Questions For BigRedMed

Bigredmed
Sat, 05 Aug 2006 03:19:44 +0000

Norcal guy did an excellent job covering the main points.

My information on the UA residency requirements comes from the Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) book published yearly by the AAMC

From the pages on the UofA COM in Tuscon under the section labled “Requirements for Entrance” page 116 of the 2005-2006 edition.

All applicants must be residents of Arizona or WICHE-Certified and funded residents of Montana, or Wyoming.



The key is that you must prove residency to get the advantage at most state medical schools.

As for the top school arguements, it is entirely impossible to separate out exactly how much influence going to a top school exerts on medical school admissions, mainly b/c the students who end up at Stanford or the Ivies are driven, intelligent individuals who tend to do well in classes (GPA) and standarized tests (MCAT). There is some truth if you are on the margin of being accepted to such schools that going to an “easier” (and I use the quotes delibriately as air quotes) undergrad school may improve your chances of getting into medical school - but there is more to it than just grades. I’m a firm believer in fit as the single most important factor in choosing an undergrad institution. Some people do well surrounded by equals, others need to be a big fish in a small pond. The point is that you need to find the school that meets your physical, social and academic needs. You need to find the school where you can accomplish the absolute greatest total amount possible during your 4-5 years.

All that said: Medical school admissions are extremely ****ed up and a lot of times don’t make sense. I have plenty of friends who didn’t get in their first try who had great applications. I know of people who got into high name schools like Iowa but didnt’ get accepted at their in-state schools (where you would think they have an advantage). I also know of people who got in with 3.1 GPA and a 22 on the MCAT b/c of who they knew.

As for the prestige of UW, I think you are very mistaken at the reputation that school has. I’ve only ever heard about great things from UW. Norcal is right though, that the prestige of a medical school is very minimal. The thing is that, again going back to the fact that there are only 125, is that you are looking at relative prestige vs absolute. If Hopkins is a 100 on some made up prestige scale, then Arizona is an 80. On that scale the absolute least prestigious school would be a 65. Compared to undergrad with Harvard or yale as a 100, the least prestigious school would be a -10000. Compared to law schools the tops would be 100 and tier 4 schools would be -500. And in medicine everything can be made up in board scores. The thing about residency is that it’s actually more like a job interview than admissions to school. The interview makes up a huge part, where you went to school only keeps you from getting in the door. They are looking at whether they can work with you for 3-7 years.

Surgery as a residency path is not that highly sought after for many people b/c the call schedule is brutal. Even with the 80 hour resident limit restrictions, the lifestyle of a surgery resident sucks (It’s my #1 reason why I’m looking more towards a Peds residency followed by fellowship). It’s not the blood and gore b/c most med students don’t have a problem with that. It’s the lifestyle. It’s also not as competitive as the other residencies you listed b/c there are a lot of programs. Every medical school and it’s associated medical center has a surgery program. Again the absolute top residency programs in any given specialty will be competitive. But for example, only 5.4 % of students in 2002 who ranked ONLY general surgery programs were left unmatched vs. (All 2002 data from the book The Ultimate Guide to Choosing a Medical Specialty) 16.1% for those ranking only derm, 6.5% for those only ranking Emergency Med, 15% for neurosurgery, 22% for only ophthamalogy, 14.9% for only Ortho, 15% for only ENT/Head-neck Surgery, 11.1% for Radiology and 23.5% for those only applying to Plastics. Again these are stats for people who ranked in the match only programs in those specialties. It’s not a perfect stat to judge the difficulty in obtaining a residency in a certain field, but it’s the best I can do.

As for why your friends are wrong, the only thing I can guess is that they just haven’t looked into it that much. I have found that most people know exactly how to be a pre-med and what’s required, but even among current med students, the whole process of the Match and boards is largely unknown. Part of it likely has to do with the separation that occurrs between the third and fourth year students and the first and second year student due to the sudden change from classroom learner to clerkships. It has taken reading on my own to figure out what I know about applying to residency.

I’m sorry but I don’t know much about Michigan. From the MSAR, MSU says that about 80% of their class will be MI residents.