should I apply?

[chad99]

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Hey guys...just hoping someone out there can give me some good advice and point me in the right direction. I'm just finishing my first year of residency at a middle of the road IM program. I'm a US grad with average board scores. Unfortunately, I ran into a problem while in med school and screwed up a course. The course was not offered during that summer so my school made me waste a year just repeating the course (sucks!!).
After I started residency, I tried to do as much cardiology research during my intern year as possible (as difficult as that was)....I have a couple publications in major cardiology journals from this year and hopefully more to come over the next year. I also think I will likely get good LOR's from my PD and cardiologists I have worked with.
I am planning on applying in the upcoming year but don't want to set myself up for failure by applying if I have no chance (given the problem with the course I ran into while in med school). So what do you guys think? I would greatly appreciate any help and advice you guys can offer?

 

[cardiolipin]

without reading any of your post, the answer is "yes" you should apply.

 

[dragonfly99]

Yes, you should definitely apply. Do not bring up the problem that you had in med school. If the programs you apply to find out and want to know about it, they'll find out or they'll ask you. As I remember, there are even some cardiology fellowships that didn't ask for my Dean's letter. I'm not even sure how close they look at your transcripts from med school - I'm sure they notice if you were AOA and they notice WHERE you went to med school, but I honestly am not convinced that they look that close.

If you have an in house cards fellowship @your program, it sounds like you have good relationships with faculty there and you should just try applying. If you get LOR's from those people, then apply to other places in your region and/or where your LOR writers know people.

USMLE scores - some programs want to know them, some don't even ask or don't want them, so I think having average ones is not going to be a deal breaker. I think that having publications matters as much, or more.

You have to realize that coming from where you are, you're probably not going to get Duke or UCSF cardiology fellowship, but that doesn't matter much as long as you're happy where you end up, and especially if you don't plan to do academic bench research as a career.