Poll: least difficult residency to get

[Oscillator]

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Which residency do candidates consider the least competitive?

 

[WatchingWaiting]

I'm afraid you left the answer off your list. Specialties by average step 1 score of people who matched (sf match specialties not included):

Phys Medicine & Rehab 208
Family Practice 210
Psychiatry 210
Obstetrics-Gynecology 212
Pediatrics 215
Anesthesiology 216
Emergency Medicine 219
Internal Medicine 220
General Surgery 222
Pathology 222
Radiation Oncology 228
Orthopaedic Surgery 230
Plastic Surgery 232
Radiology-Diagnostic 232
Dermatology 233

 

[mlw03]

first off, step 1 score alone doesn't determine how difficult it is to match into a specialty. EM is lower than pathology, and i don't know anyone who'd say it's easier to match into EM than into path. if you wanna use numbers i'd argue you should use the % of unmatched applicants. that shows how many people wanted to enter a field and couldn't match anywhere. second, the NRMP data isn't complete anyway - neurosurg and urology aren't on there, two very competitive fields.

to the original poster: what are you getting at? this is your very first post, and you put up something that's bound to be inflammatory. why? what information are you truly trying to gain?

 

[Oscillator]

This may be my first post, but you don't own this forum. Being a 'senior member' (what does that mean anyway??!!!!) does not change the fact that you are a medical student, so don't go around questioning people's motives. I was just trying to get a sense of people's perceptions, and as is evident, perceptions don't always correlate well with statistics.

 

[Gfunk6]

The reality is that unless you have a major red flag on your app (e.g. failed USMLE multiple times, cited for academic dishonesty, failed multiple courses) you will find be able to find a residency spot SOMEWHERE.

Naturally, the primary care specialties (e.g. IM, Family, Peds) will be your most likely match simply b/c they have the most positions available.

 

[DarksideAllstar]

This may be my first post, but you don't own this forum. Being a 'senior member' (what does that mean anyway??!!!!) does not change the fact that you are a medical student, so don't go around questioning people's motives. I was just trying to get a sense of people's perceptions, and as is evident, perceptions don't always correlate well with statistics.

Why would you even care about "people's perceptions"? Are you looking for biased info?

 

[mlw03]

This may be my first post, but you don't own this forum. Being a 'senior member' (what does that mean anyway??!!!!) does not change the fact that you are a medical student, so don't go around questioning people's motives. I was just trying to get a sense of people's perceptions, and as is evident, perceptions don't always correlate well with statistics.

i have no idea what senior member means, it was assigned to me by SDN. i question your motives because people like to come on here and post inflammatory stuff to watch the ensuing arguments. if you're going to post stuff that can easily be perceived as inflammatory and you don't want your motives questioned, then simply state your true motives and if legit i wouldn't have questioned them.

as the wise darkside pointed out, what do perceptions mean on this topic? i don't care what other people think, rather i care about reality. to obtain a realistic assessment of your question you need to look at the NRMP data for the past few years because competitiveness varies year to year. you also should talk to student affairs at your own school to get an accurate assessment of how candidates from your school fare at matching into those specialties.

the reality is that none of those specialties is hard to match into somewhere, but the top programs will always be competitive (ie, hopkins IM is probably very hard to match into, but community hospital X probably not too tough).

 

[zinjanthropus]

This may be my first post, but you don't own this forum. Being a 'senior member' (what does that mean anyway??!!!!) does not change the fact that you are a medical student, so don't go around questioning people's motives. I was just trying to get a sense of people's perceptions, and as is evident, perceptions don't always correlate well with statistics.

if you want to get a "sense" of people's perceptions, listen to what frequent and longtime posters have to say about a subject before being so inflammatory with your first few posts....the senority might not mean much but it does mean that the member has likely seen this topic run through before on SDN (which it has).

Also, the particular poster you were referring to has posted a lot about the match process this year and their interest in pathology. thus, they likely do have some insight ("perspective") that could serve you well. not too mention the fact that they are probably right in their selection of outcome measures that work best for this topic (i.e. using percent unmatched in a particular field to gauge competitiveness). I would also add looking at the number of unfilled spots in the nrmp data.

 

[yaah]

This may be my first post, but you don't own this forum. Being a 'senior member' (what does that mean anyway??!!!!) does not change the fact that you are a medical student, so don't go around questioning people's motives. I was just trying to get a sense of people's perceptions, and as is evident, perceptions don't always correlate well with statistics.

It's a valid question and criticism. Why would you ask this question? People ask these questions a lot but no one ever seems to admit why they are asking it. Competitiveness is a subjective term. Some family med programs are more competitive than some programs in other "more competitive" fields.