The Intricacies of Fourth Year Planning 2018 PDF

The Intricacies of Fourth Year Planning: An Advisory
College Program (ACP) Guide

After a few months of experience as a fourth year medical student and
speaking with my classmates, I came to the realization that there is a great
deal of variability in fourth year schedules. Yes, everyone wants some down
time, must do a Sub-I, complete their MSA, take Step 2, and interview for
residency, but this can look very different for people going into different
specialties. I wanted to explore these differences and determine if there was a
“right way” to do fourth year for several of the most common specialties that
CU medical students choose to pursue. The following is a compilation of my
findings organized in (hopefully) a helpful format.
- Brittany Cowfer, CUSOM class of 2016
I was asked to help update this document for the Advisory College Program
and was excited to have the opportunity to add some of the specialties that
weren’t included in the original document. I would like to thank all the specialty
advisors for taking the time to answer these questions and Dr. Jeff Druck and
Erica Hyman for their support. This document wouldn’t be possible without
them.
My hope is that CU medical students find this helpful as they plan their fourth
years and that the MS1-MS3s also can use it as they consider the different
specialties. Making this document underscored the many fantastic career
tracks available to CU medical students; we are lucky to have so many
interesting options. I wish you success in finding your way!
- Katia Johnston, CUSOM class of 2018
*** Please note that for specialties that use the NRMP main residency
match (all except Urology and Ophthalmology) the most up to date
information for match statistics can be found at:
http://www.nrmp.org/main-residency-match-data/
Created by:
Brittany Cowfer, CUSOM class of 2016
Revised 2/2017: Tai Lockspeiser MD, MHPE
Revised 1/2018: Katia Johnston, CUSOM class of 2018
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Specialty (page)
Anesthesiology (4)
Child Neurology (6)
Dermatology (8)
Diagnostic Radiology (10)
Emergency Medicine (15)
Family Medicine (19)
General Surgery (23)
Internal Medicine (29)
Internal Medicine/Pediatrics (33)
Neurological Surgery (35)
Neurology (38)
Obstetrics and Gynecology (43)
Ophthalmology (46)
Orthopedic Surgery (50)
Otolaryngology (54)
Pathology (57)
Pediatrics (59)
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Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (63)
Plastic Surgery (65)
Psychiatry (68)
Radiation Oncology (70)
Urology (72)
Vascular Surgery (75)
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Anesthesiology
AAMC Basics
Mean Step 1/ Step 2 CK: 232/ 242
AOA: 10.6%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Low
Importance of Research: Medium
Mean # of Research Experiences per matched applicant: 2.7
Mean # of Abstracts, Presentations, Publications: 3.5
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 34.4
Total # of Programs: 132
Interview Timing: Nov-Jan
Specialty-Specific Recommendations:
From the American Society of Anesthesiologists:
Letters of Recommendation:
• You should plan to get 3-4 letters - 1 department letter, 1 anesthesia letter, and 1-2 of
your choice (medicine, peds, surgery, OB/GYN).
Personal Statement Tips:
• Think about your own unique strengths, talents, interests, accomplishments, and
experiences. Make a list of these. Compare this with your own idea of what might
make an excellent resident in Anesthesiology. Select unique items from your
personal list that resemble the characteristics of the “ideal” resident and incorporate
these into your personal statement.
None of the specialty-specific websites address course-taking or other recommendations on

fourth year planning.
CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations:

From Dr. Mario Villasenor and Dr. Tony Oliva
Sub-I:
• The only anesthesia-specific Sub-I is STICU. Many students like this, but it is not
required. It can be beneficial to do a medicine Sub-I, especially if student is planning
to do a medicine intern year.
Electives in Anesthesia:
• Students should pick 1 or 2. Many enjoy STICU or the sub-specialty elective in
anesthesia (ANES 8002) where students get to pick a different sub-specialty per
week, such as L&D, chronic pain, and cardiothoracic. The clinical anesthesiology
elective (ANES 8000), students do 2 weeks at Children’s and 2 weeks at Denver
Health is well liked.
Balance of in versus out of department electives:
• Do just enough anesthesia to confirm this is your specialty of choice (1-2 months)
and then take electives in other departments to round out education.
Other Electives:
• Recommend EKG course. Consider Applied Clinical Pharmacology, Cardiology, and
other medicine sub-specialty electives such as Renal. Also, highly recommend
Foundations of Doctoring, as students can switch to an anesthesia preceptor. Almost
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anything will be useful. Student should do whatever they’re interested in or
uncomfortable with. Use the time to fill in gaps in education.
Away:
• Only do one if there’s a specific program or place you want to be and it doesn’t need
to be a Sub-I.
Importance of Research:
• Moderately important.
Interviews:
• Late October through the end of January. Need to apply broadly. On average,
students apply to 20-30, interview at 8-15, though it’s all very individualized.
Emphasize calling/emailing the program if a student is turned down by a program
they’re really interested in.
For the Undecided:
• ANES 8000, which is 2 weeks at Denver Health and 2 weeks at Children’s. Talk to
residents and attendings. Learn about what a career in anesthesia can look like.
Course Data from 29 MS4s Matching in Anesthesia in 2014 (n = 12), 2015 (n = 6) and
2016 (n=11):
Sub-I:
Average of 1.67 Sub-I’s per student in 2015
34% (10 of 29) did a Medicine Sub-I
97% (28 of 29) did a Critical Care or SICU Sub-I
This includes 5 students who did Critical Care at St. Joseph’s (MEDS 8034)
Electives in Anesthesia:
69% took ANES 8000 - Clinical Anesthesiology
55% took ANES 8002 - Anesthesia Subspecialties
Out of Department Electives:
On average, students took more electives in the medicine department than in
anesthesiology.
83% took Cardiac Diagnostic Skill (MEDS 8005)
55% took Applied Clinical Pharmacology (MEDS 8029)
31% of students took a medicine sub-specialty elective:
11% - Pulmonary, 14% - Cardiology, 10% - Palliative Care, 3% - ID, 3% - Medicine
Consult
55% took Foundations of Doctoring IV (IDPT 8000)
17% took Film and Mental Illness (MEDS 8040)
11% took Diagnostic Radiology (RADI 8000)
11% took Tutoring in Foundations (IDPT 8001)
11% took Corrections Healthcare (MEDS 8032)
Away:
38% (11 of 29 students) did an away in Anesthesia
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Child Neurology
AAMC Basics
AOA: 13.5%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Not necessary. Can be helpful if you are a reach
candidate for a program. It is essential that the applicant have multiple experiences in child
neurology and at least 1-2 recommendations from child neurologists.
Importance of Research: Medium. It is helpful to have an established track-record in
research or an alternative extracurricular activity.
Interview Timing: November-January
Other questions:
Is this specialty right for me?
• People in child neurology enjoy pediatrics, challenging problems, and developing
long-term relationships with patients. It is important to consider the challenging nature
of treating very sick patients, and living with the uncertainty of some patients’
diagnoses.
Contact information for advisor
• Timothy Bernard: timothy.bernard@childrenscolroado.org
Process of advising in the department
• Each sub-I is invited to a meeting with the program director during their rotation to
describe our program and offer advice about our process for recruitment. In addition,
each CU student is offered ongoing mentorship from Drs. Bernard and Parsons. We
are happy and excited to meet with you.
What are the good things about your specialty?
• It is an exciting time for the development of new emerging gene therapies
• Great opportunity to have a mixture of acute inpatient medicine and long-term
outpatient patient relationships
• Field with great need – meaning that good applicants typically get one of their top-3
choices for residency and after graduation all residents can easily find a job.
• Very intellectually challenging
What are the bad things about this specialty?
• Sometimes families are not appreciative of our care when they are under extreme
stress
• Sometimes we have a hard time making a diagnosis
Who goes into your field? What is important to them?
• Kind, smart, slightly nerdy people go into child neurology. They want to make a
difference in people’s lives, and are not deterred by the challenges of sick patients.
What are the future opportunities in this specialty? i.e. fellowships, practice opportunities
• Over half of residents do a 1-2 year fellowship in a subspecialty. About ½ of child
neurologists are in private practice, while ½ are in an academic setting.
Advice for the undecided
• Spend time with a child neurologist
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How do I get in?
• Perform well in your pediatrics, neurology, and child neurology rotations
• Have solid step I scores
• Demonstrate a good understanding of the field
• Develop a story about how you might contribute to child neurology through advocacy,
research or QI initiatives. It is better to have an in-depth history of excellence one of
these areas, than multiple scattered small projects.
Timeline for applications
• Applications are due in September
Importance of grades
• There are three types of programs in the country: competitive programs, middle
range programs, and small and/or new programs. Competitive programs (approx.
top 10-15 programs) typically take residents from the top 1/3-1/2 of their school with
above average board scores, but I have seen applicants get into top programs who
have below average grades/boards but other exceptional traits such as a PhD or
strong track record or leadership. Middle range programs (approx. top 15-40
programs) take people with average grades and average board scores. Smaller
and/or newer programs will take applicants from the bottom of their class with below
average boards. As such, most people can find a good (or great) program that fits
their skills.
USMLE :
• See above
Importance of non-clinical activities, including research, volunteer activities, publications,
etc.
• See above
Types of programs:
• I would apply to at least 15-20 programs, more if you are couples matching or a
below average candidate.
Letters of Recommendation:
• 3-4, with at least 1-2 from child neurologists.
Personal Statement advice
• No type-o’s and well written
What should I do in 4th year?
• Explore what interests you. You can do an away rotation in a program you want to
know more about or a reach program.
Sub-I’s – which sub-I is best to meet the CU requirement?
• Pediatrics and child neurology
Externships/Away rotations (how many, where)
• See above
Balance of in department vs out of department courses
• Not important
Specific courses that are recommended
• Nothing specific here, other than getting a good exposure to child neurology.
How much time/when to take off for interviews
• Interviews are typically in November, December and early January. They often are
2-days interviews as they are combined with Pediatrics.
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Dermatology
AAMC Basics
Mean Step 1/ Step 2 CK: 249/257
AOA: 52.8%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Medium
Importance of Research: High
Interview Timing: December-January

Process of advising in the department:
• Email to set up a meeting. People to contact include:
o Cory A Dunnick, MD, Medical Student Course Director
(cory.dunnick@ucdenver.edu)
o Cheryl Armstrong, MD, Residency Program Director
(Cheryl.armstrong@dhha.org)
o David Norris, MD, Department Chair (david.norris@ucdenver.edu)
o Robert P Dellavalle, MD, MSPH, PhD, Chief Dermatology at the Denver VA,
Research Mentor (robert.dellavalle@ucdenver.edu)
• We treat generally healthy people of all ages: newborns to geriatric. We have a great
mix of medical and procedural opportunities in clinic. Being focused on the skin
allows us to truly be the content experts in our discipline. Learning dermatopathology
during residency contributes to our overall understanding of skin disease.
What are the bad things about specialty?
• The lay person may not understand what it means to be a dermatologist and how
important it is to maintain skin health.
What are the future opportunities in this specialty?
• Pediatric Fellowship, Procedural (Mohs surgery) Fellowship, Dermatopathology
Fellowship
Advice for the undecided:
• Do a clinical elective in dermatology. We offer a shadowing experience for first and
second year students (Derm 6660) and both a 2 week elective (Derm 8000) and a 4
week clerkship (Derm 8001) for fourth year students.
How do I get in?

Importance of grades:
• High
USMLE – cut points, discussion of importance of USMLE in getting in:
• Many programs have USMLE cut offs, generally programs require at least 220 on
USMLE for an interview if not 240 or higher.
etc:
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• Publications and research demonstrating an interest in dermatology and a track
record for completing scientific inquiries is highly recommended in order to match in
dermatology
Types of programs, i.e. community vs. academics, and the recommended number of
programs they should apply to:
• Most dermatology programs are associated with an academic medical school. There
may be a few community based dermatology programs
Letters of Recommendations, including how many and who they should be from:
• Department Chair, Research Mentor, 1 Clinical Attending

• Fourth year is a good time to expand your knowledge beyond dermatology and take
courses in areas of interest as well as those to better prepare for like as an intern.
• Most students will complete the 4-week dermatology clerkship at their home
institution and do 1 additional away elective at a dermatology program where they
may be interested in matching.
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Diagnostic Radiology
AAMC Basics
AOA: 18.4%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective:
• Can depend! Depends on the student and motivations for doing an away -can be
great insight into a program or seeing how the department is at another institution.
Students with concerns about a less strong application on paper can demonstrate
what they are truly capable of; however, you will be under the microscope for four
weeks, so there is the potential to do harm. Most useful to see if a program or
location is a good fit for you – programs vary by program size and experience, and
may be very different from experiences at home institution.
• For IR, an away can be helpful. There are a very limited number of integrated
residency positions available, and thus it can be more difficult for applicants to stand
out from the crowd on paper, and each program may be very different when
compared to another. An away can be a good audition, and you will be a known face
and skill set, work ethic, etc. However, in any case an away rotation is a month-long
audition and there is the possibility that a poor impression could hurt a student’s
application.
• Overall, would not recommend doing more than 3 or so radiology rotations including
away rotations – discuss with advisers when deciding between courses to select the
most beneficial approach for each student.
• Important for radiology, and more important at programs that highly emphasize
research. Make sure experiences are in depth and high quality, but projects do not
have to be related to radiology!
• Emphasis on quality, not quantity
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 50.7 (IR-Integrated: 32.0)
Total # of Programs: 169 (advanced), 33 (categorical) (IR-Integrated: 69)
Interview Timing: Mid-October to end of January. Trends seem to be that more programs
are interviewing earlier in the season (especially IR), with the exception being
California/west coast schools that typically interview in Dec-Jan
Other questions for advisors:

