Taking 6 Years To Finish Med School...Residency Impact

[extendedMedEd]

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As the title states, as things stand now, I will be taking 6 years to finish med school (DO).

Yr 1. Medical issues and a preclinical failure in year 1. LOA then remediated the course during the next offering (lost a year here).

Yr 2 (techically 3 years since I began med school) failed a course. Now will be splitting rest of year 2 into 2 years to manage courseload + remediate aforementioned course next fall.

This means I will be taking 4 years to finish my preclinicals, and I'm feeling really down. I do have an upward trending going, as my performance has slowly but steadly been improving after struggling quite a bit.

I want to match IM or FM. What can I do going forward to keep my odds up? Passing boards on first try and doing well academically here onwards is a given. I'm just worried my residency odds are shot due to my LOA and multiple preclinical failures.

Feeling down that I will finish preclinicals around the time my first year classmates will be graduating and matching.

Any uplifiting stories or words also appreciated!

 

[Calizboosted76]

Matching FM or IM is possible (think community programs that no one else wants to go to) however I would venture to say to relax about thinking about match as of now (unless you plan to drop out).

I would focus on doing everything you can in order to do well and not have any failures.

As long as there are no more hiccups and you network and pass boards on first try you will find a spot somewhere.

Goodluck!

 

[extendedMedEd]

Matching FM or IM is possible (think community programs that no one else wants to go to) however I would venture to say to relax about thinking about match as of now (unless you plan to drop out).

I would focus on doing everything you can in order to do well and not have any failures.

As long as there are no more hiccups and you network and pass boards on first try you will find a spot somewhere.

Goodluck!

I really appreciate the support and the reply! Thank you so much! I have an upward trend since the failures and am hoping that will also aid in my favor. I'm learning from my mistakes.

 

[Goro]

As the title states, as things stand now, I will be taking 6 years to finish med school (DO).

Yr 1. Medical issues and a preclinical failure in year 1. LOA then remediated the course during the next offering (lost a year here).

Yr 2 (techically 3 years since I began med school) failed a course. Now will be splitting rest of year 2 into 2 years to manage courseload + remediate aforementioned course next fall.

This means I will be taking 4 years to finish my preclinicals, and I'm feeling really down. I do have an upward trending going, as my performance has slowly but steadly been improving after struggling quite a bit.

I want to match IM or FM. What can I do going forward to keep my odds up? Passing boards on first try and doing well academically here onwards is a given. I'm just worried my residency odds are shot due to my LOA and multiple preclinical failures.

Feeling down that I will finish preclinicals around the time my first year classmates will be graduating and matching.

Any uplifiting stories or words also appreciated!

Very doable, especially at community programs

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

It should be no problem to match community IM and FM programs if you pass all your boards on the first try. Yes, it's negative that you extended training and had failures, but it's not cause to end your career. Just don't fail any boards. That will be the most important part of your application.

 

[WIFEL585]

You’ll be able to get into residency even with a failed boards as long as you eventually pass and are casting a broad geographic net when applying. Also applying to a lot of programs.