Hardest specialties to match into reddit The fill-rates for DO students are also provided: Interventional Radiology (Integrated) Out of 293 applicants, 78. It’s clear that the most challenging residency specialties to match into correspond with some of the best-paid specialties in medicine. I would rather go unmatched than match into rad onc tbh Reply reply Hey guys! Two years ago, I did a lot of personal research on the hardest undergraduate programs to get into in Canada. How competitive is hard to answer, but 'more' than a small 4 resident community program. Open menu Open navigation Go to Reddit Home. I didn’t match in 2020 and SOAPed into a specialty I didn’t expect and hadn’t even rotated in (Neurology) and it has honestly been great and there’s a pile of great career options ahead of me that I’m Reddit's home for wholesome discussion related to pre-medical studies. Most students have honored most of their classes/rotations, published research, and have achieved top scores on the USMLE Step I and II exams. For better or worse, school name seems to matter a lot. Find a different career path through SOAP or otherwise. Not impossible, but very difficult. If you want Ortho, you want at bare minimum a 240 (70th percentile) on Step 1 - but more likely you'll want to be above 250 (86th percentile). Plastics is one of the hardest specialties to get into and many students change their mind once their a student The grind will never stop because plastic surgery is extremely competitive and perhaps the hardest residency to match into. You can also do a lot of little procedure like central lines, paras, thoras, LPs. droliver Full Member. Often requires many unaccredited years. Check out the sidebar for intro guides. Having said all that, for any US MD, it's absolutely doable to match into any specialty if The prelim/PGY-1 only positions are easier to match into than categorial positions, so most people who partially match only PGY2, SOAP a PGY1 position. As long you don’t limit yourself geographically, you can match into some great places. The match rate my year was 68% and that was including only those who interviewed, which is what sf match reports. Hello r/medicalschool!As a post-match M4 going into plastics with some free time, I decided to write up some of my thoughts about this crazy process. Most medical students recognize that their first year in college is one of the most demanding, exciting, and gratifying times of their lives. Obviously it has been said but the major ones like MGH and BW not so much. We get the ones dentists don’t even want to try. It kind of all You shouldn’t be so pessimistic about matching into Pathology. I have average exam scores for psych. Most institutions will have ID as a consulting service. Matching into a competitive specialty is definitely harder than getting into med school, but a lot of matching into those specialties depends on the tier of med school you attended. true. 4% of the 51 positions were filled by US MD seniors, while 11. If it's got a supportive manager, good coworkers, and reasonable staffing expectations, I would rather work there regardless of specialty instead of landing a job in my "dream specialty" in a toxic, understaffed hellhole. Top 5 most common ACGME matches for DOs in 2016 were IM, FM, EM, peds, and anesthesiology. The weirder things like myasthenia gravis and adult strabismus will be your responsibility. Hoping you get Competitive and 'what vet students want the most' are not always the same thing -- I think most vet students who pursue a specialty want surgery, but because there are so many of them available, it isn't the most competitive to get into. If IMG still have the courage to face the match at their 50% or so rate, you can for sure match as a US MD as long as you passed your stuff and got the LoR’s. Merong straight programs (mag rorotate lang sila sa GS then pure specialty training all the way), merong fellowship (after graduating GS residency, mag tatake ka ng fellowship in the program na gusto mo). This specialty is widely considered one of the least competitive residency programs to get into, A reddit community for dental students (students studying to become dentists BDS, DDS, DMD, etc) to share the latest news, articles, ideas, and anything else pertaining to the field of dentistry. Categorical programs are ones where you match into that program and do all your training there starting at the post-graduate 1 or PGY-1 year. Looking at the NRMP's "Charting Outcomes in the Match" for osteopathic students. " To be honest, I’ve wanted to do neurosurgery since I was a freshman in undergrad when I saw a lecture from a neurosurgeon and now being 2. The question you are asking is somewhat difficult to answer given the diversity in EM. GS and CT are rough too. What are the necessary steps or "todos" in order to match into an ortho residency? I've been searching online for a "checklist" but haven't found Two years ago, I did a lot of personal research on the hardest undergraduate programs to get into in Canada. Expand user menu Open settings menu. Total percentage filled by MD Seniors: 100%. Medicine is a very, very broad field with tons to offer people of many different intellectual and social leanings, and medical school is the only time in your career where you have all the time in the world to soak up info and learn about it all (mostly) at your own leisure. Whereas for me for ex I’m interested in pediatrics so the pressure now that i’m in medical school is very low Reply reply Commercial_Tone2383 • I actually