not applying to program/state where med school is

[sunset823]

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So I go to a public institution in the Midwest (which is largely filled with in-staters, obviously), but I'm out of state and honestly do not like this said state much at all. I am thinking I am probably only going to apply to two extreme reach programs that I am not going to get interviews at, most likely, and forego applying to my home program or any other program in the state. Is this sorta taboo, to ignore the state your med school is in? I really can't wait to get out of this very overtly dysfunctional state.

 

[2012mdc]

So I go to a public institution in the Midwest (which is largely filled with in-staters, obviously), but I'm out of state and honestly do not like this said state much at all. I am thinking I am probably only going to apply to two extreme reach programs that I am not going to get interviews at, most likely, and forego applying to my home program or any other program in the state. Is this sorta taboo, to ignore the state your med school is in? I really can't wait to get out of this very overtly dysfunctional state.

I know people apply to their home program out of courtesy but I don't see how what you do with the other in-state programs would matter.

One of my friends is desperate to leave the state so he only applied to the home program and ended up cancelling the interview after he had enough. I guess he figured it's better not to waste each other's time

 

[gutonc]

So I go to a public institution in the Midwest (which is largely filled with in-staters, obviously), but I'm out of state and honestly do not like this said state much at all. I am thinking I am probably only going to apply to two extreme reach programs that I am not going to get interviews at, most likely, and forego applying to my home program or any other program in the state. Is this sorta taboo, to ignore the state your med school is in? I really can't wait to get out of this very overtly dysfunctional state.

I think it's ridiculous to not at least apply to programs in your state (I mean, IL has a lot of good/great programs). Whether you should interview there if you get interviews is a decision you'll have to make yourself, mostly based on how many other interviews you get elsewhere.

The question about your home program is a potentially politically charged one. I was in the same boat (for different reasons) and actually discussed it with one of the Asst PDs and the Chair. They both told me the same thing which was that, since that program couldn't give me what I needed (an ABIM research pathway position), that I shouldn't bother applying or interviewing because I'd be wasting my time and theirs. But I can imagine some other places approaching this differently and not being so honest about it. Again, it's a decision only you can make and it might be worth talking to a dean/advisor.

 

[2012mdc]

I think it's ridiculous to not at least apply to programs in your state (I mean, IL has a lot of good/great programs). Whether you should interview there if you get interviews is a decision you'll have to make yourself, mostly based on how many other interviews you get elsewhere.

The question about your home program is a potentially politically charged one. I was in the same boat (for different reasons) and actually discussed it with one of the Asst PDs and the Chair. They both told me the same thing which was that, since that program couldn't give me what I needed (an ABIM research pathway position), that I shouldn't bother applying or interviewing because I'd be wasting my time and theirs. But I can imagine some other places approaching this differently and not being so honest about it. Again, it's a decision only you can make and it might be worth talking to a dean/advisor.

Why is it ridiculous? If you know for sure you want to leave why waste your money applying and why waste their time spent to review your app?

 

[RonPaul]

Its nice to apply to your home program to at least use it as a practice interview. That's what a lot of people at my school did

 

[gutonc]

Why is it ridiculous? If you know for sure you want to leave why waste your money applying and why waste their time spent to review your app?

Because applying borders on free. And all they're going to do is run a couple of automatic filters anyway, it won't take more than 30-60s of anyone's actual time to make the invite/reject/waitlist decision.

I wanted nothing more than to leave NYC and the northeast in general for residency, but not applying to the better local and regional programs would have been a mistake. You never know what a program is going to be like and location is only one (potentially important) part of a program. I wound up being very surprised about a couple of them that turned my ranklist upside down from my pre-interview ideas.

And (I'm admittedly reading between the lines about the OP here, potentially incorrectly) s/he stated that two moderately competitive programs in his/her state are going to be "extreme reach programs" which leads me to believe that s/he isn't going to be the most competitive applicant. And if s/he goes to the school I think s/he does (which isn't bad, just not that well known outside of the region) a little regional bias/knowledge about the program is probably going to be helpful in securing decent interviews and a good spot.

That's why.

 

[jdh71]

Why is it ridiculous? If you know for sure you want to leave why waste your money applying and why waste their time spent to review your app?

If you'd rather not have a job then do residency at your home program, then maybe it's not ridiculous, but otherwise it's pretty ****ing stupid to completely limit your options like that. Rank your home program last but don't write it off unless you'll be more ok scrambling or potentially without a job at all.

 

[sunset823]

I think it's ridiculous to not at least apply to programs in your state (I mean, IL has a lot of good/great programs). Whether you should interview there if you get interviews is a decision you'll have to make yourself, mostly based on how many other interviews you get elsewhere.

The question about your home program is a potentially politically charged one. I was in the same boat (for different reasons) and actually discussed it with one of the Asst PDs and the Chair. They both told me the same thing which was that, since that program couldn't give me what I needed (an ABIM research pathway position), that I shouldn't bother applying or interviewing because I'd be wasting my time and theirs. But I can imagine some other places approaching this differently and not being so honest about it. Again, it's a decision only you can make and it might be worth talking to a dean/advisor.

