Ranking advice

[zedoc]

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Howdy y'all!

Now that interview season is over, the hard part starts. I've been having such a hard time putting my rank list together. I have my bottom choices but not my top choices. I wanted to get y'alls input. I interviewed at many top tier programs and really loved many of them. I can see myself at any of those programs but the one program that I seem to go back on is my home program. I enjoyed my clerkship, electives, the attendings, and I really get along with the residents and can totally see them as my future family. My only concern is that it is more of a lower tiered community program. It's one of the few lower tiered programs on my list.

They only have one fellowship, PEM. Luckily it's one of the specialties that I am considering. However, I'm afraid that if I end up falling in love with another specialty during residency it will be harder for me, albeit not impossible, to obtain a fellowship since the majority of residents at my home program end up doing primary care or hospitalist medicine. So I guess my question is: how would you handle my situation or what advice can you offer to kind of assist me in making my list? I went into the season wanting a larger academic program where I would get a variety of clinical exposure and I'm not sure if I can get that at my home program, however like I said my heart keeps going back to my home program.

So sorry for such a long thread but this has been eating me up!

Thanks in advance!!

Zedoc 🙂

 

[crutchinski]

Hi,
To build on getting advice, I have a lot of programs I'm excited about, and I will be happy even if I drop to 10 on my list, so I think its been particularly hard comparing completely incongruent characteristics in figuring out how to rank. So, besides casting a wide net about advice in general (which I'm sure a bunch of us, including me, will happily take), I'm wondering if seasoned match vets could give their perspective on:

1)what you thought was important to consider when you were ranking
2) what you would have wished you had considered after the process was over

I know this is often highly personal and individual, but its nice to hear how other people approached it.
Thanks!

 

[cuddlebear]

I had a similar question and asked several faculty members and my advisor about this. I also come from a low tier school with no fellowships and was worried about wanting to do a fellowship after residency. The advice that I got was that, in general, it doesn't matter. My home school has matched people in to all types of fellowships into some prestigious programs, such as Emory and WashU. I was advised to go to residency where I fit in best and where I thought I could get the best education.