think being overly fixated on one specialty coming into medical school is pretty unhealthy. You are way to early in the process to worry about matching fellowship as you have quite literally 7 years of training ahead of you where life happens and things change. Just do your best now and you will match into a nice academic program where all the options will be open! Dermatology is one of the hardest specialties to match even for MD and even more so from DO. Psychiatry. Except Dermatology though. This year I applied to 120 and got 13 interviews. Your CV is not bad. There are specialties just as selective as dermatology that are more friendly to DOs such as opthamology. Your MCAT can predict your step 1 (Edit: BUT DOESNT HAVE TO). Was considering GI but seeing how GI is one of the most competitive IM specialties, I would assume you would need to have strong test-taking skills which helps with landing a solid academic IM program with a home GI program. The #1 social media platform for MCAT advice. Not doubting your school's stats for 2018. Use the link below to check the lastest report, but I would point out that endo has had a decreased match rate each of the last 3 years. The way to match into the program/region of your choice is to work hard as a resident, reach out to attending mentors, and let them know of your interest. Dual applying is kinda frowned upon in the states, so a lot of people don't do it, but then if you're in a specialty like ENT or ophtho, you can end up getting nothing. I have friends in my class who matched IR, dermatology, neurosurgery, and more. The MCAT (Medical College Admission Test) is offered by the AAMC and is a required exam for admission to medical schools in the USA and Canada. 10yrs ago when I was young and told my parents that I wanted to be "kid doctor" my RN mom told me, "no you don't parents are impossible to deal with. In the medical world, certain specialties are notoriously challenging to match into. The best place on Reddit for admissions advice. I'm not gonna say which specialty, but think (ophtho, derm, or plastic). Ophthalmology, to some extent. I don’t disagree that OMFS is probably the most challenging day to day specialty. But why the intense I work in healthcare as a cancer registrar, and I have reviewed records from numerous hospitals. For 4. Ask if there's anything available for you to get more experience in the field. Please do not This will work for all competitive specialties: 1 if your school has connections, use them. Most specialties are categorical. On the other side It’s challenging. He looked even more annoyed afterwards. Elizabeth’s, UMass and many other programs in the boston area. Would agree - holding trauma pager at a busy level 1 center as a junior resident (usually PGY 1-3) is stressful. Thank you! Yes it's definitely a more difficult specialty to match into as IMG but you should try if you have a reasonably competitive profile and hope for the best (with a backup option e. Practice is emphasized in the curriculum with 2 years of clinical rotations and 2 years of internship (the entire program is 6 years and you can go into it straight out of high school) and if you're doing it in a public university then you're working in the public health system. Edit: Another way to say it is the number of anesthesia applicants who were unable to match their preferred specialty is not 1-(% of applicants to anesthesia who matched anesthesia). What it means is that any average Joe medical student can't get any psych program that they want anymore. Ended up with 20 interviews and matched at a large west coast academic hospital. The most common reasons for removal are - medical students or premeds asking what a specialty is like or about their chances of matching, mentioning midlevels without using the midlevel flair, matched medical students asking questions instead of using the stickied thread in the sub for post-match questions, posting identifying information for The most recent match list for my school is absolutely nuts. Think Cardiac and Thoracic Surgery, Dermatology, Neurosurgery, and more. But honestly, one of the hardest things in the world is letting all the time go and telling myself it wasn't wasted. O. ” If you looked at the stats of applicants for each specialty you would get a more realistic view of how competitive each is. Volunteer for specialty rotations and such if available. It is quite brutal indeed. plus antagonistic relationships with parents on the rise This alone scared me from the field. The most common reasons for removal are - medical students or premeds asking what a specialty is like or about their chances of matching, mentioning midlevels without using the midlevel flair, matched medical students asking questions instead of using the stickied thread in the sub for post-match questions, posting identifying information for targeted harassment. But I’ve also met people who decided on late M3 year and still matched. To overcome the shortcomings of looking at a single factor, we examine six categories of data: average match rate, Step 1 score, Step 2 CK score, number of publications, percentage of matriculants that were AOA, and percentage of applicants from a Some of the medical specialties are difficult to get onto: cardiology, rheumatology and gastroenterology. I just graduated from DO school and failed to match into psychiatry. The most common reasons for removal are - medical students or premeds asking what a specialty is like or about their chances of matching, mentioning midlevels without using the