How We Got Here: Step 1

Step 1-Apply to Residency Programs

As you probably know, a doctor's training isn't over when medical school ends.  Next comes a medical residency that typically lasts between 3 and 6 years, depending on what type of medicine you want to practice.  About three years into school, we started thinking about where Ben might do his residency.  Planning for the next chapter in our life seemed like kind of a big deal, so we took a field trip to the place where we had started the last chapter.  We spent one summer weekend at the Stowe bed and breakfast where we had gotten married.  

We tried to put some order around the process.  We knew we needed a list of programs to apply to when the AMCAS application portal opened.  There are all kinds of ways to come up with this list. What programs are close to home/family/mountains/oceans/fill in the blank. Which cities are safest?  What programs are most competitive?  Least?  Is it an "academic" program or a "community" program?  And what the heck is the difference, anyway?!  You get the picture, right?  

Well, we knew that Ben planned to do a fellowship after residency.  We also knew that moving is the WORST.  Especially when it's across the country.  So if we had to move, we wanted a residency program in a city that also had the right fellowship program.  If the universe played along, boom! Only one move required. So that's how we came up with our list.  We generated a spreadsheet of all of the fellowship programs for Ben's specialty (more on that in a future post) and started eliminating cities.  We wanted mountains and a body of water.  Ben wanted a bike-friendly town.  We both wanted to eat really, REALLY well.  I won't lie: humidity and politics also affected our decisions.  With a culled list of cities, we (mostly Ben) reviewed the programs in each of them to decide which ones to apply to. In September 2013, Ben submitted his applications to a host of programs, including the list we developed that weekend and some suggestions from a stellar advisor at the med school. Now it was time to WAIT.

Next Post: How We Got Here:  Step 2
We hit the road and try on some new cities.