Please see my July 12 blog entry about the importance of prioritizing a nice place to live for your medical training, if possible. As I pointed out, not everyone gets the opportunity to go to medical school or train in a residency and fellowship program in a city that is fun and populated by a personal support system. However there are a few things that can be done to increase your chances:
1. For residents, tailor your personal statements. (ERAS allows you to do this.) I have advised people who are desperate to be in a particular city to make that clear with an extra sentence in their essays. (Just make sure, via ERAS, that you send the correct personal statement to the correct program.)
2. For medical school, residency and fellowship applicants, tell all the important individuals you encounter at your interviews. Some programs may not believe, for example, a Californian will move to the East Coast. (As a devote Californian, I hardly believe it.) If you want to move let them know and tell them why so that you are convincing.
3. For all applicants, when you write thank you notes tell the receivers.
4. For all applicants, choose accordingly. Don’t box yourself in by pursuing schools/programs in cities you cannot stomach. You may feel you need to apply broadly because of weaknesses in your application or because of how competitive medical school admissions or your specialty is. This is reasonable for many candidates. But if you have some options, explicitly consider geography as well as school/program reputation. This is particularly important for residency and some fellowship applicants who are bound to their match lists.
As I said in my July 12 entry, where you live for your medical training is as important (or more so) than the quality of your training program. For one-on-one help from me with your application please see www.InsiderMedicalAdmissions.com .
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