Refusing to settle!

[batm0nque]

a lot of places became my top choices only after i interviewed..and had i not applied broadly i would have never known what else was out there...how do you know what your top choices are? how do you KNOW you won't be happy outside of cali??

for instance for me i found that vanderbilt, davis, and mayo were pretty sweeeeet---(and generous with the $$$$) tho i didnt know much about them before i applied/interviewed-visited and that harvard, duke, and UCI (places that were MUCH higher on my desirability list before interviewing) are NOT for me...

have an open mind---being from cali i know its hard to leave but other states have *some* positive qualities too

GLuCK!

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[Gut Shot]

It does, for sure, and in fact I hear California is notoriously hard to break into if you're not from around here.

For medical school this is certainly true, but residency is another ball game. For example, I just checked the list of PGY-1 residents in UCLA's internal medicine program. Here is the list of med schools they hail from:

UCSF
Baylor
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
George Washington
Baylor
Cornell
SUNY-Buffalo
Drew-UCLA
New York Medical College
University of Maryland
Columbia Physicians and Surgeons
UCLA
Drexel
UCLA
UCSF
Loma Linda University
UCLA
University of Texas-Galveston
Baylor
Harvard
University of Pittsburgh
Indiana University
UCLA
St. Louis University
University of Michigan
Stanford
NYU
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
UCSF
USC
University of Minnesota
Texas Tech
Yale
University of Hawaii
UCLA

 

[ButImLETired]

For medical school this is certainly true, but residency is another ball game. For example, I just checked the list of PGY-1 residents in UCLA's internal medicine program. Here is the list of med schools they hail from:

UCSF
Baylor
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
George Washington
Baylor
Cornell
SUNY-Buffalo
Drew-UCLA
New York Medical College
University of Maryland
Columbia Physicians and Surgeons
UCLA
Drexel
UCLA
UCSF
Loma Linda University
UCLA
University of Texas-Galveston
Baylor
Harvard
University of Pittsburgh
Indiana University
UCLA
St. Louis University
University of Michigan
Stanford
NYU
Johns Hopkins
Georgetown
UCSF
USC
University of Minnesota
Texas Tech
Yale
University of Hawaii
UCLA

Huh. I stand corrected. I thought it was rarer than that, although I wonder at the percentage of people hailing from CA vs. those who aren't from here. Thanks for the info, though!

 

[Gut Shot]

although I wonder at the percentage of people hailing from CA vs. those who aren't from here. Thanks for the info, though!

That's how it is for every med school in the country. Grads have a tendency to stay local for residency. They may have bought a house, or have a spouse/significant other with a job in the area, or have started a family, or have other family nearby, or they may be comfortable with the med center and like the program, or they may be in something competitive and schmoozed their way in.

That said, residency may be one of the first times you can strike out and move practically anywhere, and many people do. This obviously isn't true if you're a marginal applicant gunning for a derm spot. However, to give you some perspective, in the 2008 NRMP match there were 14,359 allopathic US seniors competing for 22,240 positions. In contrast to med school apps, the numbers are in your favor... overall.

 

[enjoydrywax]

Hopefully this isn't too much of a derail but along the lines of that LizzyM score, what if your score is way above the average means for ALL medical schools in the country? I am trying to find safety schools, but honestly I have no idea where to begin.

MDPrincess, for a while I was all about only applying to cali schools because I was born and raised in LA (redondo beach) and that is where my heart is. My top two choices are USC and UCLA just for that reason, but many of the posters here have summarized all the criticisms of our previous application strategy. Either way, as long as your stats are in line, I dont see why you should worry about getting into a cali school.

 

[SoCalGirl]

Hopefully this isn't too much of a derail but along the lines of that LizzyM score, what if your score is way above the average means for ALL medical schools in the country? I am trying to find safety schools, but honestly I have no idea where to begin.

MDPrincess, for a while I was all about only applying to cali schools because I was born and raised in LA (redondo beach) and that is where my heart is. My top two choices are USC and UCLA just for that reason, but many of the posters here have summarized all the criticisms of our previous application strategy. Either way, as long as your stats are in line, I dont see why you should worry about getting into a cali school.

Cali is random. You can have great stats and not get in and then you can have low stats and get in.

 

[se2131]

The truth of the matter is that you really have no clue how much you will like a school until you go and see it for yourself, talk to other students, and get a better grasp on what living there for the next four years would be like.

In my case, for the most part, the schools that I thought I would love ended up being the ones I didn't like at all after visiting, and the schools that I had initially written off as "eh, maybe if I don't get in anywhere else," were the ones that I ended up loving after interviewing.

My point is that you may think you know your top choices now, but they might end up not really being your top choices.

 

[ZagDoc]

I also second the sentiment that things only get more competitive from here on out and you may want to work on your flexibility surrounding your career expectations. When you match for residency and fellowships, that's it, no fluffy debating where you'd rather live or anything, you're contractually obligated to go. If you end up loving a competitive specialty or fellowship you'll be hoping to match somewhere and could end up anywhere.

As a senior ortho resident told me the other day who recently matched into a hand fellowship told me "in medicine, if you want to end up doing what you really want, you learn to say play 'good dog' and go where you need to." He went to med school in north carolina, did his residency in oregon, and now is heading to indiana, so I think he has some personal experience in the matter.

 

[sugeny]

Hey Princess,

I am only applying to Cali schools too, but I don't think that it's too outrageous of a decision. There are at least 8 med school programs open to the general public. I mean, if you have no intention of going to school out of state, why waste the money on the application? Instead just limit your applications to schools where you actually want to go. Makes sense to me....

It also makes sense how some people are saying to apply as broadly as possible, for various reasons - compatibility, safety schools, etc. - but, having studied in many different places for undergrad, personally I am content with my choice to only apply to Cali schools.

Hope your application goes well!