Contact information for advisors:
• Dr. Kimi Kondo, kimi.kondo@ucdenver.edu (also Interventional Radiology)
• Dr. Rustain Morgan, rustain.morgan@ucdenver.edu
• Dr. Michael Fadell, michael.fadell@ucdenver.edu
• Get some experience shadowing or talking with the residents. Email Dr. Kondo any
time to set up some shadowing and get a better idea of a day in the life of a
radiologist. Also have option of doing an elective in fourth year to supplement limited
exposure elsewhere in the standard curriculum. Also great opportunity to learn more
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about the subspecialties in radiology – each subspecialty can be very different in
terms of patient contact, procedures, etc.
• Practice varies widely – settings and scope of practice are very individualizable
• Reach out to the advisers listed above, and make a point to meet one on one with at
least one of the advisers to discuss your particular situation and goals.
• Your need to be more self-motivated and independent. You will be in charge of your
learning, and need to read images, gather history, and discuss cases with consulting
physicians on your own (with support when needed, of course).
• Teams in radiology are often structured differently than other specialties (in radiology,
residents often work independently and directly with attendings and fellows
regardless of level, as opposed to other specialties where medical students, interns,
residents, chief residents, and attendings work in one large team. However, this is a
lot of interaction with faculty and other residents as collaboration and a team based
approach are crucial to radiology. Also, radiologists function as part of many larger
interdisciplinary teams within the hospital, working with other specialties as part of
tumor boards, specialty clinics, and consultations.
What are the bad things about your specialty?
• Many subspecialties have a lot of patient interaction, but some do not. This can vary
by subspecialty, but can also vary by institution. Patient follow-up also varies, but
radiology clinics are becoming more common. Students who want to have a
substantial amount of patient contact should look into subspecialties (IR, and breast
in particular) and programs that have patient contact in their areas of interest.
• Longer residency - 5 years (prelim plus 4 years of radiology) plus additional 1 year for
fellowship (majority of radiologists complete at least one fellowship) than many other
specialties.
• More independent study time necessary than other specialties due to required depth
and breadth of knowledge, and due to changing technology and knowledge about
medicine. This also contributes to a very steep learning curve in the first year or two
of residency as residents are introduced to the different modalities and subspecialties
or radiology.
• Often frequent interruptions by consultants with questions – but many radiologists
enjoy this!
• People who are task-oriented, visual learners or enjoy seeing anatomy and
pathology, also those who like problem-solving and analytical thinking, making
decisions (identifying abnormalities or no abnormalities) and moving to the next case.
People who enjoy working with other professionals, as the nature of radiology is
consultative and cases are often discussed with colleagues in radiology as well.
Those who go into radiology enjoy making decisions that determine patient care.
People who want to determine their amount of patient interaction also go into
radiology – more patient contact in IR, fluoroscopy, and women’s imaging, but
opportunities for patient contact in many/all subspecialties.
• Appreciation for the technological aspects of the job, and procedural aspects (for IR,
breast, and other procedural subspecialties).
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• People who are able to focus for long periods of time (to read a large volume of
studies over a shift), but can also manage frequent interruptions.
• Subspecialties: MSK, breast, abdominal/body imaging, neuroradiology, vascular and
interventional radiology, nuclear, cardiothoracic, pediatric. All are fellowships (1 year,
very rarely 2), and the vast majority of radiologists subspecialize.
• Get some experience in the field – shadowing, electives, and talking with residents
and faculty. Radiology plays a role in care of patients on every clinical service – don’t
pass up these opportunities to learn.
• Participate in events and activities hosted by the Radiology Interest Group to learn
more, and talk with other students who are interested in radiology.
How do I get in?
• Board scores and grades are very important in radiology, so make sure to work hard
(especially during clinical rotations). Medicine and surgery are the most all-
encompassing and these grades are looked at the most, but treat all clinical rotations
as important – they are. For IR, medicine, surgery, and OBGYN are very important.
• Be involved in research and extracurriculars (see below).
• Think ahead about who to ask for letters of recommendation (below).
• Submit applications through ERAS on day one to maximize interview invitations.
Make sure letters of recommendation are submitted on time (or early!) so that this
does not hold up your application.
• Radiology spans all specialties, so grades are important! Program directors that
participated in a national survey said that to offer an interview, the MSPE and clinical
grades are the second and third most important pieces of an application (after Step 1
scores).
USMLE – cut points, discussion of importance of USMLE in getting in
• A good Step 1 score is very important when applying to radiology. Some programs
do have cutoffs, but difficult to know which programs do and what that level might be,
and they may vary year to year depending on the applicant pool. Step 1 is very
important in radiology, but there are programs that take into consideration the
application as a whole and may overlook a lower Step 1 score. Apply smart, talk with
advisers if you are concerned that your score may limit your options, and apply
strategically and realistically.
etc.
• Research: Important to competitive and academic programs, and the quality of the
experience is more important than the number of experiences. These can include
papers, poster or oral presentations, case reports, exhibits, and educational
programs.
• Getting involved is important, but best to be more involved with a smaller number
than peripherally involved in many. Interest groups are a great starting point, and
being involved with leadership (whether or not the group/activity is related to
radiology) demonstrates leadership and commitment and is a great talking point for
interviews.
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programs they should apply to
• Setting – some are only at one hospital and some have residents rotate through
several hospitals. Community versus university affiliated, big city versus more rural,
and the number of residents at each program can be very different.
• Make sure to look for a program that has a very high pass rate for board exams, and
is ACGME accredited.
• Some places have fellowships and some do not – some think that programs with
more fellows may limit residents’ exposure to certain cases, however, fellows are
often great educational resources and that residents often enjoy having access to.
• The majority of programs offer “advanced” positions – meaning that applicants will
apply and match separately for a preliminary year (medicine, surgery, or transitional
year). Which type of preliminary program depends on the applicant’s preferences. A
few programs offer a categorical residency program, meaning that the preliminary
year is included in the program (applicants who match there will complete their intern
year at that program as well). Be aware that some programs do not interview prelim
applicants and only fill their spots during the SOAP, while others conduct in person or
Skype interviews – this will factor in to considerations for planning residency
interviews during fourth year.
Letters of Recommendation, including how many and who they should be from
• Make sure your letter writers know you well! Definitely include one letter from a
radiology faculty member, but make sure to choose someone who knows you well
and has worked with you over a longer period of time. In general, should only include
one from a radiologist unless there is a very meaningful relationship and possibly if
submitting a 4th letter.
• If you are asking for a letter from a faculty member from a rotation or other non-
longitudinal clinical experience, ask for the letter towards the end or soon after the
rotation so that your performance is fresh on their minds. Be sure to provide your CV,
personal statement (if completed), and any other helpful materials to your letter
writers, and give plenty of time.
• Make it personal, but the most important thing here is to not stand out in a bad way.
Some reviewers may read your entire statement, some may skim, and some may
skip it entirely – make it interesting enough to hook the reader. You can use this
space to address things that are not otherwise included in your application or your
reasons for applying to radiology. You can also address problems with your
application here.
• Ask a lot of people to read your statement – include people who know you well
(family, friends), faculty advisers in radiology, advisers in student affairs, etc. Your
best resources are people who have read a lot of statements. Make sure that the
grammar, spelling, facts, etc are correct and avoid run-on sentences. Keep it to a
page or less.
• Don’t pander to your audience – explain what drew you to radiology, but be wary
about discussing at length your visual learning style, etc.
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• An in-depth opportunity to round out and complement your medical education is the
most important preparation for radiology. Choose courses that will help fill any gaps
or build up important concepts.
• Would not advise doing more than 2 or 3 radiology electives total (including away
rotations), because 4th year is often better spent to learn more about other areas of
medicine that will be important before starting residency.
• Depends on your preference – medicine may be useful for applicants strongly
considering diagnostic, and applicants interested in procedures (IR) may want to
consider surgery. However, this is not a set rule – consider the quality of the
experience and what you will gain from spending your time there, as there is much
that can be gained from each option.
• See above for more discussion. When deciding if and where to rotate, consider if you
strongly want to end up at another program or in another city or region.
• This is the last opportunity before intern year for students to get a broad, in depth
view of medicine as a whole. Try to choose courses that round out your education
and will be useful for your future training and intern year. If you have not had much
experience in radiology, consider doing an elective early on to make sure it is a good
fit and get to know some of the faculty and residents.
• Diagnostic Radiology (RADI 8000)
• Nonradiologists Radiology (RADI 8001)
• Interventional Radiology (RADI 8007)
• Nuclear Medicine (RADI 8002)
• Pediatric Radiology (PEDS 8032)
• Research in Radiology and Research Away (RADI 8600 & RADI 8630)
• Radiology Away (RADI 8100)

• November, December, and January are typically the busiest months for interviews.
During these months plan to take time off, or if necessary take courses that are
flexible (online courses, research, etc). Keep in mind that you will be busy with travel,
dinners, interviews, etc, and that you will likely have a difficult time getting much work
done in between, so don’t book your schedule too full. More programs are
interviewing in mid/late October, so be prepared for this possibility when scheduling
October courses as well.
Other advising resources:
• https://www.aur.org/uploadedfiles/alliances/amser/educator_resources/amser_guide_
to_applying_for_radiology_residency.pdf
• https://www.aur.org/uploadedFiles/Alliances/AMSER/Medical_Student_Resources/Ap
plying_to_IR_Residency.pdf
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Emergency Medicine
AAMC Basics
AOA: 13.0%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: High
Importance of Research: Medium
Mean # of Research Experiences per Applicant: 2.4
Total # of Programs: 237 ACGME/AOA programs
Interview Timing: Nov-Feb
From the Alliance for Clinical Education:
• EM-Specific Competencies:
o Complete ACLS, become proficient at performing common ED procedures,
participate in “resident as teacher” course, participate in interdisciplinary team
training course, demonstrate knowledge of patient advocacy skills.
• Audition Rotation:
o Two 4 week EM rotations are required, one of which as an Away
• Sub-I and Electives:
o Most CU EM students do a critical care sub-I. Alternatives include IM wards or
surgery. Recommended electives include critical care, ophthalmology,
otolaryngology, anesthesia.
From the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine and Emergency Medicine Residents’
Association:
• Rotations:
o Most programs prefer to see two months of EM clerkship time. Students may
benefit from a “warm-up rotation” in cardiology, gynecology clinic, or infectious
disease prior to the EM rotation. Other recommended electives include trauma
surgery, ICU, anesthesia and radiology. Others to consider include
orthopedics, pediatric EM, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, dermatology,
research, neurology, psychiatric emergency, EMS, and toxicology.
• Away:
o To be competitive you have to do at least one away. Can be important for
more competitive programs or for students interested in a distant location.
Most programs will interview all visiting students, which can be especially
helpful for "reach" programs. However, audition rotations can also worsen your
chances for matching as easily as they can improve them. In choosing a
program for an away rotation, consider that certain experiences are unique to
certain institutions, such as level one trauma, ambulance and/or helicopter
transport, hyperbaric medicine, toxicology, pediatric EM, etc. Go to EMRA or
the SAEM webpage for more info on away rotations.
• Letters of Recommendation:
o Every EM applicant should have at least one standardized letter of evaluation
(SLOE) from an Emergency Medicine rotation, though it is highly advised to
have at least two SLOEs from your home EM sub-I and at least one away
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rotation. Some programs will only interview you if you have two SLOEs. For
your other letter(s) it’s important to pick someone who knows you well and can
comment on your clinical performance, fund of medical knowledge, character,
and teamwork skills. It is better to have a detailed letter from a rising professor
than a form letter from a department chair.
• Interviews:
o Late October-early February with most happening November-January.
CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations: From Dr. Bonnie Kaplan and Dr. Barb Blok
(December 2017):
Sub-I:
• There are no Sub-I’s in EM. All are considered electives. It’s always good to do
critical care prior to residency.
Emergency Electives:
• Students should take EMED 8006, the emergency medicine career elective. Also
recommend procedural electives.
• Upon completion of ED elective, student should fill the rest of the time with rotations
they find interesting or feel that they’re weak in.
• Specifically recommend the EKG elective and critical care.
Away:
• Critical to do an away rotation. There’s a good chance the student will be working
with the decision-maker for the rank list. Most important factor is how the student
does clinically away from their home institution (over step 1 score and the rest of the
application.) Important to do one in geographic area where interested in residency
because other programs in that area will know that program and be able to interpret
the student’s evaluation. If not interested in staying in Denver, recommend 2 away
rotations. If student does the Denver Health rotation, recommend one additional
away.
• Minimal. Have some exposure/experience in it. Good to finish a project if one is
started. Otherwise, it’s not a reasonable investment of time just to improve
application.
Programs:
• There are 3 general types of programs - community, county, and university. There
are also 3 year and 4 year programs - will get adequate training in a 3 year program,
but a 4th year is often valuable if considering fellowship because student could use
the year for research. A lot of variability in what different programs value - it’s a lot
about the student’s goals and fit.
Interviews:
• December is the most common month for interviews. For less competitive applicants,
should have January open, as some programs could call applicants the day before
the interview. Minimum number of applications would be 20, but very dependent on
applicant and programs. On average, recommend 13 interviews.
For the Undecided:
• Do an ED elective, here or away.
16
Course Data from 35 MS4s Matching in Emergency Medicine in 2014 (n = 12), 2015 (n
= 14), 2016 (n =9):
Sub-I:
Average of 1.0 Sub-I’s per student in 2015.
71% did an ICU/Critical Care Sub-I
57% did a Critical Care Sub-I at St. Joseph’s (MEDS 8034)
14% did a SICU Sub-I (ANES 8001 or SURG 8021)
20% did a Medicine Sub-I (MEDS 8001)
Other Sub-I’s: NICU, urology, Ortho, family medicine.
Electives in EM:
92% took the Emergency Medicine Career Elective (EMED 8006) – 100% took either EMED
8006 or an away elective in EM
40% took Clinical Toxicology (EMED 8024)
29% took Wilderness Medicine (EMED 8031)
32% took Foundations of Doctoring IV (IDPT 8000)
29% took Global Health and Disaster (IDPT 8018)
29% took an Anesthesiology rotation (including the Sub-I)
29% took Bedside Ultrasound (IDPT 8025)
26% took Critical Care and Procedures (IDPT 8026)
20% took Physician as Educator (IDPT 8016)
17% took a Dermatology rotation
11% took an Orthopedics rotation
6% took an Ophthalmology rotation
4% (1 student) each took an elective in otolaryngology, psychiatry, peds emergency
medicine
Away:
89% (31 of 35) did at least one away rotation
37% (13 of 35) of these did 2 away rotations
Other questions:
• Personality type, understanding pros and cons, being ok with the “bread and butter”
Contact information for advisor:
• bonnie.kaplan@ucdenver.edu
• barbara.blok@ucdenver.edu
• Contact specialty advisors, initial meeting, plan out aways, second meeting talk about
application and where applying, in contact from then on regarding how many
interviews etc.
• Flexibility of work, very applicable to all kinds of places and lots of diverse practice
models, we take care of everyone, procedural specialty, great people who like to
have fun outside of work, rare call
17
• Work when everyone is off, we give everyone else work, we take care of everyone,
patients often don’t remember our role in saving their life
• Diverse group of people, usually energetic, like “everything” for short periods of time,
multi-taskers, ok making decisions with incomplete information, action oriented
fellowships:
• administration, critical care, pediatric EM, wilderness, Ultrasound, Toxicology,
education, hyperbaric, global health, EMS
• Do a rotation, talk to a lot of people, be ok with the bread and butter of emergency
medicine
How do I get in?

