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Indiana University School of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
Medical Student Portal

Family Medicine Specialty at a Glance

Students interested in a career in family medicine should focus on clinical electives. The electives do not need to be taken with a family medicine faculty member or physician.


Match Statistics

Step 2 CK median score: 238
25th percentile USMLE Step 2 CK: 227.0
75th percentile USMLE Step 2 CK: 249.0
Median programs applied to: 27
Median research experiences: 2
Median abstracts, presentations or publications: 3

Family medicine allows a broad scope of practice with patients of all ages and backgrounds. This diversity can keep the work interesting and engaging. You have the ability to develop long-term relationships with your patients and can be proactive in preventive care and health maintenance, having a positive impact on public health.

It's recommended to continue to do what you do outside of medical school and medicine that keeps your life balanced.

Any clinical elective in either adult or pediatric medicine is appropriate for family medicine. For example, you might take electives in peds pulmonary, adult cardiac, adult GI and adolescent psychiatry.

The family medicine sub-I is appropriate, though not required. Internal medicine, pediatrics and OB-GYN sub-Is are also all appropriate.

Away rotations are not recommended for this specialty, but can be helpful if you are geographically tied to a location for residency training.

There is no requirement for research for family medicine. If you have some research or have an interest in research, then you can continue with it. The recommendation is not to seek research to fill in the research box on the ERAS application.

Residency training for this specialty is three years.

The only requirement we advise is one of your letters must be from a family physician.

American Academy of Family Physicians

We recommend getting connecting with a family medicine career mentor.

All requests go to Scott Renshaw, MD. He meets with students to help match them to the best mentor.