What could you do with just an MD and no residency?

[SillyGenius]

Assuming someone does not match to a residency due to red flags, what are some realistic career options that you could pursue with an MD and no residency?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[DrStephenStrange]

Public health residency
Health insurance advisor
medical consultant
Research
Hospital Admin jobs
Teaching
Pharmaceutical company

Open your own business and create your own patented medical device and become a billionaire

 

[Med Ed]

Don't overreact.

 

[wysdoc]

Assuming someone does not match to a residency due to red flags, what are some realistic career options that you could pursue with an MD and no residency?

@SillyGenius, with the kindest intent, you are thinking too far down the road and your efforts and planning should be to the present, one year at a time of being a successful medical student.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Depends. From a top tier school, consulting, VC/PE, investment banking. From a lower tier school these would be much harder but possible with networking

 

[ACSurgeon]

Assuming someone does not match to a residency due to red flags, what are some realistic career options that you could pursue with an MD and no residency?

One could search for existing threads on this topic. You’ll find that the consensus is that you’ll fare much better with any residency.

 

[GoSpursGo]

As above the options are limited and less lucrative than pursuing a residency.

However getting to your underlying question given your other recent threads, the only reason a US MD would not match is because they applied for a field or programs that are overly competitive for their stats. None of us can say if you’ll make it to anesthesiology, but if you can pass you can attain any of the primary care specialties. That outcome is almost certainly better than anything you could do outside of medicine, so rather than worrying about hypotheticals that are 4 years down the road you should really focus on the task immediately in front of you which is successfully remediating in the fall.

 

[gyngyn]

The AAMC has some options, but most (maybe all) would prefer someone with a residency: Settings and Environments

 

[SillyGenius]

As above the options are limited and less lucrative than pursuing a residency.

However getting to your underlying question given your other recent threads, the only reason a US MD would not match is because they applied for a field or programs that are overly competitive for their stats. None of us can say if you’ll make it to anesthesiology, but if you can pass you can attain any of the primary care specialties. That outcome is almost certainly better than anything you could do outside of medicine, so rather than worrying about hypotheticals that are 4 years down the road you should really focus on the task immediately in front of you which is successfully remediating in the fall.

I get it man, I know I have a poor shot at Anes (assuming the field continues to get more competitive or stays at the same level of competitiveness). I understand how some of my past comments and posts were delusional. I'm ok with a primary care field and would probably apply FM and IM. I was just getting concerned since IM stats show like 4% of people that go unmatched. I'm guessing those are people like me who had a red flag

I only asked this because I wanted to see if there are actual career options for those who fail to match.

But you all are right, I will focus on studying and getting past the first semester. Hopefully no more hic-ups

 

[GoSpursGo]

I get it man, I know I have a poor shot at Anes (assuming the field continues to get more competitive or stays at the same level of competitiveness). I understand how some of my past comments and posts were delusional. I'm ok with a primary care field and would probably apply FM and IM. I was just getting concerned since IM stats show like 4% of people that go unmatched. I'm guessing those are people like me who had a red flag

I only asked this because I wanted to see if there are actual career options for those who fail to match.

But you all are right, I will focus on studying and getting past the first semester. Hopefully no more hic-ups

It’s the people who have red flags AND also don’t apply to the right programs or to enough of them. If you apply to a sufficient number of programs of appropriate competitiveness, you will match, and if this is your only red flag then as @NotAProgDirector said you’ll likely stand a good shot at an academic program too (not Boston or Hopkins but there are plenty of perfectly good academic IM programs out there).

 

[SillyGenius]

It’s the people who have red flags AND also don’t apply to the right programs or to enough of them. If you apply to a sufficient number of programs of appropriate competitiveness, you will match, and if this is your only red flag then as @NotAProgDirector said you’ll likely stand a good shot at an academic program too (not Boston or Hopkins but there are plenty of perfectly good academic IM programs out there).

This is very reassuring!

I'll focus on my studying and making sure I can get past pre-clinicals

 

[pazzer2]

Regarding pharma: it would be very difficult to break into pharma without a residency. I have seen a few MDs without residency, but they typically transitioned from management consulting. You'd still be much better off finishing residency.

 

[lacrossegirl420]

This is where school ranking plays a much bigger role, if you come from a school like Harvard it will be significantly easier to pivot to a non-clinical career than a lower-tier med school. Still, no matter what your options within medicine will be relatively restricted

 

[addoncase]

You go to a US MD school. You will match IM or FM. It’s great you are thinking down the road but you don’t need to stress yourself out right now.

