-Top 3-4 Med School w/ a very well-respected ophtho dept.
-AOA w/ many clinical honors and no poor grades
-Step 1: 247/99
-2 strong ophtho letters (1 reasonably well-known, 1 not)
-Ongoing ophtho research w/o publications
-1 prior presentation
-Numerous community service activities
-Went on 15 interviews, received many more interview offers. My interviews represented a range of programs. Received offers from virtually every strong program except Mass Eye & Ear.
-Received very favorable feedback at all interviews and even some of those mailed letters.
-I am a very normal person. I would like to think that I interview effectively.
DID NOT MATCH
I have absolutely no idea how this happened. My chairman and program director are completely dumbfounded. My school had many people applying in ophtho this year. Maybe a combo of just missing the cut at the strong programs and "this kid won't really come here" at some of the weaker ones. The only thing that I didn't do was have people make calls for me or send blanket "I will rank you highly" to every program. They are checking to make sure SF Match did not make a clerical error of some sort.
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Here's my contribution, Thanks Dr. Doan. I'll see you at UCLA!
--Board Scores: Step I 261 / Step 2 265
--AOA and class rank: no AOA at my school, no class rank
--Reputation of medical school: top 30
--Research: ophtho with 1 publication
--Honors in clerkships: honors in all clerkships, except for high pass in medicine
--# and where you did away rotations: 2 aways at bascom palmer and UCLA
--# of programs you applied to: ~50
--Where invited for interviews:Got about 35 offers, Went on 22 interviews, ranked 21 programs. Wilmer, Wills, Wash U, Michigan, UCSF, UCLA, Emory, CCF, Casey, and others.
--Where matched: Jules Stein / UCLA (#1 choice)
--Anything that helped your app: no phone calls, one really strong letter from a big wig faculty at my school, strong letter from away rotation that I sent after submitting the initial CAS, no MD/PhD, no other degree. Away rotation definitely helped.
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hey. thanks for all the advice. here's my small contribution...
--Board Scores: step 1 - 234, step 2 not taken
--AOA and class rank: AOA, no official class rank
--Reputation of medical school: top 25-30
--Research: 1 year of cardiovascular research w/publications pending, short ophtho research project (no pubs), several presentations
--Honors in clerkships: everything except medicine
--# and where you did away rotations: 1 @ wills
--# of programs you applied to: 40+
--Where invited for interviews: wills, emory, wash u, nyu, sinai, einstein, bu, rochester, umdnj, albany, st. lukes, tulane, st. vincents, north shore-lij, drexel
--Where matched: nyu/meeth (#3)
--Anything that helped your app: good performance on home & away rotations, be nice
other:
i decided to apply into ophtho pretty late (june), so it was a little hectic trying to get everything together. on top of that, my application was delayed 3 wks past the target date because of a recommender. those two factors probably cost me a bunch of interviews, so i feel lucky and relieved just to have matched. so to all future applicants, make sure you have multiple letter writers just in case a similar situation occurs.
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--Board Scores: 255
--AOA and class rank: top 1/3, no AOA
--Reputation of medical school: top 25
--Research: ophtho pubs
--Honors in clerkships: none
--# and where you did away rotations: 1; MCW
--# of programs you applied to: 25
--Where invited for interviews: 20
--Where matched: Wisconsin (#1)
--Anything that helped your app: heavy research in department, big-wig letter.
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boards- 223
applied-35 places
interviewed-10
matched- #1
honors- med,peds,psych
no aoa
two optho papers submitted, 1 arvo presentation
did rotation at institution i matched
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--Board Scores: 242
--AOA and class rank: senior AOA, 30/142
--Reputation of medical school: avg at best
--Research: unpublished review article
--# and where you did away rotations: 1 @ Vanderbilt
--# of programs you applied to: 24
--Where invited for interviews: 12
--Where matched: Vanderbilt
--Anything that helped your app: The away rotation was priceless for me. I know I'm not the best applicant numbers wise, but when a program sees you're competent, a hard worker, and that you actually have a personality it sure can't hurt.
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--Board Scores:step 1 238
--AOA and class rank: senior AOA, no class rank
--Reputation of medical school: (top 10, top 25, etc): top 50
--Research: (none, some ophtho with no publications, ophtho publications): 1 year off from med school to do research; 1 presentation, 1 poster at ARVO, 3 publications (submitted)
--Honors in clerkships: (especially surgery and medicine): honors in all except peds
--# and where you did away rotations:2 away, Penn, Baylor
--# of programs you applied to:51
--Where invited for interviews:UCSF, Baylor, WashU, Iowa, Penn, UIC, Oklahoma, Indiana, Loyola, Rush, Kentucky, Oregon, UC Irvine (total of 35)
--Where matched:Baylor!
