Residency Process

Prior to meeting Joel the world of medicine was very foreign to me. In fact, I rarely if ever even went to a doctor- school physicals were just about it. The process of applying for residency is another one of those mysteries of medicine. I get asked a lot how it works, so I thought I would take a minute to explain its inner workings.
Ok, so you have 4 years of medical school. The last 2 years of medical school you rotate through many areas/specialties- this gives you the chance to experience tons and get an idea for what you are interested in specializing. In the case of Joel- he's known he's wanted to do Pediatrics since before medical school started. He's just been playing around with what specialty within pediatrics.
At the beginning of 4th year (this past summer) we started making lists of where he wanted to apply for residency. The decision of how many places to apply to is somewhat of an art as well. It depends on how marketable you think you are and what type of places you're applying to (if your specialty is extremely competitive & the ranking of top schools). Some people can apply to over 50 places. We're lucky because Joel did really well on Step 1 & 2 of his Boards, and had high grades. Pediatrics is also not a very competitive specialty (Dermatology being one of the most competitive). We were looking at applying to about 15 places, but his adviser told him 11 would be enough. We went with 13 to be a little more on the safe side. (I've heard too many horror stories of not matching).
The application is due Nov. 1st, but you really want it in by September because they start interviewing early. Your goal is to hear from about half to two-thirds of the schools requesting an interview with them. We were incredibly blessed to hear back from all 13 of our schools, but will probably choose not to interview at all of them.
Now the fun part begins- you go to each of the interviews and see which places fits you. You interview, meet the other residents and tour the facilities. After all the interviews you rank all of the schools in order of where you would prefer to go - #1 being your first choice. The schools also rank all of the students they interviewed.
This is where the magic and a little bit of voodoo occurs. It all goes in a computer and it tries to match up everyone with their highest rankings to the school's highest rankings. On the 3rd Wednesday in March ("Match Day") everyone assembles and opens a letter that informs them where they'll be going for residency. It's quite the event.
It is possible to not match and then you have to scramble and find any openings there are - they may not even be in your specialty. I'm hoping to avoid that step.
Now you understand when I mean it's a long, complicated process. If you want to further specialize then you have to go through a similar process for a fellowship. So, after this year we're looking at 3 years of residency and then a possible 3 more years of a fellowship.