to super focus on grades? Is it better to start doing some research? (I will have one publication from undergrad, third author in a pretty big journal hopefully, but my advisor mentioned this as a key point for residency).

As a perpetual worrier, can you tell me what's worth worrying about and what I could stand to chill about?

 

[Polocrosse2017]

Who you know is HUGE! If you have professors that know you very well and can write glowing letters of recommendating and have friends at the places you are applying to it will go a very long way. Research is also big not only because of the publication but because of the contacts that you make. Grades and class rank are a plus, particularly in surgery but you don't have to be perfect. A lot of schools have gone to pass/fail so it is hard to make good comparisons on those things. Clubs I don't feel matter all that much other than as a way to network. If you are in a leadership position in a club and they send you to a national convention it is a great way to make contacts. My residency was obtained outside the match due to developing a good reputation with faculty, not only for being a good student but being easy to work with, friendly, having good communication/people skills, and handling adverse situations well. Being on an ethics board at your school looks good (but can be hard work). Saying this every residency looks for different things. If you find a place you really want to be find out what they are looking for. Good luck (when I started I wanted to be an equine surgeon and still love horses just found a niche I love).

 

[HorseObsessed]

Who you know is HUGE! If you have professors that know you very well and can write glowing letters of recommendating and have friends at the places you are applying to it will go a very long way. Research is also big not only because of the publication but because of the contacts that you make. Grades and class rank are a plus, particularly in surgery but you don't have to be perfect. A lot of schools have gone to pass/fail so it is hard to make good comparisons on those things. Clubs I don't feel matter all that much other than as a way to network. If you are in a leadership position in a club and they send you to a national convention it is a great way to make contacts. My residency was obtained outside the match due to developing a good reputation with faculty, not only for being a good student but being easy to work with, friendly, having good communication/people skills, and handling adverse situations well. Being on an ethics board at your school looks good (but can be hard work). Saying this every residency looks for different things. If you find a place you really want to be find out what they are looking for. Good luck (when I started I wanted to be an equine surgeon and still love horses just found a niche I love).

Thank you!
I’m still not sure what I want to do but surgery intrigues me 😀 I’m going to see if I can do some research with a surgeon, join AAEP and see if I can go to the conference next year, and hopefully visit some practices after first and second year. Sound like a good start?

 

[Polocrosse2017]

Thank you!
I’m still not sure what I want to do but surgery intrigues me 😀 I’m going to see if I can do some research with a surgeon, join AAEP and see if I can go to the conference next year, and hopefully visit some practices after first and second year. Sound like a good start?

That sounds like a perfect plan! If your school has a summer research scholars program look into that too.

 

[pp9]

We don't have a ton of large animal people (let alone LA specialists...I don't think we have any) on here but tagging @MixedAnimals77 and @mkg323 who are the closest I can think of.

Grades/rank generally matter quite a bit in terms of specializing, but how much they matter can vary amongst specialties. Pre-residency research is always going to give you a leg up, but perhaps matters a bit less. Who you know, and how aggressively they'd recommend you, matters too.

I'd be reaching out to your school's current LA residents to pick their brains about the process and what makes one competitive in that area. Illinois had a thing where students could be on-call for after hours large animal stuff as well, maybe your school does that too? I can't remember if that was a club or a paid job though.

Edit: I get wanting to calm down about the grades. As an old person who did not get good grades, I'll tell you that having your GPA as high as possible will keep many doors open for you. Do what you can without driving yourself insane and without forgetting to have some enjoyment in your life.

 

[mkg323]

I’ll second that the BI summer scholars program is a great way to get research on your resume. Being a great and easy person to work with also goes a long way, and while I don’t believe Cornell takes its own students back for surgery residency, developing a good report with the surgeons for rec letters and to network is key. The reality of large animal surgery residency is that sometimes it takes 2 internships even if you’re a good student. I’d be looking at private practices that have a hospital and an established rotating internship with boarded surgeons and ideally an internist as well. Good questions to ask are if they’ve recently had interns go through match for surgery, and if they did so successfully. Major warning - some of the hospitals that do advertise that their interns match are also the ones with terrible hours and QOL for their interns. If you’d like to chat more about specific practices I recommend/don’t recommend I’m happy to PM you. Other networking - AAEP is great, you could try going to an ACVS summit later on, and take advantage of stuff like OEPS, I believe there’s also a future equine vets wetlab weekend each fall that’s in NY. If I can think of anything else I’ll post this evening
TL;DR : be a good applicant for your internship and find one you like, and that will set you up best for residency.

 

[MixedAnimals77]

I take it youre wanting LA SX specifically equine sx speciality and not the food animal side. I would really encourage you to network. Its a hard side of vet med for a variety of reasons...So I really encourage you to keep your options open. Do your best with grades-it doesnt all have to be perfect. Alot of schools at least used to have colic team which is a great way to get in the door with the eq surgeons. Do the BI research program and just get involved. You'll pry have to do 2 rotating equine internships. That'll give you a good feel for things. One of my friends was going to do eq sx but after 2 internships decided to jump to private practice. She just got a new job at a speciality practice after pry 5ish years on the road. So lots of options.

 

[HorseObsessed]

Thank you all. Lots to think about.

 

[Nash09]

They did a presentation in one of our classes recently about specializing, and referenced this study:

avma

avma

avmajournals.avma.org

Basically, of course do your best in class (I am in the same boat and trying to remind myself it doesn’t have to be perfect is hard lol) but it seems the most important stuff is (like they said above) who you know, esp for LORs!