Yet another WAMC...

[kinzy]

I didn't want to take over the other recently posted WAMC thread that @tantacles posted, so figured I'd start up a new one.
-high 240s step 1, mid tier medical school, Honors in most clinical rotations and sub-Is, mix of honors/pass in M1/2, undergrad research w/ publication, med school research w/ ongoing work on a draft, significant and diverse volunteering throughout med school, compelling personal statement. Looking to sub specialize, possibly in peds gastro or peds rheum. Married but SO has flexibility with regard to what cities she can work in.
-My list isn't broken into tiers but here it is - just looking for guidance regarding if I have too many reaches. (I think I do) and looking for schools to take off and some "less-reachy" schools to add. In no specific order...

University of Connecticut
Yale
Baylor Houston
Children's National DC
Georgetown
University of Minnesota
Mayo
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Oregon Health Sciences University
Brown
University of Washington Seattle
All Children's Hospital FL
University of Wisconsin Madison
Emory
University of Colorado
Boston Children's
Mass Gen
Tufts
University of Massachusetts
Northwestern
University of Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
Loyola
Cincinnati Children's
Duke
Children's Hospital LA
UCLA
LA Harbor
Kaiser Permanente LA
USC LAC+USC
Kaiser Oakland
Children's Hospital Oakland
Stanford
UCSF

Thanks for any help you guys can give me!!

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[Step Up]

You will get A LOT of interviews, especially if you have honors in pedi MS3 rotation and pedi sub-I. It's hard to make recommendations about your list as an outsider. I don't think having a few too many reaches is a bad thing at all. I would think hard about locations where you want to live and help shape your list that way.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

you people asking about your chances with baller board scores make me sad faced about my lackluster application. WOOHOO!

 

[physicsnerd42]

You should really only be applying to about 20 places because you're likely going to get interviews at almost every program and doing more than 10-12 interviews is really tiring (I speak from experience). Also, if you're applying to Duke, apply to UNC: I remember being very impressed by UNC on the trail. I would take places like UConn, Georgetown, Brown, Tufts, U Illinois, Loyola, USC, the Kaiser hospitals off your list unless one is your home program. I'd be happy to make more recs if you tell us what you're looking for in a program/location

 

[kinzy]

You should really only be applying to about 20 places because you're likely going to get interviews at almost every program and doing more than 10-12 interviews is really tiring (I speak from experience). Also, if you're applying to Duke, apply to UNC: I remember being very impressed by UNC on the trail. I would take places like UConn, Georgetown, Brown, Tufts, U Illinois, Loyola, USC, the Kaiser hospitals off your list unless one is your home program. I'd be happy to make more recs if you tell us what you're looking for in a program/location

Thanks for your advice @physicsnerd42!! One clarification question - I should take those schools off because why? I haven't heard much about them so I wasn't sure if I was missing something that meant I should cross them out! I also haven't been able to figure out how to classify schools as safeties vs reaches so that's made it hard to narrow down my list.

As for what I'm looking for - at this point I don't have a super clear idea (hoping that becomes clearer on interviews) but things that I think I'd like are a free-standing children's hospital, probably affiliated with an academic center due to my interest in sub specializing, a medium sized peds program,biggish city.

Thanks so much!

 

[physicsnerd42]

Thanks for your advice @physicsnerd42!! One clarification question - I should take those schools off because why? I haven't heard much about them so I wasn't sure if I was missing something that meant I should cross them out! I also haven't been able to figure out how to classify schools as safeties vs reaches so that's made it hard to narrow down my list.

As for what I'm looking for - at this point I don't have a super clear idea (hoping that becomes clearer on interviews) but things that I think I'd like are a free-standing children's hospital, probably affiliated with an academic center due to my interest in sub specializing, a medium sized peds program,biggish city.

Thanks so much!

Honestly, you're pretty competitive and I think you have too many safeties, so I suggested getting rid of some of the schools you'd be a safer applicant at. I didn't interview at any of the programs I suggested you take off the list, but I heard things about a few of them which gave me pause about them (Tufts with financial issues and it's hard to compete for patients with Boston Children's, Uconn not necessarily the happiest program and same for Georgetown, USC is a very small program in a city with a lot of big programs and CHLA is a USC affiliate, Kaiser programs are not very academic and they're not freestanding children's hospitals, Loyola and U Illinois have big competition in the same city, etc.). Again I didn't interview at these places, so I could be wrong about all that I heard.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I agree, you're applying to too many programs. Peds just isn't competitive, and unless you have some horrible skeletons in your closet a high 240s score will get you an interview at almost all of these programs. Unless the location is particularly attractive to you, there just isn't a reason to apply to those safety programs.

While I get what your'e saying about "not being sure what you want" and it's definitely something I struggled with as I applied, the truth is that ultimately all the programs start blurring together by the end. The ACGME pretty much makes it so that every peds program has the exact same requirements which they satisfy in one way or another, and once you're at a large tertiary care center the differences in quality of the programs are so razor thin to be basically irrelevant.