Path now highly competitive?

[txrad]

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First of all, I think this year or last year was the first year where the # of AMG applications exceeded the # of total spots. Now that's some f*cked up **** right there!

I don't get this. In 2005 match, there were 526 positions for path and 326 US seniors matched and 43 did not. The total US senior applicants numbered 369, much lower than the 526 total number of positions.

Put it another way, the percent of matched US seniors to the total number of positions is about 62%; while psych is 64% and peds is 74%, which seem to indicate that path is still far from highly competitive.

 

[b&ierstiefel]

I don't get this. In 2005 match, there were 526 positions for path and 326 US seniors matched and 43 did not. The total US senior applicants numbered 369, much lower than the 526 total number of positions.

Put it another way, the percent of matched US seniors to the total number of positions is about 62%; while psych is 64% and peds is 74%, which seem to indicate that path is still far from highly competitive.

That's just what I heard. This number includes the number of folks who applied to another specialty and used pathology as a backup. This may not be as uncommon as you think.

And you're right...path overall isn't highly competitive but who knows how this year and the subsequent years will be. My gut feeling is that the competitiveness this year isn't going to be spectacularly higher than the competitiveness last year.

 

[Cesar]

The interest in pathology is definitely increasing. Whatever this translates to in a few years noone really knows.

There was a day when radiology and anesthesiology were as easy to match into as pathology.

the trend is that more people per graduating US medical school class are applying to pathology. Many program directors are giddy with anticipation.....

When considering competition one must take into account what type of pathology residency people are matching into.

Are these community programs ?
how many cases/year ?
are the cases varied ?
is there an associated comprehensive cancer center ?
what kind of fellowships are available?
Who is mentoring you?
I believe these factors become very important when trying to match into a program. The programs offering high quality training (variety, opportunity, established training curriculum etc) are getting highly competative regardless of what the total match numbers preach.


Some of these programs were pretty much wide open 5 years ago.

Now gunner US grads with high board scores and AOA status are entering the mix.

 

[yaah]

It's true - pathology training is a bit different from other fields - the community programs often can't give you the same quality of education and exposure to as much, whereas doing a FP or medicine residency in community practice can often be adequate. Those who apply to community programs are advised to keep a very attentive eye towards what kind of residents they train - make sure residents aren't there just to do grunt work, that they actually learn how to be pathologists and pass their board exams.

 

[Logos']

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[b&ierstiefel]

Andy, the numbers I have seen are that about 90% of path applicants ranked only path, which is actually higher than a lot of other specialties (psych about 75%, anesth about 80%, rads about 75% etc)

Yeah, if 10% of path applicants use path as a backup, and assuming that they all succeed in matching into their top choice specialty, that's still not many people and certainly doesn't make up much of the difference.

Well, maybe all this "talk" about overall competitiveness this past year was just "talk." Maybe we matched into this field when it was relatively easy to do so. Maybe pathology was still a "buyer's market" for us who just went through the application cycle. Well, good for us I guess, right? 🙂

If attendings and residents are still dishin' out the "talk" that pathology is competitive, maybe it's overspeculation. Maybe pathology isn't all that competitive and won't be competitive for a while. Maybe we like to say that pathology is more competitive than it really is because we want to make a big bru-ha-ha out of our achievements of matching into pathology at our top choices.

It don't matter to me. I don't even think about this anymore. Now it's time to buckle down, work and learn this cool **** we call pathology!

 

[b&ierstiefel]

Now gunner US grads with high board scores and AOA status are entering the mix.

Yeah...it's all good as long as these gunners don't match where you end up!