To what extent do programs feel loyalty in matching home students?

[deleted1168269]

To what extent do programs give special advantage to home medical students? Especially in smaller specialties like psych, surgical specialties, optho, derm, Neuro, etc?

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[GoSpursGo]

Totally program dependent. You can’t make any sweeping generalizations, you need to look at current residents and where they came from, and you need to talk directly with current residents and the PD to get an inside scoop on these things.

 

[operaman]

Everywhere I’ve been there’s no real “loyalty” for home students in a broad sense. There is definitely a potential advantage in that programs get to know their home students extremely well. Multiple faculty may have worked with them for 3-4 years, and they may have had opportunities to do electives in addition to their sub I. That’s an awful lot of face time and programs usually have a good sense of what they’re getting with a home student.

Now obviously that cuts both ways. For a strong beloved student this can cement their position at the top of the rank list. For a not so good student it may cement their place at the bottom. There’s always a risk in matching people off a CV and 15 minute interview where everyone tends to look at least pretty good, and having a known quantity is very appealing if that quantity is good.

Personally I haven’t seen home student status overcome someone being a bad applicant in my world (ent). I have seen it overcome small shortcomings when the student is otherwise very strong and well liked, again because there’s that time factor where they get to know you. Much easier to overlook a slightly low step score or some preclinical mishap in a student you know well and really like. But nobody is matching a dud for 5 years just because they’re a home student.

 

[Dral]

Everywhere I’ve been there’s no real “loyalty” for home students in a broad sense. There is definitely a potential advantage in that programs get to know their home students extremely well. Multiple faculty may have worked with them for 3-4 years, and they may have had opportunities to do electives in addition to their sub I. That’s an awful lot of face time and programs usually have a good sense of what they’re getting with a home student.

Now obviously that cuts both ways. For a strong beloved student this can’t cement their position at the top of the rank list. For a not so good student it may cement their place at the bottom. There’s always a risk in matching people off a CV and 15 minute interview where everyone tends to look at least pretty good, and having a known quantity is very appealing if that quantity is good.

Personally I haven’t seen home student status overcome someone being a bad applicant in my world (ent). I have seen it overcome small shortcomings when the student is otherwise very strong and well liked, again because there’s that time factor where they get to know you. Much easier to overlook a slightly low step score or some preclinical mishap in a student you know well and really like. But nobody is matching a dud for 5 years just because they’re a home student.

Derm here. Echo these sentiments/thoughts.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

Everywhere I’ve been there’s no real “loyalty” for home students in a broad sense. There is definitely a potential advantage in that programs get to know their home students extremely well. Multiple faculty may have worked with them for 3-4 years, and they may have had opportunities to do electives in addition to their sub I. That’s an awful lot of face time and programs usually have a good sense of what they’re getting with a home student.

Now obviously that cuts both ways. For a strong beloved student this can cement their position at the top of the rank list. For a not so good student it may cement their place at the bottom. There’s always a risk in matching people off a CV and 15 minute interview where everyone tends to look at least pretty good, and having a known quantity is very appealing if that quantity is good.

Personally I haven’t seen home student status overcome someone being a bad applicant in my world (ent). I have seen it overcome small shortcomings when the student is otherwise very strong and well liked, again because there’s that time factor where they get to know you. Much easier to overlook a slightly low step score or some preclinical mishap in a student you know well and really like. But nobody is matching a dud for 5 years just because they’re a home student.

Absolutely agree. I have literally banged my shoe on the table to rank one of our own students. He didn't have stellar scores, but certainly within our metric. He got along with everyone, accepted instruction well, and was a very teachable student on our service. No one wants to hire a problem for 4 or more years. Much better data than like Operaman said, a CV and a 15 min interview.

 

[wysdoc]

Absolutely agree. I have literally banged my shoe on the table to rank one of our own students. He didn't have stellar scores, but certainly within our metric. He got along with everyone, accepted instruction well, and was a very teachable student on our service. No one wants to hire a problem for 4 or more years. Much better data than like Operaman said, a CV and a 15 min interview.

did your strategy succeed?

 

[mrbreakfast]

Home applicants get some advantage in that they've essentially done the equivalent of multiple "away rotations;" they have worked with the faculty/residents a lot, and being able to prove you aren't weird, incompetent, or a jerk goes a long way.

If you are asking how much an applicant would be moved up a match list simply because it's their home program, the answer is zero spots. The only advantage home applicants get here is a guaranteed interview, which in some cases is just a courtesy interview.

 

[Angus Avagadro]

did your strategy succeed?

It worked better for me than Khruschev! We all had a good laugh.

 

[Tenk]

Depends on if they like you or not.

 

[Ho0v-man]

You don’t have to necessarily get letters from highly respected people in your field to match. They can just walk up to people that worked with you for the past year or so and ask if you suck or not.

 

[PathNeuroIMorFM]

To what extent do programs give special advantage to home medical students? Especially in smaller specialties like psych, surgical specialties, optho, derm, Neuro, etc?

n =1, but all of our programs set aside at least 1-2 seats for home students, from neurosurgery to peds. Sometiems up to 10 or 15 for more popular specialties like IM or anesthesia. My school doesn't do a lot of things well, but that is one of the major benefits.

Take a look at the historical matches to your program of choice. If you see a pattern, then you know.

 

[deleted1168269]

n =1, but all of our programs set aside at least 1-2 seats for home students, from neurosurgery to peds. Sometiems up to 10 or 15 for more popular specialties like IM or anesthesia. My school doesn't do a lot of things well, but that is one of the major benefits.

Take a look at the historical matches to your program of choice. If you see a pattern, then you know.

Yeah I’ve heard some schools do that. I think Loma Linda comes to mind.