Applying to peds & med-peds at the same institution?

[Bitsy]

Hi. Congrats to all who matched last week! I am currently trying to decide between peds and med-peds. Is it a bad idea to apply for med-peds and peds to the same program? I know that it looks indecisive and that that could be held against you. Did anybody apply to meds-peds & peds at the same place and have it work out for you (match in either peds or med-peds)? Thanks!

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[Terpskins99]

You could also make it look as if you really REALLY want to match at that particular site. I doubt that would be perceived as a bad thing.

It isn't unusual for competitive surgery sub-specialty applicants (ENT, uro, ortho, neurosurg... etc) to likewise apply to that same hospital's general surgery residency as a "backup". Every now and then, they would bump into residents and attendings from the other specialty during interview days. There is no way to know how that is perceived by various programs... but at least its something they're used to seeing.

 

[lapooh]

I applied to medicine and med-peds at the same place , as i really really wanted to stay there. And frankly, I would be delighted doing either medicine or med-peds. I did my medicine iv first, and met the med PD on the med-peds day as well.
I didn't match, however I am an IMG who was interested in an absurdly low number of programs( 3 to be exact). However, I do feel that interviewing for both was sort of perceived as sort of dilly-dallying on my part, though I made it amply clear that location was my first priority. Med-peds residents told me that its quite common for candidates to apply to med-peds and medicine or peds.
If you do do this, as the person above says, you should probably have a good enough reason for it. As an AMG, unless location is a huge concern, med-peds shouldn't be hard for ou to match into anyway.

 

[ambulancedriver]

bump because I am interested in the response to this question as well.

i'm applying med-peds, and considering applying to both peds and medicine separately at the same institution. very likely the PDs will compare lists and notice I am on all three. will all three not rank highly based on assuming the other PDs are ranking you to match?

also, my original strategy was to apply to med-peds in my locality, along with any categorical medicine or peds programs in my area that don't have a combined residency (i.e. applying med-peds at hospital X and only peds at Hospital Y and only medicine at Hospital Z). sounds safer, but the downside is you are applying to fewer programs overall in a specific location.

any thoughts on which of the two options is better would be appreciated. thanks!

 

[group_theory]

Just from my perspective and from my program

most programs will definately know if you are applying to med-peds and one (or both) of the categoricals within the same institution. The program coordinators usually talk to one another, and at the ranking meeting, there are representatives from both medicine and pediatrics programs (in addition to people from med-peds)

In my experience (I've been to several ranking meetings now at my program), applying to both in the same program becomes an issue with Med-Peds. Most combined programs are small to begin with, and there is always that fear of attrition, that the program will lose a resident to the categorical side, creating a hole in the program (and future applicants will wonder why there are fewer residents in certain years). Then there's the question about how committed you are to the program, and why you should be ranked higher than someone who is commited to Med-Peds and less likely to switch to a categorical program.

During these ranking meetings - the fact that the applicant applied to both programs will be raised - but whether or not it dooms the application is based on the overall stats, what the interviewers thought of the applicants, what the committee members thought of the applicants, and what were the reasons for applying to multiple programs. For some people, it did not hurt them. For others, they went down on the rank list.

So there's no concrete answer. But if you apply to both programs (or all 3 programs) in the same institution, and you hope that no one will notice - then you missed your chance of explaining what your reasons were to the program(s). If someone notice this, it will definately hurt your chances.


Of course not all programs operate the same way. This is just one perspective from one program.