MSII thinking ahead and looking for some help

[H0mersimps0n]

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Having survived my first year in fairly good condition I've been thinking about the prospect of my 2nd, 3rd and 4th years. In the fall I will need to select hospitals to do my 3rd and 4th year in and my head is spinning with questions.

So far I've been able to narrow my possible career interests to Cardio, EM, Neuro or Ortho. I figure an IM residency first then fellowship in a subspeciality but...

question 1.) How do you select/know what a good hospital is for IM and what will get you into the best fellowship

To make my situation MORE complex, I have a girlfriend of 3.5 years and we plan on getting engaged next summer. We figure our best chance of staying together geographically is entering the match together BUT there are two hitches in this.
1.) I'm a DO student and she is a MD student and 2.) she is a year behind

SO, after talking to a bunch of people I found out that most states require DO students to do a one-year internship and have been told that after that PGY-1 you can enter the match (again?). If this is right then if I took my USMLE and my girlfriend (then wife) entered the allo match together we would hopefully at least end up in the same city right?

question 2.) does that seem possible?

We both work very hard and (obviously) we want to go to the best hospital within reason but I'm having a hard time determining which hospital is better at what aside from subjective opinions from random sample of people I talk to.

question 3.) is there a national ranking of hospitals? I've seen the US world and news issue with the top 50 for specialities but lets be real, there are more than 50 good hospitals out there and I would want to compare multiple hospitals in a certain city.

I'm sorry if I seem overly anxious or like I'm not waiting for the process to give me more information but I have a tendency to think and plan ahead compulsively.

I know there were more questions I had but I'll have to post them as I think of them because I just forgot.

Lastly, thank you to anyone who took the time to read my posts and very much to anyone that can provide helpful thoughts, ideas and answers.

Have a great memorial day weekend everyone!

 

[joedogma]

Dude, you must REALLY love this girl if you are willing to do two years of internship! I wouldn't worry about any of this stuff until you are a little further into your schoolin' and until you are actually engaged (med school changes a lot of people.) Best bet at this point is to plan to do residency in a big city that has a lot of programs (like NY.) This way your chances of being able to live together during residencies will increase. Its hard to plan so far ahead in advance and I wouldn't count on a "couples" match at this point since neither of you are sure of your specialty (couples matching with ortho could end in disappointment.) As for good places to do IM, generally big university hospitals are considered more prestigious. Also, if you can do your residency at a place where they have the fellowships you are interested in, your chances increase greatly.

 

[axm397]

So I'm a bit confused. You said your choices were: Cardio, EM, Neuro, or Ortho - which all have very different match processes. Neuro is early match. Cardio is IM then Cardio. EM is its own residency, and Ortho is also its own surgical residency. So unless you have a one size fits all research project and mentors/potential letter writers in all those fields - you probably should narrow it down a bit more before you begin planning which hospitals to rotate in. In terms of the DO internship requirement - I think that also depends on which state you end up in -

So, until you figure all that out, I don't think you can plan your life out yet. And I agree with the above - beware of couples matching - I know of couples who broke up right after they submitted their rank lists. Also, if she's a year behind, you can snag a good spot at a location where she may be interested in going, then she can concentrate her search for residency in that area. No need to couples match - especially since you two are not in the same class.

 

[H0mersimps0n]

Joe, it'd only be one year of internship- she's only one year behind

Ax, I'm very unfamiliar with the whole process of residency application process, I'll (we'll) definitely make those decisions as soon as possible and go from there... Thanks

I'm getting the feeling that people aren't all they hyped on the couples match? I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread for students trying to stay geographically together.