I have nothing against my home program, I actually really like the IM department. Problem is I cannot live in my current city for another 3 years (I'm single, want a life, and getting older, and this is familytown USA), and I'm not a fan of Chicago, where the vast majority of programs are. I am applying to a wide swath of the midwest and east coast (I already have a list of 60 programs not including the IL programs), and I want to save the 15-20 interviews I go on for places I truly want to go. I seriously doubt with 60 programs applied to that I won't match if I don't apply to my home program, but am I wrong on this?

In another question, do your deans find out were you applied on ERAS?

 

[gutonc]

I have nothing against my home program, I actually really like the IM department. Problem is I cannot live in my current city for another 3 years (I'm single, want a life, and getting older, and this is familytown USA), and I'm not a fan of Chicago, where the vast majority of programs are. I am applying to a wide swath of the midwest and east coast (I already have a list of 60 programs not including the IL programs), and I want to save the 15-20 interviews I go on for places I truly want to go. I seriously doubt with 60 programs applied to that I won't match if I don't apply to my home program, but am I wrong on this?

You might be...probably not...it's hard to say. Which is why I don't think adding a few more "local" places will really be that big of a deal.

In another question, do your deans find out were you applied on ERAS?

No. They will know only where you matched. But they will know if you applied to their program (obviously).

 

[2012mdc]

If you'd rather not have a job then do residency at your home program, then maybe it's not ridiculous, but otherwise it's pretty ****ing stupid to completely limit your options like that. Rank your home program last but don't write it off unless you'll be more ok scrambling or potentially without a job at all.

For the record I was talking about not applying to other in state programs besides your home program. I completely agree that one should one apply to their home program but I don't think one has to apply to other programs in the state if they know they want to leave for sure.

As long as one applies to enough programs they will be fine skipping other programs in their state. 3 years is a relatively short time but if you've hated the previous 4 years then 3 years could seem like an eternity.

 

[sunset823]

For the record I was talking about not applying to other in state programs besides your home program. I completely agree that one should one apply to their home program but I don't think one has to apply to other programs in the state if they know they want to leave for sure.

Hmm, this thread gave some good food for thought. Now that I've had some sense knocked into me, I've decided to compromise on applying to my home program and the two reaches but skip the rest of the programs. I wanted to apply to programs with in-house fellowships in what I'm interested in (P/CC and H/O), which my home program doesn't have, but I realize now that it would be a courtesy, and at least a practice interview, since unlike the rest of my interviews I won't have to go out of the way to do it.

Thanks everyone. This residency stuff is complicated. 🙁

 

[JDW7910]

FWIW, I didn't apply to any programs in the region of my med school, including my home program. Still got invited to interview at 23 of 32 programs applied to. Going on 14 interviews, and expecting to match ;-)

 

[sunset823]

So I wanted to resurrect this thread because I was thinking about it last night, and I came to the conclusion that:
- I have a program in my hometown (which is also in the midwest) that is probably equal (or lower) tier to my home institution where I'm likely to get an interview and match if it came to that
- even if I do apply to my home program, I would rather go to this other program in my hometown than stay at my home institution, just to be closer to family, etc.

So is it a reasonable approach to apply to my home program, but not put it on my rank list, but apply to this other program in my hometown to bottom out my rank list? I still think with the 63 other programs I am applying to, not ranking my home institution shouldn't be a big deal, but now I have a seemingly equivalent substitute that works way better for me.

 

[UofM527]

So I wanted to resurrect this thread because I was thinking about it last night, and I came to the conclusion that:
- I have a program in my hometown (which is also in the midwest) that is probably equal (or lower) tier to my home institution where I'm likely to get an interview and match if it came to that
- even if I do apply to my home program, I would rather go to this other program in my hometown than stay at my home institution, just to be closer to family, etc.

So is it a reasonable approach to apply to my home program, but not put it on my rank list, but apply to this other program in my hometown to bottom out my rank list? I still think with the 63 other programs I am applying to, not ranking my home institution shouldn't be a big deal, but now I have a seemingly equivalent substitute that works way better for me.

I think people have really given all the opinions that can be said about this particular situation...to be completely honest, no, you do not NEED to apply or rank your home program, and YES, being an US allopathic grad, you will probably be just fine applying to appropriate programs within that 60 you plan on. Really if you get enough interviews to attend and feel comfortable ranking say 12 programs, it will make zero difference whether one of them is your home program. Like everyone else said, almost everyone applies to their home program at least, and as you said, its easy to interview at since you are there already. When it comes time to rank, and you feel like you've been to 'enough' other programs you like, you could then choose to not rank the home program if you wish and no one would fault you for it...it sounds like your hometown program would be an acceptable end of rank list program too if you go that route...never really know what you like though till you get out there and see some places🙂