Residency questions

[path1]

I'm new to this so please excuse any errors,

I have a unique situation. At the last minute i changed specialties from surg to path and resultingly did not have time to get a residency. The scramble was pretty miniscule and decided to take a year for path research and reapply (after May it will only be 5 months).

My questions are:
1. Has anyone ever done what i'm doing, and if so does/will it hurt my application for next year

2. Which path programs are good? I've asked the chief pathologist here, some on scutwork.com and would like opinons from those who actually interviewed and saw the facilities. I'd like to go to stanford, but i don't have a phD and heard stanford/ucsf prefer MD/PhD's. Is this true?

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[mrpeters714]

No, taking a year off to do path related research can only help next year. Also, switchting from surgery into path is a pretty common occurence. It shouldn't be a problem. I think most pathologists are very sympathetic of people switching from extremely intense specialties such as surgery into pathology.

Regarding stanford: I'm not so sure they prefer md/phd's. This is personally embarassing, but maybe others can benefit from from my embarassment. I'm a US md/phd with 250+ step 1 and 2 scores, a pretty good publication record from a highly regarded lab (2 first author, 3 second author papers in 4 years), a collection of preclinical and clinical honors, and what I had thought were great LOR's. I had ranked stanford #1, then uw...but....both declined to rank me high enough, and I'm now going to UCSD for ap/cp starting in the summer. Anyway, i'm not bummed out--I love san diego and the residency here is great, if a bit smaller than the other two programs. In retrospect, I really should have done an away rotation at stanford, but... shoulda-woulda-coulda. no point in agonizing about it now. i highly recommend away rotations at programs you think you might be interested in. Apparently (i hadn't known this before), you can sometimes arrange to do "mini-rotations" of only a week or two in length. This might be one option if you wanted to try out both stanford and ucsf or MGH and BWH.

For lists of other programs that people think are good, look back a week or two at the polls. Personally on the east coast I liked hopkins alot, but my wife and i weren't enthused about moving to baltimore. of the harvard programs, my preference goes to BWH. On the west coast, as you can tell, i liked stanford and uw. Of course, I also liked UCSD, although it doesn't have quite the rep that the aforementioned programs have (it's building, i think, but this is my opinion). I think UCSF is also a great program, but it's in a very, very expensive city and the pay is only a little above average.

good luck next year,

-mrp

 

[eiroc]

in response to the first post,

I agree with mrp, I don't think it will hurt. The only way it could hurt is if you were actually in a surgery program and then burned some bridges when you dropped out. Most programs you are applying for will want to hear from your old program. But, from what it sounds like in your post, you made the decision before going into surgery.

to mrp,

I think it's a real testament to how competetive this year was when someone with your scores and CV can't match their first choice. That's insane that someone with your academic record got overlooked by the programs you mentioned. I think you are right when you say that it would have helped to have done a mini-elective. When a place like stanford sees 15-20 people (just guessing) with similar outstanding academic records, my guess is that the ones who actually went out and rotated will often have the advantage. Then again, if someone has a weaker academic background (which doesn't apply to you), an elective may help but certainly doesn't guarantee anything.

Anyhow, for what it's worth, I am currently in residency in southern california and I hear great things about UCSD. You are definitely going to be happy there. I'm just glad I didn't go through the match this year.

best of luck to the both of you.

 

[path1]

thanks for the reply guys. I didn't think doing research for 1 year would really hurt, only aid me. I believe somone mentioned i may have burned bridges in surgery. Actually, i didn't even rank for surgery, so there shouldn't be any burned bridges (maybe disappointments that i didn't go in, but at the time i was genuine).

Some obervations:

1. Many residents actually switch from surg to path

2. Many of the good path programs are either in the west or east

3. The Match this year was ROUGH!!, are the candidates becoming more competetive or is it just volume (when i heard mrpeters story i cringed in horror - i too aspire to stanford)

and Dennis Millerisque rants:

1. Why is it when i tell people i want to go into path they give me this look of disgust?

2. What is it with the world of medine obsession to live in poverty: when i get to discussing salaries they accuse me of money grubbing or false intension or no real interest in the subjects (all of which are false)?

Anyway, thanks for any and all replies. I'd still like to get opinions of other schools around the nation, including facilities resident satisfaction, workload/hrs. etc.

thanks.

 

[mrpeters714]

I thought of another reason why I thought I would match to stanford--I'm a stanford alum (undergrad), and so is my wife. I let the program know this, but it apparently didn't help.

Yes, Match Day was a pretty humbling experience. It's 20/20 hindsight, but I realized a few days AFTER rank lists were due that out of the 8 programs I interviewed at, six had given me positive feedback in the form of letters and/or calls from PD's or chairs. The only two programs which DIDN'T were...stanford and uw. It just goes to show you that programs will most certainly let you know if they are interested in you or not. Kind of an obvious statement, but I was hoping it wasn't the case, and that these programs would still rank me highly.

The thing that bugs me is that everyone I talked with before I applied, and pretty much every faculty I interviewed with said I would have my choice of any program in the country. Guess not!

Oh, and to the people who I'm sure are thinking..."well he must be socially inept or something", all I can say is that I don't have any diagnosable personality disorders, I don't think I actively offended anyone when I interviewed, and my wife tells me I don't smell (at least most of the time).



-mrp

 

[pas]

Hey MR,
This might soothe your ego a bit, but I heard that UW was actually only looking for 2 ap/cp residents this year and the rest were to be ap only or cp only. So, there at least, you were competing for one of only two spots. Don't feel bad.

 

[standoc]

Hey mrpeters,

I'm sorry thats terrible...I thought Stanford likes its own! I'm in a similar boat but many years behind you. I'm a stanford undegrad trying to get into stanford med. My decision will arrive next month, and hopefully there is no bias against their own at this level.

Standoc

 

[garden666]

To MRP:

I think that there will be very few applicants who can have better criteria than you. Did you show enough interest to Stanford (i.e. telling them that it was your #1 choice)? I heard that Stanford actually had one unfilled spot at last year's match (2002). I knew a couple of residents there and I do not think they have as high scores or as many honors as you. One is MD/Ph.D, but the other is not. I do not know if applying for AP/CP combined instead of AP only or CP only would have hurt you.

 

[mrpeters714]

Yes, I let the faculty who runs the resident selection committe (warnke) know that I was ranking stanford #1, as well as the chair (galli) and program coordinator (corrine).

Yes, I was applying AP/CP. They were only taking 4-5 applicants this year in the combined program.

I have no idea what happened. Whatever. it's stanford's loss. See if I give anymore alumni money to stanford now. that'll show them.

-mrp