WAMC / what's my tier?

[legobikes]

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4th year at top 40 NIH, came to Peds at the tail end of 3rd year.

Step 1: 206, expect to do better on Step 2s
Some volunteer experience, no research.
3 LORs, pretty strong: Peds faculty, FM faculty, community Pediatrician
Preclinical: All satisfactory, that alone probably puts me in the bottom half of my class.
Clinical: All satisfactory, except near-honors in: FM, Peds, Rural (happened to be Peds clinic), PICU and an Anesthesia elective.
Still have a Peds sub-i and an outpatient Peds rotation to go, anticipate doing well in those now that I actually have some direction. Also planning an away at a Kaiser program.


Essentially I'm wondering what programs are reasonable for me to apply to. It is difficult to tell from FRIEDA, and while sometimes looking at where a program's other residents are from helps, I don't think I know about med school rankings enough to get an accurate estimate. I'm interested in Cali primarily for social support as I have friends and family there. While the thought of spending another three years away from family seems unbearable, it's probably best that I actually make choices now instead of scrambling later. In general I am looking for a university-affiliated / community-based program, because I'm hoping to be a hospitalist and transition to outpatient.

So far I have:
California: all programs except UCSF and Stanford, particularly interested in the Kaiser programs
U New Mexico
U Hawaii
Children's National, DC
Georgetown, DC

I'm not sure where else. Anyone have tiers for the ridiculous amount of NY programs? Other program suggestions? Thanks for any help.

 

[babel]

Hey legobikes,

I am also currently on the east coast (I presume you're in NY?) and hoping to go back to CA for residency. As you probably know, your biggest handicap is going to be your Step 1 score. I was advised to apply to at least 20 programs given my desire to land back in CA, and my score is quite a bit higher. Looks like you've got less than 20 - I would consider adding another 10-15 or so. Think about what other places you could stand to live for another 3 years - if NY is it, then add all those programs (don't they have quite a few?). You may also want to think about AZ, OR, WA (though the latter 2 are rather competitive). I think you have a very good chance of matching in CA, but I am just the type of person that would rather be safe than sorry - so I would definitely add some more programs.

In terms of trying to assess competitiveness, I came up with my own system. It's crude, but it helped to reassure me that I was applying to a range of programs:

1) Residents - all AMG, mixed AMG/DO/IMG/FMG, all DO/IMG/FMG. I don't think you necessarily need to apply to the ones that entirely take foreign graduates, but the programs that have a mix might be good ones to target.

2) Pediatric board pass rates - https://www.abp.org/ABPWebStatic/#m....html&surl=/abpwebsite/resident/passrates.htm

3) US News & World Report - just for identifying the places with a "big name", since I came into pediatrics late (less than 2 mo ago), and wasn't aware of what were considered top programs, other than CHOP.

Good luck!

 

[legobikes]

Hey thanks for the info, been using your method, managed to get ~25 schools, with a few additional ones in NY and TX.