Why do we have residency training?

Surely every resident has had the experience of trying to explain to a patient or family what, exactly, a resident is. “Yes, I’m a real doctor… I just can’t do real doctor things by myself.” In many ways, it’s a strange system we have. How come you can call yourself a doctor after medical school, […]

The USMLE for DOs: How to stop fleecing osteopathic medical students

In 2018, 21,611 examinees from MD-granting medical schools in the U.S. and Canada took USMLE Step 1. They didn’t have any choice. See, the USMLE is a licensing exam – so if you want to practice as an allopathic physician in the United States, you’ve got to take it. But there were also 4,136 osteopathic […]

What’s the REAL Match rate?

Medical students celebrating Match Day in 2014. March 15, 2019 was Match Day. And according to the NRMP’s press release, it was a record setting one. Among fourth-year students from allopathic medical schools, 94% matched to a PGY-1 program – an impressive figure that has been stable for years. Osteopathic students and graduates recorded their […]

How much does Step 1 Mania cost medical schools?

At the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, it’s $495,000 a year. The figure comes from this recent paper in Medical Science Educator. If you want to get a surprisingly frank, behind-the-scenes look at how Step 1 Mania affects the medical school curriculum, I’d highly encourage you to read the whole paper. But for […]

Why can’t I re-take USMLE Step 1?

Every few weeks, someone contacts me to ask some variation of this question: Dear Sheriff, I want to match in a competitive specialty – and my Step 1 score may be the difference between achieving my dream or having a second choice career for the rest of my life. That’s a lot of pressure for […]

Applying Smarter, Part II: How to Give Students the Information They Really Need

To fix Application Fever – the steadily-rising number of residency applications submitted by medical students – some say we don’t need caps. Instead, they claim that students just need more information. Give them better data about how many applications to submit, and they’ll stop overapplying. Or so the logic goes. I’m on record as supporting […]

Applying Smarter, Part I: Breaking Down the AAMC’s Apply Smart Campaign

“Your likelihood of securing residency training depends on many factors – including the number of residency programs you apply to.” So begins the introduction to Apply Smart: Data to Consider When Applying to Residency – a informational campaign from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) designed to help medical students “anchor [their] initial thinking […]