Question about Residency - please help

[Storku]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I was wondering if there is much of a difference in job prospects or other aspects when doing a residency at a well-known school/hospital compared to one that is not as well known. For example, what will be the difference in job prospects if I match into Loma Linda for surgery for example, compared to matching into UCLA for surgery? Can someone with experience or knowledge about this give me some insight? Thank you.

 

[qmcat]

I was wondering if there is much of a difference in job prospects or other aspects when doing a residency at a well-known school/hospital compared to one that is not as well known. For example, what will be the difference in job prospects if I match into Loma Linda for surgery for example, compared to matching into UCLA for surgery? Can someone with experience or knowledge about this give me some insight? Thank you.

There's much more that goes into a job application than just the residency program you went to. You'll need good letters from attendings and chiefs you worked with, connections, etc.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Generally speaking - No. There is no difference in pay.

There are a small select group of practices run by people that all graduated from the same program. They prefer their own graduates due to familiarity, and they know they are trained well. This is very rare.

Another example is people using their "name degree" to help them get picked for tv shows, news correspondent jobs, etc. Again - how many people do this - VERY FEW. Some physicians get just as good of "celebrity" jobs from smaller residencies, so it is what you make of it.

On average, no residency will prepare you to make more money than another.

 

[Storku]

Generally speaking - No. There is no difference in pay.

There are a small select group of practices run by people that all graduated from the same program. They prefer their own graduates due to familiarity, and they know they are trained well. This is very rare.

Another example is people using their "name degree" to help them get picked for tv shows, news correspondent jobs, etc. Again - how many people do this - VERY FEW. Some physicians get just as good of "celebrity" jobs from smaller residencies, so it is what you make of it.

On average, no residency will prepare you to make more money than another.

thanks for your responses. does this mean that when I am comparing between 2 medical schools I want to attend, specifically their match list (aside from location, costs, etc), that I should be looking/comparing the number and broad range of specialties that students get matched into - instead of the hospital/school they are matched into since that seems less important according to your advice?

 

[deleted263296]

Are you sure about that? I was wondering about this as well. If this were true, then why does everyone strive to go to the biggest name academic programs?

 

[TexasPhysician]

thanks for your responses. does this mean that when I am comparing between 2 medical schools I want to attend, specifically their match list (aside from location, costs, etc), that I should be looking/comparing the number and broad range of specialties that students get matched into - instead of the hospital/school they are matched into since that seems less important according to your advice?

Match lists are really impossible to compare. My school had an AOA top of the class student match in Family Medicine in rural Colorado. That was his first choice program in his top choice field. It shocks me too, but he could have done anything anywhere.

My school also had people match at Cornell even though it wasn't anywhere near their top choice program. They were actually a little disappointed to match there.

Yet it looks "better" on match lists to see Cornell, when it was disappointing to the applicant. Hence how do you know if people got what they wanted by a matchlist? Ivy league schools always have more people matching at Ivy league residencies because that is usually geographically where they want to match. Rural state schools usually have people go to residency in smaller rural programs because that is where they want to go.

Residency is a preference based on geography, family, call schedule, etc. A match list doesn't tell you what was important to the applicant.

 

[TexasPhysician]

Are you sure about that? I was wondering about this as well. If this were true, then why does everyone strive to go to the biggest name academic programs?

They don't. The people that strive to attend big name programs usually want to do research or go into academic jobs. Both are easier from big name schools.

My roommate in med school was AOA with 99%ile board scores. He chose to interview at Arkansas University and turned down interviews from Johns Hopkins and UPENN. He had family in Arkansas (mom), and only applied to JH and Penn for the fun of it.

When you get to apply, you will understand. Residency is about living where you want to live, choosing a program with a good call schedule, finding a program where you fit in with the residents, etc.

How many times have you asked your doctor where he/she did residency? It just doesn't matter in private practice.

