Applying for Residency

[Deebs]

Keep him on the PM&R track. Because it's the best-kept secret in medicine, it's actually not all that competitive. Not only will he have a nice attending lifestyle, residency can be pretty okay, too. After intern year, one of our friends who was doing PM&R came over to our house (while DH was at the hospital, of course) to have a beer with me celebrating the last weekend he would work. EVER.

[SuzySunshine]

I agree with everyone about PM&R, I had a friend here whose husband was almost always home by 6pm in residency and then got a great job with an Ortho practice in IL after residency. If he likes it keep pointing him in that direction

Here is the FREIDA site: https://freida.ama-assn.org/Freida/u...ogramSearch.do

[scarlett09]

Scarlett,

Thanks! Could you post a link to this Freida program? I'd love to check it out. I just have the link to the site that lists where programs are offered depending on which specialty.

He thinks he's pretty much set now on doing PM&R. He did an internship with them this past summer and plans to add it to his list of clinical rotations too. He was kind of all over the board as to what he thought he'd like to do but he enjoyed the work and also loves their hours.

No problem! Here is the link to the FREIDA website, which is actually hosted by AMA: http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/educ...a-online.shtml. Click on the link to the left entitled "Residency Fellowship Training Program Search" and then when you click Choose Speciality, look at the different residency programs offered under the "Specialty" and "Combined Specialty" tabs. The "Subspecialty Selection" tab is fellowship programs, which isn't bad to look at either, just don't get caught up in it.

Absolutely agree with everyone else about PM&R. We have a peds/PM&R program here and those residents are definitely far more relaxed than the peds residents. It is a 5-year program here. I hope he sticks with PM&R but don't be surprised if he changes his mind again once he starts rotations.

ETA: doing a lot of cross-posting lately! Use SuzySunshine's FREIDA link, it skips the first step in what I wrote.

[madeintaiwan]

Yes PM&R is where it's at. My understanding is that you have to get in with a decent ortho group to make the good dough though. When DH was on PM&R during his intern year he was usually home by 2. Sometimes he didn't go in until 2pm and would be done by 4. One of the ortho residents here is married to a newly minted PM&R attending. You have to do your intern year separate. As in you will interview for prelim spots as well as PM&R [PGY2] spots.

In regards to your OP, I think the residency application process depends heavily on your specialty and your family situation [single, dating, married, children]. We are from CA [Me, north, He, south]. DH went to a Midwest middle tier medical school. He had great stats but there is a big regional bias out there. He ended up applying to 34 programs. All the CA programs [UT & TX] and some Midwest programs. Programs were picked based on region and supposed quality of programs. We really couldn't be too picky about where he applied. You really don't know have a clue what a program is like until you go there. After interviews, DH HATED the program in TX. Said he rather not match than go there. For us, the "picky" was when we did the rank list. And even still there wasn't much to be picky about. We based the rank order on location [wanting to go back to CA], "feel" from the residents & program, training, and benefits.

Haha, glad to see everyone thinks so highly of PM&R. And yes, my DH has been all over in regards to what he wants to do... it was always maybe ER, maybe med peds, maybe neontal etc. PM&R was always one he liked to, but after really researching the different specialties more, he's pretty much sold on both the hours and pay, not to mention he enjoyed the work. I remember he had mentioned before med school how he thought he may like sports medicine and he told me he likes PM&R way more because, for instance, you can help real working class folks get back to work. (His internship with PM&R was with a "back to work" clinic) So I think he really likes the idea that he can make a difference in someone's life (not that other specialties don't!) and that he will have good hours so that he could still be able to coach our kids' baseball team someday or what not. I could personally care less about the pay and more about the hours, so of course I love it, too.

Thanks for all your insight and the link!

[oceanchild]

Colorado's nice.

We mostly looked at location, although that was within the framework of "good" programs. So, of these "good" programs, where do we want to live? It can be overwhelming realizing that you can live anywhere in the country! We've had a lot of variety on that front. There are others in my husband's program who have never left the state. Lots of ways to go about it.

[MrsK]

Location was our firs consideration. First, we looked for programs near our current city. Second, we looked at programs in cities where my firm had offices. Third, States where I could waive into the Bar, etc. Still landed in Wichita.

We applied all over because DH's specialty was so competitive. Although there were some places I refused because of personal preference and COL, like LA and NYC. It was really after we got interviews that we focused on location. And when it came to our actual rank list location was the most important. We tried to stay in the state where I was licensed, then we shot for places close to family. We got neither of those things. (But we love we where we ended up!) From what I gather from the board and talking to others in competitive specialties most people don't really consider location as much as we did. But DH and I just do stuff differently. I think specialty choice does impact the way in which you apply. In the end you just have to be flexible about the whole damn thing.

I think Scarlette said it well. We looked at several different things. A 'quick' list:
1) Schools: we have two kids and the schools where hubs did med school were not great
2) Ability to buy a home: we really wanted to get in on the down housing market
3) Residency satisfaction: I knew that if he loved the program, we would all be happy.
4) My career: I have a background in medicine but also have a masters in public health
5) Adventure: We wanted to try a new part of the country
All the above being said, my husband was applying to a competitive residency (otolaryngology). He applied to about 20 programs, interviewed at about 14 and ranked 13. He looked at things in a program like the 'vibe' talked about earlier, how many call days, the compensation and benefit package, research requirements, if the program was family friendly (he actually had one attending tell him at another program that they had a 100% divorce rate for their residents), ect. We didn't rank one program in the south because he knew he would not be happy there. Then, he pretty much let me take the lead- crazy I know!! However, he has had several attendings tell him the the SO needs to be a big part of the rank list because, ultimately, if they are not happy the resident won't be happy. I really listened to him on what programs he was attracted to. We ranked low right away the places we knew we couldn't afford to live with two kids (Stanford and San Francisco). We ultimately decided to rank our first pick as a program in the midwest that he was really impressed with. I'm from the west coast and I knew the winters were going to be aweful, but this place had excellent schools, we could afford to buy a nice home, the cost of living was cheap (which I will say is huge- the salary for residents does not vary a huge amount depending where you are. He makes about the same as friends who have to live in San Fran for example), and above all I knew that it would be an adventure. We've been here almost two years and the winters are terrible but I can survive anything for 5 years!!

[GrayMatterWife]

I guess I wasn't clear - he picked what he considered to be the 20 best programs in the country based on his specialty. We didn't consider location at that point.

This. Us, too.

[HeyMeganZ]

We had a general idea of where we wanted to look (major cities to help ensure I could have job opportunities, a social life, etc) but it did end up changing drastically before we actually applied to programs (zoned in on an even smaller segment of the country) and then smaller after that once he did away rotations (great way to get a test run), regular 4th year placements and once I had another look at the list (basically ruling out places I could NOT see myself living...I'm looking at you Dartmouth). I'm happy with how it turned out - between away's and 4th Yr we god a good look at the programs that we thought would be best for us (and his specialty/future fellowship).

[MarissaNicole]

We had 99 programs to choose from and needed to apply to about 40. We decided the amount to apply to based on DH's qualifications, and the numbers of "charting outcomes." We looked at the numbers and knew we would need to rank at least 15 programs to have a good chance to match. Therefore we figured we needed to apply to about 40 hoping for about 20ish interview offers.

After taking the 99 programs and knowing we wanted to whiddle down to about 40, we started by crossing off the ones in locations we knew we didn't want to live in, and picked out the locations that either had a great reputation and/or family nearby. Eventually the list was down to our desired number. Applying to a competitive specialty we had to cast a wide net and then look more into programs as we got interviews there.