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Does the med school you choose have an effect on residency matches?


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Hey,

 

I was just wondering....

if residency programs prefer students that have completed med school @ their own schools or if that's a totally irrelevant factor.

 

For competitive residency matches like derm/uro/ortho/plastics.... is it beneficial if you attend the same uni for med school, and get to know the Dr.s in that field...etc.??

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From what I hear : it's beneficial (/might be necessary, especially for some very competitive programs) to get to know the people you would be working with, so they will know how compatible of a match you would be. However, you have opportunities to do that by scheduling electives in 4th year or during summers, and I don't think you need to be a student at their school per say, as long as they know you and like working with you.

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By far the most important thing seems to be the electives you choose to do in your elective time. Programs don't like to deal with the unknown, so doing electives at schools you are interested in doing a residency at is a good start.

 

Attending the school is helpful because you get to know the members of the program well. This is by no means a deal breaker. I think that more than half of medical students end up away from their medical school anyway.

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So you essentially have to "impress" them on your elective then, I'm guessing....

 

Doing mediocre or being just average (and "average" varies depending on the competition) could hurt you more in an elective than not going at all?

 

I don't agree with this. The expectations for the medical student are not that high. Really if you show up, are enthusiastic and interested and able to work hard and well with the team, you will be able to impress them. Unless you really put your foot in your mouth or are percieved as lazy/not interested time spent in the elective is a positive.

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Well I'm fine with doing all that. But I don't know if they'll think I am "sharp" enough if they keep grilling questions and I don't know all the answers, etc. Like should we read up heavily and well into the night prepping for these type of things? What if you're not like the "go-getter" kid in class who jumps at every question during small groups, etc. and takes some time to absorb info?

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Well I'm fine with doing all that. But I don't know if they'll think I am "sharp" enough if they keep grilling questions and I don't know all the answers, etc.

 

You're a medical student (presumably). Even the attendings don't know *all* the answers. Most of the people pimping you are interested in two things

 

1) how much do you know, and more importantly

 

2) how do you react when you're out of your depth? Do you BS? Lie? Do you hold it together and diplomatically admit that you don't know the answer but you'd sure be happy to look that up and tell the team all about it?

 

That said, if you can make even a half-assed attempt at answering the questions you'll look a lot better than guys like me, who say "Uhh...I dunno" to everything.

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Thanks for the insight pb! I guess I just see it as being relative...you are gonna be compared to your peers....and I know there are a lotta keener people who like read every background article 3x etc before going to class etc. I'm not a slacker, but at the same time, I'm not a super keener either.

 

I just wonder how "intense" we have to be in clerkship, can we still have a life or is it more like go to clerkship during the day/evening/night (whenever your schedule is) and then prep like mad during your free time to make a "good impression"?

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