Timeline for applications:
• January/February of 3rd year talk to advisors, apply to away rotations in March of third
year, application by September, want to rank around 13 places
• Most programs just care how you did your 3rd year, average 1-2 honors
• A lot of programs have a cut point at 215, but if you do better on Step 2 they will bring
your application back in
etc.
• Leadership, some research experience and a diversity of interests is important to
show you are well rounded
• Above average applicants: 20-30 programs
• Average applicant: 40 programs
• Below average: 50+
• We often say California programs don’t count in your total because they are super
popular which = competitive
Letters of Recommendations, including how many and who they should be from
• Ideally 2 SLOEs and 1-2 other ones
• Letters by academic EM physicians thought of higher than other letters, but if don’t
have that then just some one who can speak highly of you
• Not a huge part of application, make sure no grammatical errors, put some thought
into it but don’t need to do a whole lot more
• 2 EM rotations
• finish STEP 2 prior to application submission (ideally want score back prior to
application going in)
• consider anesthesia, radiology, ecg, tox, Ultrasound, critical care
18
Family Medicine
AAMC Basics
96% of US applicants match
AOA: 8% (matched)
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Not required
Importance of Research: Moderate
Mean # of Ranks: 10 (matched), 6 (unmatched)
Total # of Programs Available: 522
Years of residency training: 3 (a few are 4)
Interview Timing: October – mid January
Other questions for advisors:

• Family Medicine Undergraduate Medical Education (UME) Coordinator:
kasie.holcomb@ucdenver.edu
• Core Advisory Faculty:
a. Brandy Deffenbacher – brandy.deffenbacher@ucdenver.edu
b. Kari Mader – kari.mader@ucdenver.edu
c. Roberto Silva – Roberto.silva@ucdenver.edu
d. Deb Seymour – deb.seymour@ucdenver.edu

• Send an email to Kasie Holcomb only, or to Kasie Holcomb and an advisor of your
choice if already known to set up a meeting. Including Kasie Holcomb helps ensure
your outreach does not fall through the cracks.
What are the good things about your specialty?:

• The incredible relationships you develop with patients and families, that can span
many decades.
• Wide-spectrum of practice including outpatient and inpatient care, including
pediatrics, obstetrics, and adult medicine if desired.
• Practice can be tailored to what you are passionate about
• Exceptional training in the art of outpatient care as well as inpatient care
• Multiple fellowship opportunities including geriatrics, palliative/hospice care, surgical
obstetrics, sports medicine (the best track toward non-operative sports medicine
practice)
• Family medicine as a specialty has a strong culture that focuses on health equity and
healthcare change, thus training and opportunities in practice transformation, inter-
professional teaming, leadership, advocacy, population health, and community
engagement are common.
• Family medicine physicians are in shortage, so job opportunities are plenty.
Who goes into your field? What is important to them?:
19
• Students who are passionate about relationships with patients, taking care of all
people across the continuum of healthcare, and view primary care as a key
component of achieving health in all communities. Students who have strong
interests in systems change including policy, advocacy, research, education, and/or
health equity work often find a great “home” and fit in family medicine.
What are the future opportunities in this specialty? i.e. fellowships, practice opportunities:
• Fellowships are usually 1 year and include Adolescent, Emergency, Faculty
development, Geriatrics, Hospice/Palliative Care, Hospitalist, Integrative Medicine,
International, Obstetrics, Preventative Medicine, Research, Rural, Sports, Substance
Abuse, Urgent Care, and Women’s Health. The spectrum of family practice is very
wide and includes both outpatient and inpatient medicine, outpatient procedures,
Cesarean sections, hysterectomies, policy work, leadership, rural and international
medicine, and more.
• Come chat with us! We are happy to help support all students find the specialty that
will give them the most fulfilling career in the end.
• There can often be misconceptions about what family medicine is, because it can
cover so many areas! Examples include:
o If I don’t want to do obstetrics, I shouldn’t do family medicine
o If I want to do hospital care or complex patient management, I need to do IM,
Peds, or Med-Peds
o The only place to practice family medicine is really in rural settings
o Come chat with us à we would love to paint the broader picture of
family medicine, and are happy to connect you with physicians who are
practicing the range of FM.
How do I get in?
• Intentionally showcase your strengths, and your passion for family medicine.
• Highlight any diversity of extracurricular activities including scholarship, leadership,
community work/service, education work, etc.
• They do matter, the weight often varies according to the competitiveness of the
program.
USMLE:
• Many programs will not interview applicants who have failed Step 1, but some will
consider. Many family medicine programs average Step 1 and Step 2.
etc.:
• Leadership and volunteer experiences are very important. Research can be
important as well, but is not a huge detriment if you do not have this experience.
What’s important is that you can talk about whatever you included in your application,
and highlight how that experience helped you to learn and grow.
Types of programs, applying:
• Most applicants apply to about 10-12 programs, rank 10, and match into one of their
top three-ranked programs.
20
• If you had a challenge in your education such as not passing a Step exam, or
possibly needing to repeat a year, you may need to apply to more programs.
Recommend seeking out individual advising early to allow us to support you.
• Program Categories you will hear:
o Urban and Rural
o Community vs academically-affiliated vs Academic
§ Community is typically a program where family medicine physicians are
the only trainees in the hospital, and the main physicians staffing the
hospital are family medicine
§ Academic is typically a program where residents are training alongside
along residents and physicians from other specialties, classically has
more exposure to primary care research, medical education, and policy
work.
o Don’t tie yourself to one “classification” of program, as there is a lot of
overlap!
Letters of Recommendations:
• Most programs require a minimum of three LORs, with one being from a family
medicine physician who can speak to your clinical skills. CU’s Department of Family
Medicine does NOT write a composite letter.
Personal Statement advice:
• Describe who you are as a person – try to stand out! Avoid simply talking about why
family medicine is a great specialty – all the readers will know that. Do make sure to
talk about why you personally want to be a family medicine physician. Have many
people edit and give advice, including people who do not know you.
• Choose electives that fill gaps in knowledge and clinical skills, but also explore
experiences that you may not get in residency. Make sure to give yourself time off
during interview season (see below).
Sub-I’s – which sub-I is best to meet the CU’s requirement?:
• All of the FMMD Sub-Is that are listed can meet the requirement, and there is one for
each Colorado program (with the exception of very new programs). They all have
spots reserved for CU students, and you should rank what you desire in the lottery.
Any of these are perfectly fine and Colorado programs do not care where you did
your sub-I. Only 1 is needed but you can do more if you want to explore other
programs.
Externships/Away rotations (how many, where):
• Not required, though a great way to experience a program.
Balance of in department vs out of department courses:
• A combination of both is acceptable. Individual schedules vary widely.
Specific courses that are recommended:
• Popular electives for those entering family medicine are FMMD-8012 (Oral health),
IDPT-8026 (Critical Care & Procedural Skills), emergency medicine electives, MEDS-
8005 (Cardiac Diagnostic Skills – ECG), International electives, and the “create your
own” Family Medicine clinical elective FMMD 8100.
How much time/when to take off for interviews:
21
• Interview season usually runs from early October through third week of January. How
much time you should take off depends on how many interviews you are taking and
where they are in the country.
22
General Surgery- Categorical
NRMP/AAMC Basics
(**based on 2016 NRMP data

**)
- 90% Probability of
matching with 11 contiguous
rankings
- 90% probability of
matching with Step 1 score
~230
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: LOW (from AAMC website)

- If you have a specific program or region you would like to go to, it can help. However,
it is also like a month long interview, so it can hurt you if you don’t perform well.
- Recommended Research Experience according to AAMC - MEDIUM
Interview Timing: Late October à January,
Sub-I and Electives:
• Surgery Sub-I. Electives: Critical care, anesthesia, radiology, internal medicine,
intensive care, pulmonary, cardiology, boot camp (anatomical dissections, lab
simulations, technical experiences)
From the American College of Surgeons:

Surgery Specific Competencies:
• Prerequisites detailed in the following guide: Successfully navigating the first year of
surgical residency: Essentials for Medical Students and PGY-1 Residents
(https://www.facs.org/~/media/files/education/essentials.ashx)
Away:
• Not required at most general surgery programs. You need to identify an advisor or
two and get their input as to the impact of doing such an elective.
23
Recommended electives:
• Anesthesia, radiology, intensive care (either surgical or medical), pulmonary, and
cardiology
Important Factors for the Match:
• Most of the competitive, academic, university programs look for those elected to
AOA, ranked in the top 10% of their class, and with research publications. Other
programs place less value on AOA election, research, class rank, and step 1 score.
Those who are elected to AOA, have USMLE board scores in the top 10%, are
ranked in the top 10% of their class, have research publications, and have strong
letters of recommendation from surgeons will be qualified for any program in the
country. USMLE scores are important for being considered for an interview.
CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations: From Dr. Paul Montero (December 2015):

Sub-I/Electives:
• Should do one sub-I in surgery and one rotation in the surgical ICU.
• Student should do what interests them and do the more intensive work (Sub-I’s) early
in the year.
• Radiology and pulmonary. VERY strongly recommended to do a sub-I at Saint
Joseph’s in Denver if you are interested in getting a residency spot there.
Away:
• Students may consider one away rotation as a month-long interview to learn about a
new system and to get another letter of recommendation. This recommendation is
not a strong recommendation as it is impacted greatly by individual student
characteristics (i.e. married, kids, financial stress, uncertainty about surgery, desire
for a specific residency).
• Increasingly important. Being a first author in a reputable journal makes a big
difference, but even a poster presentation or being able to talk about participation in
research is helpful.
Interviews:
• Significant variability in the number of programs students apply to. Weaker applicants
should apply to 40-50 and take any interviews they’re offered. Most students
interview at 10-20 programs.
For the Undecided:
• Do a sub-I or surgical elective based on interest.
Course Data from 18 MS4s Matching in General Surgery in 2014 (n = 6), 2015 (n = 5),
2016 (n = 7):
Sub-I:
100% did a general surgery sub-I
78% - University Hospital
11% - Denver Health
28% - St Joseph’s
44% did an additional general surgery sub-I at St. Joseph's Hospital
18% did an additional cardiothoracic surgery sub-I
24
61% did a SICU sub-I in addition to a general surgery sub-I
Electives:
39% took Physician as Advisor (IDPT 8020)
22% took Pathology (PATH 8000)
17% took an internal medicine consult elective
11% took an anesthesia elective
Away:
39% went on at least one away rotation
17% went on two away rotations
Other questions:
• Think about third year rotations, shadowing experiences if MS1-2
• Dr. Paul Montero (paul.montero@ucdenver.edu)
• Dr. Montero and Dr. Whitehill
• Other surgical mentors if you have them
• Very hands on
• Physically solving a patient’s problem
• Large variety within general surgery
• Make a big difference in people’s lives
• Lot of potential for research

• Longer training (5-7 years, depending on program).
• Some specialties require more research/dedicated time in the lab (Pediatrics, surgical
oncology, etc.)
• Can have long work hours and demanding work schedule
• Different for different people. Some people are very invested in research and want to
be at a large academic center. Other people just want to operate and spend time with
family, traveling, etc.
• Depending on the program you go to and your career aspirations, you can either go
directly into private practice or do a fellowship in a variety of surgical subspecialties.
You have two types of residency programs – “community” vs “academic.” Going to
community programs makes it harder to get fellowships in certain specialties, so
make sure you consider that when interviewing (Look at the program’s track record
25
for sending people into private practice vs fellowship as well as which types of
fellowships).
• MS1/MS2: Shadow, work with surgeons
• MS3: Focus on your rotations and what you like/don’t. Try to get a broad variety of
experience (private practice vs academic hospital can be quite different)
• MS4: Consider doing surgical sub-I or rotation
How do I get in?
• Do your best as an MS1/MS2. Pass your classes and be involved in research,
leadership opportunities, extra-curricular activities, etc. based on interest.
• Study and do well on Step 1.
• MS3: Do your best to get High Pass/Honors on your surgery rotation as well as
Ob/Gyn and Internal Medicine. Find surgeons you work with who are able to write
you a strong letter of recommendation. Think about balance between who knows you
well and “big names.” I would talk to a mentor/advisor about your mix of letter
authors.
• MS4: Sub-I in surgery at the U, DH, Saint Joseph’s
• May-August: Sub-I’s, figure out who will write your letters of recommendation/ask
them, write your personal statement and start filling out your application.
• Mid September: Submit application once ERAS opens
• Medium.
o Do well in pre-clinical years. Don’t necessarily need all Honors.
o High Pass/Honoring the surgical clerkship looks good if you can, as well as
OB/Gyn and IM
USMLE – cut points, (can link to AAMC data), discussion of importance of USMLE in getting
in
• Certain programs have specific cut-offs of who they will interview. Look at FRIEDA
and program websites for specifics.
Step 1 > 232: 82% Chance

of entering residency
applying to 32 programs
- Step 1 218-231: 79%

Chance of entering residency
after applying to 32 programs
-
- Step 1 < 217: 75%
Chance of entering residency
applying to 45 programs
26
etc.
• Medium to High
o Try to have evidence of scholarly involvement (MSA, QI projects, research),
leadership opportunities (committees, interest groups)
o Even things like sports teams in college/band can show traits they are
interested in.
• Community:
o Generally speaking more operative experience and less emphasis on
research. HOWEVER, they are still involved in research, and most require
participation in at least 1 scholarly project.
• Academic:
o Associated with large university. Some academic programs only 5 years, but
some have started requiring 2 years of research during residency.
• Applying to academic vs community programs differs based on career goals. If you
want to do pediatric surgery, surgical oncology, etc., applying mostly academic might
be better. However, some community programs still have good track records of
getting their residents competitive fellowships too.
• Average number for 2014-15 first year residents was 45.7. Depends on your specific
application, 30-40.
• 3-4 are allowed on ERAS. Most schools have a minimum of 3. You can select which
letters go to which institution, so you can upload more than 4 and assign different
letters to different programs.
• You will need a chair letter from Dr. Schulick, who you will need to meet with to get
your letter written.
• Best to get letters from surgeons who know you well and can speak to your work
ethic. It can also be useful to have letters from big names in surgery or from a
surgeon that went to residency/worked at the program(s) you are applying to (I.E. Dr.
Schulick àJohn Hopkins).

