Med school and Interrviews

[almostdoctorkri]

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I'm an MS3 in the Midwest (Kansas) and hoping to do an EM residency in the Northeast or in California. Anyone on the interview trail or in residency want to comment on how difficult it is to secure a residency in either of these areas? I know that a lot of Northeast and California schools are fairly regiospecific when it comes to other residencies such as surgery, i.e. you have a much better shot if you went to med school in that area rather than say, Kansas. Point being, will I need to have crazy numbers (grades, USMLE) to get parolled out of this part of the country??

 

[waterski232002]

California will be much harder to get interviews at compared to the northeast, mostly b/c there are tons of programs between new england, NY, PA, MD, DC etc.... so you'll get interviews in the northeast regardless of if you are stellar or not. You may just not get interviews at the more competitive places. If you are interested in the competitive northeastern programs, then you'll need good scores, and letters, with a good EM rotation grade (as you would in any specialty).

For Cali, you really need to have a great application... everyone want's to be in california and there are only a small handful of programs. You will have to set yourself apart to get interviews.

 

[dlung]

I think checking out the threads that list all the current year's applicants' credentials and interview offers may give you an idea of what to expect.

If you're dying to go somewhere specific or have a compelling reason to be in a certain area (you'll be asked that on interviews anyways), an away rotation will guarantee you a courtesy interview.

 

[papichulodoc]

Doing an away rotation in the area of interest will demonstrate that you have a sincere interest in the area and program. Otherwise, program directors will assume you just checked off their program because it's cool to live in NY or Cali without really experiencing it first.