Applying for Residency

[SuzySunshine]

I definitely agree with the making notes immediately after each interview. DH would do that on the way to his next one, it was vital when it came to ranking.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

A few times I even typed it up for him and sent it to his email if he was dashing to a flight and only had time for a quick call. I never wanted him to forget right away because we relied on those notes heavily for ranking. Dude cannot be counted upon to remember anything except obscure Uro facts and a few key dates (we've given up on sibling birthdays for example).

[Cinderella]

I don't understand something. ERAS updated over the weekend and now there are a lot more IM programs not participating than were participating before. LINK

However in the program search on FREIDA these same programs say they're participating in the NRMP and most of them show they last updated in Feb 13.

What does this mean? Which list do I go by when eliminating programs? Also should I go ahead and eliminate programs like the Mayo clinic, Yale, Brown, Vanderbilt that are maybe out of our reach as IMGs even though they seem IMG friendly?

[moonlight]

Yeah I would skip those programs you list. On the other had they are all good places to save for fellowship if he wants to do that. Will he apply in the Carolinas?

[Cinderella]

So far from FRIEDA I've made a list for IM including every State except California, because of the California letter. Alaska and Montana didn't have IM programs so they're not on the list either. I'm going through and plugging in Cost of Living, IMG friendly, and other criteria about each program to see if we should eliminate them or definitely apply to them.

What's confusing to me is that in FRIEDA the IM programs say they're accepting applications for the 2014 match and even give the current update when they are taking the last application for that match, but in ERAS a lot of these same programs say they're not participating. I know it just updated over the weekend because I couldn't access ERAS and cross reference. I'm inclined to believe they'll be updating ERAS in the coming months that they are participating as we get closer to application time in the September cycle.

[alison]

I wouldn't eliminate those programs unless you feel like it would be a financial hardship. My dh is a foreigner and a foreign grad, and he got interviews that were total reach programs. Absolute surprises.

[Cinderella]

I wouldn't eliminate those programs unless you feel like it would be a financial hardship. My dh is a foreigner and a foreign grad, and he got interviews that were total reach programs. Absolute surprises.

Thanks for the advice! Otherwise I wasn't really sure what to do but now I'll keep them on the list for him and give it a shot if he wants to.

[alison]

Keep them!!! I feel like in dh's case/specialty the reach programs were interested in "hearing his story" more so than the mid-range ones.

[MsSassyBaskets]

Hey, can anybody tell me about narrowing down IM programs? We're still over a year out, but DH is pretty confident about IM followed by a Hem/Onc fellowship. Given the sheer number of IM programs, how do you start narrowing down? Geography, obviously, but I know we're going to have to be broad about that since the places we would really like to live are probably among the most competitive. We've also talked about trying to pinpoint IM programs that also have the fellowship, but obviously we can be open to the places without too. So... what factors do you recommend looking at? I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but you know, I like to be overly informed.

[oceanchild]

Hey, can anybody tell me about narrowing down IM programs? We're still over a year out, but DH is pretty confident about IM followed by a Hem/Onc fellowship. Given the sheer number of IM programs, how do you start narrowing down? Geography, obviously, but I know we're going to have to be broad about that since the places we would really like to live are probably among the most competitive. We've also talked about trying to pinpoint IM programs that also have the fellowship, but obviously we can be open to the places without too. So... what factors do you recommend looking at? I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but you know, I like to be overly informed.

This is peds advice, but my understanding is that IM is pretty similar. Most US grads are going to be pretty competitive at even the top programs, so unless you have reason to believe he won't be competitive (really low test scores, some other problem), don't feel like you have to apply to a gazillion programs. Use the charting outcomes document from the previous year as a guide. (Based on that, my DH ended up applying to about 15 programs and ranking 7.) We focused mostly on places with the fellowship we thought he wanted, but not exclusively. He ended up doing that fellowship at the same program, and I'm extremely glad that was an option. Otherwise all our narrowing was based on good programs in places we wanted to live. We ruled out a few places we wanted to live because the programs weren't good, and we ruled out several really good programs because we didn't want to live in those cities. Embrace the fact that you have options, and don't let the rads and anesthesia people scare you.

