Applying for Residency

[civilspouse]

DH will be applying for the 2014 match. He has decided on Anesthesiology. We have started looking at programs trying to come up with the list of the ones to apply to. We have looked at the Freida website and DH is interested in continuing reserach and possibliy pursing an academic career (he's MD/PhD) so he pulled a list of programs rated by the amount of NIH funding they have. From that list I started a speadsheet and looked over the programs websites to gather additional data (research opportunities, benifits, etc). I am looking for any tips/information on the application process, writing the CV, interviews ... the whole thing. I did a search of the forums and didn't come up with much so if this has already been discussed please feel free to point me in the right direction. I have a good idea of how many programs we should rank based on the "charting outcomes", but is there a general rule of how many programs to apply to (want to rank 15 so apply to 30). One other thing I'm a little confused on is some of the programs have the PGY-1 years built in, but others don't...how does that work?

[SoonerTexan]

Hey...us too! Except Radiology

I can tell you where we are, but I'm sure Scrub Jay can provide more info. Rads and Anesthesisa are similar in the categorical residency vs. transitional year + residency setup.

In both Rads and Anesthesiology, you can do a categorical residency, meaning all 5 years in one program, or a transitional year at one program and the last 4 years in rads and anesthesiology at another. You match for both at the same time. This means we get the lovely privilege of applying to categorical programs and transitional years.

Also, there are 3 types of "transitional" or "Prelim" years:

Transitional Year=Kind of like another year of med school. The most cush and therefore the most competitive.

IM Prelim Year=Internal medicine version. More competitive than a surgery prelim but less than a transitional year.

Surgery Prelim Year=Apparently hell for a non-surgeon and not very competitive. My DH's school didn't fill ANY of their 12 surgery prelim year spots before SOAP/Scramble the last 4 years...telling.

Guess what we're interested in? Although a categorical residency would be preferable, of course. From what I understand, I don't think you apply for the categorical or combo spots at one program separately, but I'm not 100% on that.

So far we've whittled down the 100+ rads programs to 60 that DH wants to apply to. He included what he knows are "reaches" (Mass Gen, Mallinckrodt), what he thinks are middle tier, and what are some obvious "safeties." We really looked at it a lot by region/city size, though. There are no NY, CA, or PNW programs on the list--the cost of living is too high and he wouldn't be all that competitive there anyway. So besides a handful of northern outliers, most are in the Midwest and South.

Based on his Step 1, I think the recommended "Magic number" for him and rads was applying to 30-35 and getting 10-13 interviews. Obviously we are overshooting that by quite a bit, but he is paranoid about not getting enough interviews and it cant really hurt, right? Right?? He is going to talk to the Rads adviser about it again before he actually applies.

Dh pulled those 60 programs off FREIDA (SO SO SO ANNOYING that you cannot pull more than 100 programs/year. The IT person in me says WTF??) and I will be creating "THE SPREADSHEET" out of those soon.

He hasn't done as much for the transitional/prelim years except identify a few in the Dallas/Houston area that look good.

The hardest part has been finding out what programs are considered "good" and which have weak points--a lot is opinion. Aunt Minnie and SDN have been somewhat helpful, but there isn't that much either. And Aunt Minnie is kind of annoying (he posts, I lurk). We've based a lot of those judgements based on how well they have filled their spots pre-SOAP/Scramble in the past few years.

So far I'm happy with the list, except I want Augusta, GA OFF!

[SoonerTexan]

Surgery Prelim Year=Apparently hell for a non-surgeon and not very competitive. My DH's school didn't fill ANY of their 12 surgery prelim year spots before SOAP/Scramble the last 4 years...telling.

ETA: Before I insult any surgeons, but not very competitive, I mean overall. Obviously there are some competitive programs out there. There are also way more surgery prelim spots than IM prelims or transitional years, which is a contributing factor.

[MrsSz]

Based on his Step 1, I think the recommended "Magic number" for him and rads was applying to 30-35 and getting 10-13 interviews. Obviously we are overshooting that by quite a bit, but he is paranoid about not getting enough interviews and it cant really hurt, right? Right?? He is going to talk to the Rads adviser about it again before he actually applies.

Dh pulled those 60 programs off FREIDA (SO SO SO ANNOYING that you cannot pull more than 100 programs/year. The IT person in me says WTF??) and I will be creating "THE SPREADSHEET" out of those soon.

Are you sure your DH doesn't want to do ENT because I can TOTALLY see myself doing this in 2.5 years and I'd love to cheat and use yours!

[SoonerTexan]

Haha nope ENT is out. 99% sure rads. The other 1% is ID if he totally hated the rads rotation or something.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

Surgery is competitive if you want to be a surgeon. A lot of prelims would prefer something else (like a transitional year), didn't offend me at all! Prelims who want to do surgery are often busy applying during that year anyway, DH said it seemed like hell having to go thru the match while in intern year.

[Vishenka69]

From what I remember DH had to apply for prelim year separately and that was a separate match. He only applied for IM in the same geographical location as the anesthesia programs. You can either do that or apply for prelim programs in your current location and anesthesia wherever. This way you'll only be moving once.

I don't remember the number of programs DH applied to but he had about 15 interviews.

Good luck! Let me know if you have any specific anesthesia questions.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9360 using Tapatalk

[moonlight]

Best wishes! Keep us posted how it goes this year.

[Thirteen]

Best wishes! Keep us posted how it goes this year.

This, and: When I saw this thread title, I had to check myself - I had a strong urge to find an alcoholic beverage and down it immediately.

[Michele]

One downside to applying broadly is the cost. The cost of both the applications and the costs associated with travel for interviews. We had about a 10K loan associated with all of it. (I know *nothing* more about any of it - he arranged the loan, paid the bills and did the residency app choosing on his own...I was a busy intern.)

[scrub-jay]

My DH matched into a categorical anesthesia program. I agree w/ST, except anesthesia is 3 years in addition to intern year (4 years total), whereas rads is 5 years total. More and more anesthesia programs are becoming categorical, with intern year being the "clinical base year" but some programs still have a mix of advanced (only the 3 anesthesia years) and cat spots. Prelim spots are separate on the eras now, but same match.

[SoonerTexan]

My DH matched into a categorical anesthesia program. I agree w/ST, except anesthesia is 3 years in addition to intern year (4 years total), whereas rads is 5 years total.

We are going to be in residency FOREVER. Especially if he wants to do the 2 year IR fellowship.

[scrub-jay]

We are going to be in residency FOREVER. Especially if he wants to do the 2 year IR fellowship.

Well, my DH has his eye on fellowship too, but anesthesia fellowships are mostly 1 year (don't hate me ST)

[scrub-jay]

Oh -- word to this wise, don't spend a long time formatting the CV, the ERAS just pulls the info from the individual cells, there was no place to upload it. My DH's advice: figure out what is very important to you and then organize the programs. Feel free to PM me if your DH wants to talk to mine about the interview trail, etc although he is not MD/PhD. (ST- same goes for your DH if he has general questions)

[SuzySunshine]

We are going to be in residency FOREVER. Especially if he wants to do the 2 year IR fellowship.

Forever being what, 6 years? While thy may seem like forever now there are longer!