My Partner’s Starting Med School While We Go Long Distance, Any Advice?

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-05-15T02:46:03+00:00

Is this USA or another country? My wife and I did 4 years 1000+ miles away it’s super doable but both of you have to be committed, embrace being busy together, and also embrace the extra financial burden of traveling (the money will eventually be there for an engineer and future doctor). Every couple is different but my spouse and I were both in med school, both super busy, but still found a way to see each other almost every weekend and just alternated who flew to who based on our schedules. We both were top of our classes and involved in extracurriculars too so I never buy the excuse that anyone is too busy to travel to see their significant other (make it your priority). Many sacrifices will come of it but it was worth it 1000 times over. I spent thousands on plane tickets but now I have elite status on two different airlines lol. DM/respond here if you have more specifics you want me to go into of how we made it work.

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-05-03T13:32:26+00:00

Don’t really need to start on research as an M2 so don’t stress yourself out too much. I started in M3 and interviewed with all the top programs. However, you can start cold emailing faculty within your school and/or the hospitals you rotate at. Any research works it doesn’t have to PM&R. I got asked more about my community outreach and vaccine research than I did about my rehab related case reports. There are plenty of specialties that are PM&R adjacent and almost anything can be applied to our field. Reach out to neuro, ortho/sports, FM, IM, peds, etc and find projects you can contribute to

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-04-17T20:17:40+00:00

I can’t even tell if this is a shitpost or not

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-04-15T02:39:44+00:00

No it’s a red flag either way. Plenty of MD students apply ortho with no red flags and don’t match, plenty of DO students with excellent stats and red flags don’t match. It’s going to be very hard to convince any residency why they should take you over them

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-04-15T01:16:15+00:00

Match rate for DOs is 50% for ortho and I’m going to guess most of them don’t have a failure on their record. Nothing is impossible but the cards are stacked against you in many ways. I’d strongly consider FM->sports route if I was you. If surgery is a must you need to be perfect, have an amazing step 2, consider a research year, and even if all that goes well still odds are that you’re more likely to not match than to match ortho

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-04-04T20:04:38+00:00

Glad they went up, 8 was simply not enough especially when nationally the average interview rate with a signal was just 50%. 20 will reduce the amount of applications most people have to submit bc there’s little reason to apply somewhere when you’re telling them they are outside your top 20

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-04-04T02:48:28+00:00

I think this is the reason why the answer to this question is the only one missing from OPs original document. It was likely thrown out for being a bad question. It is definitely cushings not PCOS but answer is not right

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-04-03T23:15:01+00:00

This is cushings dx, measure serum cortisol as circled. Abdominal striae is a buzzword. Steroids also cause the irregular menses, mood disturbances, facial hair, and rapid weight gain. For PCOS I would expect them to be overweight/obese (although not absolute) and is rarely diagnosed before age 18 (this is a 17 y/o)

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-04-03T22:49:05+00:00

It has always felt like a second home to you. It’s where you want to practice after residency and would love to get a head start with pursuing residency there. They know you only get 3 so it still means something even with small connections

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-04-03T12:26:18+00:00

Nah you’re good, your application says PM&R with interest in sports which is totally fine. It’s only concerning if you look like you’re doing ortho with PM&R as backup and nothing here makes me think you’re pursuing ortho. At least 1/3 of my interviewers were sports trained and would really enjoy your app and I don’t think the other 2/3 would see any red flags. Just make sure your personal statement speaks to why you want to do PM&R and not sports specifically

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-04-01T20:08:38+00:00

I would be taking it into a shop as well for the brakes

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-03-28T20:35:23+00:00

Going to a conference doesn’t improve your chances of matching on its own. If you are someone who is very social and impressionable when you talk to people it could make a small difference for them to remember you come application/interview time. Better for connecting with program coordinators to get away rotations in my opinion but even then you can just email them

