DH has finally picked a specialty!

I know I've been away from this board from a bit but am back to seek lots of advice. DH has finally decided that he wants to do family practice. He's pretty pumped and I, too think it's a good fit for him.

Now the hard part is deciding where to apply and where we'd like to end up. We own our home which is fortunate/unfortunate depending on how you look at it. We are also in a city right now that is half way between both of our families. Location wise it is good but part of me also would love to live somewhere else for a while. If we live in either of our families towns I am afraid that we won't see the other family as often.

The other option is to chose random other cities that we think would be fun to live in for 4 years before moving back here to settle down.

Thoughts? I guess the one thing that freaks me out is selling our home. Has anyone else owned their own home while their spouse was in med school and then sold it to move for residency? Any and all advice appreciated!

[ladymoreta]

Yay for picking a specialty!

My preference was to stay as close to family as possible. My parents barely travel, so I knew if it wasn't close, I'd almost never see them. DH applied for places all over. I forget exactly, but I think he applied at 20ish programs and interviewed at around 12-15. He ranked every program he interviewed with. Most of the places were close, but the lower ones on the list were places we might just want to live for a few years. You never know what the Match will do...

[GrayMatterWife]

Congrats on the big decision!

[diggitydot]

Congratulations!

As for selecting a program/city, worry about the quality of program over location. Family medicine residencies vary wildly from one place to another. There are two in our city and one is a complete and utter joke. The residents have to be handheld and babysat all. the. time. for the simplest things. The other FM residency program in town is one of the top 5 in the nation. Same city, drastically different programs.

Truthfully, we utilized The Spreadsheet From Hell. The dude entered in every single residency in his specialty and their details into a biggest damn spreadsheet ever. We then whittled it down every few months. It was a complete PITA, but it helped us narrow down our choices from something like 400 programs. DH ended up matching at his top choice and we've never regretted the results of that damn spreadsheet.

You're in an exciting and scary time. Ahhh, preparing for the Match. My husband flew all over the country interviewing. We also took into account the quality of the programs first, and then the locations. And after all that, we ended up matching in our top choice - the same city we were already in for Medical School! Then, we sold our house and moved a few miles away anyway!! (We were expecting our second baby and needed more space)

My husband's family also lives in our city, while my family is about 5 hours away. Having some family close has been incredibly helpful, especially when we had babies and young kids in residency. We still saw my family, and in fact, being further away from one family makes their visits extra special. I seem to have far more pictures of fun things we did with my family than my husband's. Since we saw them all the time, it was just part of our normal life. It's just different, and everyone adjusts.

(Of course, now we are spending a year in Switzerland for fellowship, so we don't ever see anyone! But, that's a different story.)

You only have so much control with the Match, so whatever happens, it will be your story. Good luck!!

[Deebs]

Congratulations!!!! Now, you can start making yourself crazy with all the possibilities.

You're in an exciting and scary time. Ahhh, preparing for the Match. My husband flew all over the country interviewing. We also took into account the quality of the programs first, and then the locations. And after all that, we ended up matching in our top choice - the same city we were already in for Medical School! Then, we sold our house and moved a few miles away anyway!! (We were expecting our second baby and needed more space)

My husband's family also lives in our city, while my family is about 5 hours away. Having some family close has been incredibly helpful, especially when we had babies and young kids in residency. We still saw my family, and in fact, being further away from one family makes their visits extra special. I seem to have far more pictures of fun things we did with my family than my husband's. Since we saw them all the time, it was just part of our normal life. It's just different, and everyone adjusts.

(Of course, now we are spending a year in Switzerland for fellowship, so we don't ever see anyone! But, that's a different story.)

You only have so much control with the Match, so whatever happens, it will be your story. Good luck!!

haha, I think truthfully my big thing is I just want to move! We're expecting #2 and we will be pushing the limit of space after this one. We would eventually like a 3rd, too so I will want to move before then. Plus, I would like to move to a different school district in our town.

The good thing is, DH has extremely good scores and was told by his advisor he would have no trouble matching in one of the 4 programs in our city. So it really is up to us whether or not we want to stay here or go somewhere else. I know financially though it makes since to stay here... I can't help but then of how it'd be fun to move somewhere else though. Although, then we'd have to establish roots yet again which would also be annoying. And like I said, we're half way between both families so it's a good balance.

Ah, decisions decisions.

[spotty_dog]

The good thing is, DH has extremely good scores and was told by his advisor he would have no trouble matching in one of the 4 programs in our city. So it really is up to us whether or not we want to stay here or go somewhere else.

It's never completely up to you. The Match will sometimes throw you a curve ball just because she can, the witch. "Future resident plans, the Match laughs." Not to say that chances aren't great that things will work out just as you think, but keep a big picture view and don't do anything really rash like limiting the length of your rank list.

[Meenah]

It's never completely up to you. The Match will sometimes throw you a curve ball just because she can, the witch. "Future resident plans, the Match laughs." Not to say that chances aren't great that things will work out just as you think, but keep a big picture view and don't do anything really rash like limiting the length of your rank list.

This!!!! Congratulations on picking a specialty. I LOVE Primary Care!

[MarissaNicole]

Congrats on choosing a specialty. For now I would do your homework and leave your options open. As you said it may be exciting to try somewhere new out for a few years, but its also a difficult transition. So look all around, and gradually narrow it down.

[oceanchild]

Congrats and good luck! We have taken the route of experiencing new cities. The closest we could get to our families in my husband's specialty is a 3-hour drive, and that program wasn't very good. We really like where we are now. We might stay.

Pediatrics is like family medicine in that there are a ton of programs, and I agree with diggitydot about looking very seriously at the programs themselves. Have fun sorting it out - try not to let it drive you totally crazy (ha).

[scarlett09]

Congrats on choosing a specialty! Bummer its not peds

I agree with everything diggitydot and oceanchild posted - look hard at the quality of the program and less at the location. A good program can make residency pass by relatively quickly and a stinker program makes residency drag on forever. And a good program will make it tons easier to get back to your home location after residency, if you so choose.

FM is (currently) a 3-year residency program, unless he decides to do a combined-specialty residency or a fellowship, then it could be an additional year or two. I don't know if I would buy for such a short period of time, but I don't have any applicable experience in this arena. I'm sure some of our BTDT peeps will chime in regarding the house part.

[diggitydot]

FM is (currently) a 3-year residency program, unless he decides to do a combined-specialty residency or a fellowship, then it could be an additional year or two. I don't know if I would buy for such a short period of time, but I don't have any applicable experience in this arena. I'm sure some of our BTDT peeps will chime in regarding the house part.

Depends on the area and its real estate market. We bought a house even though we anticipated only being here for 3, maybe 4 years. Homes here were never insanely priced at the height of the market and never tanked, either. Our neighborhood has actually appreciated over the time we've been here.

About the match: While it's typically an insane psycho bitch, matching into FM is a different ball of wax compared to more competitive specialties. Good scores, decent class rank, and a great interview will typically get a candidate one of their top choices. Yes, weird shit pops up occasionally, but matching into FM is typically less weird than most.

[TigerLily]

yay family medicine! I'm all about being near to family. And the 4 programs here are all pretty good. I would say he should rotate through all of them, and do an externship where available. Great choice!

[Phoebe]

DH has always told me how strong the FM program is at his hospital!