Am new to this, hence inquiring… Is 30% match with competitive residencies low? What is typical for some of the higher ranked med schools as compared to NJMS?
JHU School of Medicine is ranked 7 per USNews, off 119 matches reported about 61 matches for the year 2021 in the less competitive area. That translates to nearly 49%, and competitive areas and other areas translate to 51% match.
Zucker School of Medicine is ranked 66 (same as NJMS) per USNews, off 97 reported about 63 in the less competitive area. That translates to nearly 70%, and competitive areas and other areas translate to 30% match. Zucker stats appear more or less the same as NJMS in terms of percentage match less competitive Vs competitive (and others).
From JHU 2021 match data, 4 went to Massachusetts Gen Hosp for Emergency Medicine (national rank 6), and 3 went to Children’s Hosp-Philadelphia-PA (national rank 2) for Pediatrics. These were less competitive residencies, but hospitals got prestage. Seems some people do care about the hospital prestige while choosing the residency.
IMO, you can apply for a residency at a low-ranked hospital and get matched to a competitive area. Experts can chime on whether 30% match with competitive residencies is low, to me it sounds like normal.
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so you are not including Internal Medicine with less competitive residencies? Lot of students go for IM so that can do fellowships. As per competitive fields, you need to look at least 3 years of data since class interests may be different for any given year.
Correct, Updated the list to include IM.
@srk2017 So like another commenter mentioned, “competitive” residencies can mean different things in different contexts — if you want to do Dermatology, you’re optimizing for different metrics (just matching in a residency, might not be in a very academic hospital) vs. Internal Medicine match (trying to match into an academic hospital only, preferably a Harvard or Stanford with name brand material.
So competitive is relative based on what specialty you’re going into. I would argue that getting into an Internal Medicine residency at Harvard or Stanford is as competitive as getting into a lower-ranked (non-academic affiliated community program) of Dermatology. The reason that any residency program is defined as competitive or not would be IMO a combination of prestige/salary. Most Internal Medicine graduates from Harvard are poised to become leaders in administration/research, while Dermatology graduates from a community program would go on to achieve high salary/lifestyle balance. “Competitiveness” from what I think @cheer2021 is mentioning is more of the latter which is based on salary.
Having said those caveats, let me explain what I meant about 7-year program NJMS students matching into “competitive” residencies. The last match, in 2021, people from the TCNJ/NJMS matched into these residencies:
Internal Medicine @ GWU
Psychiatry @ UC Riverside
Dermatology @ Northwell Health
ENT @ Mt. Sinai (2)
Radiology (I’m not sure where)
Interventional Radiology
Ophthalmology @ Rutgers NJMS
Pediatrics @ Yale
(There are more but don’t remember off the top of my head. I can follow up with more.)
One person took a gap year and now is applying Internal Medicine, trying to go to Heme/Onc. One person from the year above me applied out of the program, forfeited his spot in NJMS, and got into Upenn SOM (but he was a very very unique case, not many will give up this spot for an extra year). I think that BS/MD students, therefore, can succeed at matching well wherever they go, and they don’t have to take gap years (the people I mentioned above who matched didn’t take gap years).
As @cheer2021 mentioned,
Looking at NJMS Match Results for the year 2021, nearly 70% (126/180) of the matches were for the less competitive residencies (Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Psychiatry, Anesthesiology, Emergency Medicine, etc). That leaves about 30% (54/180) were matched to the competitive or other residencies. I think off NJMS’ 180 intake, 50% or more coming from the BSMD pathway.
So just a clarification from your numbers, from my class it’s (14+4+2) breakdown from TCNJ+NJIT+Rutgers Newark respectively. (20/180), rather than 50% coming from the BS/MD pathway. Residency matching is a lot different than medical school, because at this point in life people have a lot more priorities than just getting the best education. During residency match, you may also be thinking about what region you want to set up your life in, or who you would like to work with.
Some programs even in these prestigious institutions might be malignant because senior faculty are trying to get their publications and administrative time and leave you with a majority of the scut work.
Therefore, it’s hard for people to really judge from match statistics and say someone matched in a certain specialty just because they didn’t have the scores for another, more competitive specialty. A 30% match rate into competitive specialties is pretty typical though, from BS/MD affiliated Medical Schools. As you can see however, based on my definition of what defines competitive, pretty much everyone from Harvard’s graduating class of 2020 matches into a “competitive” residency. You may be asking, he just said that residency isn’t about name brand schools, how does this make sense?.
I still maintain that matching (especially when you are at a MD school) is based on individual attributes but where you match may not be totally based on your own stats. It’s also about who you know if you want a specific place to do your residency. Medicine is a very small field, and recommendations matter. That’s how I explain the discrepancy between matching at a competitive institution (like Harvard, Stanford, etc.) for residency versus matching at a community program. BS/MD students, however, are very resourceful and continue to match well. This suggests to me that the performance/talent of BS/MD students supersedes this inherent advantage which comes with Harvard (looking at the evidence from this year), but at this point it is just conjecture and would love some input on this apparent observation.
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Log of good points but tough to agree with " This suggests to me that the performance/talent of BS/MD students supersedes this inherent advantage which comes with Harvard" unless you have lot of data to prove that. Lot of students that go thru traditional path tends to have more research experience and that makes difference for competitive fields.
Anyway, as you said applying to residency is different from applying to UG or medical school and tough to draw conclusions purely based on the match list.
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True, that’s why it’s purely conjecture. Every school is pretty tight lipped about their match, and they’re not going to release student scores for sure. I think if I was able to pour over match statistics from each school I could build an argument for my position by matching them to doximity/linkedin profiles, but I’ll have to wait until an easier rotation to do so 
While research does help, for residency I still think that the soft traits like LORs make a huge deal. Maybe that comes with the experience of doing research because you have an extended relationship with your PI, which is confounding my claim.
