When searching for residency positions across the country, how do you know how competitive each program is? For example, there are more than 10 Internal Medicine Residency programs in the Philadelphia area... how do you know which ones are good and which ones are not so good? Is there any kind of database showing average incoming PGY-1 COMLEX scores or grades, etc? Thanks.
Residency competitiveness
- Thread starter SpiderDOC
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This question is something I am wondering about too although I will share with you some advice I was given.
Fellowships. Look at 2 things with each program: 1) what kind of fellowships is the residency program affiliated with? and 2) how many of their graduates go into fellowships and where?
From my understanding, a competitive program is a good academic program. A good academic program is one which is affiliated with several fellowships and places its graduates into those affiliated fellowships.
Another criteria to consider is research. Are residents required to do research? How much research? What are some research projects going on at the program right now? How many from the faculty are actively involved in research?
One more criteria I was told to consider is look at the current resident class and see where they went to medical school. This will give you some idea about the competitiveness of the program since competitive program will have residents from "top" medical schools.
Again, like I said before these are things I have read or have been told. I'm not sure how much of it applies or is true.
Fellowships. Look at 2 things with each program: 1) what kind of fellowships is the residency program affiliated with? and 2) how many of their graduates go into fellowships and where?
From my understanding, a competitive program is a good academic program. A good academic program is one which is affiliated with several fellowships and places its graduates into those affiliated fellowships.
Another criteria to consider is research. Are residents required to do research? How much research? What are some research projects going on at the program right now? How many from the faculty are actively involved in research?
One more criteria I was told to consider is look at the current resident class and see where they went to medical school. This will give you some idea about the competitiveness of the program since competitive program will have residents from "top" medical schools.
Again, like I said before these are things I have read or have been told. I'm not sure how much of it applies or is true.
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resources dictate osteopathic prestige as few residencies are in a university style set up. the nicer the hospital, the bigger, the more residencies under one roof.....the nicer the experience.
consider going to a natl conference and seeing which show up. a big turn out probably shows a place that cares enough to get involved and has clout at a natl level.
consider going to a natl conference and seeing which show up. a big turn out probably shows a place that cares enough to get involved and has clout at a natl level.
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Does the higher the average COMLEX score of the residents equate to a better residency? Not in my opinion. I'm under the belief that you can get a very good medical education at most residency programs across the country. What's important in determining the "best residency", in my opinion,are a lot of the intangible things and will almost certainly be different from applicant to applicant. Because I feel you will be properly trained at most places, things I will be looking for are 1)Resident Quailty of Life/Happiness 2) Location, Location, Location 3) Availability of Fellowships in specialties I may be interested in.
Other things I would consider is total # of residents (b/c I wouldn't want to be a place where I am only one of a handful of residents, that could be daunting) and # of different specialties/fellowships (because I feel some of the best teaching occurs between Fellows and younger residents. Who's better to call if you have a pt with a difficult cardiac problem that you aren't sure how to take care of then a cardio fellow? They will almost certainly be more accepting of your situation and willing to spend time teaching you about it than the overly busy attending.)
