Not So Noble Ambitions?

[sitthakim]

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Okay, so I've been looking over the MSAR and the DO school version of it (does one say OMCIB?) and I can't help but notice that a lot of schools tend to favor applicants who are going to stay in the area/state, or serve underprivelaged/underserved areas. Being from CA I hear that I'm already at a disadvantage as my home state schools tend to favor out of state applicants, but to make matters worse(?) my largest ambition is to work in the ER of my hometown. That happens to be Santa Barbara, which can't really be described as underprivelaged OR underserved, but it's my hometown and I like it there; it's where I want to work. Is that just application suicide? Is there a particular way to approach this kind of topic if it comes up? I am SUCH a terrible liar that I won't be able to pretend I want something other than that.

I guess what I'm asking is, does this kind of thing actually bear that much weight?

 

[sindadel]

I think that being too set on any particular scenario is a bit of a problem when interviewing.

Hopefully, 4 years of medical school + however many years of residency will broaden your experience and expose you to many facets of medicine that you haven't seen yet.

I'd go with the: "Well right now, I have to say that my dream job would be the Santa Barbara ER, since it's my hometown and I have some experience there. However, I am looking forward to learning more about other areas of medicine and am open to change."

 

[exmissionary]

so, if they favor out of state people (being from CA) as well. Should I try to obtain UT residency?

 

[sindadel]

I would certainly consider moving to establish residency in a less-competitive state than California if I had a less than perfect application. 🙂 So if Utah is where you want to go, why not look into what the residency requirements are.

 

[Law2Doc]

so, if they favor out of state people (being from CA) as well. Should I try to obtain UT residency?

If you are asking should you move to UT to get into school in CA, that is confused thinking. CA doesn't favor out of staters. It just isn't favorable to in staters, as the schools all require super high stats as compared to some states who will take their instaters with much more average stats.

 

[Law2Doc]

I think that being too set on any particular scenario is a bit of a problem when interviewing.

Hopefully, 4 years of medical school + however many years of residency will broaden your experience and expose you to many facets of medicine that you haven't seen yet.

I'd go with the: "Well right now, I have to say that my dream job would be the Santa Barbara ER, since it's my hometown and I have some experience there. However, I am looking forward to learning more about other areas of medicine and am open to change."

Agreed. Most people in med school will change their minds at least once. You cannot know if you would like EM best until you try a variety of things in your clinical rotations. Some fields aren't exactly what you think they are as a premed, and others that seemed cool from the outside you will realize you could never do in real life. Additionally, you cannot realistically focus in on a particular locale like you are doing. You don't know what residency you are going to match into, and for all you know, the 4 years of med school plus 4 years of residency are going to draw you to another location. Like med school, you aren't going to be able to focus in your residency choices to a single city and expect to necessarily be successful in the match. So you may end up with roots in another community by the time you actually look for a job. Or there may not be plentiful openings for EM docs in Santa Barbara by the time you are looking. So it's a really bad idea to focus in on a particular job in a particular city before you even start med school. Bad idea not just for interviews, but for yourself. You HAVE to keep an open mind. You may choose a different field, and circumstances may result in choosing a different city. Plan to roll with it or medicine might be a bad choice -- because that's the reality of the industry.

At interviews (and in your mind), your answer should be that you are "currently leaning toward EM", but nothing more specific.