this might be a stupid question but...

[doopdidoop]

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do residency programs even care about your state of residence/where your med school is located? for example, we all know that for college and medical school, texas schools give texas residents preference, giving them a much better chance at getting in. my question is....do programs rank people higher bc they're residents of the state that they're in? i would think not...since it's a job....

 

[Pipers]

do residency programs even care about your state of residence/where your med school is located? for example, we all know that for college and medical school, texas schools give texas residents preference, giving them a much better chance at getting in. my question is....do programs rank people higher bc they're residents of the state that they're in? i would think not...since it's a job....

My thoughts but know that I haven't yet done residency apps or interview trail...I would think it depends on the program and state. Some medical schools are very, very interested in keeping physicians in the state to serve those communities. These schools then feed into residency programs within the state. There is also the factor that many people choose to stay within their state of residence, so I'm not sure how much is the applicant's versus residency's preference.

 

[SurfingDoctor]

They would rank you higher because they know you (ie you were a medical student of that program that was liked), but not simply because you are located near them without them actually knowing who you are (you are a student at X which is in the same state as program Y, but they never met you).

 

[Rutgers06]

do residency programs even care about your state of residence/where your med school is located? for example, we all know that for college and medical school, texas schools give texas residents preference, giving them a much better chance at getting in. my question is....do programs rank people higher bc they're residents of the state that they're in? i would think not...since it's a job....

Generally, I don't think it makes that much of a difference. However, on the interview trail I was asked a bunch of times where else I applied/interviewed, so I think programs are curious to see what rationale you have for applying to a specific place and whether geography is playing a role in your decision/match list.

 

[doopdidoop]

thanks everyone for all the helpful responses! i'm asking because i grew up in california, still have family and a lot of friends there but my immediate family moved to the east coast when i was in high school and i ended up doing high school, college and now medical school there. my family really wants and plans to move back and will do so much faster if i get a residency in california, so i just wanted to know if there was anything i should be doing besides the obvious (working hard, doing well on step 1/step 2, getting good letters, etc)...my dad suggested contacting my old pediatrician and other doctors lol to see if they can help me get a good away somewhere in california...what do you guys think of that? any other ideas? thanks so much!

 

[Rutgers06]

thanks everyone for all the helpful responses! i'm asking because i grew up in california, still have family and a lot of friends there but my immediate family moved to the east coast when i was in high school and i ended up doing high school, college and now medical school there. my family really wants and plans to move back and will do so much faster if i get a residency in california, so i just wanted to know if there was anything i should be doing besides the obvious (working hard, doing well on step 1/step 2, getting good letters, etc)...my dad suggested contacting my old pediatrician and other doctors lol to see if they can help me get a good away somewhere in california...what do you guys think of that? any other ideas? thanks so much!

Doing away rotations out in CA will definitely help. At my school we had a couple people match into CA peds programs like UCLA who had no ties to CA so it's definitely possible. The nice thing is that there are a decent amount of large pediatric programs in CA that can't be filled by CA med students, so they end up taking people from all over the country.

 

[Cookie Queen]

From what I've heard, they don't favor like applying to medical school. But my adviser really stressed doing an away rotation at your first choice program. As he puts it, "You don't wanna be John who sent this application, you wanna be John who kicked ass in that heme/onc elective and got a letter from the guy down the hall from here." And since I've heard that Cali can be hard to match to, it seems that would be especially true then!

Good luck!

 

[doopdidoop]

thanks for all the replies! i got my step 1 results back and scored a 240, so i am feeling more confident than i was before.

i have another question that i've been getting mixed feedback about and i wanted to pose it to the residents/attendings on the forum...i welcome info from anyone though! so, i have heard that doing a rotation at a reach program is better than doing a rotation at a more realistic, more likely choice program. this is because, even though you may not be able to match at say, harvard, at least harvard will get on the phone and sing your praises (granted you do well, of course). how true is this?

and how do we even go about evaluating programs? all the websites ive visited so far have been really vague and they all kinda say the same think. scutwork.com hasn't been updated in upwards of 10 years for some programs which kinda sucks! are there any other resources out there to get info on programs? i wish we had an MSAR for residency...

thanks!!

 

[doopdidoop]

i have another question that i've been getting mixed feedback about and i wanted to pose it to the residents/attendings on the forum...i welcome info from anyone though! so, i have heard that doing a rotation at a reach program is better than doing a rotation at a more realistic, more likely choice program. this is because, even though you may not be able to match at say, harvard, at least harvard will get on the phone and sing your praises (granted you do well, of course). how true is this?

and how do we even go about evaluating programs? all the websites ive visited so far have been really vague and they all kinda say the same think. scutwork.com hasn't been updated in upwards of 10 years for some programs which kinda sucks! are there any other resources out there to get info on programs? i wish we had an MSAR for residency...

bump

 

[Cuthbert]

bump

If you really want to get into a particular residency, try doing a rotation there. That is with the assumption that you are a hard worker and can show them what a great addition you would make to their program. If you are a slacker, it may come back to bite you.

You will do well at most any program if you work hard. I went to a small program and yet felt prepared for anything. 4 of the 6 of us went into general peds. 2 specialized (allergy and GI) - they had no problem getting into their first choice. In my practice, I do everything from clinic work to NICU work and feel very comfortable with all of it. Sometimes I wonder if I would have gotten to be as comfortable with the NICU if I had a bunch of fellows trying to get procedures before I was able to... who knows.

But as far as evaluating programs goes - talk to the residents. Are they happy? Are they learning? Rotating at a program can answer a lot of these questions. If you did not rotate at a program, do not be afraid to ask directly. If they are beating around the bush, that would be a red flag to me.

Best of luck!