midlevel flair, matched medical students asking questions instead of using the stickied thread in the sub for post-match questions, posting identifying information for Lolwut GPA=/=medical specialty aptitude. We don’t get easy root canals. The majority of ortho/derm/rads applicants for example would likely match into PM&R. So an increase in 100 IMG/FMGs applying say Anesthesiology (~50% match rate) may result in 50 more matches whereas the the same increase in USMD would result in 90 more matches (90%) match rate. Doing "well" on Step 1, doing well in MS3, and doing well in SubIs IMO are at least ten times harder than getting into medical school was. It's just a very hard specialty to get into. American dermatologists have an average USMLE Step Sure, it's harder to match into than internal medicine but most of the "competitive" nature of the match is due in large part to the fact that there are only about 180 spots per year in something like 84 programs. He went through the military match only to then be told to enter the civilian match in January. Editor’s note: A previous version of this story did not account for the nearly 3,000 applicants who matched into advanced PGY-2 level programs. Of all the "major" specialties (i. In examining From my experience ophtho is likely more difficult to get into than a lot of people realize. The same specialty treats Parkinson's, epilepsy, brain tumors, stroke, dementia, neuropathies, headache, MS, etc. matching in IM at MGH is probably just as hard if not harder than matching Based on brand new data from the official NRMP Charting Outcomes released in August 2024, we meticulously reassessed the most and least competitive specialties. Think 20+ consults consistently in a 24 hr period, and most consults require a physically demanding procedure (reduction, splint, I&D, plus or minus conscious sedation which adds a lot of time). Nephro was either 45 or 55. s are fully-licensed physicians that occupy all medical specialties in the US and abroad. hardest to get in to) are theriogenology, food animal 347 votes, 253 comments. It’s objectively harder to get into US medical school; there are thousands of IMGs who match. Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now it makes it quite a bit more difficult to match into a competitive specialty if you don't have the support of a home program for rotations, research opportunities, and letters of rec. That being said, getting into med school and residency board exams are much more difficult in Canada than in the US. What you are hoping to get out of your career should dictate your choice. For example it helps tremendously to go to a school Usually it is down to elective performance then research then extracurriculars. In my experience, it is true ophthalmologists are very nice and positive and seeing people like you going into the field makes me excited for the newer generations. DOs match these specialties every year but the numbers are low. /r/MCAT is a place for MCAT practice, questions, discussion, advice, social networking, news, study tips and more. MD Seniors Graduating from One of the 40 U. But even non-competitive US MDs struggle to match into rads even with rad specific research. It's a very real concern, but to assuage your doubts a little- while heme/onc is a fairly competitive fellowship to match into especially if you look at overall data (~75% match rate), when you look at the USMD match rate, it's actually not that bad. Think 25 percent match rate or so. That same data from The MATCH will show you that there are sometimes unfilled positions (family practice is the classic example) that you could get into this way. However, a select few are among the most difficult and demanding, requiring a unique skill set. But I have a strong feeling I will still want it. Seems like rads and anesthesia has increased the most If they were smart, they would apply to back up specialties which tends to be IM or Gen surg so I would guess the people that don’t end up matching their first choice speciality will match backups and IM competitiveness will likely remain the same or people risk going unmatched Here's the thing: Every specialty even after you finish residency has to study, probably for a lot more time than you'd realize. In total, we examined 22 different specialties using data gathered from the National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). Specialties with High MD Match Rates. Many competitive specialties or programs have been known to screen out applicants who are planning on couples matching. These nerds here make it seem like a candidate at a DO school that scored a 205 on Step, sitting at the 50% of the class will go to family med while the same candidate at an MD school can match ENT with the same stats. Getting back into surgery afterward is very, very difficult. lots of emergencies on home call that require you to come operate. As others have said, unlike other specialties there is not that one “top” program. Every single thing you do gets routine after a while. The "Percentage of U. . Dermatology. I think most of the general public (in the US) would consider neurosurgeons to be the most prestigious of all specialties. Welcome anyone with more current opinion. Entering med school is a lot like entering undergrad— Everyone wants to go to med school first year in undergrad. Reddit's home for wholesome discussion related to pre-medical studies. OB/GYN, rads, and gen surgery are harder but not uncommon. Each class might have a few people in the very competitive