• Just don’t be weird or extremely long, because not everyone will read it. Some
people DO read it.
• Sub-I in surgery at the University, especially if you would like to stay in Colorado.
This will allow you to work with some of the attendings here and get exposure to Dr.
Nehler (Program director) and Dr. Schulick (Surgery Chair). You sign up for the
rotation and will pick a team to be on during orientation your first day.
• SICU @ Denver Health: Not in the OR but spend time managing very sick patients
and doing procedures (i.e. central line placement, tracheostomy, etc.)
• Sub-I at Saint Joseph’s – if you are interested in being considered there is HIGHLY
recommended
• Any of the surgery sub-I’s. See above.
27
• Not highly recommended unless you want to go to a certain region/have a certain
program you are really interested in. It is like a 1 month interview, so it can help or
hurt you depending on how you do. Doing sub-I’s at certain institutions does help you
get an interview there if you do a good job and they like you. However, some places
don’t automatically get an interview everywhere you do a sub-I rotation.
• Do at least 1 surgical sub-I. Can mix up the rest of your schedule based what you are
interested in. It is also a great time to take vacation.
• Sub-I at University Hospital
• Sub-I in SICU at Denver Health
• Sub-I at St. Joseph’s if interested in their program
• Broadly speaking, November-January. Can schedule interviews later if you have a
rotation going into November. Most will be fairly busy traveling for interviews during
this time period.
• Most of your interviews are before Christmas. It can be beneficial to schedule
interviews at programs you are unsure about for January so you have time to cancel
if you feel you have enough or decide you don’t want to interview at certain programs
28
Internal Medicine
AAMC Basics
AOA: 18.1%
• This is a complex question. Overall, away electives are not important in IM. Any
student that does an away elective should be someone that does well in new
environments and catches on fast.
• Reasons we advise for an away elective: Student wants to see a particular program,
borderline applicant for which a good away elective may get them an interview at a
given program.
• Research is still not in the top 5 things most IM programs look at. Even at our very
top IM programs, performance in IM clerkship, Step 1 score and AOA status would
outrank research.
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 15
• Please note, that this is a number of programs that students are competitive for.
Many students apply to many more programs but programs that are “super reaches”
drive the number above 20. Couples match students may be applying to many more
programs depending on the complexity of that match.
Interview Timing: Mid October – Late January with the bulk in November-pre Christmas.
This is a change that we have noticed in the last 2 years (including the current application
year)
Internal Med Specific Competencies:
• Take courses that review and clinically correlate basic science to clinical medicine,
continue to develop analytic and interpretive skills.
Audition Rotation:
• Not recommended.
Sub-I and Electives:
• Internal Medicine Sub-I. Electives: Pathophysiology clinical correlative courses,
quality and safety, evidence based medicine, procedural skills rotation.
From the American College of Physicians

Rotations:
• Consider taking courses outside of your desired specialty, including unique
experiences such as working in another country, as these will be more difficult to
pursue as a resident and residency itself will provide adequate experiences to learn
to be a strong clinician.
Away:
• Not required. Students should think critically about whether or not to do one,
especially if they have do not have an outgoing personality and struggle with
29
transitions. Benefit is that it allows you to learn more about a program and gives the
program the opportunity to get to know you better.
CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations: From Dr. Adam Trosterman (Updated 1/18):

Sub-I:
• Most programs like to see one internal medicine Sub-I.
Internal Medicine Electives:
• Consider taking electives that look at a sub-specialty, but that will also be very
practical in strengthening general medical management skills, such as infectious
disease, nephrology, critical care. Important to continue to focus on foundation-
building. Skill-based electives, like EKG elective may be helpful.
• No specific recommendation other than that should ideally do IM Sub-I by August.
Very much based on student needs.
• Dermatology, radiology, anesthesiology may be helpful, but also student-specific and
based on interests.
Away:
• Should not do an away rotation if can’t quickly adjust and thrive in a new environment
because it will likely hurt more than help. Whether or not to do one is very
individualized, based on student’s personality, strength of application, goals, desired
location or particular residency program.
• Falls below the top 5 in importance generally, but depends on the program. Can’t
make up for low board scores.
Interviews:
• Students should apply to around 12-15 (50% at their level, 25% safety/solid, 25%
semi-reach.) Programs that are high reach or super safe for that particular student
shouldn’t be counted in the 12-15. Student will likely get 8-12 interviews.
For the Undecided:
• Additional exposure with Sub-I’s in specialties they’re deciding between if possible.
Course Data from 78 MS4s Matching in Internal Medicine in 2014 (n = 25), 2015 (n =
26), 2016 (n = 27):
Sub-I:
100% did a Sub-I in Internal Medicine, including MEDS 8002, the Hospital Medicine Sub-I
Electives in Internal Medicine:
47% took a Critical Care/ICU rotation
19% took Infectious Disease (MEDS 8009)
18% took Cardiology (MEDS 8004)
14% took Renal (MEDS 8007)
31% took a dermatology elective
28% took Physician as Educator (IDPT 8016)
30
14% took a radiology elective
Away:
31% did an away rotation in Internal Medicine
Is this the right field for me?:

• Adam.Trosterman@ucdenver.edu
• Angie.Duet@ucdenver.edu
• All interested applicants will email Angie Duet who will set up the student with an
initial advisor. Some students will stay with this initial advisor throughout the
application process while others will get a second advisor who may function as their
new primary advisor. We try to connect students very early on to someone in our
department. That said, early matches with advisors may not always be the best fit for
the student and so we may change them or the student can request to change later
on.
• Flexibiity in the type of work you do.
• IM allows you to have careers that center around teaching, research and flexibility in
your clinical lifestyle as we don’t have an Operating Room schedule and are medical
emergency call is low.
• It is an enormous amount of information to learn and it feels like you never catch up.
In Hospitalist work the pressure is to see many patients per shift and the same is true
of Primary Care.
• We are a lower reimbursement specialty and as such numbers of patients seen
matters more –as there are no procedures to drive up reimbursement. Many
students talk to us about their fear about the pressure of seeing so many patients.
And it is stressful and it makes you feel like you are not paying enough attention to
each patient.
• As per our specialties, many students see the pressure to at least have an initial
career in research –I believe that the Internal Medicine Specialties will need to be
more practical in the future and look for candidates who want to be clinicians.
Who goes into your field?
• People who like solving puzzles and can accept that answers are not perfect. You
are often balancing a series of likely outcomes and not absolutes. Students may
believe that surgical fields are concrete bc an operation starts and ends and
supposedly something is better. Of course, surgical outcomes are often no better
than medical interventions and their outcomes. Internists, however, need to be
comfortable fixing more with their minds than with their hands.
What is important to them?
• Puzzle solving and complexity of cases.
• see above
31
• Meet with several people in each of the fields you are considering. Ask us to find you
an advisor who also struggled with these decisions. Most students are unsure and
they are afraid to tell someone.
How do I get in?

• Submit when ERAS opens – everything is happening right away now.
• IM is less driven by the absolute grade than perhaps the most competitive specialties
but the field has gotten may more competitive over the past 5-6 years. Given the
shear number of IM programs available, there seems like there will always be some
IM program out there for an interested student.
• This depends on the program. Failures on the steps are a big problem at almost all
programs. Some programs do have cutoffs –and most will tell you if you contact
them. Some may even have the information posted on a site like FREIDA.
• These questions are meant to be discussed in our advising sessions. It is personal –
a main point, however, is that students may like smaller community programs on one
hand, but be frustrated by the more limited electives and research opportunities. Our
students are very biased, as well, towards academic programs as they all come from
a huge and somewhat powerful academic school. As a result, they feel like failures if
they don’t want to pursue academic training.
• 3 personal letters and 1 department of medicine letter that is written by our
advising group.
• The overwhelming majority of programs only want to see step 2 and your subi in IM.
• The IM or the hospitalist are both fine.
• please see previous.
Balance of in department vs out of department courses;
• We like letters from all faculty –at least one IM letter besides your department letter is
advised. SO you could have 2 completely non-IM letters.
• Medicine SUBI is the only specific
How much time/when to take off for interviews –
• November and December are the highest yield months
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Internal Medicine/Pediatrics
AAMC Basics
AOA: 22%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: low
Importance of Research: low
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 18-20
Interview Timing: mid October –late January

• Christian Jensen and Adam Trosterman
• Can start with myself (Trosterman) or the direct Med Peds faculty (Jensen)
• Never bored.
• You have all the Peds and IM fellowships available to you (and some are combo
fellowships for both)
• general practice is much more diverse. Seeing kids and seeing adults is very
different – you dissect cases in a similar way but the problems they have are so
different.
• I believe a large percentage are students who have an interest in global health – and
this makes sense as you are so specialized across the entire life spectrum. That
said, very few will do meaningful global health and so I would say that some bigger
things would be: Enjoy thinking like an Internist/Pediatrician and knowing things in
detail Our most common dilemma is the Family Medicine vs Med-Peds applicant.
Those who want to do fellowships make the decision easy. Those who don’t like
surgical fields also make the decision easy. The most common thing I have heard for
10 years now, however, is that they like the way an Internist or Pediatrician thinks
and they need that level of detail vs they want to take care of pregnant patients and
do some minor surgical procedures.
What are the future opportunities in this specialty? i.e. fellowships, practice opportunities -
• It does look like some more combined fellowships will take place and hopefully these
programs will be structured to be more sensitive to making the length more practical.
• Right now some of the combo med peds fellowships are very long, or residents will
do 2 fellowships. The most common thing for those who pursue fellowship is that
they will pick adult or pediatric. That said, most med peds residents do practice
some aspect of both beyond graduation from fellowship.
How do I get in?

Timeline for applications;
• Apply when ERAS opens
33
• Grades are important and of course they are more important at the very top
programs. That said, Med Peds programs are usually 4-8 per class. Thus, the
importance of an applicant fitting in with the program is very high. Programs that seek
out med education interested applicants or international health/global health are
going to be looking more for these pieces than the may be looking for the perfect
USMLE score. It is really important that you stress the interest you have in taking
care of patients in these specialties and finding programs that suit your needs. Med
Peds Program Directors do look closer at things that mesh better with their small
cohort of residents. In our own (and very competitive) Med Peds Program here we
are very focused on looking for applicants that fit with our program philosophy and
that can also bring something new
• Depends on program.
etc.
• Much like straight IM or Peds your performance in these direct fields is the most
important thing.
• Most Med-Peds Programs are still saying they want both a department of Medicine
and a Department of Pediatrics letter.
• Some programs are ok with just a combined med –peds letter. That said, most
students at our school will have a Medicine department letter, a Peds Department
letter and some kind of letter from a Med-Peds Faculty member. This really leaves
just one more personal letter.

• IM subi is the most important as per the Med Peds Community and the Peds subi is a
little less important. That said, our applicants should plan on doing both (especially if
they did not perform well in a clerkship).
• The Med-Peds elective at our school is a great idea as it will connect you with the
med peds faculty and expose you to Primary care clinics in med-Peds (we happened
to have an exceptional primary care clinic at Denver health) and a variety of med
peds specialties in which several of the faculty are very involved at a national level.
• See above
Externships/Away rotations (how many, where) –
• as above
Specific courses that are recommended -
• as above with elective and subis
How much time/when to take off for interviews –
• as above
34
Neurological Surgery
Resources:
• AANS Medical Student Resources: http://www.aans.org/Trainees/Medical-Students
AAMC Basics
AOA: 32.8%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective
• Very important. Most students do a sub-internship at his/her home institution,
followed by two away rotations.
• Important. Almost all applicants have some neurosurgery-related research
experience, although this may be something simple such as abstracts, posters and
oral presentations at meetings. A first or second authorship in a peer-reviewed
journal, even when not in a neurosurgery-related topic, is significant.
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: This is highly variable, but in general,
students seem to go through 15-20 interviews.
Interview Timing: early to mid-October through late January/early February
Other questions for advisor:

• This may be best addressed by an individual discussion with an advisor.
• Yasuaki Harasaki, MD: Yasuaki.harasaki@ucdenver.edu
• Students may approach individual faculty to serve as their advisors. Otherwise, one
will be assigned to you.
• Neurosurgical treatments are constantly evolving along with our understanding of the
function of the nervous systems. It is an exciting time to be involved in this field.
• Neurosurgeons have a great deal of latitude in determining the nature of their
practices without additional competitive training.
• Neurosurgeons perform many life and / or function preserving procedures.
• Neurosurgery training incorporates training in intensive care management.
• Neurosurgeons perform many life and / or function preserving procedures. This has
implications for the likelihood of emergent procedures you may have to perform in the
middle of the night on call.
• Entry into the specialty is very competitive, and residency is one of the longest at 7
years.
• Please see above regarding good/bad aspects of specialty
35
• There are many areas available for additional training. With the exception of
endovascular procedures (2 years), all fellowships are 1 year. Until recently it was
relatively rare for trainees to undergo additional subspecialty training, but with
standardization of the 7 year residency, most programs have included an available
academic year for either research or an in-folded fellowship. The major fellowship
categories are as follows:
o Neuro intensive care
o Tumor surgery / neuro-oncology
o Skull base surgery
o Vascular neurosurgery – most are endovascular fellowships
o Functional neurosurgery
o Complex spine surgery
o Peripheral nerve surgery
o Pediatric neurosurgery
• Arrange to speak with or shadow faculty
• The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) maintains information
for students: http://www.aans.org/Trainees/Medical-Students
How do I get in?

