Med/Peds and applying to IM or Peds also?

[irishlaydi]

my questions is regarding applying to combined Med/Peds programs and potentially applying to Peds or IM programs alone as well?

so...is the consensus that if your number one choice for Residency is Med/Peds combined....that you should NOT apply for either IM or Peds programs in addition? I ask because IM/Peds is what I want to do, and i'll be applying to programs. But Med/Peds is competitive and If I cannot get into med/peds programs I think i could be happy doing just peds or just IM.
on searching around the forums, it seems this is not a good idea though?
any thoughts?

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[PalmOlive]

my questions is regarding applying to combined Med/Peds programs and potentially applying to Peds or IM programs alone as well?

so...is the consensus that if your number one choice for Residency is Med/Peds combined....that you should NOT apply for either IM or Peds programs in addition? I ask because IM/Peds is what I want to do, and i'll be applying to programs. But Med/Peds is competitive and If I cannot get into med/peds programs I think i could be happy doing just peds or just IM.
on searching around the forums, it seems this is not a good idea though?
any thoughts?

I think that if you are a US medical school senior then you would have a good to great shot at getting IM/Peds there are actually quite a bit of programs to apply to. That being said you could always apply to separate IM and/or Peds and then just rank them after the IM/Peds programs as a backup . . .

 

[irishlaydi]

Thanks! anyone else have some input into this?

 

[J-Rad]

The current chief resident of pediatrics at Maine Med (a UNECOM grad) is a recent grad of their Med-Peds program. I would imagine this fact would give her some insight into this question that might be unparalled here on SDN. She was in the class ahead of me and struck me as a pretty nice person...worth getting in touch with her.

 

[group_theory]

my questions is regarding applying to combined Med/Peds programs and potentially applying to Peds or IM programs alone as well?

so...is the consensus that if your number one choice for Residency is Med/Peds combined....that you should NOT apply for either IM or Peds programs in addition? I ask because IM/Peds is what I want to do, and i'll be applying to programs. But Med/Peds is competitive and If I cannot get into med/peds programs I think i could be happy doing just peds or just IM.
on searching around the forums, it seems this is not a good idea though?
any thoughts?

I would advise against it. It would certainly raise the question on how committed you are to Med-Peds and whether you might leave the combined program to do a categorical program.

This is difficult to hide if you are applying for Med-Peds and Internal Medicine or Pediatrics seperately within the same institution. If you are applying to different programs at different institutions, then unless you mention it, there is no way for the Med-Peds PD to know you also applied to categorical IM or Peds.

 

[irishlaydi]

Thanks to all!
I am not planning on it, but the thought did cross my mind if people do apply to both med/peds and separately to IM or Peds due to the competitiveness of Med/Peds. its not really like applying to medical school where we can easily take a year off to apply again. I can't see myself doing anything other than Med/Peds...i guess there's always the scramble if people don't match right?!

My heart is set on med/peds so i'm going for it, just a little concerned b/c I am restricted geographically to east coast and will admit also a tiny bit concerned b/c many programs have never accepted a D.O. student. Not to say I can't be the 1st
Anyway, I appreciate all the input!

 

[SwineLake98]

I'm glad to see that a thread exists for this! My idea for applying to both programs is not to have a back up plan, but that at this point (which, admittedly, is days into my 4th year) I'm not 100% sure where I'm headed ultimately. If I had to pick a population, I'd do Medicine and apply to a Heme/Onc fellowship. However, I don't really want to give up peds yet and I have ideas that I can do transitional care with sickle cell and coagulopathies and survivors of childhood cancers. I was thinking I would apply to Med/Peds at the 10-12 of the university programs in the northeast as well as Medicine at some places that don't have Med/Peds and hopefully be ready to make up my mind by the time I need to make my rank list. I'm a pretty competitive US allopathic student, so I have that working in my favor. Any thoughts/guidance would be appreciated!
Also, do do something like this, do I need 2 versions of my personal statement?

 

[Resuscitator]

The safest way is not to apply to different specialities in the same hospital, so you have to do 2 separate program lists and assign 2 different personal statements. During the interview dont tell the PD anything about your other interviews.
goodluck