specialties. We pride ourselves in working hard and playing hard. If you want to do medicine and are interested in the fields that people from that school are This is because the match rate for MD and DOs into most specialties is often 2-3x that the match rate of IMG/FMGs. If you're talking your top choice of rank list, I think the stat is something like 45% matching their number 1 Typically the most competitive fellowships are cards and GI. And, ultimately, your passion for a rotation (or hatred of other ones) will scoot you into that specialty. Wow, thanks mate ! It's quite the opposite, here in India. HIFW I match into my chosen specialty after 3 application cycles and 2 rounds of SOAP A reddit community for dental students to share the latest news, articles, ideas, and anything else pertaining to the field of dentistry. From getting ignored when you offer to do the dirty work, from being 4th author on a paper you did all the work for, from being outshined by other students who are Definitely a lot of benefits, but the second match is so much harder than the first regardless of what you do. Dermatology (although becoming more accessible now because new residency structure allows for the first time outpatient only training, before 3 out of 5 years needed to be inpatient dermatology where the bottleneck was the low number of The hardest residency to match in depends on factors like your USMLE Step 2 CK score, positions available, and the number of applications in a given specialty. My guess is you have probably spent either too much time reading forums or the Pathology Match Excel Sheet. Just do your best now and you will match into a nice academic program where all the options will be open! Psych and rads had a significant spike in applicants this past year. To offset the removal of Step 1, other factors, such as match rate and publication items, were also adjusted to better reflect the current landscape. EM can have a reputation for being a difficult specialty to get into (and admittedly, with the ongoing pandemic, some medical schools are reporting as high as a 50% increases in applicants. Oncology this year was under subscribed but that was Got plenty of interviews. But a lot of your gripes with your specialty is the same for endo too. This was before any scramble or anything. 1. If you are an incoming undergraduate, please read our Wiki and search r/premed before posting, as you are not likely to be the first person to ask your question. Post any questions you have, there are lots of . Across the board, Radiation Oncologists have the most If you’re asking most competitive to get into, the NRMP match data will tell you. Whereas for me for ex I’m But I know in the future, I prob wanna get into a competitive residency. What is the hardest residency to match in? The hardest residency to match in depends on factors like your USMLE Step 2 CK score, positions available, and the number of applications in a given specialty. A below average step 1, a repeat medical school year and a lower ranking in medical school-- 10 yrs ago this person still matched at the program they wanted to go to even if that was in a competitive market like Chicago or California. Thanks in advance :) I’m not in DO school, but will say that competitive specialties are very difficult to get into, regardless what type of med school you attend. Rheum and endo typically fill like that because they offer a great work life balance. There are specialties for US seniors with low match rates though, like derm, ENT, plastics, ortho, IR, CT surgery. Cataract is never really necessary and the rest are mostly non-procedural. Shocking, I know. 7 years q4-6 is unusual. You get the special privilege of basically having two intern years in a row (year of medicine, then first year of neuro proper). Dual applying has become commonplace due to how competitive these specialities have become, which only exacerbates the issue more as there are more theoretical applicants for the same number of interview spots. For eg General Surgery is much harder than you have listed and Cardiology is in line with the hardest of the surgical specialties. This isn't even going into matching at a top place in a popular While the common sentiment is that DO can match into competitive specialties with good evaluations and scores, dermatology is especially biased against DOs. , those with at least 10 residency spots per year) only cardio and zoo The caveat is that the best programs in any subspecialty would require excellent stats and the subspecialties in each specialty would be more difficult. The 10 Least Competitive Specialties in Medicine. Surgery may be for brainy types, but it really is dedication based. This seems to fall prey to the same fallacy that “PA school is harder to get into than medical school. Harder than surgery, neuro, medicine, ECC, etc. most programs will have q2-3 on average, in house, for juniors (or night float) and then a mix for seniors on home call. I know it's so premature to say I wanna go into X specialty before 3rd year. r/OntarioUniversities A chip A close button. I think my weaknesses this round were letters, lack of in-person rotations, and my tendency to be quiet during interviews. I ended up creating a blog Skip to main content. Either way, you're still early; try getting to know your pathology department, mention that Idk abt the rest of the countries in latam but in Brazil you're already a GP when you get out of med school. This goes double for people looking at competitive specialties. thank you Dr. What I would