 

[qmcat]

thanks for your responses. does this mean that when I am comparing between 2 medical schools I want to attend, specifically their match list (aside from location, costs, etc), that I should be looking/comparing the number and broad range of specialties that students get matched into - instead of the hospital/school they are matched into since that seems less important according to your advice?

Ditto everything TexasPhysician said.

You can't really compare medical schools based on match lists because the choice of what specialty and location a student wants to go to is a personal choice. If you're trying to decide which school to go to, I think it is more important to ask yourself which school will give you a better chance to succeed. Some important things that I would consider are:

-Is the grading pass/fail or letter grades?
-If the school gives out "honors", what is the % cut off for honors; is the criteria for honors reasonable, or is it something impossible like having to score 95%+ in a course to get honors
-Does the school run on a block system or semester system? Do you take 1 class at a time during a block or 4-6 classes all at the same time for the entire semester?
-How much time do you get to study for step 1?
-Does the school have note service or recorded lectures online?

These are just a few things I could think of off the top of my head, but looking back, these were things I regret not looking at because they would have made life a lot easier.

 

[Storku]

Ditto everything TexasPhysician said.

You can't really compare medical schools based on match lists because the choice of what specialty and location a student wants to go to is a personal choice. If you're trying to decide which school to go to, I think it is more important to ask yourself which school will give you a better chance to succeed. Some important things that I would consider are:

-Is the grading pass/fail or letter grades?
-If the school gives out "honors", what is the % cut off for honors; is the criteria for honors reasonable, or is it something impossible like having to score 95%+ in a course to get honors
-Does the school run on a block system or semester system? Do you take 1 class at a time during a block or 4-6 classes all at the same time for the entire semester?
-How much time do you get to study for step 1?
-Does the school have note service or recorded lectures online?

These are just a few things I could think of off the top of my head, but looking back, these were things I regret not looking at because they would have made life a lot easier.

Would it be better for a school to have pass/fail or letter grades? For schools with pass/fail how would students distinguish themselves from one another in terms of grades/performace?

 

[flatearth22]

Would it be better for a school to have pass/fail or letter grades? For schools with pass/fail how would students distinguish themselves from one another in terms of grades/performace?

Gunner alert!

Pretty much all pass-fail schools keep private grades to do internal rankings for things like AOA.

 

[qmcat]

Would it be better for a school to have pass/fail or letter grades?

Whether it's better to have pass/fail or not is personal preference. If you go to a school that's pass/fail, and it turns out you're scoring really high % in your class, you'll start wondering "I wish we had letter grades so I could be more distinguished". If you go to a letter grade school and you find yourself in the middle of the class, you'll start wondering "I wish we had pass/fail so I wouldn't look so dumb on my transcript".

Personally, I prefer pass/fail, but my school does pass/fail/honors. There's less stress on you to always score high marks if it's pass/fail. Realistically, there will be times when you feel burned out and don't want to study anymore, and that's when you'll be really glad you went to a pass/fail school. Some of my classmates who usually score 90%+ in classes and honor everything have a few blocks where they just don't care and end up getting 75% or so. The human body and mind can only handle so much.

For the most part, pre-clinical grades don't matter much when applying for residency because there is so much variation in grading between different schools. But, I think it's still nicer and less stress to go to a school with a grading style that you like.

For schools with pass/fail how would students distinguish themselves from one another in terms of grades/performace?

The main distinguisher will be Step 1, since that's a standardized test and is used to compare you to the rest of the med students in the world. And, like flatearth mentioned, some schools do internal rankings.


Also, I wanted to add to my previous post that knowing the passing % for the school you want to attend is important too. When I was in undergrad and deciding between med schools, I thought most schools would be uniform, but it turns out some schools have their % needed to pass a course at >55%, while some other schools require >75%. If I could go back and attend the school with 55% minimum pass, I would have been able to slack off so much more these last 2 years.

 

[Jolie South]

Cross posted in Pre-Allo. Closing.