• ERAS applications (including personal statement and 3-4 letters of recommendation)
are due mid-September.
• Interview invites are extended beginning in late September.
• Interviews are conducted mid-October through late January/early February.
• 3rd year clerkship performance is significantly weighted.
in
• Cut points vary but generally around 230 for step I. Scores below this may
significantly reduce chance of a successful match.
etc.
• Research and publications are important, as above. Less emphasis is placed on
other extracurricular activities.
• Most programs emphasize ability to produce academic neurosurgeons, but the
majority of neurosurgeons enter private practice (~80%).
• The recommended number of programs to apply to varies based on the applicant’s
goals and quality of application. Many applicants apply to 60-90 programs with the
goal of receiving ~20-30 interview invites and scheduling 15-20 interviews.
• Applicants generally have three letters – one from the chair of their home institution,
and additional letters from chair or residency director from programs at which the
student has done an away rotation. Additional letters from any faculty who the
student has a close relationship is also helpful.
36
• As with all specialties, make it personal and sincere. Make sure you have your
advisor read it and go through at least one revision before submission.
• First month should be a sub-internship at your home institution, followed by away
rotations (externships).
• Neurosurgery

• Most students do 2. A general rule of thumb is to choose one “reach” program and
one where you think you will be a good fit.
Balance of in-department vs out-of-department courses
• The only two in-department courses are the sub-internship and a neurosurgery
research month. Applicants to neurosurgery should complete the sub-internship and
can complete research months as necessary.
• Neurosurgery sub-internship.
• It is recommended to take either research months or vacation months from
November through January to provide the applicant freedom to schedule all possible
interviews.
37
Neurology
AAMC Basics
AOA: 12.5%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: This is only important if you have a very specific
geography or program in mind.
Importance of Research: Only important if it is a part of your potential career interests.
Empty participation in research is of low value.
Median # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 24
Interview Timing: Late October - early January
Other questions for advisor (answered by Drs. Korb and Ney):

• Neurology is a diverse field all tied together by the care of people with neurologic
disease and symptoms. Careers range drastically and can often take the form of a
general outpatient neurology practice similar to being a subspecialist in medicine (i.e.
cardiology). However it could also mean a career in the exciting, fast-paced world of
stroke and vascular neurology, or as a neuro-intensive care specialist, or a career as
a neurohospitalist, a neurophysiologist specializing in interpretation of brain waves
(EEG) or neuronal conduction (NCS/EMG), and many others. Given the vast number
of career types, settings, care styles, neurology is woven together by the professional
passion for the patients, a deep fascination with the brain and neuro-axis, as well as
panache for problem solving and complex clinical challenges. Despite the perception
the field is focused on pontification and less on treatment, there are a myriad of long-
standing and novel therapies. Imagine programming a deep brain stimulator in clinic
that alleviates Parkinsonism, retrieving a fresh clot from the middle cerebral artery as
neuro-interventionists, or simply helping patients and families cope with and navigate
difficult disease courses.
• A career in neurology also means being adjacent to frontiers in neuroscience. All of

the fascinating discoveries have potential practical meaning to one’s practice either in
the immediate or long term future. So whether you are into acute or chronic care,
inpatient or outpatient settings, rural or urban, neurology should attract a diverse set
of students as the field is wide open and awe-inspiring.
• Pearce J. Korb MD, FAAN
Director of Medical Student Education
Director of Adult Epilepsy Fellowship
Director of Continuing Medical Education
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
pearce.korb@ucdenver.edu
Office: 720.848.2018
• Contact the faculty advisor
• In addition, approaching faculty is encouraged
38
• Care of people with chronic diseases
• Continuity of care opportunities
• Frontiers in neuroscience (is there a more fascinating field?)
• Diversity in care:
o Settings
o Disease groups (large number of fellowships subspecialties)
o Practice styles (i.e. outpatient, NICU, interventionists)
• New and emerging therapies
• There are not enough of us (projected ~ 20% shortfall by 2025)
• People who love:
o Medicine
o Problem solving
o The examination
o Radiology (we look at our own films too!)
o Anatomy
o Physiology
• As stated above, neurology needs good students and a lot of them. There is a
shortfall now that is only growing. This does mean good job security and more power
to choose location. There are many fellowships, both accredited and unaccredited,
in neurology:
o Advanced Clinical Neurology
o Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease/ Cognitive & Behavioral Neurology
o Cerebrovascular Disease/Stroke
o Clinical Neurophysiology
o Epilepsy
o Geriatric Neurology
o Headache
o Interventional Neurology
o Movement Disorders
o Multiple Sclerosis
o Neuroepidemiology
o Neurogenetics
o Neuroimaging
o Neuroimmunology
o Neuro- Intensive Care, Neurologic Critical Care
o Neuromuscular Disorders
o Neuro-Oncology
o Neuro-Ophthalmology
o Neuro-Otology
o Neuropathology
o Neuropharmacology
o Neurorehabilitation
o Neurovirology
o Pain
39
o Peripheral Neurology
o Sleep Disorders
o Spine
• Reflect on what does and might be important to you:
o Continuity vs. single encounters
o Diagnosis vs. treatment or mixture
o Chronic disease or acute illness
o Outpatient vs. inpatient
• Early experiences including:
o Electives
o Shadowing
o SIGN – Student Interest Group in Neurology
o Mentor meetings
How do I get in?

Timeline for applications –
• These days make sure your application (ERAS) is done and sent on day one. If you
send to additional programs or later than day one ensure you have contacted the
program coordinator to “refresh” their list and humbly ask for them to consider your
application (our neurology program gets 400+ applications on day one – be one of
them).
From Dr. Ney, Program Director for CU’s neurology residency:
• One of the most important things an applicant can do to be strongly considered is
having their complete application available on the day ERAS opens. We won’t even
touch applications until our minimum requirements are met (3 LORs, transcript,
etc…). Many people have their application in – but it is not complete and they go to
the bottom of the pile.
Importance of grades, USMLE – cut points, importance of USMLE in getting in:
• Good news: when compared to other specialties, Neurology is not very competitive.
However there are several very important caveats: 1. If you really want to be either at
a top tier program or a specific geography (i.e. my family lives in Rochester, NY and I
need to be there), then it gets competitive. 2. You can still screw up your application
strategy or interview process to make yourself non-competitive.
• The basics (grades, USMLE scores) are simply the foot in the door. This will
determine the number and quality of interview invitations. From there the interview
and personal statement take on more importance.
From Dr. Ney, Program Director for CU’s neurology residency:
• Good step 2 scores can make up for less than stellar Step 1 scores. If we only have
sub-par step 1 scores the application isn’t as strong. Sub-par Step 1s with major
improvements on Step 2 alleviate some of the concern about step 1. If step 1s aren’t
very competitive, try to take step 2 early and do better!
etc.
• This is very important to distinguish oneself from the crowd. However this pays
dividends during the interview so must be accompanied and supported by sincerity.
One’s passion for a volunteer service or a research project and conversely one’s
40
apathy shows during interviews. Ensure you are doing the things you are truly
passionate about.
• No fewer than 10, even for students with excellent stats.
• 10-25 for most candidates.
• 25+ for students with borderline stats.
• Minimum:
o 2 neurology faculty or research mentors
o 1 faculty outside of neurology
o * Check programs for specifics
o From Dr. Ney, Program Director for CU’s neurology residency:
o LORs make a HUGE impact. At least 2/3 letters should be from
Neurologists, but letters from Clerkship Directors, PDs or Chairs go an
extra mile in terms of impact.
• Write a stellar first sentence. Try to put your uniqueness on the page. This serves
primarily as fodder for the interview.
• Months 1 & 2: a clinical neurology elective (here preferably) and a Sub-I. This is
important to solidify your intent on neurology and perform to get Honors in both. Also
this is an opportunity to secure letters of recommendation.
• After that it is honestly up to you. Enrich yourself with electives that intrigue you or
do 0-2 away electives based on any potential programs you are dying to see.
• From Dr. Ney, Program Director for CU’s neurology residency:
o Neurology electives are important, but not at the expense of being well
rounded. Many of us are much more impressed with the candidate that does a
variety of rotations (and does well) than 5-6 Neurology electives. Applicants
should try and show that they are well rounded and can do well in many areas.
o Many PDs and interview committees are much more impressed when
candidates do well in areas outside of Neurology. In some respects, its easy to
do well in something you’re interested in (Neurology) but much more
impressive when you also do well in other rotations such as medicine,
pediatrics, FM, psych and even surgical rotations.
• Medicine preferred
• Family medicine acceptable
• 0-2. They are not necessary but may enhance your chances of getting into that
program.
• see above
• Please note this is only advice – see above for advice to do what you love for elective
time (i.e. history of medicine):
o Infectious disease
o Neuropathology
41
o Neuroradiology
o Cardiology
• Whenever you can (see above for number of applications). You may not be able to
get to all your interview invitations. 10 is probably the max but very dependent on
your budget and psychological well being.
42
Obstetrics and Gynecology
AAMC Basics
Stats for Matched Applicants from Charting Outcomes in the Match 2016 Report
AOA: 14.8%
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 53.3 (for U.S. grads in the 2018 match cycle)
CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations From Drs. Tyler Muffly and Rebecca Cohen (from
December 2017)
• Deborah.jackson@ucdenver.edu
• tyler.muffly@dhha.org
• Rebecca.h.cohen@ucdenver.edu
• Students with an interest in OBGYN are encouraged to speak with the advisors listed
above. The advisors meet face-to-face with students and help them confirm their
interest, and build a list of programs to apply to. We also include opportunities for
research, sub-internships, and contacts across the country.
• OBGYN is fast-paced, diverse, joyful to help families bring new life into their lives,
hard when an outcome doesn’t happen that was anticipated, and longitudinal: usually
you take care of your patients during a span of years and get to know them well.
Also, you get to perform surgery. With multiple subspecialties there is room for
additional training as well in specific areas like family planning to pediatric
gynecology to GYN oncology.
• Most obstetrics occurs at night so the night call can be quite demanding during
residency. During residency this is offset with a night float system and during practice
with a large shared call pool. OBGYNs also are sued more than other physicians.
Who goes into your field?
• What is important to them? People who go into OBGYN are those who are
interested in taking care of women and cannot see themselves doing anything else
as a specialty.
• About 15,000 baby boomers retire every year and these women have issues that
OBGYNs directly address: hot flashes, leakage of urine, malignancy, etc. We do not
expect women to stop reproducing as well.
• Meet with Drs. Muffly or Cohen even if just considering OB/GYN - can be helpful to
talk about the decision with each of the specialty advisors. Students don’t have to be
totally decided on the specialty to meet with specialty advisor.
How do I get in?
43
• Ob/Gyn residencies participate in the main residency match. The ERAS deadline is
Sept 15. Interview invites are extended Sept – Nov. Interviews are held late Oct –
early Jan. Match day is mid-March.
• We recommend that students do as well as they possibly can on their clinical
rotations. Receiving “Honors” in the Women’s Care clerkship is preferred but not
absolutely required.
USMLE
• The education society for OBGYN, called the Association of Professors of Gynecology
and Obstetrics, publishes the self-reported USMLE cut offs for interviews. The
USMLE also has a very helpful graph regarding score to applications curves.
Importance of non-clinical activities:
• Having some research is necessary. We recommend that you publish your MSA.
Better for students to get involved in research early on in medical school so that they
can submit it for publication/presentation at a conference than taking on a new
OB/GYN project which would still be in the early stages when applying for residency.
It is recognized that not every student will have research that results in a publication.
One in-depth project where student has a large role is more impressive than many
projects where student has a peripheral role.
• On average, student should apply to around 30, interview at 10-15, and probably
rank 12 or so. For weaker applicants and those couples matching, may need to apply
45+ programs.
• Four total. One will be a departmental letter from Dr. Santoro (chair) and the medical
student director. Of the remaining three, at least two should be written by an
OBGYN.

Sub-I:
• When you are signing up for a sub-internship please reference CU course: OBGYN
8100. The U and Denver Health both have several excellent sub-internships and
you cannot go wrong with any of them. In OB/GYN, it is usually fine to do it early,
right after third year. If student took time off, may want to do lower stakes rotation
first, like a different sub-I or OB/GYN elective. A medicine sub-I is also a good idea.
Externships/Away rotations:
• If there’s a highly desired specification location or program, can be good to do an
away there, but just randomly choosing one place to do an away won’t be high yield,
especially for any program besides the particular one the student rotated at
• Students often feel they need to take every OB/GYN rotation we offer. My
recommendation is to do between 2-3 OBGYN electives early in the fourth year. This
allows you to truly be certain that this is the correct career choice, and also will
enable the student to get valuable letters of recommendation.
44
• EKG elective, anesthesia elective (ANES 8002, so they can get exposure to
anesthesia in labor and delivery), radiology (with more focus on ultrasound),
breastfeeding elective. Wilderness medicine is also very educational and well-liked.
ICU experience as medical student is also valuable.
• Interviews can begin in late October and go through early January, so scheduling 2
week rotations for the beginning of October and end of January tends to work well.
Course Data from 32 MS4s Matching in OB/GYN in 2014 (n = 8), 2015 (n = 15), 2016 (n
= 9):
Sub-I:
100% did an OB/GYN Sub-I, including Maternal Fetal Medicine (32%), Gynecologic
Oncology (25%), General OB Sub-I (38%) and General GYN Sub-I (25%)
19% did an additional internal medicine sub-I
13% did an additional surgery sub-I
3% did an additional NICU sub-I
Electives in OB/GYN:
41% took Family Planning (OBGY 8011)
16% took Reproductive/Infertility (OBGY 8010)
6% took Gyn Subspecialties (OBGY 8009)
50% took Breastfeeding Management (PEDS 8029)
28% took a teaching elective (Physician as Educator or Tutoring in Foundations)
16% took Clinical Nutrition (IDPT 8011)
13% took a radiology elective, including Bedside Ultrasound
13% took a dermatology elective
6% took Infectious Disease (MEDS 8009)
Away:
66% did an away rotation in OB/GYN
45
Ophthalmology
***Keep in mind that this info is for the PGY2 Ophthalmology match and you will
simultaneously need to apply for a PGY-1 year
Helpful links:
• https://www.sfmatch.org/PDFFilesDisplay/Ophthalmology_Residency_Stats_2017.pd
f
• https://www.aao.org/medical-students/residency-match-basics
AAMC Basics:
Mean Step 1: 243
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Not necessary
Importance of Research: Important
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: ~70
Interview Timing: Oct-Dec

• eric.hink@ucdenver.edu (advisor)
• jasleen.singh@ucdenver.edu (assistant program director)
• jeffrey.soohoo@ucdenver.edu (program director)
 MS1/MS2
¡ Establish a Mentor
¡ Start Research Project
¡ Electives
¡ Get involved early!
 MS3
¡ Establish a Mentor
¡ Try to get involved with a Research project
¡ Try to schedule time during your clinical rotations
÷ Foundations of Doctoring Preceptorship
÷ Research Project
¡ Plan Elective early in MS4
 MS4-still not too late!
¡ Mentorship, Research
¡ Elective early in MS4
• Mix of medical diagnoses and surgical treatment
• Hands-on
• Rapid integration of technology
• Treat patients of all ages
• Cornea and external disease
• Glaucoma
• Retina/Vitreous
46
• Oculoplastics and orbital surgery
• Pediatric ophthalmology
• Neuro-ophthalmology
• Uveitis (ocular immunology)
• Ocular pathology
• Come work with us!
• Try Ophthalmology on Surgery Rotation in third year
How do I get in?