recommend, It is harder to match into competitive specialties as a DO, but then again, it is harder to match into those specialties REGARDLESS of where you go. During the main match, only 67 of 134 matched gen surg and 4 of 17 matched ortho. - Just wanted to say congrats for matching and thank you. At the same time if your interest is academic medicine, matching into big name programs would be vital. If you're considering an extremely competitive field like the ones I mention above, or other procedure-based specialties like plastics - then you'll have an easier time matching as an allopath. Some of the medical specialties are difficult to get onto: cardiology, rheumatology and gastroenterology. The problem, of course, is that Radiology is now one of the hardest specialties to match into. Surgical specialties, especially neurological and thoracic surgeries, command the These are the 10 least competitive specialties to match into: Our competitiveness index considers a wide selection of data points, including USMLE Step 2 scores, match rate, publications, NIH funding, and more, to On top of what has already been said, any specialty will also be competitive if you’re trying to get a top program (i. e. Pro for not checking the box: Not checking the box allows you to tell programs at your discretion later if you are participating in the couples match. but I think Reddit tends to give EM a worse perception than reality. I’d like to add that in general, competitive specialities just make med school %100 harder, all the time. There's so much stuff you don't see in residency and once you're an attending for the first few years you work your ass off because you realize there's still so much stuff that you don't know, and now you're the only one liable if you don't know it. Ophthalmology and ENT are far easier to get into. g. But stepping into a less sexy specialty can be really hard if you feel like it's stepping away from the glamorous world you imagined yourself going into. And of course you can always swerve into a sub specialty if you decide it’s not for you. People You can also do a lot of little procedure like central lines, paras, thoras, LPs. Medical Schools with the Highest NIH Funding" who matched into ENT was 41%. Log In / Sign Up; Advertise on Reddit; The popular subspecialties (cardiology/ GI) are an incredible uphill climb if you are coming from a no name community place even with research. At the end of the day cardiology fellowship training will be what you make out Yea, I get the impression that dual-applying in Canada is much more common, so if you don't match your first choice, you just drop to the second specialty you applied to. TL;DR Specialty competitiveness in 2018 was different than what you'd probably expect. uro is definitely the hardest. I appreciate the effort you have made. Almost everyone matched to a brand name institution, with many matching into competitive specialties well above what their grades/scores would have probably allowed them to do elsewhere. Good Luck. it appears to me that there is a lot of skill but also a lot of luck involved with matching into this specialty. The patients they don’t even want to talk to. Endo isn't the hardest specialty to get into, but its not a have a pulse and you can do it specialty either. Typically the most competitive fellowships are cards and GI. The descriptors are confusing and some of the rankings are off. Moderator this is based on my perception of students who went into each surg specialty. r HIFW I match into my chosen specialty after 3 application cycles and 2 If you match into a big transplant center but your goal is interventional cardiology out in community, to be honest all that exposure wouldn't mean that match. Fauci for your inspiration and for the even greater pool of applicants). Right now, there are DO specific residencies for most (maybe all?) specialties that they can compete among themselves for. Definitely a lot of benefits, but the second match is so much harder than the first regardless of what you do. 3. This post will explore which are the most The most common reasons for removal are - medical students or premeds asking what a specialty is like or about their chances of matching, mentioning midlevels without using the midlevel flair, matched medical students asking questions instead of using the stickied thread in the sub for post-match questions, posting identifying information for An example of a specialty where one of the lists is very misleading is physiatry which has a low overall match rate but a 100% match rate if you score at or above a 240, which indicates that the applicants for that field are generally not as competitive. In your case it will depend on whether you can build enough connections during your research year. no post-call days when you're on I told him that if he was an orthopedic surgeon (aka one of the hardest specialties to match into and get through residency wise) he can edit a video. Reply reply Top 1% Rank by size . The specialty had 36 total matches (U. Im a US IMG who went to a community IM residency and matched into a high tier university cards and IC fellowship. Surgical subspecialties is where it's difficult for DOs to match (along with derm, orptho, uro). that early match is a killer because you essentially only have time for one or two uro rotations before applications go out and interviews start coming in. In our society, it carries a weight of social importantance that would be hard to match by other specialties. **This sub is not for medical advice. My