Could someone with some knowledge of the Oph programs out there, please post a list of the top 10 schools, some middle-tier schools and some bottom-dwellers? I'd really appreciate it! Thanks!

Here are lists of some of the top schools according to the Ophthalmology Times over the past few years:

2001: http://www.ophthalmologytimes.com/ophthalmologytimes/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=2185
2002: http://www.ophthalmologytimes.com/ophthalmologytimes/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=34703
2003: http://www.ophthalmologytimes.com/ophthalmologytimes/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=76764
2004: http://www.ophthalmologytimes.com/ophthalmologytimes/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=128492&pageID=2

Middle Tier; this is not an easy thing to do but a few that come to mind at this time.....UAB, Wayne State, Oregon HSU....I can't remember anymore right this second as it's been a couple years now since I applied. Do a search through the forum. It might turn up somethings.

Middle Tier; this is not an easy thing to do but a few that come to mind at this time.....UAB, Wayne State, Oregon HSU....I can't remember anymore right this second as it's been a couple years now since I applied. Do a search through the forum. It might turn up somethings.


Agreed. I'm only aware of the top tier list by both Ophthalmology times and US News. Middle and Lower tier programs are harder to categorize and i'm not aware of anything that does that. Your best bet would be to ask you previous applicants about good/bad programs and of course go see for yourself once granted an interview.

Could someone with some knowledge of the Oph programs out there, please post a list of the top 10 schools, some middle-tier schools and some bottom-dwellers? I'd really appreciate it! Thanks!

Program directors are also pretty helpful in sorting out the "B" programs from the "C" programs. Programs that I thought (or were told to me that) were very strong, but not top 10 are as follows:

University of California at Davis (my personal favorite aside from USC)
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of California at Irvine
California Pacific Medical Center
University of Oklahoma
Casey at U of Oregon
U of California at San Diego
U of Colorado at Denver
U of Texas Southwestern

Notice my west coast bias. Someone with knowlege of East Coast programs will have to fill in the rest.

Bottom dwellers? Hmmm, that's a tuff one, my dream program could be your dump. I would stay clear of King Drew Medical center in Los Angeles. I know nothing about their ophtho program, but the hospital tends to frequent the headlines here about loosing JHACHO accreditation, etc, etc. try to talk to someone on the inside before applying there.

Good luck!

Thanks for the replies and by all means keep them coming! I'm a DO MSII and am aware of the fact that no matter how well I do on the USMLE, I'm not going to get into a top-tier Allo program. From what I can tell the few DO programs out there are not all that great, though, I can't get a definitive answer from anyone. So, I just wanted to get a feel for the bottom to mid-tier programs to see where to look as far as rotation electives.

Thanks again!