• We use the San Francisco Match (common application service CAS
application) and DO NOT use the NRMP regular residency match
• Applications open early June (6/1/17 for 2017-2018 cycle)
• Applications should be submitted early Sept (9/6/2017 for 2017-2018 cycle)
• Early Jan must submit rank list (1/4/18 for 2017-2018 cycle)
• Early-mid Jan find out match (1/12/18 for 2017-2018 cycle)
• Good if honors in your clinical clerkships, especially
o Medicine
o Surgery
o Ophthalmology
in
• Step 1 Average 2017 match- 243
• Good to show improvement on Step 2
etc.
• Research important
o Publications
o Presentations
§ Oral
§ Poster
• Extracurricular Activities/Work Experience/Hobbies
o More of a discussion in interviews
o Indicative of your personality
• Statistically at least 10 interviews to match
• Important to have strong letters of recommendation
• Recommend at least one Ophthalmologist
• Recommend at least one non-Ophthalmologist
• Explain any gaps in your education
• Discuss meaningful hardships
• Be interesting
47
• Ophthalmology Clinical Rotation: OPHT8000
• Ophthalmology Away Rotation: OPHT8100
• Ophthalmology Research Rotation: OPHT8600
• Ophthalmology Research Away Rotation: OPHT 8630
Sub-I’s – which sub-I is best to meet the CU requirement? )- Answered by Ashton Kalhorn
(MSIV)
• Since the ophthalmology elective does not count towards your sub-I, you will have to
pick from one of the many sub-i’s offered. It doesn’t matter which one you do, no one
will ask about it. Most people do a medicine sub-i since most applicants apply for a
medicine intern year. Given this, if you are interested in a specific intern year such as
St. Joes or PSL you should do your sub-i there so you can get to know the
department and vice versa. Also, it does NOT matter if you do a medicine year,
surgery year, or transitional year. Ophthalmology is so different and programs don’t
care, so you should pick whichever intern year you think will fit you best.
Externships/Away rotations (how many, where)- Answered by Ashton Kalhorn (MSIV)
• The consensus that applicants have come up with for away rotations is that they are
what you make them. They are in no way necessary. Many applicants will NOT do
them and get interviews at their top programs. It is also the culture at some
ophthalmology programs for an away internship to have no bearing on an applicants
interview offer. In other-words, don’t expect an interview just because you did an
away. The reason for all of this is there is very little a student can do on an ophtha
rotation to look good, other than not being weird. For example, on an orthopedics
rotation, a student can do post-op checks, floor work, admissions, etc. In
ophthalmology there is only Clinic and OR. Most of the clinic is seen through a slit
lamp and most of the surgeries done through a microscope, so there is not always
room for a helping hand.
• However, there are some great reasons to do an away.
o An away rotation is what you make of it. Regardless of if an away will make
you a better applicant, it will make you a better interviewer. Up to this point you
have probably only spent time at your home institution, giving you a one-
dimensional view of ophthalmology. By spending a month at an entirely new
institution you can see how other departments run and hopefully began to pick
out contrasts in program culture, patient population, residents, location,
funding, etc. Having this experience will allow you to identify these
characteristics at programs on the interview trail, and it will also give you
talking points during interviews when asked why you like a particular program.
So in this case, the away rotation does not make you better on paper, but
does make you more savvy.
o The other reason to do an away rotation is if you do one at a top program such
as Wills or Bascom Palmer and plan to get a letter of recommendation from
the rotation. My fellow CU applicants and I did not do this, but on the trail we
noticed something the top applicants had in common, exceptional letters or
recommendation, and they got these by doing away rotations at top programs
and working with famous faculty. In this case the away rotation improves how
you look on paper.
• In conclusion for aways, they are not necessary unless you have a specific goal for
the rotation (one of the two I mentioned).
48
 Phase I and II
¡ Biology of the Eye: OPHT6620
 Phase III
¡ Ophthalmology on Surgery Rotation
 Phase IV
¡ Ophthalmology Clinical Rotation: OPHT8000
¡ Ophthalmology Away Rotation: OPHT8100
¡ Ophthalmology Research Rotation: OPHT8600
¡ Ophthalmology Research Away Rotation: OPHT 8630
How much time/when to take off for interviews- Answered by Ashton Kalhorn (MSIV)
• The vast majority of interviews occur during the last two weeks in Nov and the first
two weeks Dec, so you want to be sure to have schedule flexibility during that period
• The best thing to do is sign up for research and MSA rotations during this period. You
can block up to 12 weeks with these.

49
Orthopedic Surgery
AAMC Basics
AOA: 34.4%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Very important
Importance of Research: Very important
Median # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 81
Median # of interviews offered: 17
Total # of Positions: 727
Unfilled Positions 2017: 1 (filled during SOAP)
Interview Timing: Nov-Feb (mostly Dec-Jan)
Top Rated Factors for Selecting applicants to interview (NRMP PD survey 2016)
More specific data can be found online at: http://www.nrmp.org/main-residency-match-data/

50
• Orthopedic Surgery Specific Competencies:
o Not specified
o 2-3 away rotations recommended.
o Orthopedics Sub-I at CU in addition to away rotations
From the AAOS (American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons) Diversity Advisory Board:
• Rotations:
o Important to have orthopedic surgery experience.
• Away:
o Performance on an away Sub-I is the most important factor in matching to an
orthopedic residency. Consider an away rotation at a program of interest.
Treat the entire rotation as an interview. Pre-read about the following day’s
cases. Read about the surgical approach and know the relevant anatomy.
Feedback from residents at that institution will be important.
• Research:
o Not mandatory, but very strongly recommended to complete a project in
orthopedic surgery in order to demonstrate dedication to the field and make
application more competitive. Consider opportunities for grant-writing, as
helping a faculty member with a grant may result in you being named a
research assistant.
o An additional way to distinguish your application is to acquire a glowing letter
of recommendation from an orthopedic surgeon who knows you well (find
mentor as early as possible). It is very important to obtain a letter of
recommendation from an away rotation that shows you can adapt well to
working with new people and can further improve your application. Submitting
a letter from a well-known orthopedist or one connected to the specific
program can help you get an interview offer.
• What Residency Programs are Looking for:
o People with good communication skills, who have interests outside of
medicine, learn quickly, and are a good fit for the program. Those who have
been elected to AOA, done research with resulting publication relevant to
orthopedics, excelled in clerkships and away rotations, and received strong
letters of recommendation, are highly qualified for an orthopedic residency.
• Applications/Interviews:
o Most will apply to between 80 and 100 programs. Each program has only two
interview dates, on average, so must respond quickly in order to secure the
desired date. It’s a good idea to interview at programs you’re less interested in
first as practice. It is encouraged to accept every interview offer as applicants
should ideally have 10-12 interviews to successfully match.
CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations: From Dr. Frank Scott (December 2015):

Sub-I:
51
• Do home orthopedic surgery Sub-I first and then at least 2 additional orthopedics
away sub-I’s. Sub-I’s at CU begin in June (not May.) The number one factor for a
successful match in orthopedics is performance on sub-I, which is why these are
stressed so much. Rare to do sub-I’s in other specialties.
Ortho Electives:
• Sports medicine and orthopedics research are the most common. There will be a
new elective in Alpine Orthopedics at Crested Butte, beginning in 2016.
• Most students will largely focus on orthopedics during fourth year.
• Nothing specifically recommended. Some students will take radiology, but much of it
is not orthopedics-focused, so less useful in preparing for residency. Other students
will do a critical care elective or pharmacology.
Away:
• Advise students to do at least 2 away Sub-I’s and some students do 3. Choice of
where depends largely on how competitive student is and then location - where they
want to spend 5 years.
• Extremely important. Otherwise awesome candidates with minimal research or
publication will still be considered, but having a significant research experience will
really help the application. We try to get students involved in a longitudinal
experience that would span 1-2 years (summer between first and second year works
particularly well for concentrated research time.)
Interviews:
• Strong applicants should apply to 50-60 programs and weaker ones should apply to
80-100, aiming for 10-12 interviews. Many students are told they’re on the waitlist for
an interview and need a great deal of flexibility in December/January to
accommodate possible interviews. Accept every interview offer to assure enough
interviews to successfully match
For the Undecided:
• Encourage students to take call with orthopedics residents as much as possible
during third year (or sooner.) Students can also find a preceptor in orthopedics and
any other specialty they’re considering to learn more about what a career in each
would look like. If undecided at the beginning of fourth year, can do a sub-I early in
each specialty.
Course Data from 22 MS4s Matching in Orthopedics in 2014 (n = 6), 2015 (n = 6), 2016
(n = 10):
Sub-I:
Average of 1.0 Sub-I’s per student in 2015 (at our institution.)
100% did an Orthopedic Surgery Sub-I
Electives in Orthopedics:
69% took Sports Medicine (ORTH 8005)
68% took Research in Orthopedics
100% took a research elective, including MSA Phase IV Prep
27% took a teaching elective (Physician as Educator, Tutoring in Foundations)
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Away:
100% did at least 2 away rotations in orthopedic surgery.
42% did 3 or more
53
Otolaryngology (ENT)
AAMC Basics
Mean Step 1/ Step 2 CK: 250/255 (2016 Match cycle)1
AOA: 44.7%1
• The vast majority of applicants complete at least one away elective (85%)2. Away
rotations are helpful for matching if the applicant treats the whole month as an
interview and does an excellent job. Away electives can also be helpful for
comparing a different program to one’s home program. This can allow an applicant
to determine preferences for ranking.
• Very important. Preference for Otolaryngology related research, but this is not
critical. Posters, oral presentations, and publications are all listed on the application,
but publications are the most important and valued.
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 60 during the 2016 Match cycle3
Total # of Programs: 110 (2017 Match cycle)4
Interview Timing:
• ERAS application due mid-September. Interviews usually scheduled November
through January. Rank list is due February. Match is in March.
References
1
National Residency Match Program. Charting Outcomes in the Match for U.S. Allopathic
Seniors. Washington, DC: National Resident Matching Program; 2016.
2
Thomas CM, Cabrera-Muffly C. Otolaryngology Externships and the Match: Productive or
Futile? Laryngoscope. 2017 Oct;127(10):2242-2246. PMID: 28714544.
3
Cabrera-Muffly C, Chang CW, Puscas L. Current Interview Trail Metrics in the
Otolaryngology Match. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2017
Jun;156(6):1097-1103. PMID: 28168889.
4
National Resident Matching Program. Results and Data: 2017 Main Residency Match.
Washington, DC: National Resident Matching Program; 2017.

• Otolaryngology offers a unique niche of operative and clinical management of
patients. Otolaryngology incorporates a wide variety of surgical procedures as well
as medical management of patients with diseases within the head and neck.
Subspecialties include Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Laryngology,
Otology and Neurotology, Pediatric Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Oncologic
Surgery, Rhinology, and Sleep Medicine.
• Adam.terella@ucdenver.edu, Medical Student Clerkship Director
• Brook.McConnell@va.gov, Medical Student Clerkship Director
• cristina.cabrera-muffly@ucdenver.edu, Residency Program Director
54
• Many faculty members are happy to provide advising. It is best to contact one of the
advisors listed above to start the process.
• Incorporation of both Surgery and Medicine within the specialty.
• Vast variety of procedures and practices.
• Complex head and neck anatomy.
• Innovative technology and equipment.
• Generally high level job satisfaction.
• Occasional overlapping territory with oral surgery and plastic surgery.
• People who enjoy performing surgery.
• People who enjoy being the expert within a specific region of the body.
• Numerous fellowships are available:
o Pediatric Otolaryngology
o Rhinology
o Otology and Neurotology
o Head and Neck Surgery
o Facial Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
o Laryngology
o Sleep Medicine.
• Spend a few hours in the OR with our service.
How do I get in?
• Be proactive and express interest early. Become ‘known’ within the department.
Become active in a project with a faculty member.
• ERAS applications due in mid-September. Interviews take place from November
through January. Rank list is due in February. Match day is in March.
• Very important. Some programs use a cut-off point for USMLE Step I scores to
screen applicants.
etc.:
• All of the above are important and contribute to a well-rounded application.
Types of programs:
• Key way to tell type of program is how many of their graduating residents go into
fellowship and academics versus private practice.
• If you apply to otolaryngology, you will get a combined letter from the CU Department
Chair/Program director. It is more helpful to have letters from otolaryngology faculty
than other specialties. A letter from a faculty member who knows you well is more
useful than from a faculty member who does not know you but is more highly ranked
academically. Occasionally, you can obtain a letter from an away rotation;
unfortunately, this faculty member commonly do not know you as well, so this letter
can lack individuality.
55
• Discuss why you want to be an otolaryngologist. If you have any unique
characteristics or inspiration that have not been addressed in the rest of the
application, this is a good place to include that information.
• Complete your otolaryngology rotation in the department relatively early (May or
June). Away rotators come in July through September, and if you do your rotation
early, you will get a more individualized experience. Consider doing a research
month in the department.
• Many students do either a surgery or intensive care sub-I.
Externships/Away rotations:
• Generally, one to two away rotations are sufficient. Since CU medical school is
geographically isolated, this also provides an opportunity to express interest in
another part of the country.
• In department time is most valuable, but you need to fulfill all the SOM requirements.
• N/A
• The bulk of interviews are from mid-November through mid-January.
56
Pathology
AAMC Basics
AOA: 13.3%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Not at all, unless there is a particular program you
desperately want to attend
Importance of Research: Moderate to high, although can take the form of anything from a
case report to bench or clinical research; doesn't have to be pathology-specific
Interview Timing: Sept-Jan

• Miriam D. Post, MD, miriam.post@ucdenver.edu
• Contact advisor, meet to discuss goals and get connected to appropriate faculty for
additional advising and/or exposure to the field
• Autonomy, variety, intellectual stimulation, collegiality
• Detail oriented, (for some) lack of patient contact, lack of independent decision
making during residency training
What are the future opportunities in this specialty? i.e. fellowships, practice opportunities:
• Fellowship (1-2 years) is mandatory, 80% ultimately join private practice & 15%
academics, anticipating shortage of pathologists nationally over next 10 years
• Do a rotation and see if it fits
How do I get in?