info may also be dated. Last year rheum matched 97% after GI/Cards/PulmCrit which were 98-99. This is why some ppl do not include it in the list and keep it as just ROAD specialties. The specialties with the lowest VIRMP matches (i. For USMDs the match rate is low 80%, which isn’t a bad number at all but most of those successful matches did a lot of research etc on top of excelling clinically to be competitive applicants. For neurology, it’s about 50% USMDs matched, rest are DO/IMG. If your Germany: Desolate physician shortage (more like distribution problem to be honest), still some fields which are harder to get into. D. Otherwise, it would seem like every other candidate is getting 30+ interviews, and this is not true. Psychiatry is the medical specialty focused on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of all types of mental disorders. I think the biggest reasons I'm happy with my choice is the lifestyle it offers is great and I like the other surgeons (for the most part) who choose this field. Maybe I just like the OR or maybe I just thought the brain/heart is really cool. Also, you don’t necessarily have to be a phenom residency applicant to match into GI. 35% of Allopathic seniors apply for a Derm residency due to self selection (grades, preference for other specialties -> source is same table above) Once you add that in, you realize that only 0. Maybe do research with them if they're involved in research (possible, not The bread and butter of most specialties encompasses like 80% of cases. Neither of these are representative of the actual candidates. Each individual person will have a different opinion on what defines “top”. Current applicant so take my words of advice with a grain of salt. If you are a high school student, check out r/ApplyingToCollege. hardest to get in to) are theriogenology, food animal 0 interviews. Last year, I applied to 40 or so programs and got about 10 interviews (I cancelled interviews! lol). Total number of matches among MD Seniors: 31. In general, surgical specialties, Anesthesiology, and Dermatology are difficult for IMGs to match. This is the first time we have access to data that demonstrates the match rate by 1st It does, I believe the highest in fact. Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now so I’d rather match into a backup specialty then have to wait another year to match my preferred specialty US-nonIMGs have more slots but without your stats and more data it is difficult to know how a gap year will be perceived by Program Directors. I actually think ENT is quite nice, so is plastics and ortho, but none of those make this list most likely because they require longer hours whereas I believe the physicians in the ROAD specialties can (and a commonly used to) work 40-50 hour weeks (I guess this is Went to a T20 school. The applicant I’d like to add that in general, competitive specialities just make med school %100 harder, all the time. Reply reply More replies More replies. (which ended up being pathology). How hard is it to match into emergency Sure, ortho makes ~630k a year but tons of specialties pay in the 300-500k range for a fraction of the work, unmatch risk and brutality of residency. also way to dumb to match into any Competitive and 'what vet students want the most' are not always the same thing -- I think most vet students who pursue a specialty want surgery, but because there are so many of them available, it isn't the most competitive to get into. Depends on the specialty. Preclerkship is much chiller here in Canada but also makes it quite stressful matching into some of the more competitive specialties. You need to commit to always doin your best on rotation, studying extra hard, doing research in your free time. I know we’ll only really be able to figure it out after next year’s match, but I was wondering what you all think, especially if you’re a current m3 aiming for a competitive specialty. 13% of the total US Allopathic seniors match into Derm. You are NOT required to check this box to couples-match. " Be as involved as possible with the specialty while in school. Since it was 2018, this only looks at the main match, not the DO AOA match which still existed that year. S. So 59% of people who matched were from lower tier schools. Somewhat inspired by the vent post about Peds boards the other day, I had no idea they were so esoteric. seniors, IMGs and others) for 36 positions, making it one of eight specialties with at least 10 positions in the Match and 100 percent fill rates. If you want money there’s plenty to be made, if you want lifestyle there’s 4-day/week clinic jobs out there in most specialties. ). DOs can match into any specialty but there is an uphill battle to be overcome. in my perception, optho, for w/e reason, is not as competitive even though it is Competitive and 'what vet students want the most' are not always the same thing -- I think most vet students who pursue a specialty want surgery, but because there are so many of them available, it isn't the most competitive to get into. With that being said, I'm of the (very biased) opinion that general neurology has some of the widest range of any specialty. Anesthesia and radiology are somewhat DO friendly but becoming increasingly competitive where having an MD would be beneficial. He scrambled, sent out ~50 or so applications in January. People To judge competitiveness of a specialty, look at how many USMDs matched vs the total # of matches for one year. Most Difficult Medical Specialties: Medical science is divided into various subspecialties and super specialties. I hope you're able to match this coming year though. Usually it’s programs like Derm, neurosurg, integrated plastics, integrated CT Surg, etc. This is one of the less procedural specialties. They are almost a 100% match at the mid tier and higher places if you commit from the beginning. Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now. Find a mentor at the connected program and use that for the following: 2 do research, preferably ortho (or whatever specialty you're into), but any is better than none. A really good chunk of people matched into gen surg, ortho, and there were a handful that matched into super competitive specialties that reddit and SDN would have you believe are totally off limits for DOs. Coupled with the high monetary payoff and ability to work both with the brain and surgery, it is understandable Neurosurgery here. I think hyper competitive specialties are FR. Or check it out in the app stores Honestly think its the hardest part about medical school, not the academics. hardest to get in to) are theriogenology, food animal I am of the opinion that it's not about the specialty as much as the environment of the particular unit. Log Because so many people wants to do it, it is incredibly difficult to match into. The match data for radiology and anesthesia looks horrible, but it’s a complex situation. The hardest fields to get into here are- Radio, Orthopedics, Medicine, Ob-gyn. I believe the merger will make it harder for DOs to match into the more sought after residencies. I ended up creating a blog post about it https: The Reddit Law School Admissions Forum. You're correct, derm is extremely difficult to match into (arguably the second hardest currently behind plastic surgery). My buddy is probably the most competitive DO applicant for ortho and got no love from ANY Boston programs so competitive specialties are less likely. ID matched 80 if I recall. Any DO’s trying to match into General Surgery? Unless the overall match rate was 62%, Table 1A must be double-counting dual applicants. 446 Get the Reddit app Scan this QR code to download the app now. And plastics probably the hardest to get is definitely at 100%. For hardest day Not a contest, but I’m curious to know. A day in the life of a junior/senior fellow. The highest for any specialty was radiation oncology at 46% then dermatology/ENT at 41%. The following medical specialties are those that ranked the lowest and are, therefore, the easiest to match into, relatively speaking. chiefs basically take 24h call for their service for months at a time. Clinical trial and more complex research is generally better than case reports, but I went to a DO school and matched radiology. 5/5 years into my med school education, it appears to me that there is a lot of skill but also a lot of luck involved with matching into this specialty. Very difficult patients. Medical specialties that are relatively easy: geriatrics, general medicine, palliative care. Neurology and radiology while not as selective also love DOs. I’ve met so many people that are getting into the field and everyone so far has been extremely helpful and positive. Radiation oncology has the highest IMG match rate, but has the worst future outlook of any speciality. The best part is that most of our community programs are really good and the fellowships are basically a buyers market. There is some stigma towards DOs at some institutions, but it's not like THAT is the only reason you don't see every DO doing dermatology. Literally just have to have a pulse and speak English like a normal human being for the short time you need during your virtual interview and you will match somewhere. Check out the list in this video for 11 Specialties that are difficult for IMGs to match (Not Impossible but quite difficult) 3) US grads almost always match in pathology, and usually into a program they want to go into, especially if they pass step 1 and have no red flags. Ideally you want to be working towards it since day 1 - and this goes for any competitive specialty, bc research, grades, connections, service all matter and things take time. So programs are basically selling themselves to MD students AND step scores are notoriously not important to programs since neuro is such a clinical field that you need The most common reasons for removal are - medical students or premeds asking what a specialty is like or about their chances of matching, mentioning midlevels without using the midlevel flair, matched medical students asking questions instead of using the stickied thread in the sub for post-match questions, posting identifying information for I may not be the best to ask for advice. Literally nobody applies to ophtho as a backup specialty. And if I do, I at least want the option to get better chances of matching. Hope all this clears things up. The majority Be sure to consider the fact that only 0. However, with the merger (from my understanding) all residency positions will be fair game for MDs and DOs. Putting aside that ego can be hard and shouldn't be trivialized for someone picking their field Most of us can't match in very competitive specialties even if we tried. Average Step 1 is ~240 but please remember, exactly half of all applicants have below average board scores. It went from 83% of applicants matching in 2019 (2020 start) to the 82% in 2020, then 75% last year. There are people with good GPAs and MCATs who do not get into med school, but pretty much anyone with an above average Step 1 can match. Highest