Honest Suggestions on WHERE to apply?

[Mye Eye]

You can message me if you'd prefer...

so i've been talkin to people at various "top" residencies, etc and they keep saying how important it is to be from a Pedigree or Legacy med school like Harvard, Hopkins, WashU, etc...otherwise i'm just, unfortunately, wasting my application...

so given that I am not from a "top 10" ranked school like that (though i am at a place I LOVE!!! )...where do u think I SHOULD apply? i have 50+ programs listed, and I want to be around 45 max

here is my info

--Board Scores: Step 1 - 242/98
--AOA and class rank: Senior AOA, Top 10%
--Reputation of medical school: top 60, private southern med school
--Research: research since year 1, numerous pending publications, no peer reviewed publications just yet - 1 should be out this month or next
--Honors in clerkships: surgery, family medicine, neurology, ophthalmology x3, pediatrics
--Letters: 1 surgery, 2 ophtho (2 glaucoma attendings)

thank you all in advance...any information or advice is MORE than welcome

good luck to everyone applying!!!!

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[rubensan]

1. what area of the country to do want to be located in for residency?

You can message me if you'd prefer...

so i've been talkin to people at various "top" residencies, etc and they keep saying how important it is to be from a Pedigree or Legacy med school like Harvard, Hopkins, WashU, etc...otherwise i'm just, unfortunately, wasting my application...

so given that I am not from a "top 10" ranked school like that (though i am at a place I LOVE!!! )...where do u think I SHOULD apply? i have 50+ programs listed, and I want to be around 45 max

here is my info

--Board Scores: 242/98
--AOA and class rank: possible senior AOA, status not known yet, top 10-15% of my class (i think top 10%)
--Reputation of medical school: top 50, private southern med school
--Research: research since year 1, numerous pending publications, no peer reviewed publications just yet
--Honors in clerkships: surgery, family medicine, neurology, ophthalmology x2, pediatrics
--Letters: 1 surgery, 2 ophtho (1 from a retina attending, 1 from a well known glaucoma attending)

thank you all in advance...any information or advice is MORE than welcome

good luck to everyone applying!!!!

 

[Mye Eye]

I would honestly be happy ANYWHERE...but being from the west coast originally, I am likely to apply to a few more programs in that direction

thank you in advance for your suggestions!!!

 

[7ontheline]

If you would be happy anywhere, and really love ophtho, why are you restricting your applications based on an arbitrary number? Not that you're a weak candidate, but enough solid candidates have posted here about not matching that I would at least consider it.

 

[Mye Eye]

understood...i was more concerned about programs where i have a good chance of getting into...i'd rather apply to 45 programs that i have a shot at...than 60 programs with 30 programs to which i have no chance

any advice is more than welcome...this whole match thing is pretty scary

thanks in advance everyone!!!

 

[Visionary]

First, your stats seem respectable to me. You'll hear some folks argue the shotgun approach, but I think you can probably be more selective than that. The key is to spread your applications over multiple tiers. You know what the top tier programs are. If you search prior posts on this site regarding programs, you'll get an idea of where the others lie. Don't count yourself out of the top programs, but don't load your CAS with them either. You may not get an interview offer from one of the top programs, but you'll never know unless you apply. Similarly, include some lower tier programs as a safety net. After all, the goal is to become an ophthalmologist, isn't it? There are some unfortunate souls with stats like your who did not match in years past, but that's not the norm. Keep in mind that the average Step I score for matching applicants is usually in the high 220s.

Best of luck!

 

[Mye Eye]

so are you thinking 15-20 "top tiers", 15-20 "middle tiers", and 5-15 "bottom tiers"?

if so, it's easy to figure out which are top tiers based on USNews alone...but what is a middle tier program? after the top USNews ranked ones, i really have no idea how to tell which is which

so anyone with experience at any programs? please let me know what you think...again, messaging me is fine...i'm sorry to bug the whole SDN forum with my posts...i just really have no idea how this all works since i'm a first time applicant (like maybe 500 some ppl )

anyways, thank you all again and best luck to everyone of my future colleagues!!!

 

[Visionary]

I cannot personally speak on all of the ophthalmology programs (don't know if anyone can). Everyone has different criteria when they go about picking programs (e.g., geographic region, program size, surgical numbers, relative strengths & weaknesses), so opinions about ranking the "unranked" programs will vary. I, for instance, did not look west of St. Louis and gave preference to retina-heavy programs. There are some programs that might be considered "middle-tier" that did not appeal to me. You can talk to residents in your home program, if there is one at your school, about their decision-making process. You can likewise talk to the faculty. You can also, as I suggested, search this forum for threads on the subject. Try searching the term "programs." You'll have to weed through some irrelevant threads, but there is some good information there. I seem to remember a "program compendium" thread.

 

[DiveMD]

I personally like the "apply broadly and early" approach. You certainly want to have a good combination of top, middle and low tier programs but you should at least have 30 programs in your application. I had way more than that. At the end...matching somewhere is better than not matching at all. Good luck!

 

[Mye Eye]

thank you all for the great responses thus far...it's REALLY been helpful!!! Keep it coming (if you have more )

good luck everyone!!! See you on the interview trail (hopefully)

 

[rubensan]

there are some great porgrams in the Western US that are not necessarily ranked in the Us News top 20. UC Davis, UC Irvine, Utah, Casey, U COlorado, California Pacific Medical Center are all outstanding ophthalmology programs. Further east: Oklahoma, Texas Tech and UT San Antonio all provide great ophthalmolgy training. Good Luck!

I would honestly be happy ANYWHERE...but being from the west coast originally, I am likely to apply to a few more programs in that direction

thank you in advance for your suggestions!!!