Male applicant to pediatrics

[pr3m3d3r]

So just a random question I was hoping someone with experience could answer for me. Firstly, are there really THAT many more peds residents that are female than male? I've just done some googling (A LOT of googling at "current residents" pages throughout the US).. and it seems there are sooo many more woman in peds than men.

Assuming this is reality, and you have two completely paralleled applicants, one male vs. one female, is there any benefit to applying as a male with programs looking to balance this? Or is sex completely negligible when deciding residents? I know there is a lot to consider with (essays, board scores, audition rotations, networking, interviews, etc.) ..and having not started school... a lot I don't know yet, but I'm just curious as a guy really set on pediatrics.

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[SurfingDoctor]

So just a random question I was hoping someone with experience could answer for me. Firstly, are there really THAT many more peds residents that are female than male? I've just done some googling (A LOT of googling at "current residents" pages throughout the US).. and it seems there are sooo many more woman in peds than men.

Assuming this is reality, and you have two completely paralleled applicants, one male vs. one female, is there any benefit to applying as a male with programs looking to balance this? Or is sex completely negligible when deciding residents? I know there is a lot to consider with (essays, board scores, audition rotations, networking, interviews, etc.) ..and having not started school... a lot I don't know yet, but I'm just curious as a guy really set on pediatrics.

Yes, there are generally more female applicants to pediatrics than male. And yes, all other things considered equally, gender is irrelevant in where you match.

 

[oldbearprofessor]

So just a random question I was hoping someone with experience could answer for me. Firstly, are there really THAT many more peds residents that are female than male? I've just done some googling (A LOT of googling at "current residents" pages throughout the US).. and it seems there are sooo many more woman in peds than men.

Assuming this is reality, and you have two completely paralleled applicants, one male vs. one female, is there any benefit to applying as a male with programs looking to balance this? Or is sex completely negligible when deciding residents? I know there is a lot to consider with (essays, board scores, audition rotations, networking, interviews, etc.) ..and having not started school... a lot I don't know yet, but I'm just curious as a guy really set on pediatrics.

70% or so of pediatric residents are female and this number has been relatively constant for a number of years. Within some fellowships, there is a close to 50:50 balance (neo) and in some a predominance of males (cards) as I recall.

Do what you wish to do, gender does not really play a meaningful role, in my experience, in the selection process or in the career.

 

[dbeast]

We can all agree there is an advantage to a diverse program, which includes gender diversity. The program from my med school preached the same thing as the posters above me about choosing the best applicants regardless of gender, and then accidentally ended up with a class of only 3 guys out of 30ish. A lot of people subsequently voiced their dissatisfaction- especially the female residents. Their class the following year was exactly 50/50... I can't confirm whether this was intentional or coincidence but it seems like being male may have moved a few people up the rank list.

So yeah, maybe I'll go against popular opinion here and say that (in certain scenarios) being a male can be seen as an asset.

 

[zafonte86]

There is no advantage to being a male when applying. However I will say that when our residents come across a cool guy that is interviewing or rotating we definitely make a mental note of it. Males keep the program sane haha.

 

[mvenus929]

My program has a decent number of guys, but we trailed off for a few years... out of our class of 22, there were 6 guys in my class and only 4 the following year. The intern class now has 8, and we had expressed our concerns and probably more actively recruited guys for that class. That said, in terms of ranking, I don't think it made as much of a difference... we just happened to match more guys who wanted to come.

 

[worriedimg]

This is something I've been wondering about to. In two of my interviews, I was the only guy in the group of 8 to 10. Though most programs sorta did have a 30:70 balance M:W, in one program the intern class had 2 guys out of 14. And one of the residents voluntarily said they hoped there were more guys and the PD made it a point to interview more as well- why I don't know. In another program, the PD made it a point during his presentation how they value diversity in their class, including gender since as she put it, when she was an intern, she was the only one in her class of male interns- she laughed at how times have changed.

 

[pedstar09]

It doesn't matter. Yes, the ratio is skewed towards more females, but my intern class is 50:50 right now. They shouldn't and wouldn't rank you higher or lower based on your gender.

Good luck!

 

[DeadCactus]

There may be some benefit to being a male pediatric applicant in the pre-application process in that you have an immediate commonality with potential mentors. The same is true of other subsets in medicine whether they are religious, race, hometown, etc. By the time you make it to the actual rank process, there are too many applicants to feasibly adjust people in hopes of having a more balanced class without implementing practices that would be extremely contentious.

 

[thetubes]

It doesn't matter. Yes, the ratio is skewed towards more females, but my intern class is 50:50 right now. They shouldn't and wouldn't rank you higher or lower based on your gender.

Good luck!

They should not do so. I'm fairly certain your 50:50 intern class that drew from a pool of applicants that was probably at least 70:30 F:M was not due entirely to chance.