What factors influence residency?

[swtiepie711]

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I will be matriculating into medical school in the fall, and I started wondering...for premeds - it's pretty easy to see the hoops you have to jump through to be considered for medical school (for the most part, get good grades, do well on the MCAT, get some exposure, possibly research experience, and maybe some other interesting-ness about you)

So I'm curious what factors contribute to matching for a residency. I hear from different people (med students & MDs) that either (a) there's tons of residencies to go around & you can go into anything you want or (b) you have to kick butt in med school for certain residencies & otherwise you're limited. Does anyone have any thoughts on which of these scenarios is more accurate?

I'm just wondering what we should be thinking about down the road - grades in M1/M2 (which for many schools is P/F)? Letters/Evals from M3/M4? AOA? Research/Publications? Other extracurriculars (i.e. working in a free clinic etc.).

I guess I'd just like to go into med school with eyes wide open knowing how the system works so that I don't end up like I did for applying to med school - having graduated, done 1-2 extracurriculars during college & having to spend a few years strengthening my application. Since I don't know what I want to go into, I don't want to close any doors on myself by, say, not doing research (if that's important), etc.

Any thoughts would be appreciated - or if you think I should move this to the residency boards, let me know. Thx. 🙂

 

[Law2Doc]

I will be matriculating into medical school in the fall, and I started wondering...for premeds - it's pretty easy to see the hoops you have to jump through to be considered for medical school (for the most part, get good grades, do well on the MCAT, get some exposure, possibly research experience, and maybe some other interesting-ness about you)

So I'm curious what factors contribute to matching for a residency. I hear from different people (med students & MDs) that either (a) there's tons of residencies to go around & you can go into anything you want or (b) you have to kick butt in med school for certain residencies & otherwise you're limited. Does anyone have any thoughts on which of these scenarios is more accurate?

I'm just wondering what we should be thinking about down the road - grades in M1/M2 (which for many schools is P/F)? Letters/Evals from M3/M4? AOA? Research/Publications? Other extracurriculars (i.e. working in a free clinic etc.).

I guess I'd just like to go into med school with eyes wide open knowing how the system works so that I don't end up like I did for applying to med school - having graduated, done 1-2 extracurriculars during college & having to spend a few years strengthening my application. Since I don't know what I want to go into, I don't want to close any doors on myself by, say, not doing research (if that's important), etc.

Any thoughts would be appreciated - or if you think I should move this to the residency boards, let me know. Thx. 🙂

There are plenty of residencies to go around, but not a ton of competitive residencies. Pretty much everyone who finishes allo gets a job, but only a couple of percent will get, say, derm or optho. The largest components in terms of helping to get a good residency will be things like Step 1 scores and rotation grades and references. So the first two years, although they count, tend not to be the determinative components in getting into a competitive residency. But they are really the only thing you can do much about in the first couple of years, and they do contribute to how prepared you are for Step 1. So people go at them with a vengeance. If you find you are doing well in courses, then add in things like research and ECs (same old drill as in college). But again, these are not big ticket items in terms of residency criteria.

 

[babaghannough]

i'm likewise concerned. in particular. how essential is say, research, for getting into a competitive surgery residency?

 

[Law2Doc]

i'm likewise concerned. in particular. how essential is say, research, for getting into a competitive surgery residency?

It helps. But higher board scores help more. Lots of people spend the summer after first year, and some people take a whole year, doing research if they cannot squeeze some in during the school year.

 

[njbmd]

Moving to General Residency issues. It's a little early to be plotting a strategy for matching since you haven't started medical school but I am sure that some of the people who are actually going through the process will be happy to answer your questions.

 

[swtiepie711]

If anyone on the Residency Board can contribute - I'm just curious b/c I'm not uber familiar with the process of choosing/applying for residencies. Thanks for the help w/ understanding the process!

 

[Dunce]

You sound like you could benefit from the Iserson book.

I hear it's good but haven't actually read it. SDN is my Iserson's 👍

 

[8744]

You sound like you could benefit from the Iserson book.

I hear it's good but haven't actually read it. SDN is my Iserson's 👍

Iserson's book can't hold a candle to my humble and oh-so-sassy blog. The OP should check it out...unless he's chicken.

 

[gutonc]

You sound like you could benefit from the Iserson book.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Read Panda's blog, talk to friends, read SDN, just make stuff up, anything will be better than what you read in Iserson.

 

[8744]

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Read Panda's blog, talk to friends, read SDN, just make stuff up, anything will be better than what you read in Iserson.

Just out of curiousity, what's wrong with Iserson? I thought it was the gold standard.

 

[dopetown]

Does the name of your medical school matter?

I'm a Canadian, and I'll be attending a school in the Caribbeans (either St. George's or Saba). I'll still try to apply back to Canadian med schools during my time down there, and I'm considering applying to the states as well.

I've read a lot of posts in another forum about how going to a Caribbean school vs. a US school will reduce your competitiveness for residency, even as a US-citizen!

I know as a non-US-citizen trying to match to US residency programs, I'm fighting an uphill battle no matter what. But does the repuation and location of the school matter as well?

With all things being equal (boards, ECs, LORs, citizenship, etc.) is a med grad from any US school more competitive than a grad from, say, St. George?

===
edit: I just realized this my question here is mostly answered in this thead: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=338807
So it seems that name does matter, but it's not as important as the other factors. Still, what about a US school vs. a Caribbean one?
===

My other reason for going to a US school would be the opportunities during clinical years. As a student in a US school, would you have more access to the "big name" supervisors (who can potentially write you a positive LOR)? I would think that a "big name" supervisor would tend to be more demanding and thus tougher to impress than a "no name" one. So is the reputation of your referees weighed more heavily than what they actually have to say?

Thanks!

 

[45408]

i'm likewise concerned. in particular. how essential is say, research, for getting into a competitive surgery residency?

yeah, I'd like to know this as well. I'm an M1, and while I'm not very interested in doing research, I don't want to close off any doors too soon.

 

[Faebinder]

I think three months ago I posted a thread showing which specialties cared about research and which didn't using a Fisher's exact test p values.... oh my bad... you don't care about research p values.

 

[gutonc]

Does the name of your medical school matter?
With all things being equal (boards, ECs, LORs, citizenship, etc.) is a med grad from any US school more competitive than a grad from, say, St. George?

In a word, yes. Even w/ some things being unequal a US/Canadian grad is more competitive than an IMG. You can dial back one or more of those qualifications a little bit for the AMG and they'll likely still be more competitive than the IMG. It's not necessarily fair and it may not hold true for all specialties in all settings but it's a pretty good rule of thumb to consider.

 

[premd]

If the first two years are all pass/fail, then how exactly do the preclinical grades factor into residency applications? I assume that most people would have all passes.

 

[DoctorFunk]

If the first two years are all pass/fail, then how exactly do the preclinical grades factor into residency applications? I assume that most people would have all passes.

Not all schools are strict pass/fail. Even those that are tend to keep percentage scores in your classes and keep track of class rank, which gets added to your Dean's Letter. It is usually reported in percentile or quartile rank.