Residency site vs location of your school

[sky778]

I know there is a correlation between the location of the school you attend vs where you end up doing your residency. But how significant is this correlation? I want to eventually practice/do residency at California or Washington state (west coast).

Thanks!!

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[cliquesh]

I know there is a correlation between the location of the school you attend vs where you end up doing your residency. But how significant is this correlation? I want to eventually practice/do residency at California or Washington state (west coast).

Thanks!!

If you need to your residency in California then you'd be better off going to a Californian osteopathic school. How much does it help? I'm not sure but I genuinely do believe it matters.

I know someone who went to a DO school on the east coast. Then they did their residency at a decent state program on the east coast. Then they did their fellowship at a good place in the Midwest. Now they're an attending in LA. I guess my point is: you can always move west (or east) after your training, especially if you do your training at reputable places.

I do think it's hard to match residency in a "desirable" city as a DO if your school is not located in that area. I'm pretty much just thinking of nyc and California.

Washington and Oregon were not DO friendly places when I was applying for residency in 2013, but I got an II at university of Washington for residency and fellowship, and I'm coming from the east coast. Didn't hear anything from Oregon ever.

 

[angeloflogic]

Going to a school near the final location of your choice means hospitals there are more likely to recognize or know the school you are attending. This means it might be easier to get clinical rotations and audition rotations there just due to familiarity. If you look at the residency locations of some of the top, non-regionally biased schools like KCU or the Midwesterns, they place residents throughout the US. If you look at schools like UNE or PNWU where they generally have a regional bias, they heavily have residents in their respective areas. Also think about traveling for audition rotations. Would you like the idea of going to school on the east coast and having to spend most of your fourth year jumping 3000 miles to go to a different rotation every 4-6 weeks?

 

[sky778]

If you need to your residency in California then you'd be better off going to a Californian osteopathic school. How much does it help? I'm not sure but I genuinely do believe it matters.

I know someone who went to a DO school on the east coast. Then they did their residency at a decent state program on the east coast. Then they did their fellowship at a good place in the Midwest. Now they're an attending in LA. I guess my point is: you can always move west (or east) after your training, especially if you do your training at reputable places.

I do think it's hard to match residency in a "desirable" city as a DO if your school is not located in that area. I'm pretty much just thinking of nyc and California.

Washington and Oregon were not DO friendly places when I was applying for residency in 2013, but I got an II at university of Washington for residency and fellowship, and I'm coming from the east coast. Didn't hear anything from Oregon ever.

I was looking Touro-CA's match list and most students match into California are for primary care (which I am currently interested in) but most of their specialty matches are out of state. I am not sure if this is due to the competitiveness of Cali or just that specialty residencies are more available for DO at other DO friendly places.

I think I am picking between AZCOM and KCU (accepted at both and they are my top choices out of all acceptances). KCU is cheaper but it seems that AZCOM has more recognition in California (they have rotation spots at California). So now its tuition vs likelihood of matching into Cali/practice in Cali. But I am not sure if it is worth it to pay 20k more per year to have higher chance of getting to west coast (and how much higher is the chance).

It is a sweet burden I know but as December is approaching I still can't make up my mind.

Thank you all for your feedbacks!

 

[sdhere1234]

Keep in mind, a lot of this is self-selection too.

What I mean is CA kids are more likely to attend CA schools in the first place, which are then more likely to stay in CA for residency.

Replace CA with any other state or region in the USA and it hold pretty true for regional biases. Of course, this isn't 100% accurate, but for the most part it's what I've noticed.

 

[cabinbuilder]

I know there is a correlation between the location of the school you attend vs where you end up doing your residency. But how significant is this correlation? I want to eventually practice/do residency at California or Washington state (west coast).

Thanks!!

IMO school location does not correlate to residency location does not correlate to where you eventually practice. You go to the school that picks you. You apply to residency where you want to attend and cross your fingers that you get your 1st or 2nd choice and then you apply to the job that you want in the location that you want. I never had a job pick me or not pick me from the location of my residency.


Undergrad in Alaska
Medical school in Pennsylvania
Residency in Texas.
First job in Montana
Second job in Colorado
Third Job in Oregon

 

[cabinbuilder]

Going to a school near the final location of your choice means hospitals there are more likely to recognize or know the school you are attending. This means it might be easier to get clinical rotations and audition rotations there just due to familiarity. If you look at the residency locations of some of the top, non-regionally biased schools like KCU or the Midwesterns, they place residents throughout the US. If you look at schools like UNE or PNWU where they generally have a regional bias, they heavily have residents in their respective areas. Also think about traveling for audition rotations. Would you like the idea of going to school on the east coast and having to spend most of your fourth year jumping 3000 miles to go to a different rotation every 4-6 weeks?

I have to disagree here as this statement is so far from the truth in the job search.