most competitive residencies

[parth1983]

can someone please list the most competitive and least competitive residencies? list everything in between too.............i can't seem to find an appropriate list anywhere online.........

[wcb22]

least competitive...

psychiatry, pediatrics, family medicine, internal medicine

middle ground - pretty competitive,

anesthesiology, categorical surgery


most competitive...

ENT, radiology, dermatology, orthopedic surgery, ophthamology, urology, emergency medicine



here's a rule of thumb (that doesn't always work, but for the most part)...

look up on salary.com, and find all the health practitioners... the ones that make around 130-150k, not so competitive... the ones making 300k, pretty competitive. easy right?

now go get a 99 on your steps! 8)

[Miklos]

Good reply. Here's the same info in slightly different form.

Look at the % of IMGs in a given residency to approximate the competitiveness.

(Source: the AMA. Google 'FREIDA' to look up the data for training statistics for individual specialties.)

NB The average number of IMGs in all residencies is about 25%; anything below that is competitive, depending on the number; anything above is less. Also, this is a lagging indicator; it does not reflect changes since the 2003 match. See http://www.nrmp.org/res_match/data_tables.html for data tables of the most recent matches for another estimation.

ENT 1.9%
Ortho 2.0%
Derm 3.6%
EM 4.4%
Urology 5.1%
Plastics 5.8%
Ophth. 6.9%
Rad-Onc 8.0%
Neurosurg 9.1%
Transition 9.2%
Rad-Diag 9.8%
Ob/Gyn 21.0%
Surg 21.5%
Anesth. 26.7%
Peds 29.5%
FP 33.5%
PM&R 34.9%
Neuro 38.0%
Psych 42.0%
IM 48.9%


Miklos

[jim]

I would say percentage of IMGs is a lousy indicator. if an IMG scores 268/268 he is going to get in, no matter how tough. yet I know an IMG with scores like that who is in psychiatry, as that is what she wants. ENT, derm, plastics, and optho are the hardest. easiest are psych, FP, peds. everything else is shades of middle ground grey.

[###]

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[parth1983]

jim posted that 'if you get a perfect usmle, u will get in'

not so. some residency programs don't allow FMG's. they will take us students in front of fmg's.

look at the data of last year's dermatology match..........100 percent, yes no lie, 100 percent of all matches in dermatology last year were all US grads.

i personally knew 3 people with perfect board scores who were fmg'S WHO didn't match........

the main reason people try to go to us schools first is b/c they get preference in residencies.

duh, otherwise a harvard medical school student would go to spartan and get a perfect score. spartan costs like 60 grand for all 4 years of med school.............harvard costs 200-k. obviously it's tougher for FMG's to get in b/c they have a tougher time..............

call up residency programs, and ask them, "if there are 2 students, 1 which is a FMG and one which is a US grad, both with 99 percentile on their boards, who get preference?'

almost 100 percent will answer 'THE US GRAD, B/C OBVIOUSLY THEY GET PREFERENCE IN AMERICA!'

obviously we're all here as an alternative to a us medical school..........but board scores are obviously not the only thing residency programs look at.

[wcb22]

likewise, if you score a 99s at st georges you will still most likely be given preference over a spartan grad with the same stats.

[parth1983]

yea obviously your right, st. george's student will get preference over the spartan grad.............just like us grads get preference............over IMG's.


i also had a question, i don't quite understand the pgy-1 and pgy-2 meanings?..............as in..........what is a transitional year? and after that, do you re-apply for the match? is it easier to get in after a transitional year? and what do u do in a transitional year?

[wolfvgang22]

Here's an awesome web site I found on the subject:

http://www.phius.com/medicine/medx/competitiveness.htm

Enjoy!

[jim]

never saw a competitiveness score before. by the way, if you understand the way the match system works form the programs end, you will see that yes, soemtimes score doesnt matter. as for the assertion of a perfect score? never been done, if your friends have told you that, they are liars. supposedly the highest score ever was a 282, which was about a 91% on the actual exam. the scores given to you only compare you to the exam, NEVER to others, in other words, a percentile score is never given out. ( the 2 digit score means nothing at all. it is still in use, but being phased out, from the days of a computer program that went by a 2 digit spot to put in scores) and when programs open up their ERAS page, they have options. they have filters. they can click on certain filters, and automatically never even see apps from people who have just been filtered. the most commonly used filters are #1, people who have ever failed a step. in other words, fail one time, and score a 275, and they never even see your app. you get beat out by soemone who scored a 185, but never failed. the #2 most common filter? LCME status. in other words, if you didnt go to a US or canadian school. why do I say that the whole FMG thing cant be used to figure out how competitive porograms are? because there are FP and IM and peds programs that will use that filter. are they more competitive? nope, just dont want FMGs. there is also one that filters out non-US citizens, so they dont have to deal with visa issues. as well as they can set a minimum score, 200, 220, 245, or so on. multiple filters can be used(my program filters non US citizens, people who have failed, and a 200 score). I would call my program IM, mid level competitiveness. though the average score of people who matched with us on step 1 last year was 246(glad I wasnt in that app year!!!)