Ranking multiple specialties on match list

[idiot]

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How unorthodox is it to apply to more than one specialty? For family reasons, it's extremely important for me to stay in the same geographic area after graduation. Is it acceptable to rank one specialty 1,2,3 and rank another spcialty of interest 4,5,6?

 

[Winged Scapula]

Its perfectly acceptable. How common I don't know, but I do know that students applying to competitive specialties often apply to another one as a "back-up" (ie, I did the same when applying for Plastics last year - Gen Surg was my back up).

The only problem you might run into is PDs assuming you aren't dedicated to Specialty A. If A and B are relatively close in practice you have an easy answer - if you are applying to say Gen Surg and FP, you might have a hard time explaining your dedication to one field over the other.

Best of luck.

 

[idiot]

Great, I was thinking Plastics and ENT - I'm interested in congenital malformations and trauma reconstruction.

 

[Goofy]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by idiot:
•How unorthodox is it to apply to more than one specialty? For family reasons, it's extremely important for me to stay in the same geographic area after graduation. Is it acceptable to rank one specialty 1,2,3 and rank another spcialty of interest 4,5,6?•••••Hi Idiot (love that moniker, snicker),

It is perfectly legimate for you to apply and rank as many specialties as you wish. Early 4th year is really too early to decide what you want to do for the rest of your life in my opinion, and such a strategy buys you more time to explore and revolve upon your interests. Your rank list doesn't necessarily have to be 1,2,3 of one specialty. You can alternate if you so desire.

I actually interviewed for three different specialties before ultimately deciding which one I would rank (yeah thats a lot of interviews).

One caveat though. Many programs will frown upon learning that you are doing this. Granted it is difficult for them to learn of your indecision, unless you are applying to two specialties in the same institution, something I would try to avoid doing if at all possible.

 

[spiderman719]

Hey idiot,

Your choice of specialty (congenital malformations and trauma reconstruction) brings up several important issues.

1) Applying to both ENT and plastics

Applying to ENT and plastics at the same time is more complicated than with most other specialties. Why? Because the ENT match is a full 2 months BEFORE the plastics match. If you match into ENT in January, you are contractually obligated to attend that residency, and you will not be allowed to participate in the March plastics match. Therefore, plastics will have to be the BACKUP specialty in case you don't match in ENT. It can't be the other way around.

Having said that, I know people who have tried it the other way around (using ENT as the backup for plastics). Their idea is that they will just match into BOTH an ENT and plastics spot (if all goes well), and then call the ENT program up in March explaining the situation and declining the spot. You can imagine that the ENT program would very unhappy with that situation. I haven't talked to the people who attempted this since the match, so I have no idea how it worked out.

Another problem with this is that the NRMP (main match) may find out that you already matched in the early match, and exclude you from the main match.

SO, my recommendation would be to pick one or the other because you won't greatly improve your odds of matching by applying to both, and it would be an enormous headache. If you're worried about matching into ENT or plastics, I would choose general surgery for a backup--you can always do a plastics fellowship.

 

[spiderman719]

Hey idiot,

Your choice of specialty (congenital malformations and trauma reconstruction) brings up several important issues.

2) Plastics or ENT

As you probably know, you can go either route. I don't think there's a right answer in terms of which one is better training. The number of years to be fellowship trained in craniofacial surgery could vary from 6 to 8 years.

I think the important thing to consider is that you might change your mind at some point and decide to specialize in something else along the way--look at the other things that ENTs do and the other things that plastic surgeons do, and then decide which field sounds more like you.

 

[idiot]

My main concern is matching to a program in the Houston area - when I graduate, my spouse will be a few years behind me. By limiting myself geographically, however, I'm worried about casting too narrow a net (esp with the extremely low # of plastics spots available per program). Applying to more than one specialty would mitigate this, but only if I could apply to multiple programs within the same institutions. Otherwise, the situation wouldn't improve.

My other thought was to apply state-wide, and hope my spouse could transfer to another school should I match outside of Houston.

About ENT - if you don't match early, can you enter the general match without penalty?

 

[spiderman719]

idiot,

You're thinking along the right lines--the wider you cast your net, the better chances you have of matching. You'll have to decide whether you want to risk matching outside of Houston or risk not matching at all. A lot of this depends on personal preference. And don't forget about the option of general surgery in Houston.

As far as if you don't match into ENT in January, yes you have every right to enter the main match.

I'm assuming that most of the Houston ENT and plastics programs are at the same hospitals. From what I heard from fellow applicants, it is unlikely that the other department will find out that you applied if your only interaction with the program is on interview day. However, if you do rotations at the hospital, or if you're applying to your own school, this would make it more difficult.

So at programs you are generally unfamiliar with, I think it's safe to apply to both. But at programs where you do rotations, you may have to pick one or the other (between ENT or plastics).

Hope that helps a little bit...Best of luck!

 

[atsai3]

"idiot":

Ranking more than one type of program is unorthodox but may be a reasonable course of action to take if you are vying for one of the more competitive specialty programs, say neurosurgery, and have some sort of preference set that causes you to not rank all of the programs (eg, suppose one feels "If I can't train neurosurg in New York City then I don't want neurosurg").

Interestingly, this practice is common in Canada. It is not uncommon for someone interested in urology, say, to rank all 10(?) urology programs, all 10(?) general surgery programs, and then maybe a few medicine programs.

-a.