my main goal is EM, but ultimately, my performance in med school and on usmle will really dictate that. IM and neurology seem interesting fields also.

Interested in doing pediatric surgery. Its a long road considering I havent started clinicals yet.

Sorry for the cliche but its true:

"The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step"


Good luck on finals everyone!!

You should probably do a little more research on this area. EM is a fairly competitive residency and getting more competitive each year. Unless you have scores >225 you might not get an EM spot, especially coming from a school that is still fairly new. EM is now considered more difficult to obtain than surgery, anasthesiology, and more so than some upper IM/FM programs. Also, since the 80hr/week work schedule has been mandated, surgery is now a more popular position and gettintg more difficult to obtain. OBGYN, however, is on a decline because of the extremely high malpractice insurance rates.

i beg to differ, i know several ppl that have matched in EM with scores in the 200-210 range.

What about anesthesiology? How competitive is that and what is the average or competitive score for residency?

about the same as EM...

while u can match with lower scores.. just understand the higher ur score the easier it will be to get interviews and succesfully match..

theres other things that get factored in.. outstanding LORs (believe me they do matter).. research/publications.. visiting electives at the program ur interested in... who u know.. lots of things...

while a 200-210 does not guarantee u a match.. what im trying to say its a very realistic possibility u will be able to do so.. or may not..(depends on individual) .. but its attainable.. i know someone that matched in EM at a great program with a 198.. but he was an outstanding candidate in all other respects..

so its hard to make generalizations like that.. to be in a safe zone.. u want a 220... its very possible to match with much lower scores.. but its not really guaranteed, you will need other aspects of your application to make up for lower scores.. whehter that means the program directors wife is ur moms best friend.. or u have great letters of ref.. or whatever..

and just an FYI.. no one in the real world calls anesthesiology..gas..

its just a term med students coined?? and is i spose trendy among med students.. ppl will look at u funny in the hospital if u tell em u want to do "gas".. i have yet meet anyone in real life refer to the speciality out loud as "gas" ..

Okay so this might sound like a dumb question, but I just want to clarify something. People are mentioning specific scores (ie, 220, 225, etc).... this is on step II that you're talking about correct? Does it also matter what you're step I scores were?

TIA!

Cardiac surgery!

no when u hear about the match and board scores.. its almost always in reference to step 1..
step 2 scores dont matter so much.. (since lots of ppl havent even taken it at the time of application)

step 1 scores are typically the number one screening criteria..
of course off the wall great step 2 scores will help boost avg step 1 scores..

but as far as board scores and the match.. almost always... if its not otherwise specified.. boards scores mentioned in that context of residency and match) =step 1 score