Matching a year apart question

[cb13076]

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I recently matched to a residency program at a larger city in the Midwest. My SO was originally supposed to match this year, but his application lacked research. He is doing a research year instead and will apply this cycle 2020-2021 in internal medicine. He is convinced that he will not be able to match in the same hospital, yet alone the same geographical area. How much of a pull is having a SO that is a current resident at the institution or in the area? Are there others in this community that have done this successfully? Am I naive to think this is a possibility?

 

[efle]

Needing a research year to apply IM is unusual. Is he otherwise a highly competitive candidate? And are we talking about him having to match something like BJC? Or, to use St. Louis as a hypothetical again, would he be OK with landing at less well known programs like SLU?

 

[cb13076]

Needing a research year to apply IM is unusual. Is he otherwise a highly competitive candidate? And are we talking about him having to match something like BJC? Or, to use St. Louis as a hypothetical again, would he be OK with landing at less well known programs like SLU?

he switched to internal medicine recently from another specialty that would’ve required a research year. More so due to lifestyle and after having a recent rotation late in the year in a sub specialty. He would be shooting to match in the Milwaukee area preferably or Chicago.

 

[cb13076]

he switched to internal medicine recently from another specialty that would’ve required a research year. More so due to lifestyle and after having a recent rotation late in the year in a sub specialty. He would be shooting to match in the Milwaukee area preferably or Chicago.

I should also add that there are no other red flags and that step 1 was in the 230s. Which from my understanding is a shoe in for most IM programs.

 

[IMGASMD]

Get married that will have more pull than just my SO.
It is weird to take a research year for IM, especially no other red flag. Unless he didn’t match and wouldn’t soap? Which may or may not be something a program cares about.

Good luck.

 

[NotAProgDirector]

The OP already explained the research year - taken for a different specialty, then changed their mind.

I expect he will do fine. I would include, in his PS that he sends to programs in your same location, the fact that you are in that city. Those programs will likely be much more serious about his application knowing that he is likely to come there. Can apply to other programs and just not mention it.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I echo all of what @NotAProgDirector has to say. He's probably scarred from having not matched this year, but if his goal is simply to match somewhere in Milwaukee then he should be able to do that.

 

[efle]

Yeah I can't see why he'd be too worried, a competitive applicant aiming for Chicago area has tons of options!