matching into CA from east coast med, ug school

[medgirl22]

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Hi all,

I'd appreciate some help choosing between some med school options. I don't know where my mind will be at in 4 years, but as of right now I very strongly desire to be in CA for residency and post-residency life. I grew up in CA, but was at a private east coast undergrad.

Would going to the east coast again for med school affect my chances at CA residencies? I've seen a lot of east coast med school match to Stanford/UCSF, but not many schools in less prestigious CA residencies, so I'm getting the impression that Stanford/UCSF are more accepting of big-name east coast med school students (whereas the other CA schools are not). I'm afraid that if I'm not competitive enough to match into the top CA schools, that it's unlikely to be back to CA.

I'm choosing between bigger named schools in the east coast vs. lower-ranked CA med schools. I'd appreciate some thoughts!

 

[Nymphicus]

Some more specifics would be helpful to give you a more helpful answer. You can PM me if you prefer.

 

[operaman]

As above, hard to say without specifics. That said, if winding up in CA is that important to you, why wait 4+ years to get back there? The actual difference between the bigger name east coast school and the cali schools may not be that great. Rankings can help sort schools into broad categories, but may not be so useful in making finer distinctions. Sure there may be a difference between schools ranked 5 and 50, but between schools ranked 15 and 25? 25 and 35?

I would caution you against using match lists to tell you much of anything. Too many confounding factors at play, not least of which is that students from prestigious schools may rank prestige above location, so some did land at UCSF and Stanford, but others that stayed back east at top programs may well have had other Cali schools further down their rank list. Hard to say - just know that match lists don't really tell you very much beyond where students from one particular year actually matched. I came from a middle of the road east coast state school and had a number of friends in my class and in classes before me who matched to CA schools both big and small; I'm sure students from bigger name schools did the same.

 

[Seth Joo]

If you are at a good Allopathic school, you should be able to match at whatever locale you want, if you are at a lower tier school, or at a DO school, then I would say you face an uphill challenge. Even so, if you did your residency in another state, there is no law forbidding you from moving back home to practice. I have a lot of classmates at my DO school from CA who match all over the country, many go back home to practice after they finish their residency, and these people are DOs, so I do not think being an MD from another part of the country would hold you back. The best advice is to do some audition rotations at the places you want to complete your residency at during your fourth year.