matched in medicine 2 days ago and want to change....

[md.skc]

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I am a fourth year student I matched recently in medicine which was a late switch for me. Honestly I had no idea what i wanted to do and went with medicine by default. I was considering ER previously then felt unsure after I did a rotation in it.

I did an elective in anesthesiology last month and loved it! It has everything I am looking for: variety of cases, procedures, reasonable lifestyle following residency, and to my surprise patient contact although not as much as medicine but enough to feel I am there for my patients.

So my question is what do I do?! How competitive am I? How do i make myself more competitive at this stage?

I got a 201 on step 1 and 214 on step 2, no honors, no research experience, but from a top 30 US med school with a P/F system. I got a decent medicine position at a good hospital with an anesthia program there. Please any help or advice would be wonderful.
😕

 

[Soon2BENT]

I am a fourth year student I matched recently in medicine which was a late switch for me. Honestly I had no idea what i wanted to do and went with medicine by default. I was considering ER previously then felt unsure after I did a rotation in it.

I did an elective in anesthesiology last month and loved it! It has everything I am looking for: variety of cases, procedures, reasonable lifestyle following residency, and to my surprise patient contact although not as much as medicine but enough to feel I am there for my patients.

So my question is what do I do?! How competitive am I? How do i make myself more competitive at this stage?

I got a 201 on step 1 and 214 on step 2, no honors, no research experience, but from a top 30 US med school with a P/F system. I got a decent medicine position at a good hospital with an anesthia program there. Please any help or advice would be wonderful.
😕

If you like area you're in and like the hospital you are at, I would go talk to the PD of the anesthesia department there. They may give you a position outside of the match following your intern year (which you need to do anyway). This is not unusual as I heard this situation at almost every interview I went to. Good luck.

 

[NYGasGirl]

It's not easy to get a CA1 spot for 2007 because the match is unusually competitive this year, but if you really want to switch to anesthesia, just give it a try. I know that a few anesthesia programs, including very competitive programs, reserve a couple spots for people who would like to switch specialty. You should request your program to do an early elective (Sep-Dec) in anesthesia, and talk to the anesthesiology chairman & PD about your intention to obtain a spot in anesthesia. With their connections, they might be able to help you with where you should apply to. If you are lucky, they might have a spot opening for you at your hospital. The other options are going through the match again next year or finishing the IM then reapply. Good luck and hope you will join us soon. 🙂 👍

 

[md.skc]

I know that it has been a competitive year this year for CA 1 slots with my boards scores am I competitive? I have a lot of outside activities and volunteer work, but no research does that matter at all?

 

[350Z]

No research is probably fine. A ~200 Step One is on the low end but you still gives you a chance. I dont think it will be good enough for any competitive programs.

 

[supahfresh]

I am a fourth year student I matched recently in medicine which was a late switch for me. Honestly I had no idea what i wanted to do and went with medicine by default. I was considering ER previously then felt unsure after I did a rotation in it.

I did an elective in anesthesiology last month and loved it! It has everything I am looking for: variety of cases, procedures, reasonable lifestyle following residency, and to my surprise patient contact although not as much as medicine but enough to feel I am there for my patients.

So my question is what do I do?! How competitive am I? How do i make myself more competitive at this stage?

I got a 201 on step 1 and 214 on step 2, no honors, no research experience, but from a top 30 US med school with a P/F system. I got a decent medicine position at a good hospital with an anesthia program there. Please any help or advice would be wonderful.
😕

First of all, have no fear. One of the hardest things in life is figuring out what you want to do. The rest will happen eventually. As mentioned above, talk to the PD at your program. you should definetly work your butt off in your program so they can see what a good resident you are. call other programs and see if they have spots. despite the increase in interest this year, you should still investigate because you have no idea until you make those calls. try and get a letter from an anesthesiologist. then you can enroll in the match next year. don't give up!

 

[ProDoze]

Just make sure that if you decide to make the switch, that your PD is in the loop. Cutting your own PD out of the loop can spell certain disaster.

 

[bubalus]

There are quite a few outside the match spots out there, but they're not advertised. Send a CV and cover letter to a huge number of programs, and there's a decent chance you could find a spot outside the match. Working hard during your internship is key so you can get some letters from those attendings.

 

[skankdr]

This year IMHO was the most competitive year for gas ever. Who knows what's it going to be like next year? I was one of the unlucky ones and didn't match. My board scores were 216 and 227. I got 15 interview offers went to 10 interviews. In the end, I ranked 10 spots with 9 schools. During the scramble, I got 3 radiology interviews( I applied to everything! and I am going to these interviews and no responses from any anesthesia programs. I had two programs contact me about ranking me highly but they were in unattractive places and I didn't want to live there. Maybe I interview poorly. Who knows? So here I am. What you do needs to be more important where you do it