Choosing which residency you want is not easy. Here are some tips that I can offer after going through the process myself!
First off, there are so many residences to choose from, so while this is a great thing for the diversity of education, it can be daunting!
My tip? Take your time.
The first thing you want to do is look at the broad categories of specialties, and you can use your experience at your rotations as a guide.
What did you love in your externships and rotations? What did you hate?
This is going to help you find the one category that you should heavily consider. For me, it was an ocular disease residency.
Now you've got a decent good starting point.
From there, you can look at the residency databases to understand which practice types are available. You want to make sure that not only will they provide you value, but you can provide them value. Having synergy in the relationship is important for a successful optometry residency.
I suggest spending the most time possible when preparing.
When setting up interviews and thinking about your interview answers, start early. Your letters / essays should be extremely thorough, and you should strive and aim for the residency you want. Great preparation will help you get what you want instead of settling for second best.
Lastly, go with your gut. Your gut instinct shouldn't be ignored. Watch the video and see how my gut instinct helped me choose the right residency!
