Residency applicants, please note that the NRMP rank order list deadline is this Wednesday, February 22. Rank order lists must be certified by 9 am EST. After that, you can sit back and relax because there is little to do except wait.
Blog Archives
Geography is Giant
When I was a medical student applying for emergency medicine residency programs, a well-meaning dean gave me some bad advice. I was determining the order of my rank list and was particularly concerned about one program that had an excellent reputation but was in a city I didn’t like. The dean told me, “You’ll be so busy during residency it won’t matter where you live.” Luckily, the advice rubbed me the wrong way, and I wholeheartedly disregarded it. As I’ve said in a recent blog entry (and others in the past), where you live for your medical training – medical school, residency, or fellowship – is as important as the quality of your training program. The reasons are several-fold:
1. Medical training is extremely time-consuming, and you want to be in a city you can enjoy fully when you’re able to blow off steam.
2. Medical training is extremely stressful, and you want to be in a city where you have social support.
3. Medical training is not completed in a vacuum. Your personal life continues. If you’re single you may meet someone and end up staying in the city where you have trained for the rest of your life (gasp!). If you’re in a long-term relationship you may decide to have children or may already have them. Down the road you may not want to relocate your family.
Not everyone gets the opportunity to go to medical school or train in residency and fellowship programs in a city s/he likes. But you can make choices that will increase your chances.
Tags: Geography, Medical School, Rank List, residency
Your Residency Application: What to Prioritize When Creating your Rank List
Creating your Match rank list can be challenging. Below, I briefly note a few considerations when making your list:
1. Make sure you understand how the NRMP algorithm works. See my previous blog post regarding errors to avoid at all costs. The key is to rank in the order you want – first goes first, second goes second, etc.
2. Consider your happiness and life balance. Blasphemy perhaps, but I would argue that they are more important than the strength of the training program.
3. Reflect on the culture, geography, size, and even maturity/age of the program. Think about whether you will fit in.
4. Consider whether you could spend your whole life at the institution or in that program’s location. It’s a lot to grapple with, but many residents graduate and stay for the rest of their careers.
5. Decide whether you liked the program director, chairperson, and faculty generally. They could make or break your happiness and success.
6. Realize that most programs will train you well if you work hard. Their prestige and quality may be more similar than you think. For that reason, note that your personal preferences and intuitions are paramount.
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