[scrub-jay]

If possible, try to agree and rank the factors that are important to you. Location? Research? Family-friendliness? Program structure? Program size? Emphasis on various elements that may be important (medical education, rural rotations, quality improvement, research grants/support, didactics, resident involvement), Relationship between various groups? Number of hospital locations? I just threw out a few that I could think of, but our list was very specialty-specific with the requirements. I got to throw in my thoughts too - obviously I didn't have an opinion on how many hours of such-and-such training residents get on average, but with 2 kids I was able to throw in my thoughts on location, specifically those that would be possible to raise a family. For example, this axed a few off the list because there was no way we could support a family of 4 and let us narrow it down. We applied all over the place with the exception of some very high COL programs, but it was in a competitive specialty. Start broad and narrow it down, your list and your factors will be unique to the two of you.

[scrub-jay]

... and don't let the rads and anesthesia people scare you.

Yea, we were anesthesia which is why I didn't tell you how many interviews my DH went on or how many programs he ranked.

[MsSassyBaskets]

This is peds advice, but my understanding is that IM is pretty similar. Most US grads are going to be pretty competitive at even the top programs, so unless you have reason to believe he won't be competitive (really low test scores, some other problem), don't feel like you have to apply to a gazillion programs. Use the charting outcomes document from the previous year as a guide. (Based on that, my DH ended up applying to about 15 programs and ranking 7.) We focused mostly on places with the fellowship we thought he wanted, but not exclusively. He ended up doing that fellowship at the same program, and I'm extremely glad that was an option. Otherwise all our narrowing was based on good programs in places we wanted to live. We ruled out a few places we wanted to live because the programs weren't good, and we ruled out several really good programs because we didn't want to live in those cities. Embrace the fact that you have options, and don't let the rads and anesthesia people scare you.

Thank you! That's very reassuring.

[Bittersweet]

This is peds advice, but my understanding is that IM is pretty similar. Most US grads are going to be pretty competitive at even the top programs, so unless you have reason to believe he won't be competitive (really low test scores, some other problem), don't feel like you have to apply to a gazillion programs. Use the charting outcomes document from the previous year as a guide. (Based on that, my DH ended up applying to about 15 programs and ranking 7.) We focused mostly on places with the fellowship we thought he wanted, but not exclusively. He ended up doing that fellowship at the same program, and I'm extremely glad that was an option. Otherwise all our narrowing was based on good programs in places we wanted to live. We ruled out a few places we wanted to live because the programs weren't good, and we ruled out several really good programs because we didn't want to live in those cities. Embrace the fact that you have options, and don't let the rads and anesthesia people scare you.

I agree with this. My DH went to a tiny state medical school (MD program) and got interviews at every place he applied, including some truly top programs. I think he’s awesome () and he did have competitive stats but we were both kind of surprised that they didn’t automatically turn their noses up at his podunk education.

The number of IM programs is overwhelming, isn’t it? Somehow, DH ended up narrowing it down and applied to only 10 (?) programs, interviewed with all of them and ranked every last one. Cardiology is very competitive, so being set up for a successful fellowship match was his top priority. Basically, he narrowed it down to programs that had opportunities for research in his area of interest (this was a huge consideration) and a strong history of keeping residents for fellowship and/or matching them at well regarded fellowship programs. Even within those criteria, we were able to be super picky about location and all but a few of the programs were in areas we actually wanted to live. With that said, I still managed to get super stressed out about the whole thing. But, that’s just my way.

[Vanquisher]

Yeah. Ortho is uber competitive. DH applied to 50. Went on 12 interviews. Ranked 11. It just depends on the specialty. He was a very good candidate.