Hi there!
I'm a mom in my third year of medical school with young kids, lucky enough to be going to school in a city with a lot of family help and where my husband has a great job. I've recently decided to geographically limit myself to my current city for residency, for the aforementioned reasons. Although we are in a big city, my chosen specialty only has one residency program with about a dozen spots (at my home institution). I will also be needing to apply for a prelim/transitional year of which my city has three programs. I think I would be a reasonably good applicant in my chosen specialty if applied broadly, however I'm obviously making a risky decision. That said, I'd prefer to remain unmatched and do research for a year or two than move us to a new city at this point while my kids are so young.
The residency program director at my school meets with all students applying to residency, and I would like to get some advice on how to broach with him the topic of only applying to his program. I have only met him once and he knows that I have kids. I want to avoid looking not committed to medicine obviously, and I know that I could be a great physician but being close to my parents/sibs for childcare help and not uprooting my husband and kids would be quite important to my overall success and happiness. Additionally, my dad has metastatic cancer and I know if I was doing residency in another city I would not be around to see him much. Any advice for how to approach this conversation would be much appreciated!
I had a very similar situation to yours, and here is my advice (which worked, I got into the one program I wanted!). First I would like to say that I told NO ONE of my plans to only rank one program. It's no one's business, and you do risk looking unprofessional if you say something. I would instead focus during that meeting with the residency director on making sure that he knows you are VERY interested in his program. Explain why in terms of program strengths with a little bit of info on the fact that you very much would like to stay in your current city. But I would not focus on your personal situation as the reason. If you need to, do some research and come up with really intelligent things to say about why you like his program.
ReplyDeleteAlso, you have to be willing to not match next year and re-evaluate your chosen specialty/situation. I made a pact with my husband that staying the particular location was more important to me than matching in that specific field. I also had a prelim year with multiple options, which is a cushion. Make sure to apply to all of those, and I'm sure you will get one of them.
Lastly, although it will cost you some extra $, I would keep up appearances by interviewing at a couple of other programs. It's good interview experience anyway, and you never know what connections you will make.
Good luck!
I expect to be in a similar situation in a year. And not only that, I am interested in a small and competitive field. … Since people are replying to you I might also add - if I (or our initial author) were to match into a transition year and not match into the advanced position - what happens after that prelim year? Is there a protracted scramble of sorts? … The idea of a research year is less intimidating to me. But it seems more likely that you'd match in a transition year but NOT for an advanced position. A research year after a prelim year makes less sense to me. Can someone shed light on how that might work? … Thanks. (And I appreciate the advice on not saying you'll apply to just one program. … I think it's possible in my situation to make my preference abundantly clear without divulging that information and hopefully while seeming committed, not desperate!)
ReplyDeleteCould be a big win-win for both. They want someone who is a good candidate and has ties to the community. I would be very clear on your interest in the program, but also on why you are a good candidate. Your social situation may actually be a factor in your favor, but you are not required to divulge this, obviously. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteI'm an MS4 currently on the interview trail and we're trying to stay within a larger geography within the northeast. I'm interviewing at 10 programs (we're willing to move just not far). I always talk about why I like the program itself first and then mention that I'm married and have a family and we're fairly attached to the area and would like to stay. It's been well received so far. I definitely wouldn't mention that you only plan on ranking 1 program as it gives that program a lot of power. Programs like hearing that you'll be happy living in the area since happy residents are better employees. Also, I second the recommendation to apply more broadly and interview at a few programs prior to your #1 if nothing else than for practice. The added cost is negligible in the grand scheme of medical education.
ReplyDeletei will be in a similar situation next year... (sick parent, young kids, currently near family and want to stay).... thanks for posting and i am looking forward to learning from your responses!
ReplyDeleteSo we're not getting a ton of feedback (those in this situation) … So let me ask you guys - how many are going to double-apply (in two different specialties)? Would triple applying be insane? (Assuming similar specialties, say FM and Med, etc)?
ReplyDeleteI applied to one residency program only due to childcare issues. I went to the med school dean prior to discuss options. We talked about the high risk of not matching and the possible need to scramble into another program locally, like Family Medicine. During the residency interview, I did not tell the interviewer I was applying only to that program. At that time, I was doing an "away" sub-I at that particular program and my senior resident had urged me to tell the program it was my one and only choice. The thing is, residency programs want to match with you too, provided you are a good candidate. They want the assurance that whoever they put on their match list will come to their program so whatever information you are comfortable giving that would give them better assurance than, "I plan to rank your program very highly," would be best. This was the reason my senior resident told me to tell the interviewer. I didn't because I felt dis-empowered if I had told. I was afraid the program would see me as a "desperate" candidate and somehow rank me lower, a la, "He liked me a lot but I didn't like him but now that he's lost interest, I find him fascinating..." That was my gut feeling, not sure if it helped or hindered my application. Perhaps you should run this by the medical school medical director. Mine was awesome and I was very comfortable sharing with him. Yes, I would definitely consider applying to all similar specialties in the area. I didn't do this as I thought I could just scramble into something. Had I not gotten into my choice program, I would have been in deep doo doo as all Family Med/internal medicine programs in that area matched for that year. Just prepare for anything!!! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI second the advice to apply and go interview at several other programs. I do think it is important that you don't advertise that you are planning on ranking only 1 program but that is not the reason I advise applying to several programs. The fact is that you will learn a lot about yourself while you are on the interview trail as well as give you a chance to see how things are done elsewhere. That will be valuable to you in your home program.
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