Allison H. Ferris, M.D.
Program Director

Welcome to Florida Atlantic University's Schmidt College of Medicine! This residency program is here for our residents.  Our mission is to give you the education and experiences that will help develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes you need to be a well-rounded, thoughtful, empathetic physician who is board-certified in internal medicine and embraces life-long learning.  We strive to be a supportive learning environment that allows progressive autonomy and fosters the development of leadership skills that you will take with you as you progress in your career, whether that be community based or academic medicine.

Our University-based program is located in South Florida's beautiful beachfront Palm Beach County. You’ll care for patients at three community hospitals which provides you a strong clinical experience with a varied patient population including a large geriatric population. Our program follows a 4+1 schedule to ensure an excellent continuity clinic experience in one of our two resident clinics. Simulation training begins during intern year and continues throughout all three years of training, including a point-of-care-ultrasound curriculum with our intensivists and other faculty. Academics are a focal point of our program with a dedicated academic half day, ambulatory half day including didactics and journal club, case-based morning report, critical care journal club, and humanities sessions.

Our varied and caring faculty are ready to help you reach your career goals, whether it is primary care, subspecialty training, or hospitalist medicine in a community medicine or in academic medicine. Our faculty, staff, and residents will quickly welcome you into our residency family to support you on your journey and help you be successful.  Ultimately, we succeed when you succeed.

Thank you for your interest in our program! We hope you will join our FAUmily.

Why Internal Medicine Residency at FAU?

Picking a residency program is a challenging task. You want to know if you'll like the area, the program, the people. You want to know what the program is like on a day-to-day basis (not just on the fancy interview day). You want to know what life is like outside of work because you will have days off! Well, we asked the residents on our recruitment committee "Why should someone come to FAU for residency? What is so great about South Florida?" Here are their responses.

Best of Everything

• Perfectly sized program (not too large, not too small) with residents from varied backgrounds.
• Culture is inviting and fun with a friendly teaching style
• Interns feel there is a safe learning curve with a 3 interns per team in the beginning of the year (allowing <10 patients per intern)

Focus on Academics

• Employed by the University, working at hospitals associated with large healthcare systems including Baptist Health South Florida and Tenet Healthcare allows great breadth of experiences
• Academic-minded with a culture of teaching, from faculty members down to the interns teaching medical students
• Faculty provide useful feedback
• Access to UpToDate as well as the FAU library (textbooks and journals)

Responsive Administration

• Administration uses resources to benefit residents. (ex: coffee machines, study resources, healthy snacks and beverages, wellness events)
• Administration is receptive to resident ideas regarding changes to policy
• Dr. Ferris provides regular email updates keeping all residents informed

Great Schedule

• 4 + 1 schedule prevents burnout and provides golden weekend every 5th week
• Personal Improvement (PI) time during clinic to allow for appointments
• No 24-hr call on any rotations
• At least 1 day off in 7 for all rotations

Learn more about our residency rotations

Career Mentorship

• Lots of guidance/mentorship provided towards attaining professional goals
• FAU Fellowships in Cardiology, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, and Pulmonary-Critical Care Medicine. 
• Great match rates into competitive fellowships
• Semi-Annual performance reviews are completed by PD/APDs

Faculty

• Clinical faculty is highly trained
• 1-on-1 time with specialists during elective rotations gives great insight into each specialty, makes it easy to build rapport and get LORs

Competitive Benefits

• Free parking
• Biweekly food stipends for the cafeterias at Boca and Bethesda
• State benefits
• Financial support for travel to national meetings to present scholarly work
• Owl Card allows discounts at area merchants plus FAU athletics tickets

See all salary and benefits information

Board Prep

• MKSAP provided for all trainees beginning in PGY2 year
• Dedicated ABIM prep sessions in late Spring for PGY3s
• $1200 education stipend yearly to use for educational materials

Excellent Graduate Placement

• Residents find excellent internal medicine jobs across the country
• Outstanding placement in excellent fellowships

See fellowship and job placements for our residents

Location

• 15-minute (or less) door-to-beach time!
• Florida weather = 365 days of summer
• Boca Raton, Delray Beach, and Boynton Beach are fun, safe locations to live and offer a wide variety of activities, food, music, and more

Apply to Internal Medicine Residency

Florida Atlantic University's Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine
Internal Medicine Categorical Program

ACGME Program Number: 1401100923

ERAS/NRMP Program ID Numbers:

• Categorical IM: 1586140C0

Thank you for your interest in our training program in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University. The Internal Medicine Residency participates in the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) and National Residency Matching Program (NRMP). We do not accept any applicants outside the match.

• We offer 24 categorical positions each year.
• We accept applications and documents via ERAS only.
• Deadline for receipt of applications is November 6.
• Interviews are granted on an invitation only basis with invites sent between October 15 and November 16.
• Interviews are all virtual, from October 27 through January 30.
• We will have the capacity to interview all who are invited—applicants have 48h to respond to the interview invite.
• In keeping with recommendations from AAMC and AAIM, all interviews will be conducted virtually, and there will be opportunities to meet faculty as well as current residents during the interview day.
• Signaling: Gold and silver signals will help us get an idea of an applicant's particular interest in our program; however, they will be used as just one piece of our holistic review process. Not all signals will be guaranteed an interview. We may also invite people who do not signal us.
• Second look day: We anticipate holding an in-person visit day in February for those who want to see our program/hospitals/area before deciding on their rank list. Like several of our peer programs, our residency program has decided not to participate in the NRMP list lock pilot. While we may offer a chance for candidates to visit in-person in February, it will not have an impact on our rank list process.

Application Requirements

ERAS Applications must include the following:

• CV
• ERAS common application
• Personal statement
• 2-3 letters of recommendation written within the past 6 months
  • For categorical applicants only, one LOR should be from the Department of Medicine or their representative
• MSPE
• Transcripts
• USMLE and/or COMLEX Step 1, 2 & 3 scores, if applicable.
• ECFMG Certification/CSA test results, if applicable

General Information About ERAS

If you are graduating or have graduated from a U.S. medical school, you must contact your medical school's student affairs office or other designated dean’s office. Your dean’s office will provide you with the information and the software for ERAS. If you are graduating or have graduated from a Canadian medical school, please contact the Canadian Resident Matching Service at 613-237-0075. For ERAS processing information or to write to the Canadian Resident Matching Service, contact:

Canadian Resident Matching Service
151 Slater Street, Suite 802
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P-5H3
Canada

If you are graduating or have graduated from a foreign medical school, you must contact the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) for application materials and eligibility requirement. Please write to:

ECFMG-ERAS Program
P.O. Box 13467
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3467
U.S.A.