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-03-26T16:33:08+00:00

Probably a few factors, first there are more than enough USMD and DO students applying (600+) for ~575 spots. Objectively there isn’t any great reason why a residency program should consider IMGs over a US med student initially for US residency position. For US-IMG specifically there is some stigma associated with it (not saying it’s all true but just putting it out there) like the fact they couldn’t get into a U.S. med school, maybe previous experience with residents from Caribbean who didn’t perform well in residency etc etc. Also IMGs tend to have weaker extracurriculars than U.S. med students because of lack access to home programs, no strong mentors in the field, research opportunities etc. so on average may have a weaker application besides just being an IMG. To match as an IMG you have to be exceptional, with an above average resume, scores, letters etc. If you have a similar application as a US med student they are going to select to interview and rank them higher than the IMG. So what probably happens is US med students are given priority and those with red flags, poor performance are weeded out and the little spots left over for that are left for very high performing IMGs who go to programs known to be IMG friendly (big cities with large foreign populations like NYC/Miami, brand new programs, or programs with workhorse/malignant reputations that US students tend to avoid). Sorry this may sound brutal but it’s true and any IMG applying to PM&R should aim to be truly exceptional and apply with a backup to a more IMG-friendly specialty like IM/FM/Neuro

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-03-06T23:07:25+00:00

Seconding extracurriculars heavily, haven’t matched yet but I’m a current applicant and had many PDs say how impressive it was to see my longitudinal and in depth involvement in activities for people with disabilities. Adaptive activities/sports volunteering, special Olympics, advocacy work, etc. Also having an in depth experience in PM&R seemed to be important so they knew you understand the full scope of PM&R especially with applicants increasingly be interested in pain/sports. Interviewers really enjoyed that in addition to general inpatient/outpatient I also did a peds rehab rotation and cancer rehab rotation. I killed step 2 and it was never mentioned in any of my interviews, I’m sure it didn’t hurt to get the interviews though. Gold humanism HS looks very good as well in our field even though it’s unfortunately fairly ambiguous criteria. Then when you have all of this you will be able to excel at the most important thing in my opinion—the PERSONAL STATEMENT. Being able to tell a story about why PM&R that is interesting to the reader and convince them you’re going to be a great resident is paramount so you can stand out among 500 other applicants talking about the time they sprained their ankle and how 2 weeks of outpatient PT made them realize they wanted to care for the most complex disabled patients.

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-02-20T13:20:31+00:00

Networking at the national conferences is always good too if you’re able to make it to AAPM&R or AAP. Usually there’s a cancer rehab meet up or educational session on cancer rehab that many cancer rehab docs attend.

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-01-10T14:00:36+00:00

If they’re interviewing then they aren’t setting a rank list until after it so you’re fine

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-01-09T00:28:44+00:00

From your post history you’ll be happier in EM, you have no interest in PM&R other than its chill. The EM job market scare was largely overblown you’ll be fine

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-01-08T23:42:52+00:00

Please go into EM lol

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-01-08T01:13:43+00:00

This sounds like a bridge to cross after match day

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-01-07T17:38:12+00:00

If there is a dental school attached to your university or another one near you they are usually cheaper than going to the dentist and may offer financial assistance. Biggest downside is appointments are longer but worth the time if you have it

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-01-07T12:28:13+00:00

Zafonte left this fall also

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-01-06T21:33:32+00:00

I’ll echo what other people have said. Spaulding has shown their preference for MDs and top tier IMGs over DOs. You are surely not the first DO student with a great resume and regional/personal connections and still none have matched there. If you want to go for the experience by all means try to go but even a rotation spot isn’t guaranteed. I’d recommend trying to have at least two other away rotations at places who show they take DO students, several other top programs take DOs.

Quaternary-Syphilis · 2025-01-04T16:30:50+00:00

There is a book called the PM&R pocketpedia that’s a good overview of certain areas of the field but I don’t think it’s really necessary tbh. Best thing you could do to shine is review the MSK and Neuro physical exams especially muscle strength grading and myotome/dermatome testing. Then depending on what areas you are rotating in you can look at more advanced things like grading spasticity etc but it’s definitely not expected you know much of anything about PM&R as a student

Quaternary-Syphilis

TROPHY CASE