Number of residencies to apply to?

[Sophia88]

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My husband and I will be couples matching next year (I will be applying to path, him to ortho). In general how many programs should I apply to? He is pretty competitive for ortho..my stats aren't as great (my usmle step 1 was a little low at 226) but I have good publications etc. We are both at a top 20 US med school. Any advice would be great!

 

[mlw03]

Folks come and ask this stuff often. It's very difficult to give specific advice. We don't know you or your husband. Short answer, apply to as many as you can afford to. Ortho is competitive. You should be OK with your step 1 score, but I'd still suggest a min of 25, min interviews ~ 15. Just my 2 cents.

 

[MirkoCrocop]

Folks come and ask this stuff often. It's very difficult to give specific advice. We don't know you or your husband. Short answer, apply to as many as you can afford to. Ortho is competitive. You should be OK with your step 1 score, but I'd still suggest a min of 25, min interviews ~ 15. Just my 2 cents.

Your hubby will be the limiting factor. Assuming your grades aren't in the tank, you shouldn't have any problem getting the residency of your choice, except for perhaps a top 5 program, and even they are probably full of folks with step 1s in the 220s

 

[pathstudent]

My husband and I will be couples matching next year (I will be applying to path, him to ortho). In general how many programs should I apply to? He is pretty competitive for ortho..my stats aren't as great (my usmle step 1 was a little low at 226) but I have good publications etc. We are both at a top 20 US med school. Any advice would be great!

A good med student from a brand a name med school with an average step 1 has a reasonable chance of matching at any path program. Ortho on the other hand is a different story. The only specialties unequivocally more competitive are derm and plastics where you can have a sick application, I mean like walk water on sick, and still not match. Ortho is not quite like that. But it is competitive. Just aply to all programs your husband does and other ones in the same city. Interview where he does then make your rank list. You'll be fine. You could probably be a bit more selective but err on the side of interviewing too much.

 

[pianoguy05]

Our school places a high number in Ortho every year...the typical advice given to those folks is to do an away at 1-3 places, declaring your love for one of them before/during/after that rotation, then basically/unofficially pre-matching there. My understanding is that away rotations are significant in that field, maybe moreso than any other.

Agree that Ortho is the limiting factor over path; I'd pick a place with strong Path/Ortho programs and focus the bulk of your efforts getting in there. Beyond that, apply broadly as noted above. You don't necessarily need an away to get into a good path program, but I don't think it would hurt.

 

[wp746911]

you want to go into path? why?