I will not be applying to community programs for personal reasons. Does it help that I do research and have 2 first author publications?
First of all, I answered the questions about research and publications in my post
Second, I'm going to go ahead and be a jerk here to drive home a point.
What "personal" reason can there be to purposefully exclude community programs when trying to match into a specialty for which you have red flags or questionable competitiveness?
I won't give you a hard time if you respond, "I would rather go unmatched than match to a community program."
otherwise I can't imagine what is going on here
Can't afford the application fee?
Are so geographically limited to exclude community programs? Wait, that makes no sense as academic institutions are more spread out
Are so set on the subspecialty fellowship that one hopes to arise from an academic institution in lieu of the specialty itself that they would rather go unmatched? It's a little cart before the horse.
I see people sneer at community programs because they are set on a research career, a prestigious academic appointment, or competitive fellowship
And while a community program is not ideal beginning to such aspirations, an even worse beginning is NOT MATCHING
Yes, not applying to a community program means you can't match to a community program. That seems good. Except wait a minute, that does not ergo increase your chances of matching to an academic institution. All it means is you can't match to a community program that would have taken you when your more desired places fell through.
Also, keep in mind that academic is not strictly always better than a community program depending on which ones you're comparing, and that can be true even for fellowship placement.
In a nutshell why people don't match:
1) app wasn't competitive to begin with
2) red flags in otherwise reasonable app
3) goon at interview
4) bad app strategy: didn't apply broadly or safely enough, usually out of ignorance or pride
5) sheer dumb luck maybe?
What you are telling me smacks of intent to commit match sin #4, and not out of ignorance since you've been warned
Every year there are multiple people who had an otherwise reasonable app, that thought they had an OK strategy & enough places, that is dismayed at the number of interview invites they get
What always shakes out is this:
they didn't apply to enough places, and they didn't have enough safeties including community programs
And when they have made this mistake and don't have enough interview offers? you know what can be done for them?
JACK ****ing squat is what.
nothing. they can send out pity emails that probably do more to annoy programs than get then more invites
Now, what becomes of these people?
They have to lie in that bed they made and some despite the harrowing numbers match just fine
OTHERS DON'T MATCH.
I won't outline here why not matching is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to you professionally, or what the soap can mean for you
I would also point out, that all MD AMGs are graduating from academic institutions
yet of the IM residency spots about 1/3 of the spots are at academic institutions, and 2/3 at community programs.
granted, a lot of IMGs factor in here somewhere
but the moral of the story is, while every MD AMG comes from an academic institution, they don't all go to an academic institution, and that's not just self-selection at work, some people from academic institutions go to community programs when they would have preferred academic
high school --> college --> med school all feels like a moving up game, but med school ---> residency is usually a bit of moving down game for most, and by moving down I just mean that not all medicine is practiced in an academic setting. you can cram all the med students together but the residents have to be spread out to some extent.
you're at a top 30, you're a rockstar, you're a special snowflake, community programs are not even worth your consideration, you have a great personal reason I don't appreciate cuz I'm busy being a jerk, fine,
this post is meant to fight against any and all knee-jerk responses that anyone may have about applying to community programs
my personal crusade is that every single applicant that comes to SDN with match worries will say, "Yes, I have considered community programs and will likely apply to a few" because considering what role community programs might have in a student's ERAS app is just good blanket match strategy for anyone, I don't care your school or personal reasons
TLDR:
kids, someone's gotta end up at these programs
I don't care who you are, you need to consider them and not dismiss them out of hand
nothing is more important than matching