--Anything that helped your app: (ie: a phone call from your advisor to another program, big-wig letter of recs, MD/PhD, other degree, SDN Forum, etc)
2 big letters
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--Board Scores: 253, 255
--AOA and class rank: AOA, 1st in class
--Reputation of medical school: Mid-lower tier
--Research: some ophtho with no publications
--Honors in clerkships: n/a
--# and where you did away rotations: UT Memphis
--# of programs you applied to: 43
--Where invited for interviews: UTSW. UAB, U Arkansas, UT memphis, WashU, Oklahoma, UVA, Emory, UF Galveston, NYEEI, Brown, Cincinnati, Baylor
--Where matched: U Arkansas
--Anything that helped your app: big-wig letter of recs
Thanks for running the forum - I appreciate the chance to read what other people are up to. Hope my info helps.
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--Board Scores:247/99
--AOA and class rank: Non-AOA
--Reputation of medical school:Top 30
--Research: 2-month research elective with a big wig
--Honors in clerkships: Honors in family medicine, OB/GYN, and OPHTHO, high passes in everything else
--# and where you did away rotations: 1 clinical at home institution, 1 clinical away, and 1 research away
--# of programs you applied to: ~40
--Where invited for interviews: 19 (I went to 16)
Kellogg, NYEEI, Mount sinai, Montefiore, Yale, UWash, LIJ, Temple, Brown, Albany, Syracuse, Nassau, NYMC, St luke, Drexel, Bronx-Leb, Penn state, USF, Howard
--Where matched: #4 (my home institution)
--Anything that helped your app: Two strong ophtho letters (1 from the big wig that I do research with, 1 from the residency director of my home institution)Some people say doing an elective is a 2-way sword, but I think it can always help you to get noticed and is always a plus (their expectation for your ophtho knowledge/skill as a med student is really not that high and you can impress them if you make extra effort to do some reading before the rotation) The key is to impress the decision makers(residency director, chairman, and selection committee) during the elective.
Good luck to those applying next year.
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--Board Scores: step 1 (99)
--AOA and class rank: senior AOA
--Reputation of medical school: top 30
--Research: some ophtho with abstract/pubs pending at time of interview
--Honors in clerkships: all except surgery
--# and where you did away rotations: 1 (UPenn)
--# of programs you applied to: 56
--Where invited for interviews: invited to about 30, went to 18 including NYU, NYEE, Columbia, Cornell, Cleveland Clinic, MEEI, BU, Baylor, UTSW, UNC, UVA, UCLA, Duke, UIC, etc.
--Where matched: UCLA
--Anything that helped your app: no big-wig letters from a chairman or anything, but one nice letter from a younger guy who is pretty well-known in his field. no phone calls.
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--Board Scores: 244/99
--AOA and class rank: no AOA or rank at my school
--Reputation of medical school: top 10
--Research: 4 ophtho pubs (2 first auth), took 1 yr off for research
--Honors in clerkships: no grades at my school
--# and where you did away rotations: 0
--# of programs you applied to: 22
--Where invited for interviews: 20
--Where matched: #1
--Anything that helped your app: 2 big-wig letters, phone call, have an MS (but I don't think that helped)
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--Board Scores: 246/99
--AOA and class rank: Junior AOA, no official rank.
--Reputation of medical school: Rinky-dink, bottom tier US MD school.
--Research: Some eye-related neuroscience with 2 minor presentations.
--Honors in clerkships: everything but OB/Gyn.
--# and where you did away rotations: Did 1- at the Mayo Clinic.
--# of programs you applied to: 35
--Where invited for interviews: 27 of 35 offered interviews. Went to: TT, UW (Seattle), OKC, UArk, UTMB, Mayo, UVA, UFL, USF, UW (Madison), Colorado, MCG.
--Where matched: Ooooooooklahoma! (2nd choice)
--Anything that helped your app: Prayer. Can't think of anything other than that and the above. My letters were from our surgery chair (a plastic surgeon), a pediatrician, and a community ophtho. They were good letters, but not anyone that an ophtho program director would know. No one made any phone calls, and I didn't do any real schmoozing.
I have been looking forward to filling out this form for a LONG time! It feels great to finally be on this end of things. Congrats to everyone who matched.
**Make sure you get involved politically in Oklahoma!
**