Pass step 1, do well step 2. Shine on rotations. Don’t let your bad ms1 year ruin your headspace or your abilities going forward. It’s a dangerous thing to be bogged down with this in your mind.

Your school will have connections and if need be phone calls can be made. That’s is a huge plus of being a med student at a us md school, they will care and they will help find you a spot in this doomsday scenario you are wondering about.

Now if you don’t want to be a clinical many have already mentioned options

There is website called dropout club I think aswell

Also some states to get a medical license you just need a intern year under your belt it’s crazy I know

Now that doesn’t mean you can go on practicing as “fm or I’m” doc with just one year tho

 

[SillyGenius]

You go to a US MD school. You will match IM or FM. It’s great you are thinking down the road but you don’t need to stress yourself out right now.

Pass step 1, do well step 2. Shine on rotations. Don’t let your bad ms1 year ruin your headspace or your abilities going forward. It’s a dangerous thing to be bogged down with this in your mind.

Your school will have connections and if need be phone calls can be made. That’s is a huge plus of being a med student at a us md school, they will care and they will help find you a spot in this doomsday scenario you are wondering about.

Now if you don’t want to be a clinical many have already mentioned options

There is website called dropout club I think aswell

Also some states to get a medical license you just need a intern year under your belt it’s crazy I know

Now that doesn’t mean you can go on practicing as “fm or I’m” doc with just one year tho

I really want to be a clinician. Not interested in research or anything else. My original goal was to be an anesthesiologist, but as I've looked at my situation and gotten advice from people on here, I realize how unrealistic it is. I'm cool with primary care fields and have no issue being an IM or FM doc.

At this point, I'm really hoping for an IM or FM categorical match at some academic institution. I just hope that this goal is reasonable.

What scares me the most is that in 2023 there were 4207 MD applicants to IM categorical spots and only 3592 MDs matched. That means like 85% of MDs who applied to IM matched to IM. I'm guessing the 15% who didn't match were people with failed board scores, failed years (like me), or other red flags. I also looked at interview rates for IM and the average shows that programs for IM-categorical interview only 8.4% of their applicant pool. Stats like these keep me up at night

 

[Med Ed]

What scares me the most is that in 2023 there were 4207 MD applicants to IM categorical spots and only 3592 MDs matched. That means like 85% of MDs who applied to IM matched to IM. I'm guessing the 15% who didn't match were people with failed board scores, failed years (like me), or other red flags.

That data is muddied by people applying to multiple specialties.

Charting Outcomes will be much closer since it only looks at preferred (top-ranked) specialty. 17% of match participants declined to have their data used in the study, but it's still a pretty good sample.

 

[aldol16]

Depends. From a top tier school, consulting, VC/PE, investment banking. From a lower tier school these would be much harder but possible with networking

This is unrealistic. Consulting, maybe. They have MD programs for consulting that could get you training on the job and through internships. But equity or IB roles? You can forget about it unless you have significant prior experience or some street cred that would make them hire you. People toss those terms around like if you could get into med school you can get one of those roles. Not true. They're completely different responsibilities and require different skill sets. Even from a top school.

 

[SillyGenius]

That data is muddied by people applying to multiple specialties.

Charting Outcomes will be much closer since it only looks at preferred (top-ranked) specialty. 17% of match participants declined to have their data used in the study, but it's still a pretty good sample.

Oh, so those numbers included people who applied to competitive specialties and had specialties like IM as a backup? So basically, a lot of these people probably got their competitive specialty and ended up artificially inflating the number of unmatched to IM. Did I understand this correctly?

The new numbers I found are 3616 MD seniors matched out of 3689 MD seniors who applied. That means the match rate was like 98%. This number is a lot better.

 

[Esmolol]

Please take it as a friendly advice… I think you need to talk to someone at your school after break. I can only imagine being in your shoes. In our year, there were about 20 people who did not pass step 1 (out of about 170). A few of them did not pass the first retake either. They fell a little behind our cohort and are now in a limbo between our year and the one lower. I am confident they will match into IM/FM possibly psych. Yes, what happened is not optimal but it does not mean that your medical career is over. Some doors are closed but plenty are still open. It will be a little bit of an uphill battle though.

I know of a FM doc who failed their first year, did a redo. Now he has a practice where he works about 3.5 days/week, employs 2 PAs, takes call in two hospitals and is a medical director of a local hospice. Seemed very happy with his life. Makes about 500K/year.

 

[mrbreakfast]

You are looking way too far down the road. Focus on passing M1 year. In a nice way, you need to worry less about M4 year and worry more about preclinicals. I think I know one person who graduated from med school and never matched. I know many, many people who didn't finish med school.