Percentage of single ppl in residency programs

[Foodologist]

So towards the end of my residency interviews, I was at Mayo where I asked "what is the biggest weakness of the program", the resident I was speaking to said "well, the program is spectacular and no complaints. There are however 70% married people in the class, and so as a single person, you really only get to hang out with around 30% of the class outside of work, which sucks"

Now, this never occurred to me before and as a single person myself, I'm finding this would actually be a rather important factor in determining your social life in residency. People who are in residency program, or asked a resident on interview day, does anyone know the ratio of single ppl in the following programs: Columbia, Sinai, Penn, Yale, BID, MGH, WashU, Duke

Also, if you would like to post regarding other programs, that would be good too as a reference for future applicants =P THanks all

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[amine2086]

I don't know the exact percentages and I have a feeling no one does either as this is such a dynamic process. As you can imagine people hook up and break up all the time screwing up the percentages you are looking for. But I think as a rule of thumb, the bigger the city a program is located in, the more there are single people around. After all, I don't think anyone would want to restrict their dating pool to just the fellow residents (as the saying goes don't $hit where you eat or something like that). So, if you are looking at the named programs just based on dating opportunities, I would say: Columbia=Sinai>MGH=BID>Penn>WashU>Duke>Yale.

 

[imMD2014]

It seemed to me that Mayo more than other programs attracts married residents for obvious reasons. The area is not exactly single friendly which is why Mayo has fallen quite far down my ROL even though I absolutely love their program (the research, the 50/50 inpatient outpatient, the PD, etc.). At the interview they talked about what a great place it is to raise a family and how good the school system is and how they have child care on site.

I interviewed at about half of the other places you mentioned and I think they had more single people because of their location and the type of resident they attract. You don't necessarily have to date within your own program when you're in a city like NY, Philly, or Boston. In addition, all those cities have multiple hospitals and residency programs so there are plenty of other young single doctors around. I have mixed feelings about New Haven, I definitely don't think the city is as bad as people think but it definitely does not have the amenities and opportunities that come with a large city. I have no idea about the areas around Wash U or Duke. If you look at BID's packet they gave you they do list all the single residents (if you'd like you can calculate a percentage from there) with the lists of people's interests, where they came from, etc.

I also agree that this is a factor I am thinking of BUT not necessarily based on the percentage of residents married but more on the city.. which is why residencies in cities attract more single residents.

 

[visari]

I guess the city matters more than the program itself. And it's not entirely true that married people are completely out of your social life circle if you're single. My class is like 75% married and we still get to hang out on a regular basis (unless hanging out for you means going to nightclubs, getting drunk and picking up girls every weekend, then NO we don't get to do that).

If you end up in NY, Boston or LA you will be fine as a single person regardless of your program. If you wind up in Rochester, MN or New Haven then it's not gonna be easy I guess.

If you're asking to find a program with more single residents so you can try dating one of them, I don't think that's a good idea as it might put you in really awkward social nightmares.

 

[Mad Jack]

This is going to sound nuts, but you could always branch out from the incestuous world of medicine and make friends and date elsewhere.

 

[Foodologist]

thanks all for the responses!

sorry what i meant was that married folks are more likely to go do their own thing after work and less likely to hang out with the class (didnt say won't, just said less likely since they probably have other time commitments etc). its probably not a huge problem except the mayo resident made it sound like it was kinda an issue for his class

 

[MerickManual]

This is going to sound nuts, but you could always branch out from the incestuous world of medicine and make friends and date elsewhere.

BLASPHEMY!!! 😡

 

[angelicwizard]

The sense I got even at the programs in big cities - around 25-50% of people were married or engaged or close to being engaged.

That number jumped up even more by the end of R3, so there's an aspect of people definitely finding other people in residency.

 

[MerickManual]

The sense I got even at the programs in big cities - around 25-50% of people were married or engaged or close to being engaged.

That number jumped up even more by the end of R3, so there's an aspect of people definitely finding other people in residency.

Ahh, you forgot about the fallacy that correlation does not equal causation. Usually they're getting hitched by R3 because people put off marriage and families until the end of residency. Actually, come to think about it, a lot more percentage of residents I have met are married to people outside of medicine than in medicine.

 

[IMPD]

This is going to sound nuts, but you could always branch out from the incestuous world of medicine and make friends and date elsewhere.

Nurses.

 

[Mad Jack]

Nurses.

 

[EMDO2018]

Why not? Nurses are okay right?