Residencies - pathology especially

[WhtsThFrequency]

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I plan to go onto a combined residency/PhD program after vet school, in hopefully in pathology and nutritional biochemistry. I'm primarily interested in Washington State and Colorado. I have a huuuuuge amount of research experience, and work in a clin path lab, etc. My only worry is my GPA...it hangs around 2.8-3.2 (right now it is a 3.0 I think...hopefully I will bring it up a few notches third year.)

I know things like small animal surgery residencies are INCREDIBLY competitive, and you need to be at the absolute top of your class...but does anyone know anything about what the competition is like for pathology residencies? And residencies that have a combined PhD/board certification prep programs (ie would they look more at research exp as opposed to just grades?) It makes sense that they might...but if anyone has any first hand info that'd be great (I know its a long shot since path residents are few and far between 🙂 )

 

[StealthDog]

I emailed one of my path professors, and she said that path residencies are much less competitive than surgery or medicine rotations, and a GPA of 3.0 definitely wouldn't rule someone out, particularly if they have research experience and/or participated in other pathology-related activities.

Hope that helps!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Makes me feel a little better 🙂 Heh heh...much less competitive cause no one else wants to do that crazy stuff! Slap a nasty ole liver down on the table - ok what killed the animal? You have to know everything about everything and its super confusing and convoluted...just the way I like it

 

[StealthDog]

I lovvvvve our pathologists here. You have to have a great sense of humor to pick through dead stuff all day 🙂

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I've noticed that pathologists tend to have weird sense of humor - which is fine by me cause that is how I am...I prefer to company of strange people.

My favorite pathologist prof quotes so far has been

"Well, I can't show you an actual hemangiosarcoma in lab, because it would just bleed all over the place, but I guess then then you could fingerpaint in the blood all afternoon"

"Nutrition better than pathology? Bah! You eat every day, You only die once!"

"Let's have a moment of silence. This is the Catherine Zeta-Jones of lymph nodes"

"This slide is so beautiful I think I am going to barf."

"My favorite necropsy was an elephant. It's not often you get to jump around and dance in a chest cavity"

 

[Bill59]

In general, residencies in clin. path. and anatomic path. are not as competitive as some of the small animal clinical residencies. The path. residencies don't go through the match and most don't require an internship. Also, the hours are usually more reasonable.

 

[ri23]

Sorry OP, I know this is off topic, but does anyone have a list of the most sought after residencies. I want to see how competitive the areas I am thinking of pursuing are. Thanks in advance!

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I think the hardest ones are surgery, opthalomogy, and dentistry....

 

[Bill59]

Also understand that "most sought after" doesn't equal most competitive. For example, there are more people trying to get internal medicine residencies than there are trying to get ophthalmology residencies. But while there are over 30 small animal medicine residencies in the match this year, there are 4 ophthalmology residencies. Ophtho is harder to get because of the higher ratio between applicants and positions.

 

[ri23]

Thanks for the information. Is there anywhere that I could look up the number of spots and number of past applicants?

 

[Bill59]

I think the ACVP website has a list of residencies. As for number, since there's no match you would have to get the information on numbers of applicants from each particular program.

 

[Darla3]

This is a little off topic too, but as a 3rd year internships and residencies are hot on my mind too. Can anyone give me a rough idea on average GPAs to score a decent internship?

 

[Bill59]

For SA rotating internships, a 3.5 gives you a good shot. Class rank is a little more important than GPA. Also references are critical and the letter of intent is important.