The reason I say this is because you’d rather hire the guy your friend recommends and tells you that “he/she gets all of the work done, and they’re really diligent,” AND has a decent STEP 1 score, versus the person who has a 272 in STEP 1 but middling recommendation letters.
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@charlemagne11 good info. There are numerous postings in CC on NJMS BSMD seats.
@rk2017 said NJMS gives out about 120 acceptances, about 70% join - this roughly translates to 85 BSMDs on high side. Interesting to know that in your batch BSMDs were only 20. I understand NJMS is the medical school - and NJIT, TCNJ, Stevens, Drew and Caldwell, and Rutgers- Newark are all undergrad colleges I.e. feeder schools. So no BSMDs in your batch from other than 3 feeder schools you mentioned? Just curious.
@cheer2021
Don’t remember when I mentioned those numbers for NJMS, but it sounds a little on the higher end as also the % enrolling at 70% may be slightly higher. I would imagine more in the ~90 range total acceptances from all feeders based on the figures reported by students/parents in the past and 50-60% of these choosing to enroll. The break down can be as follows.
Based on a parent feed back on this forum in 2018 I think, the cohort for TCNJ was 16. So that year the acceptances through TCNJ may had been around 35. NJIT is usually a close second, so would say 20-25 followed by Rutgers Nwk about 20. That puts total around 80 for the 3 major feeders. Assuming another 10-15 for all the other feeders combined, it may be around 90-95. Also, a student may be applying through multiple feeders but counts as only 1 when s/he will eventually choose to enroll through only one of them obviously. So there is scope for double counting. Also always a possibility that some in the program choosing to opt out for various reasons, though low.
I guess about 60% of acceptances will enroll, because some of the students have multiple acceptances and may prefer to go elsewhere. As an example in the same 2018 batch, I know a student who got in through Rutgers Nwk with free ride for undergrad but chose to go to BU SMED instead. Last year another student/parent private messaged me asking for advice on Brown undergrad (not PLME) vs NJMS if finances not a concern and that student really liked Brown. So cases like that.
And so yes, while all these are at play, 20 seems to be a really low number for a given MD class through this BS/MD pathway.
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Thanks to @srk2017 , @GoldenRock , @rk2017 , @PPofEngrDr , @grtd2010 and many others for the info/guidance over the years.
Update from D:
D applied to BSMD programs few years ago, got waitlisted at one school, and no acceptances. She proceeded to UT Austin (in-state) for UG and applied to med schools this year.
She received acceptances from UT Southwestern and two other Texas schools. (gpa 3.95+, mcat 96 percentile, no research publications, graduating in 3 years because of dual credits from high school).
Following are some details from her on prep/ECs:
Mcat prep:
AAMC FL tests
MCAT Prep course: classes, material and tests ($2.4K).
NextStep tests (4 tests) $100 - very helpful
Psych prep material (free, online)
UWorld subscription $300 – could not spend much time on it - useful
Casper:
- Just online resources
Interview prep:
- Two 1 hour sessions - $300 each
They included both regular and MMI inteview formats.
These are useful to get practice and confidence - University Premed club also gave some prep material
ECs:
- Clinical volunteering at a Medical school and its hospital
- Joined AED/AMSA organizations in college. They organize doctor interactions/speeches,
virtual shadowing opportunities, mentor connections to profs - Shadowing (virtual and in-person)
- Volunteering in clinics/hospital programs (just admin type of work)
- Public Health related projects (Blood drive, awareness project - through course work and clubs)
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Congrats to your D @RiceBits , proud parents.
Thanks for sharing the info. Did your D took any gap year? Is UT South western her top choice? Still waiting for more acceptances?
Thank you @cheer2021 . D did not take any gap year - actually she is finishing UG early in 3 years. She is still waiting on Baylor interview result.
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Congrats and good to see another traditional path success story.
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Any residency matches for the Match Day March 18th, 2022 from anyone in BSMD route or traditional route? Please share. Thank you.
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Match day was 18th. It will be good to see BSMD list. Met a BSMD student last week and he is in a 8 year program but taking a gap year for research.
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DD is nearing the completion of her first year of med school.
She is absolutely loving Feinberg (Northwestern).
I think moving to a semester system from a quarter system has made the med school transition relatively smooth. Northwestern undergrad did prepare her for the rigor of medical school. Academic-wise, she finds it engaging (though overwhelming at times), but most lectures are recorded, which creates an option to review the coursework. Feinberg expects in-person attendance but there are many lectures that one can take online.
Plus she has been able to get into research, shadowing, and volunteering experiences. She has signed up for summer research. As M1, she was thrilled when a cardiac surgeon asked her to suture a patient under surgery and guided her. A small step but profound because she was not expecting it. Her weekly clinical experiences have been great for her.
She has been able to rely on M2 folks for guidance and her other friends in M1 for support. Happy that she has found her friends - a mix of HPME and new medical students.
The med school administration is in sharp contrast with the undergrad administration. Undergrad admin was dysfunctional but med school is highly responsive and concerned about student wellness.
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Great update! Quarter system is crazy ( I went thru it in grad school) Is she think of surgical specialty?
I think she is inclined towards cardiology/ cardiovascular surgery.
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Aren’t they titoally different?
Yes, there are differences - one is surgery-focused, another is not.
She likes both as she has had exposure to shadowing both types of doctors.
Hopefully, by M3 she knows which specialty she wants to focus on.
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