What do I need to match to Cali ? - 1st year med student

[MsMalaria]

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Hi all! I'm a first year medical student at a top 10 allo school and I want to go back to california so bad it hurts. Right now, I want to do an IM residency with an ID fellowship. What do I need to do to match to Southern California? I'll be doing a basic science ID research project this summer (but idk if I'll get pubs out of it or not). I expect I'll get a good step 1 score (Standardized tests are kind of my thing lol). I'm also at a school that's pass fail for the pre-clinical years.

Do I need publications/how many? Do posters count/help?
What sorts of extra curriculars are actually useful? I'm not sure if community volunteer things are still useful in terms of applying for residency?

 

[medicineluva]

Hi all! I'm a first year medical student at a top 10 allo school and I want to go back to california so bad it hurts. Right now, I want to do an IM residency with an ID fellowship. What do I need to do to match to Southern California? I'll be doing a basic science ID research project this summer (but idk if I'll get pubs out of it or not). I expect I'll get a good step 1 score (Standardized tests are kind of my thing lol). I'm also at a school that's pass fail for the pre-clinical years.

Do I need publications/how many? Do posters count/help?
What sorts of extra curriculars are actually useful? I'm not sure if community volunteer things are still useful in terms of applying for residency?

CA is a huge state and has many IM residency programs. It's not hard to land a spot here in CA...however, it is hard to land a spot at a highly ranked program (Top are: UCSF, stanford, UCLA, UCSD, etc). Lucky for you IM avg step score is 220's, since you'll do well on Step1 you have that checked off. Now you need to focus on getting research (pretty much only required if you are aiming for an academic insitution). Maybe at least 2-3 presentation/abstracts/publications would make u a shoo in for these academic places. AOA would help, but not required since you're at a top ranking med school.

In terms of fellowship goals, ID is actually pretty easy to get into (unlike cards or GI), because believe it or not, the avg salary is actually lower than a hospitalist gig (from what I hear), thus you don't need to attend a highly ranking residency program (unless your career goals are academic ID doc).

Overall, pretty easy to get into a CA internal medicine program (community easier than academic), and also easy to get into ID fellowship...thus I wouldn't stress too much if I were you. If you're gunning for GI, heme/onc, or cards (actually is getting easier and projected to become easier to get into), then you better try to get into UCSF, stanford, or UCLA to increase ur chances of matching into fellowship.Otherwise have fun during ur first 2 years because 3rd year sucks, you will have no time to do anything.

If you have any other questions let me know. good luck!

 

[Raryn]

Hi all! I'm a first year medical student at a top 10 allo school and I want to go back to california so bad it hurts. Right now, I want to do an IM residency with an ID fellowship. What do I need to do to match to Southern California? I'll be doing a basic science ID research project this summer (but idk if I'll get pubs out of it or not). I expect I'll get a good step 1 score (Standardized tests are kind of my thing lol). I'm also at a school that's pass fail for the pre-clinical years.

Do I need publications/how many? Do posters count/help?
What sorts of extra curriculars are actually useful? I'm not sure if community volunteer things are still useful in terms of applying for residency?

Regarding So Cal, if you want to go to UCLA or bust, you'd have difficulty guarenteeing that no matter what you did.

On the other hand, there are a LOT of programs in so cal. In very rough order of competitiveness (given I don't know much about the ones lower down the list), you have USC, Cedars Sinai, UCLA Harbor, UCLA Olive View, Loma Linda, UC Riverside, Kaiser LA, Huntington Memorial, St Marys Long Beach, White Memorial. You also have the ones in Santa Barbara, Bakersfield, Rancho Mirage, and the 3 in San Diego (UCSD, Scripps Green, Scripps Mercy).

As long as you don't totally mess up, the above covers such a humongous swath of programs ranging from the non-competitive to the elite that if it's so cal or bust, you'll make it one way or another.

 

[disorder]

Regarding So Cal, if you want to go to UCLA or bust, you'd have difficulty guarenteeing that no matter what you did.

On the other hand, there are a LOT of programs in so cal. In very rough order of competitiveness (given I don't know much about the ones lower down the list), you have USC, Cedars Sinai, UCLA Harbor, UCLA Olive View, Loma Linda, UC Riverside, Kaiser LA, Huntington Memorial, St Marys Long Beach, White Memorial. You also have the ones in Santa Barbara, Bakersfield, Rancho Mirage, and the 3 in San Diego (UCSD, Scripps Green, Scripps Mercy).

As long as you don't totally mess up, the above covers such a humongous swath of programs ranging from the non-competitive to the elite that if it's so cal or bust, you'll make it one way or another.

Solid advice right here.

How high do you want to aim? Do you care for community or university programs?
If you're looking for "top tier" residency programs in CA... specifically southern CA... your only option is UCLA and to a somewhat lesser extent UCSD. Also, ID fellowship isn't that difficult to get into so you technically could get there through any program.

Rock step 1, take step 2 early and do well (debatable, but i think it helps), rock third year, publish a couple posters/abstracts (or get 1/2 author on a paper), AOA, pedigree (lucky you you already have this coming from a top 10), be interesting/do interesting things

This won't guarantee you anything at the top, but it will give you the best chance possible at interviewing at the best places in CA.

 

[jdh71]

my advice: be awesome