Confused about 4th year? This is your episode!
On this podcast, we usually probe practicing physicians with questions about their specialty, how they chose it, and for advice about long-term career planning. However, for this episode we’re going to do something a little different. The topic of today’s show is not about a specialty, but rather about the 4th year of medical school, that final year through which we all must pass en route to residency.
In fact, the goal of today’s episode is to cover all the ins and outs of what you’re supposed to do during 4th year, when you’re suppose to do it, how you’re supposed to do it, and in some cases why you might do it one way versus another. And the crew here to tell us all about it is a group 4th students, Maggie Knisley (pediatrics), Dan Binder (family medicine), and Steve Bigach (orthopedics), who have just successfully navigated the Match and have a job waiting for them come July 1st!
This is a wide ranging conversation that starts at the end of 3rd year and takes the listener through the completion of 4th year. A complete list of discussion topics for this episode can be found here, but includes:
- Acting internships
- Away rotations
- Letters of recommendation
- Residency applications and ERAS
- The Step 2s (CK and CS)
- Residency interviews
- The rank list
- The Match
- SOAP aka “the scramble”
- Life post-match
Special thank you to Katie Bedard, MD; Alice Yu, MD; Gary Parizher, MD; Kelly Manger, MD; and Karishma Habbu, MD for their help in formulating the discussion topics.
And an extra special thank you to Kristol Das, MD for sitting patiently through a dry run of the interview to identify missing topics and to make sure the 4th Year Episode would flow properly 🙂
Please enjoy with Maggie, Dan, and Steve!
Selected Show Notes
- Be sure to update it with your own info!
Standardized Letter of Evaluation (SLOE) for EM
Ep 046 – Hand Surgery (via Orthopedics) with Dr. Kevin Malone
Great time Match Timeline from the AAMC
- Definitely check this out.
- Also, check out their student navigator/roadmap for all of med school in general. Very good.
Chase Credit Cards
National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) website
- Couples matching videos
- Another good intro video: How the Matching Algorithm Works
NRMP Match PRISM (Program Rating and Interview Scheduling Manager)
- Book: The White Coat Investor
Books:
- First Aid for the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Skills
- First Aid for the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge
- The White Coat Investor: A Doctor’s Guide To Personal Finance And Investing
For a list of all book recommendations made on the show, see the TUMS Resources page.
Could you please publish the excel document the 4th years discussed that they used to organize their schools during the application process by requirement?
Just uploaded it! See Selected Show Notes above.