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Hello everyone! I’m a fourth year medical student going in to pediatrics. From an academic standpoint, I’m not very competitive. I’ve passed all my boards but did poorly on Step 1. I have phenomenal letters, however, and my Dean’s letter is very strong. Because of my scores, I don’t want to do anything to hinder my chances of matching. Here is my issue. My husband and I tried to get pregnant for months and were unsuccessful. We stopped trying and what do you know? Pregnant. The scary part is my due date is June 15th. I’m hoping I can get my body to listen and try to deliver at 37 weeks, but who knows how that’ll go.
My question is this: should I tell programs I’m pregnant and risk them not ranking me as high or do I not tell them and risk coming off as deceptive? I’m not taking off a year due to the fact that I’m not a strong candidate and would likely not match next year if I did so. Any other help or advice would be appreciated. Thank you!
I don’t think I would tell them at this point. There is a reason that they are not allowed to ask you about pregnancy during interviews: they may discriminate against you based on the answer. Even though discrimination because of pregnancy is illegal in itself, not being allowed to ask about it adds another layer of protection. If you go ahead and volunteer information about pregnancy, then you are negating the legal protections to which you are entitled. You can give them plenty of advance notice after you match. BTW, I am not a lawyer, so this is just my opinion, FWIW.
Good luck with everything!
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