It all depends on where she lands interviews which determines how she ranks them but how her competition is at the places she interviews which results in the programs ranking the candidates.
I assume the application has a home address which should indicate home state?
@WayOutWestMom does the residency application have a place for âhome addressâ? A medical studentâs actual home is where they are attending medical schoolâŠisnât it?
I just looked up Dâs ERAs application. It has Present Mailing Address and Permanent Mailing address.
Thanks.
StillâŠI think this medical student needs to be thinking of programs to apply to in addition to their Texas medical school affiliated residency and residencies in CA.
As you notedâŠitâs where the student gets interviews that they can rank residencies. CA is really a tough place because of the huge number of applicants and medical schools instate. Even when a student grows up in CA and attends medical school in CA, there is no guarantee at all that this will net them a residency match in CA.
@texaspg you can talk better about Texas.
I know this is a bit off topic, but hopefully yâall wonât mind.
How tough is it for a med school student to aim their residency towards a particular part of the country? Like NE, California, mountain west, etc.
I see the school @GoldenRock is referring to matches quite a few of their own students across all specialties and so as long as his D is well perceived by the dept she will be applying to she should be easy match. Most of their residencies are highly ranked so it should be a goal to match there. However, their students have done quite well this year and place people all over the country in other top residency programs and so it will all come down to the specialty and how well she did in the medical school. With a 90% in state preference, most students are local and prefer closer to home probably but I do see a neurosurgery at UCSF and an Ortho at UCLA and 2 others at other places. So in theory it is possible to get into Cal residency and even compete at well known programs for a great student.
How tough is it for a med school student to aim their residency towards a particular part of the country? Like NE, California, mountain west, etc.
It depends on numerous factors, including:
âspecialty applied for
âstudentâs USMLE/COMLEX scores
âstudentâs grades & class rank
âstudentâs competitiveness for specialty applied for
âthe strength of the applicantâs LORs
âwhether the student is only interested in academic residencies or is open to applying to community programs as well
âexact region the student is hoping for
California is notoriously difficult to match to because so many people want to to do residency there (35% of all med grads according to AMCASâs GSQ) It becomes a bit less difficult if the applicant is willing to apply broadly to community hospital programs in all areas of CA (esp. those that are away from the major coastal cities)
The Mountain West is also a difficult place to match because there just arenât that many residency programs and applicants who either attend Rocky Mtn region schools or who area from the region/grew up in the area tend to want to stay there.
The NE has plenty of residency programs so if the applicants is willing to apply broadly to both academic and community programs, they shouldnât have too much difficultyâassuming the applicants has the stats and is a competitive applicant for the specialty theyâre pursuing
A residency applicant can improve their chances for a match in their desired region by doing one or more audition rotations in their targeted region.
Iâm nowhere near as experienced as many of the posters on here, but from this particular match experience with my guyâs school, many (not all) applied regionally (or mostly regionally) to where they wanted to be and all but two got something in their desired area. One ended up not matching and has opted to do research instead - didnât even try for SOAP. The other ended up in the mountain west and had hoped to stay east.
His school is in NY and most stayed in NY (various residencies, not just his hospital system), but the second highest state they went to was CA.
And⊠I suspect a bit of it depends upon how highly regarded the med school is for the specialty. We see a lot of correlation keeping with similar âlevels.â
One school, one year and a Covid year at that. Other schools/years may vary.
My Dsâ alma mater is in the mountain west and has a relatively small class size. About half of this yearâs grads matched into residencies in the west/mountain west: CA, AZ, NM, OR, WA, UT, NV and CO.
Outside of the Mountain West the largest number of students matched to TX (5) and Illinois (5) with other matches spread out across the US, from Hawaii (2) to Florida (1) to Maine (1).
Looking back over the past 8 years of matchesâthat seems about typical.
As for the specialties, Iâm not sure I agree. The local med school doesnât host residencies in ophthalmology, integrated vascular surgery, dermatology or neurosurgery, but year after year, grads match into those fields. (Including matches at Harvard and Mayo this year.)
@WayOutWestMom I am guessing the point you are making is that it is not necessary for the school to have a well known/specialized program in a field for them to match to other specialized programs at other schools.
Talked with D2 today. She met with the fellowship PD today and was basically told if she submits her CV and letter of interest one of the fellowship positions is hers. The program got a private grant that will fund 2 new fellowship slots. One of the grant funded positions will go to her and she wonât even need to apply formally through ERAS. Also the PD agreed to allow D2 to moonlight outside of the program 2-3 days/week to maintain her surgical skills.
And now the restâD2 has a real in-hand offer to join the med school/hospital as junior faculty upon completion of the fellowship. But her mentor has recommended D2 to a nearby hospital (flagship hospital for large healthcare organization that has clinics/hospitals in 3 western states) to start up a new program in the same field for them. Two great options, both of which set up her career nicely.
Wow, you must be one proud mama!
Lovely options! She should go for money after fellowship!