• Submit as early as possible
• +/-; not a crucial factor, but course failures are worrisome. Mandatory that applicant
has done at least one dedicated pathology rotation
• Most programs don't have a firm cutoff, but want to see >220; all programs do weight
USMLE, since it's a reasonable predictor of ability to pass Pathology Boards
etc.:
• Need to have some, but very varied by applicant; there's no "magic bullet" or
combination that is better than any other
• Both community and academic programs exist; in general the latter are stronger
programs. Most (not couples matching) apply to 8-15 programs
57
• Must have at least one from a pathologist, but research supervisors or clinical faculty
are also fine. Three (occasionally 4) total is fine.
• Keep it under 1 page (and ideally even shorter); explain WHY pathology appeals to
you
• At least one pathology elective (but no more than 2-3 rotations in pathology),
anything else that you're interested in - some relevant fields include Heme/Onc,
Radiation Oncology, Clinical Laboratory Medicine
• Doesn't matter
• If you want, not necessary
• No more than 2-3 pathology courses; rest should be in other specialties/areas
• PATH 8000 (basic elective), IDPT 8030 (Laboratory Medicine), +/- PATH 8600
(research elective, if you're working on a project)
• Unless couples matching, no more than 10-12 interviews, mostly Oct-Dec. In
general, programs expect that the earlier you interview, the more serious you are
about their program, though this is flexible
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Pediatrics
AAMC Basics
AOA: 13.3%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Recommendation is “low” per AAMC
Mean # of Work Experiences: 2.8
Mean # of Volunteer Experiences: 8.2
Interview Timing: November – January
For additional information:

https://www.aamc.org/cim/specialty/exploreoptions/list/us/336860/pediatrics.html
• Pediatrics Specific Competencies:
o Demonstrate the ability to interact with children and families, meet the
objectives outlined in the COMSEP/APPD pediatric sub-internship curriculum.
o Not recommended
o Pediatric Sub-internship (preferred) or internal medicine. Electives: Critical
care (adult or pediatric), dermatology (general), emergency medicine (adult or
pediatric), evidence based medicine, radiology (general)
From the American Academy of Pediatrics:

• Away:
o Possibly valuable, but optional.
o At least one from a pediatrician and at least two who can discuss clinical skills.
• Importance for Residency Application as Rated by Pediatric Program Directors (on a
5 point scale, with 1 being “not at all relevant” and 5 being “very highly relevant”):
o Interview 4.63; Clinical Performance 4.62; USMLE Step 2 score 3.75; Class
rank 3.75; Dean’s letter 3.75; Letters of Recommendation 3.62; USMLE Step 1
score 3.59; Leadership activities 3.37; Preclinical performance 3.32;
Applicant’s medical school 3.32; Volunteer activities 2.91; Research
experience 2.57
CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations:

From Dr. Jenny Soep (December 2017):
Email: Jennifer.Soep@childrenscolorado.org
Sub-I/Pediatric Electives:
59
• Recommend one pediatrics sub-I between May and August, though some students
choose to do more. There are 3 (wards, NICU, and PICU.) PICU may be more
difficult if it is the first sub-I, so often recommend another Sub-I or high level course
before PICU. In terms of timing, if the student has already received comments that
they are functioning like an intern and feel ready to jump into the intern role, then
they need not do any other course before a sub-I. If they took time off before fourth
year or don’t have much experience at Children’s or need more practice with owning
and presenting patients, they may want to do an elective that includes inpatient care
prior to their sub-I. The most useful ones are those that are not purely observational
or all outpatient, which include the busy consult services: Pulm, Neuro, GI, ID, and
Hem/Onc. It is best if student does not take all pass/fail or observational electives in
the first four months so that they have the opportunity to high pass and honor, which
is included in their MSPE.
• There are different philosophies in pediatrics. Some students feel this is their last
opportunity to do adult medicine and wish to take advantage of it. Others never want
to see an adult patient again and will take many pediatric electives to prepare them
for intern year. Either is just fine.
• None specifically recommended.
Away:
• Not required. Can be useful if student feels they HAVE to be somewhere, as the
program can get to know them and it can increase their chances of getting an
interview and ultimately matching there. For any student with a “red flag,” such as
failing Step 1, poor grades, or extended time off, doing an away rotation at a solid
program (not a reach), can allow the student to shine and help them get an interview
when they otherwise might not have been offered one based on their application
alone.
• Not very important. Don’t need publications or presentations. However, it also won’t
hurt your application.
Interviews:
• On average, most people apply to 15-20 programs and interview at 8-12. Numbers
will be higher for those who are couples matching and/or if they have a “red flag.”
Interviews tend to be November through January, but may not need all three months.
Recent data about number of applications based on Step 1 score:
• https://www.aamc.org/cim/480052/applysmartpeds.html
For the Undecided:
• Do a pediatric sub-I if possible, though this could be difficult since there’s a lot that
needs to be accomplished by the end of August for submitting the application in
September.
Course Data from 41 MS4s Matching in Pediatrics in 2014 (n = 15 ), 2015 (n = 11), 2016
(n =15):
Sub-I:
Average of 1.36 Sub-I’s per student.
100% did a sub-I in pediatrics
68% - Pediatric Sub-I (PEDS 8000)
60
51% - Pediatric Neonatology Sub-I (PEDS 8015)
8% - Pediatric ICU Sub-I (PEDS 8027)
7% did an additional Internal Medicine sub-I
Electives in Pediatrics:
37% took Pediatric Infectious Disease (PEDS 8009)
37% took Breastfeeding Management (PEDS 8029)
27% took Pediatric Cardiology (PEDS 8004)
17% took General Academic Pediatrics (rotation in the Child Health Clinic) (PEDS 8018)
59% took Foundations of Doctoring 4 (IDPT 8000)
44% took Physician as Advisor (IDPT 8020)
22% took a radiology elective
20% took an emergency medicine rotation
7% took a dermatology rotation
Away:
46% did at least one away rotation in pediatrics
15% did two or more away rotations
Other questions for specialty advisors:

• Per the AAMC, “Pediatrics is primarily concerned with the physical, emotional, and
social health of children from birth to young adulthood. Concerned with more than
just the physical well-being, pediatricians are involved with the prevention, early
detection, and management of behavioral, developmental, and functional social
problems that affect their patients. Depending on the patient's age, the
measurements associated with these parameters can be quite different. A
pediatrician deals with biological, social, and environmental influences on the
developing child as well as with the impact of disease or dysfunction on
development. The pediatrician also interacts with parents or guardians to define the
health status of patients and to educate and provide anticipatory guidance about the
child's normal health and growth. Pediatricians can be active at the community level
by helping to prevent or solve problems in child health care and be a public advocate
for children's causes. Pediatricians work to reduce infant and child morbidity and
mortality, control infectious disease, foster healthy lifestyles, and the day-to-day
difficulties of children and adolescents with acute and/or chronic conditions.”
• If the above resonates with you – this could be a great fit!
• If you choose to pursue pediatrics, you can be a primary care pediatrician in an urban
or rural setting, or can focus on inpatient care as a hospitalist. There are also a wide
variety of specialties, including procedure-oriented ones like pulmonary and GI, more
“cerebral specialties”, like genetics, metabolic and ID, and critical care, including
PICU, NICU and CICU. Pediatricians can focus on clinical care, research, education
or a combination of these areas.
• Dr. Soep is the primary pediatric advisor, and can answer pretty much any question
about applications, sub-internships, electives, etc. Attend the pediatric sessions
about applying to residencies during your third and fourth year of medical school as
61
they are extremely helpful. Dr. Soep will also meet individually with any student
considering a career in pediatrics or committed to applying in pediatrics (or a related
specialty, like child neurology and Medicine/Pediatrics). She will help plan your 4th
year schedule, develop a list of programs, identify letter writers, review your CV and
personal statement and create your match list. There are also many other people in
the pediatric department that are knowledgeable and happy to help, including Dr. Tai
Lockspeiser, Dr. Meghan Treitz and Dr. Adam Rosenberg (the University of Colorado
Pediatric Residency Director). The pediatric residents, chief residents and fellows
are great resources, as are the 4th year medical students going into pediatrics.
• Most individuals take at least 1-2 months off during the interview season (November
– January), as it is difficult to schedule interviews around classes/clinical
experiences.
Personal Statement Advice:
• The personal statement allows you to highlight something that may not show up in
other areas of your application. It should give insight into who you are, what makes
you unique, why you want to do pediatrics and/or what you want to do in the future.
It should not be a retelling of your CV. Personal statements really vary, so write what
best represents you, read examples online/from Dr. Soep, and have multiple people
proof read it!
Future Opportunities:
• You can practice as a general pediatrician after residency, or can continue your
training if you desire to specialize. There are many fellowship opportunities that can
be pursued, including (but not limited to) neonatology, rheumatology, allergy and
immunology, nephrology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, infectious disease, sports
medicine, adolescent medicine, child abuse, cardiology, emergency medicine, critical
care, hospital medicine, and endocrinology. Most pediatric fellowships are three
years in length.
• Working with adorable, fun, resilient children!
• Wide variety of options for future careers
• Following patients from birth to early adulthood
• Since pediatricians value kids and families, most recognize the importance of work-
life balance
• Some people find it challenging to interact with parents
• Some people find it difficult to see kids who are ill or abused
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Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
AAMC Basics
AOA: 6.2%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: important if you do well, also give you a feel for the
program
Importance of Research: increasingly important
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: unknown, varies per candidate
Interview Timing: Varies, November/December typical

• William Neihaus, MD: william.niehaus@ucdenver.edu
• William Sullivan, MD: william.sullivan@ucdenver.edu
• contact via email
• Variability, overlap with other disciplines
• Unknown
Who goes into your field? What is important to them?:
• Not sure
What are the future opportunities in this specialty? i.e. fellowships, practice opportunities :
• Sports, Spine, Pain, Pediatric, Brain Injury, Spinal Cord Injury, EMG/Neuromuscular
• Try it!
How do I get in?

• ERAS
• Increasingly important
USMLE – cut points:
• No true cut point, but 215 Step 1 is rough start
etc.:
• Increasingly important
• Depends on many factors (strength of candidate)
• 3 minimum, prefer from PM&R
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• Don't be too fluffy/cute.
• PM&R elective, Medicine Sub-I
• Medicine (unless doing Peds/PM&R)
• 1 to 2, mostly to see what other places are like
• November/December. May be able to group interviews together
PM&R seems to becoming increasingly competitive, like many specialties. The best part of
the field is it can be inpatient, outpatient, combined, procedure oriented, or very
subspecialized re. a single condition (e.g. Spinal Cord Injury). PM&R overlaps with almost
all other fields of medicine, but focuses on Function and Quality of Life.
64
Plastic Surgery
Note: There are multiple paths to plastic surgery, unlike many of the other specialties listed
here. You can either match directly into Plastics from medical school, or do a fellowship
from other surgical residencies. This info is to match into programs directly from medical
school.
AAMC Basics
AOA: 52.4%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Important
Importance of Research: Important
Interview Timing: Dec-Jan
Recommend using acaplasticsurgeons.org for most uptodate information (resident infor,

student info, interview dates for programs, standard letter of rec form to give to letter-writers)

• Contact Joyce.Aycock@ucdenver.edu (CU’s plastic surgery program director) or
david.khechoyan@childrenscolorado.org
• Or call Mandy: (303) 724-2792 to coordinate
• Set up a meeting no later than 3rd year. The sooner the better.
• Get to operate!
• Good problem solving
• Patients of all ages
• Get to operate on all areas of the body
• It’s an artistic field
• Fairly long training (6 years if match straight or 8 if general surgery first)
• Often have to wait for other specialties to finish their part of the operation before start
our part (ENT, ortho, breast surgeons), so sometimes waiting around
• Artistic and engineering-like people who like to operate and be creative in OR
• Hand, craniofacial, cosmetic, microsurgery fellowships or can stay general
• Recommend exploring early in medical school.
• This is a difficult specialty to match into if undecided until late. Most applicants start
building application with research early.
65
• If decide interested later in medical school, can take a year off for research or can
instead match into gen surgery, ENT (or less often ortho, urology, neurosurgery)
and then match plastics for fellowship
How do I get in?

• Uses ERAS for applications
• Honors in surgery at least is good and honors in sub-I and plastics electives
• 230 is usually cutoff
• Step 1 scores are important
etc.
• Need some sort of plastic surgery research (poster presentation, publication,
something)
• Consider year off for research if don’t have any yet
• Most programs are academic and a few are community
• Usually students apply to all of programs
• Need at least 3
• Most important aspect to application because small community and everyone knows
everyone.
• Best letters are from academically well-respected plastic surgeons (ex. Dr. Mathes)
• For example, could get: One or 2 plastic surgeons here to write letters and/or 1-2
from away rotations
• Less ideal to use one from a non-plastics person
• Give letter-writer standard form from acaplasticsurgeons.org to fill out with your letter
of recommendations
• Will be read for when you interview but plays less of a role for selection
• Don’t have errors in it!

