Question About The Whole Process from Medical School and on

[HuskyPride149]

I am a pre-med student, soon to be a first year med student (still in the process of learning about the whole journey) and wanted some more elaboration of match lists.

From my understanding, feel free to correct me if I'm not understanding correctly

Match lists applies to clinical rotation sites that occur during the 4th year sometimes the 3rd year correct?
The place that you do your clinicals during those two years does not play a part in where you would like to be for residency or even practice in the future. The only criteria for choosing a particular school is if they have a wide range of clinical sites, meaning more opportunities?
For example on the websites, UNECOM has less clinical sites than LECOM, the two schools I might be choosing between. Wouldn't it be better to go to a school that has more options?

Also does the place you do residency determine the area in which you will practice afterwards? Or can you just do residency and choose to practice anywhere you feel like living afterwards? What do most people do when they get out of residency?

I apologize if I sound "dumb" for not knowing the way things work, but I appreciate any help. Please enlighten me 😀 Thank You!

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[GUH]

I am a pre-med student, soon to be a first year med student (still in the process of learning about the whole journey) and wanted some more elaboration of match lists.

From my understanding, feel free to correct me if I'm not understanding correctly

The place that you do your clinicals during those two years does not play a part in where you would like to be for residency or even practice in the future. The only criteria for choosing a particular school is if they have a wide range of clinical sites, meaning more opportunities?
For example on the websites, UNECOM has less clinical sites than LECOM, the two schools I might be choosing between. Wouldn't it be better to go to a school that has more options?

Also does the place you do residency determine the area in which you will practice afterwards? Or can you just do residency and choose to practice anywhere you feel like living afterwards? What do most people do when they get out of residency?

I apologize if I sound "dumb" for not knowing the way things work, but I appreciate any help. Please enlighten me 😀 Thank You!

Match lists show where DOs who have graduated will do an internship or residency. They do not show where they did clinical rotations as medical students.

There are many criteria to use to choose a school. There are many threads on this. These include location, cost, clinical rotations, university affiliation, public university status, or reputation, to name a few.

You can complete a residency anywhere and then pack up and move somewhere else afterwards. You will just need to make sure you get your medical license in whatever state you choose to practice. Most physicians practice near where they did a residency but this is not required except for exceptional cases, such as out-of-state residents who go to the Ohio COM.

 

[Siggy]

"The Match"/"match lists"/etc:

The match is the process you go through during 4th year that determines which residency owns your soul for the next 3-8 years of your life. You apply to residencies and the residencies interview you, much like applying to medical school (ERAS=AMCAS/AACOMAS, Step 1/2 = MCAT, etc). However, once that's all done you submit a rank order list of where you'd like to go and residencies submit a rank order list of who they want, and a computer matches you to a residency.

"Does it matter where you go during 3rd and 4th year?" Yes... and no... and maybe. Where you go for clinicals allows programs to get to know you better than just a paper application and interviews. The impression you form can start even as a 3rd year if you rotate through that specialty. Does everyone end up matching where they rotate at? No, but it can be a big factor.

"Is more rotation spots better than less?" Maybe. Not all rotation sites are created the same. More isn't better if the sites are sub-par. Plus it's harder to live close to your hospital if your hospital changes every month.

 

[touchpause13]

Can someone move this to preallo?

 

[Mad Jack]

Pre-osteo would be better IMO, as the are some osteo specific questions and this is a matriculating osteo student.

 

[HuskyPride149]

Sorry if I didn't post this is the right forum. Thank you everyone for shedding some light on this matter. I will most likely be starting in the fall at UNECOM and I was just looking at their match list.

Last question, a match list does not necessarily mean that those are the internships/residencies that are most likely available to the students right due to that school, it just happens that those are the places where previous students have matched? Any residency/internship is possible for med students, besides the competitiveness of specific ones and MD/DO related right? It doesn't matter where in the US right?

 

[GUH]

Sorry if I didn't post this is the right forum. Thank you everyone for shedding some light on this matter. I will most likely be starting in the fall at UNECOM and I was just looking at their match list.

Last question, a match list does not necessarily mean that those are the internships/residencies that are most likely available to the students right due to that school, it just happens that those are the places where previous students have matched? Any residency/internship is possible for med students, besides the competitiveness of specific ones and MD/DO related right? It doesn't matter where in the US right?

Yes. Match lists show where past students have matched. You may match to any residency anywhere in the country which chooses to accept you, even if nobody from your school has matched there before.
Some schools may have rotations at certain sites, which may make it easier for students to audition for residency programs at those sites. But this does not mean that students have to match at those sites.

For your situation, for example, you may end up going to UNECOM but that does not mean you have to do a residency in Maine. You could end up in New York or California or Florida or wherever if you apply and the program ranks you highly enough and you rank the program highly enough.

 

[HuskyPride149]

Thank you very much for your response!