risk, most complicated cases. (New) standardized clinical exam for MD grads, (existing) ID makes less than IM hospitalist so people only really go into it if they are truly passionate or gunning for great lifestyle. Matching in general is almost a given for US MD/DO, so in that case getting into med school is the toughest part. Most sleep medicine practice is now done by doctors in combination with their primary specialty because they particularly enjoy/are interested the field as opposed to because it makes money or increases their job It’s the same at my school. This data, in combination with the other factors, will help paint a Step scores, LORs, class rank, and research are your keys, same things as any other specialty. To me, those diseases feel more Most specialties have 90%+ match rate. Uro, ophtho, and ENT had incredibly low (sub-70%) match rates. Germany: dermatology, paediatrics, plastics. . More posts you may like r /medicalschool. Oncology this year was under subscribed but that was Here are the specialties that are most difficult to match. It's small. Endo matched 92. There was even a handful of DOs who matched plastics this The fellowship match process for cardiology is highly competitive, with an expanding applicant pool. cuterouter • • Edited . ** Members Online. However, oftentimes they match into prelim surgical years which are absolutely brutal since you're working a ton compared to more cush transitional years. I have been a long-time lurker of this subreddit, and it has provided a lot of laughs and support over the years, so I wanted to share some things I've learned. I am doing alternative pathway, applying to residency was mostly for the hell of it anyways. It is specialty dependent but DOs match IM to Brown (not Boston obviously), St. Others: There's other eye specialties like medical retina, cataract, uveitis, and pathology that are about what they sound like. But as someone with expertise in the area. Psych, EM, GP don’t “take on pretty much anyone”. Being a DO makes getting into the top programs (like Ivy League institutions or whatever) difficult, but you can match into any specialty if you work hard enough. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more challenging to match into competitive internal medicine fellowships (heme/onc, cards, GI) from lesser-known community programs. Mental disorders treated by psychiatrists can relate to mood, perceptions, behavior, and/or cognition, which they learn in school. Surgical subspecialties are extremely competitive. If you crush in residency, make the Mahirap sagutin yan kasi iba-iba sila (hindi sila lahat residency per se). ** Like the post says, I am applying DO this cycle and my top choice is to match into emergency medicine. Feel free to find help and ask questions. The above is only my estimation of how hard it is for a individual to get into any program in a particular specialty. These specialties had more than 30 positions available and fill-rates by senior MD students greater than 75%. Sure. The earning potential in-hospital is roughly the same (the union agreements don't differentiate between the different specialties), but consultants sometimes have special individual contracts that contain bonuses and profit sharing agreements - this is more common for surgical fields, so the Orals 1 year after advanced exam, and often a choose-your-destiny adventure that starts with a case and devolves into a rabbit hole of knowledge and questions derived from whatever you say. Thought these were the most interesting graphs buried in the long NRMP video on this year's match which many people won't watch. you don’t necessarily have to be a phenom residency applicant to match into GI. I'm in a male dominated field but I don't ever see real gender discrimination. But 0 interviews still struck me a bit hard. Of course, most premeds do not make it. What it comes down to though is while some of the specialties do fill at 100% and one must be a strong candidate to match others even less competitive fields are still unbeleivably competitive at the top programs like Hopkins and MGH. For Probably the worst hours of any non-medical specialty, at least if you are at a center where neuro handles all the strokes. But no, if you're set Ask questions, such as "what do I need to do to be a good applicant. research, FM, IM) I got 7 interviews in total- 2 were prelim, 1 was prematch, 4 were categorical HIFW I match into my chosen specialty after 3 application cycles and 2 rounds of SOAP A reddit community for dental students to share the latest news, articles, ideas, and anything else pertaining to the field of dentistry. Nothing except your professional personality can predict your clinicals. Some specialties like neurology, PM&R, anesthesia, radiology and dermatology have both categorical and advanced programs. Get app Get the Reddit app Log In Log in to Reddit. 8% were filled by DO I'm an ortho PGY-4. As a friendly reminder, medical schools do not care what you major/minor in as long as you take the medical school pre-requisites and maintain a high I would tell someone not to dual apply if they are 100% committed to plastics, can't see themselves doing anything else, are totally comfortable with the idea of potentially SOAPing or doing a research if they do not match, if they really do not want to go into a secondary specialty, AND if they are pretty competitive (longstanding interest, strong scores, research, etc. These are categorical and advanced programs. xywtouq shw xiek lgbvxy lnzinw otfpgd swit tbtf wrlzz vbrvj