Pediatrics in California

[katiesb]

Is it as competitive as my adviser wants me to believe? I'm currently a 3rd year at a DO school in AZ but I really want to settle down and live in CA for good. My GPA is 3.5 and USMLE >230. How realistic is it for me to match to an allopathic program in CA? Any tips on how to become a more competitive applicant over the next year? (audition rotations? CV boosters?) Thanks!

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[RySerr21]

Is it as competitive as my adviser wants me to believe? I'm currently a 3rd year at a DO school in AZ but I really want to settle down and live in CA for good. My GPA is 3.5 and USMLE >230. How realistic is it for me to match to an allopathic program in CA? Any tips on how to become a more competitive applicant over the next year? (audition rotations? CV boosters?) Thanks!

i think CA in general is considered competitive for any field jst because it is CA. There are a lot of pediatric programs in CA so if that really is your goal its a good state to want to go to by sheer volume of programs. The bad news about that is that a lot of them are top notch and very selective for anybody, even California MDs. But on the flip side, through my interview trail i saw quite a few DOs at the programs up and down the coast, so i know you won't be shut out completely for your degree. Not sure what to make of your GPA b/c i don't think most schools do taht still...your step 1 score is solid tho. You can definitely help yourself by taking step 2 early and doing even better.

Away rotations is a pretty controversial topic, but in my experience (and from all my friends who are doing peds and have done aways), the top top programs don't care about you doing an away rotation. They will give you an interview or they won't. I have friends that have done aways and then been rejected for interview afterwards (despite getting great reviews), and i've even had friends been rejected from a school BEFORE their away has even started. My point is that 1) you should talk to residents/students/programs about whether or not a rotation is helpful. There are some programs that will give you an interview just for having done an away, so its good to know those schools too. 2) Given that theres not really gaurantee of getting an interview even with a strong away performance, I would do an away for yourself if you just want to check out the program. For example, when its all said and done i will have done 3 aways at what I thought were the programs i was most interested in....at the end of these i have great perspective and learned a lot about what i liked and didnt like and in one case a program droppped pretty far down my list b/c i didn't really enjoy my time there. So, i thought the aways were really useful for myself and my own rank list. Also, its always helpful to have nice thigns said about you by people that are already in the program, and those things will be added to your file for the selection comittee to see when they are making decisions.