Backing up with Family - with LORs from ENT..

[move.along]

Hello -

 

I have completed the majority of my electives in ENT. ENT will be my top choice, but I am now considering late in the game to back up with family. I do not have any letters from this discipline, so I would have to use the 3 letters I received from ENT.

 

Has this been done before? Most programs I have read require at least one letter form a Family doc, however other programs just say 3 letters from a clinician...

 

Love to hear your thoughts.

 

thanks.

[HycrestJIT]

You can do whatever you want. You're the one who pays for CaRMS and all its related expenses.

 

Though with an application like you're describing to a family medicine program, I wouldn't count on your "back-up" as actually being reliable in the event you didn't match to ENT.

 

You would need a jaw-dropping resume, personal letters and rotation evaluations for me to put an application like yours into the "red flags* but let's consider interviewing" pile.

 

*red flags in this case are in reference to an applicant's perceived desire and ability to succeed in a family medicine program specifically

[Lactic Folly]

It could even be said that the more jaw-dropping the ENT application, the less likely it would be that the applicant would end up in family medicine, i.e. wasted interview spot (unless of course, the letters say that everyone wishes you had decided to stick with ENT, but you have made a sincere last minute change to apply for family medicine).

[rogerroger]

Hello -

 

I have completed the majority of my electives in ENT. ENT will be my top choice, but I am now considering late in the game to back up with family. I do not have any letters from this discipline, so I would have to use the 3 letters I received from ENT.

 

Has this been done before? Most programs I have read require at least one letter form a Family doc, however other programs just say 3 letters from a clinician...

 

Love to hear your thoughts.

 

thanks.

 

 

Family basically interviews everyone most of the time. I'm not exaggerating.

 

The family med folks know they are used for a backup. They are realistic, they have to be. Snagging some competitive ENT keeners is not necessarily a bad thing for a family program. Chances are you are an above average med student if you are competitive for ENT. This means you have a high probability of being low maintenance and easily teachable. Family programs could view ranking you as any easy win. Not all ENT applicants get in, so they might snag a few high profile applicants they might not otherwise get by frequently ranking people such as yourself.

 

If you can come up with something reasonable explaining a desire for family medicine during an interview I bet they would have no problem ranking you favorably.

[bloh]

Family basically interviews everyone most of the time. I'm not exaggerating.

 

The family med folks know they are used for a backup. They are realistic, they have to be. Snagging some competitive ENT keeners is not necessarily a bad thing for a family program. Chances are you are an above average med student if you are competitive for ENT. This means you have a high probability of being low maintenance and easily teachable. Family programs could view ranking you as any easy win. Not all ENT applicants get in, so they might snag a few high profile applicants they might not otherwise get by frequently ranking people such as yourself.

 

If you can come up with something reasonable explaining a desire for family medicine during an interview I bet they would have no problem ranking you favorably.

 

"high profile, above average, ENT keener, etc..". It's all a bunch of bull****. Unless you are jesus on your resume in areas other than ENT, the program has no idea how good you really are. For all they know, you may as well be a below average scrub that couldn't make it into ENT. So why would family want you? Contrary to popular belief, most better FM programs are becoming fairly competitive and don't really have the desire to even interview a candidate like the OP posted.

[rogerroger]

"high profile, above average, ENT keener, etc..". It's all a bunch of bull****. Unless you are jesus on your resume in areas other than ENT, the program has no idea how good you really are. For all they know, you may as well be a below average scrub that couldn't make it into ENT. So why would family want you? Contrary to popular belief, most better FM programs are becoming fairly competitive and don't really have the desire to even interview a candidate like the OP posted.

 

Bull****? After my experience with CaRMS and family medicine this has not been my experience. I applied to FM. I was obviously backing up with this specialty. I got tons of interviews, more than I could ever attend. I wasted a ton of money. I'm not unique, nor was I some sort of wounder kid in med school. Lots of people have post-CaRMS stories like this. Family gives interviews out like crazy and they clearly don't care much if you are backing up from the pre-interview standpoint. Post-interview, maybe they care more. But with a ton of spots going unmatched the threshold for acceptance has to be lower. It's just common sense.

[ER scrub]

"high profile, above average, ENT keener, etc..". It's all a bunch of bull****. Unless you are jesus on your resume in areas other than ENT, the program has no idea how good you really are. For all they know, you may as well be a below average scrub that couldn't make it into ENT. So why would family want you? Contrary to popular belief, most better FM programs are becoming fairly competitive and don't really have the desire to even interview a candidate like the OP posted.

 

Out of all the FM programs, how many fill up completely in Round one?

It was three last year. So contrary to what your school tells you because they don't want you to go unmatched, FM still is not in a position to play the "Why would we want you?" game.

 

And btw, stop being a jerk.