• Plastic surgery elective in 4th year is absolutely necessary but doesn’t count for sub-I
requirement for graduation. Do this elective in June, July, or August to get letter in
time
• Do 1-2 Away rotations somewhere you’re interested in
• For actual graduation requirement sub-I, it doesn’t matter when you do it or what you
pick. Surgical sub-I or ICU could be useful.
• Do 1-2 Away rotations somewhere you’re interested in
66
• Plastic surgery elective in 4th year is absolutely necessary but doesn’t count for sub-I
requirement for graduation. Do this elective in June, July, or August to get letter in
time
• Plastic Surgery elective
• Radiology
• Whatever you’re interested in or think would be helpful
• Around mid Nov interview invitations sent
• Keep Dec-Jan free to interview
• Be sure to schedule right away because spots can fill up within minutes of emails
being sent.
• You can look at the interview dates for different programs on acaplasticsurgeons.org
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Psychiatry
AAMC Basics
AOA: 6.2%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Not necessary
Importance of Research: Not crucial
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant:
Total # of Programs:
Interview Timing:
• Psychiatry Specific Competencies:
o Perform in-depth mental status exam, demonstrate strong interviewing skills
(including taking a thorough psychosocial history), participate in courses that
examine human behavior and/or psychiatric illnesses, demonstrate passion for
helping others through volunteering or service learning
o Not recommended
o If psychiatry clerkship < 4 weeks, psychiatry sub-internship; otherwise sub-
internship in medicine or pediatrics (if interested in child psychiatry) Electives:
Neurology, emergency medicine, cardiology, dermatology, endocrinology.
From the American Psychiatric Association:
• Electives:
o At least one in elective in psychiatry during fourth year, in order to show your
interest in the field. Ones that allow an exposure to a variety of settings, such
as outpatient, inpatient, and emergency, are especially good.
• Away:
o Not necessary to match into psychiatry, but does allow student to audition for
a program (most helpful for reach programs) and gives the student a better
sense of the program.
• Research:
o Probably not crucial to match at desired program, but exposure to research is
helpful if considering an academic career.
o Most programs require 3-4 letters. Should have at least one from a psychiatrist
and one from medicine (or pediatrics.)
CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations: From Dr. Joe Sakai (December 2017):

Sub-I:
• Should do one in pediatrics or internal medicine early on in order to be on transcript.
Psychiatry Electives:
68
• Advanced psych rotation early in fourth year, such as advanced adult inpatient
psychiatry or advanced child and adolescent inpatient psychiatry, are essential.
These allow students to get a strong experience treating acute and chronically
mentally ill in a higher acuity setting since many rotate in lower acuity setting during
third year. Many students will take additional subspecialty psych rotations, but there’s
no specific favorite or recommendation.
• Depends on the student. This is their last chance to explore many areas of interest in
order to be a solid physician coming into intern year.
• A few internal medicine rotations may be helpful for internship.
Away:
• It’s a double-edged sword. If they choose to go to learn more about a program, they
need to shine and do a good job. It could hurt them if they do a mediocre job. Away
rotations may help to garner interviews at reach programs.
• Generally not essential, though it depends on the program. Most students have a
nonexistent or limited research background.
Interviews:
• In previous years, students have applied to <20 programs and interviewed at half.
But Psychiatry has become more competitive in recent years and US Seniors are
now applying to more programs (e.g., ~30 programs).
For the Undecided:
• Change preceptors to psychiatrist during third year in order to get more exposure.
Course Data from 24 MS4s Matching in Psychiatry in 2014 (n = 7), 2015 (n = 14), 2016
(n = 3):
Sub-I:
84% did a sub-I in either pediatrics (13%) or internal medicine (71%), including MICU
Electives in Psychiatry:
75% took Advanced Adult Inpatient Psychiatry (PSYM 8000)
25% took Advanced Child and Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatry (PSYM 8004)
25% took an emergency medicine rotation
21% took Clinical Toxicology (EMED 8024)
16% took Child Development and Behavior (PEDS 8024)
4% took a neurology elective
0% took a clinical cardiology or endocrinology elective
Away:
16% did an away rotation in psychiatry
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Radiation Oncology
AAMC Basics
AOA: 27.5%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Medium
Importance of Research: High
Interview Timing: Nov-Feb
CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations: From Dr. Sameer Nath (January 2018):

Why rad onc?:
• Radiation oncology is a dynamic, evidence-based field that utilizes sophisticated
technology to cure cancer in a minimally-invasive fashion. We take care of adults and
children, as well as every type of cancer in the body. Patients are seen for extended
consultations and then weekly during treatment, which allows for close patient
contact and relationships. Radiation oncology is exciting for those who enjoy
technology and research. We also offer a range of light procedures (which can be
sought after or avoided depending on your interest level).
Rad Onc Electives:
• Students should take RADONC 8005, the main clinical elective. During this elective
you will be involved in direct patent care and become familiar with the basics of
radiation oncology. We are well aware that most students have little or no knowledge
of radiation oncology from the medical school curriculum (not a problem!), so we will
provide you with resources and lectures to understand the fundamentals. I also
highly recommend RADONC 8600, which is a research elective that can be taken
after completion 8005, if you want to pursue a career in rad onc.
Research:
• Radiation Oncology is a research heavy discipline that relies on evidence-based
medicine. This does not have to be traditional lab research (but of course can be!).
Many radiation oncologists pursue clinical research that involves improving the
utilization, care and delivery of radiation to patients. This may also include cost-
effectiveness analyses and public policy research.
Away electives:
• It is not critical to do any away electives. However, since radiation oncology is a small
field, if you have a geographic region in mind, it may be helpful to spend a month
doing a rotation there so they get to know you. We can provide you with more
guidance on this in person.
Importance of Math and Physics:
• None! You don’t need any special math or physics training, and very few radiation
oncologists have any additional math/physics knowledge beyond the premed
requirements from undergrad!
• Radiation oncology utilizes imaging on a daily basis. Additional rotations in radiology
may be helpful. It is also worth considering a general rotation in medical oncology.
Neither are required.
Residency Programs:
70
• Nearly all radiation oncology residencies take place at academic hospitals. Students
complete a general medicine internship or a transitional internship year (both are
good – you’re choice) prior to beginning residency. Residency is 4 years and typically
includes 3-month rotations through different disease subsites, usually focused on one
or two organ systems (i.e. lung, breast, CNS cancers etc). Many residency programs
include a dedicated year of research time (usually during the third year of residency)
that is protected from clinical work. Since radiation oncology is an outpatient
specialty, most residencies operate from 8am-5pm M-F with weekends off. Call is
almost always taken from home, and rarely involves emergency treatments. All
residency programs have dedicated courses on radiation physics (to teach how our
radiation delivery machines work) and radiation biology (to teach how radiation kills
cancer cells). These usually consist of 1 hour lectures each week.
Interviews:
• December is the most common month for interviews.
For the Undecided:
• Check out RADONC 8005.
• sameer.nath@ucdenver.edu
• High importance, particularly 3rd year clerkships in medicine and surgery
• There is no strict cut off, but generally those with scores <220 have a harder time
matching
etc.
• Research is the most important non-clinical activity
• Students should apply to at least 30 programs.
• Most programs are at major academic centers.
• At least 3 letters are generally desired
o At least 2 from rad onc
o Then any other physicians who know you well, including research mentors
71
Urology
AAMC Basics
Mean Step 1/ Step 2 CK:
• Based on Urology Match, Step 1 = 252, Step 2 CK = 253
AOA:
• Not required but very helpful, but in 2017 about 30%
• REQUIRED a minimum of 2 (most students 2-3)
• REQUIRED. If you can publish abstract, manuscript or do national presentation, this
will strengthen you application
Mean # of Research Experiences per matched applicant: 8
Mean # of Abstracts, Presentations, Publications: 5 (Urology specific)
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 74
Interview Timing:
• Submission around Sept 15th. In 2017, the first offers for interviews came right after
the submission date. Most programs either require application be in by Sept 15th or
October 1st. Interviews usually are from late October to mid-December. This year
(2017), the first interview was on September 26 and the last interview was on
December 15th. The highest volume of interviews are in the first two weeks of
November. Many students went back to back.

• Urology is a surgical subspecialty that requires 1-2 year of general surgery and 4
years of urology. There is a blend of outpatient clinic, procedures and minor to major
procedures of the urinary tract and male reproduction. It is a highly competitive
specialty that requires strong grades, board scores, research and letters of
recommendation. The urology match is an “early match,” happening in January
rather than March. The earlier you can get exposure to urology, the stronger your
application will be.
• Chair: Randall Meacham, MD; randall.meacham@ucdenver.edu
• Medical Student Director: Ty Higuchi, MD/PhD; ty.higuchi@ucdenver.edu
• Most students would seek out interest by either contacting Dr. Higuchi or having a
mentor in the department.
• A great combination of medicine and surgery
• Wide variety of diseases from urologic malignancy to conditions that affect quality of
life (urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction, male infertility, etc.)
• High diversity of clinic procedures and surgeries that include clinic procedures
(vasectomy, cystoscopy, prostate biopsy), minor surgeries (ureteroscopy, bladder
biopsy) and major surgeries (nephrectomy, cystectomy, bladder reconstruction)
72
• Competitive application process.
• Independent and self-directed learners.
• Urologist enjoy the technical aspects of our field that allow us to help our patients
surgically.
What are the future opportunities in this specialty? i.e. fellowships, practice opportunities.
• Projected outlook for the need for urology has been strong for the past decade.
Predicted need for urologist throughout the country.
• Options for practice include private practice, government, hospital employed,
academic.
• Fellowships in oncology, pediatrics, reconstruction, female pelvic medicine and
reconstructive surgery, andrology
• Take the urology elective (SURG6660) during 1st or 2nd year
• Speak with urology advisor
• Attend Grand Rounds (730-830 Mondays and 0630 to 0730 Fridays). The schedule
can also be found on the urology website.
http://www.ucdenver.edu/academics/colleges/medicalschool/departments/surgery/div
isions/urology/Education/Pages/Conference-Schedule.aspx
• Try to become involved with research projects
• Best to have decided to pursue urology by fall of 3rd year of medical school
• VSAS application begins in February for away rotations
• ERAS application opens Summer before graduation date.
• Very important - will improve your application.
USMLE –
• There are unpublished minimums that programs require. As you can see the median
USMLE is typically in the 250’s range and has been stable for a long time. You
should discuss with advisor.
etc.
• Research with publications have become the standard on urology applications. It is
ideal to have urology publication, but if you have research and publications in another
field, this can be equally important
• Extracurricular activities that demonstrate leadership and commitment add to
application strength.
• A majority of programs are at academic centers, but there are strong community
based programs (Kaiser Los Angeles, Lahey, Hackensack, Cooper)
• The number of programs that students are applying to keeps increasing. The
average for 2017 is 72.
• It is recommended to get all your letters of recommendation from urologists. It is
especially important to get letters from the department chair from the programs that
73
you rotate through for away rotations. Most students send in 3-4 letters of
recommendation.
• This is the time to talk about yourself what the program cannot see in your
application. This is an open canvas and you want to talk about general things about
how you got into urology, why you like urology and are choosing this field. It is also
the time to talk about any professionalism violations and discrepancies in your
application. Take this seriously as an grammatical errors can be detriment. Similar
to a medical school application, have several people read the statement.
• If your boards scores are low or borderline, take Step 2 early – May or at the latest
June
• Surg 8012 Urology subinternship should be your first rotation. Try to complete in May
or June to get your away rotations set
• Away rotations should follow the Surg 8012 June-September. You need to do them
as early as possible to get letters of recommendation
• The most helpful rotations: ICU, internal medicine, radiology, nephrology,
subspecialty with procedures (plastic surgery, family practice if doing vasectomy,
etc).
• Research rotation to complete projects
• Urology - MANDATORY
• Recommend doing 2
• Go where you feel like you want to live. No such thing as a bad urology program so it
is good to try different places to see if you are a good fit. Also try to go to some of
the top tier programs to see why they are consistently ranked at the top (Mayo Clinic,
Cleveland Clinic, Vanderbilt, UCSF, etc)
• Colorado is in the South Central AUA section so we have better relationships in the
region, but if you want to go to other places, it is helpful to talk to Dr. Higuchi to see
where we have ties to. Urology is a small field where people know each other all over
the nation.
• Urology does not have a lot of courses besides the Urology elective and the sub-
internship.
o It’s recommended to take courses that you find that are interesting to you or
that can potentially help you with intern year in general surgery.
• Between November-December at least.
74
Vascular Surgery
AAMC Basics
AOA: 10%
Importance of Doing an Away Elective: Helpful to see other hospital systems and to network
Importance of Research: Highly important for academic programs, less so for community
programs
Mean # of Research Experiences per matched applicant: 2
Mean # of Abstracts, Presentations, Publications: 10
Mean # of Programs Applied to per Applicant: 15-20
Total # of Programs: 2017-2018 Academic year: 105 programs & 250 positions
Interview Timing: January - March
How do I get in?

• ERAS for the Vascular Surgery Fellowship Program opens for applicants the third
week of November and December 1st for programs. Matches are announced in early
May.
• Predictive of board pass rates.
• Low USMLEs not a deal breaker, but must be paired with strong in-service exam
scores.
etc.:
• Non-clinical activities help candidates stand out, especially when the applicant pool is
crowded.
• 3 LORs, one must be from PD
• Remember to showcase what you will add to a program and your commitment to that
specialty. Also, make a clear selection between academic and community practice.
75

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The Intricacies of Fourth Year Planning: An Advisory

College Program (ACP) Guide

- Katia Johnston, CUSOM class of 2018

Child Neurology (6)

Diagnostic Radiology (10)

Emergency Medicine (15)

Family Medicine (19)

General Surgery (23)

Internal Medicine (29)

Internal Medicine/Pediatrics (33)

Neurological Surgery (35)

Obstetrics and Gynecology (43)

Orthopedic Surgery (50)

Plastic Surgery (65)

Radiation Oncology (70)

Vascular Surgery (75)

None of the specialty-specific websites address course-taking or other recommendations on

CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations:

Is this specialty right for me?

How do I get in?

What should I do in 4th year?

Other questions for advisors:

What should I do in 4th year?

How much time/when to take off for interviews

How do I get in?

Other questions for advisors:

Process of advising in the department:

What are the good things about your specialty?:

(**based on 2016 NRMP data

Importance of Doing an Away Elective: LOW (from AAMC website)

From the American College of Surgeons:

CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations: From Dr. Paul Montero (December 2015):

What are the bad things about specialty?

Step 1 > 232: 82% Chance

- Step 1 218-231: 79%

Personal Statement advice

From the American College of Physicians

CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations: From Dr. Adam Trosterman (Updated 1/18):

Is this the right field for me?:

How do I get in?

Is this specialty right for me?

How do I get in?

What should I do in 4th year?

Other questions for advisor:

How do I get in?

Externships/Away rotations (how many, where)

Other questions for advisor (answered by Drs. Korb and Ney):

• A career in neurology also means being adjacent to frontiers in neuroscience. All of

How do I get in?

How do I get in?

What should I do in 4th year?

Is this specialty right for me?

How do I get in?

More specific data can be found online at: http://www.nrmp.org/main-residency-match-data/

CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations: From Dr. Frank Scott (December 2015):

Other questions for advisor:

Other questions for advisor:

How do I get in?

For additional information:

From the American Academy of Pediatrics:

CU Specialty Advisor Recommendations:

Other questions for specialty advisors:

Other questions for advisor: