Your Best Match: 3 Mistakes to Avoid when Applying for Residency

As someone that has helped select residents in residency programs, I have seen some common mistakes that can be avoided.

1. Not knowing where you stand

You need some brutal honesty here. Call the program director (PD) of your intended specialty at your home institution to set up a face to face meeting. Lay it all on the table. Tell this person your class rank, USMLE scores, and your interest in your specialty. The PD will eventually see your application so it is best to ask them for your competitiveness. Be very honest here. If you want to stay home let the PD know. On the other hand, don’t lie and say you are interested in staying if you are not interested in staying. You will need your home program’s blessing to match in your intended specialty.

If you are applying for a competitive specialty such as dermatology, urology, plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, or radiation oncology ask the program director if you are very competitive, competitive, or not competitive. If you are not considered competitive ask the PD what you can do to increase your competitiveness. This could mean not applying to “top twenty” programs. There are many good training programs that are not considered “top twenty” because they don’t have a strong research focus during residency.

If you don’t know your true competitiveness you will spend a lot of money during your ERAS applications and not receive many invitations for interviews. Most programs screen applicants because they receive too many applications. The program coordinators can select “competitive applicants” using ERAS program filters to decrease the applications.

2. Not learning about feeder medical schools.

Learning about the feeder medical schools for the residency program that you are applying to is very important. Residency programs have medical school pipelines that they trust. This could be because previous residents from your medical school have done very well during their residency training. Or the program might favor regional medical schools during the interview and ranking process. The best way to learn the feeder programs is by Doximity Residency Navigator. Find the residency programs of interest and see if your medical school is a feeder program.

If you are not in the same geographic region as the residency program of interest, don’t have family ties near this program, or if your medical school is not considered a feeder medical school to this residency program you will find it very hard to get an interview for the competitive specialties.

3. Not thinking about life after Residency.

Now let’s say you know the specialty that you want to go into. Now what?

Many medical students don’t think about this, but where you go to train will have a huge impact on whether you have a chance to be an academic physician, fellowship match success, and where you will live after training.

For example, if you want to go into academics or considering subspecialist fellowship training after residency, try to get into the best program that you can get into for residency training. Residency Navigator is helpful for this. Apply to 1/3 above your competitiveness, 1/3 within your competitiveness, and 1/3 below your competitiveness. Try to go on 8–10 interviews for competitive specialties and 4–6 interviews for less competitive specialties.

What about private practice?

If you want to go into private practice after your training, go to Doximity Residency Navigator to find the programs that you want to apply and look at the program’s board pass rates. You will need to pass your specialty boards for hospital credentialing and patient insurance reimbursements when you work as an attending. If they have a low board pass rate, they might not be doing a good job in board preparation.

Also look at areas that you want to live after training. Most graduates tend to practice at the same state or a contiguous state after training. You can also use Residency Navigator to find the alumni cities for the residents that graduate from the residency programs. It is never too early to start thinking about life after residency training.