If you're applying, then post here. It would be nice to share your experiences and meet other applicants on the interview trail. Or to simply post and make it known that you're applying for the upcoming match! Good luck!
I'll be applying to ophtho in the Army and in the '05 SF match. I don't start my first ophtho rotation until June though and haven't thought too much about where to apply to yet (outside of army residencies). Right now I'm still doing well child visits on Peds
Count me in as an applicant for the 2005 match. It's already the middle of April and there's so much to do!
I am applying as well. Just finishined filling out the app for my 2nd of 2 away rotations. BTW, would *love* to go to Iowa, (but will apply all over!)
Hello I am an IMG from Greece doing now Glaucoma research in Canada. I am hoping to apply for the 2005 match in ophtho. I am panicking a bit cause of the high standards and the IMG handicap but there is not much I can do except work hard. Cheers, D
I'm going to be applying this year and I have been working on trying to get an out of town elective set up for July for the last 2 months. It appears July is not the best month. However, based on my schedule it is the only month I have free before applying in AUG/SEPT. Some institutions are full untill OCT (I assume that is to late?). My question is...How important is an out of town elective? I have been told a LOR at another institution is strongly recommended. Most institutions do not take students in July (ex Emory) and it is difficult to get an out of town set up when they only take 1-2 students and fill with their own students first. I have also tried with Iowa which is also full. Miami sends out a letter before hand implying they will not even write LOR for students nor will they give honors. I am so confused and so tired!!!!!!! Any advice on Out of Town's would be greatly appreciate. Also any advice on how important they are would help as well. thanks
Completing an away rotation may not be as important as some may emphasize. I feel that doing an away rotation is important if your school doesn't have an academic ophthalmology progam or if the ophthalmology deptartment is small. Otherwise doing an away rotation rotation is not that helpful. You may want to contact specific attendings at Iowa and inquire if they are willing to work with a student for a month. I strongly recommend Dr. Oetting: http://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/eyeforum/about.htm Sept. and Oct. are too late if you're applying this year. Good luck!
Hey Dr. Doan, I'm a new forum member -- thanks for all the help and advice. I'm just wondering about this, though. Away rotations can be useful for a particular program that you really want a better shot of getting in to, right? Even if done as late as September? From what I understand away rotations can be a double-edged sword, and the only way for an away rotation to really help is to work very hard, and try to know nearly as much as a PGY2. Anyway, I'm in for long haul, and I can't wait to meet everyone on the interview trail.
Welcome to the forum! Away rotations serve 4 main functions: 1) Another opportunity for LORs. 2) Allow students to visit a different ophthalmology dept. for comparison. 3) Allow students who don't have a strong ophthalmology dept. at their school to complete elective rotations in ophthalmology. 4) Provide an advantage to match at a specific program. For this to be true, the student must perform as good if not better than the current PGY-2's. This is very difficult to do, so I don't even see this as being a good reason to complete an away rotation. Hence, you are correct in stating that doing an away can be a double-edged sword.
I guess I should throw my 2 cents in. I go to a small school without a program so I had to do away rotations (I did 2). If I were to do it all over again, I would have done a rotation at Iowa and I would have approached the 2 programs about possibly rotating with one attending for a significant portion of the elective. The problem I ran into was that the electives were structured in such a way as to give me contact with most of the subspecialties. You could see, then, that I was usually only spending 2-4 half-days at max with a given doc. Who can write a letter for you based on that amount of time, no matter how impressive you are? So if you're just doing the away to see the wide world of ophtho (which is great, mind you) then do what I did. If you would actually like to get a letter or 2, ask the programs about how flexible they might be with the structure of your rotation. Maybe it'll work.
Thanks for the response. So, my ambitious nature is wondering exactly what performing as good as a PGY2 means. Would this apply to Ophtho knowledge, medicine knowledge, work ethic, or all of the above (and more)? I don't think there's much of a chance of knowing as much about medicine in general since PGY2s have 2 extra years of experience, but if it's just Ophtho and work ethic then it might be a bit more possible (although I agree, very difficult). So, if one were crazy enough to try to do this, do you have any recommendations as a sort of measuring stick. Maybe a textbook or something (I've got another question about good textbooks, but I'll start a new thread for that). Thanks again!!
I am also going to be applying in this next years match...i go to WVU med school, we have a nice ophtho department, some really good docs...however i think our department is mainly clinical it seems, i wonder if this will affect things for me since not much research goes on...we have one or two pretty big names from what i hear and other pretty well known ppl either because most of our doctors ive noticed either did their residency or fellowship are very top places like IOWA, WILMER, BOSTON EYE and EAR. Anyhow....GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE, I HAVE A FEELING ITS GOING TO BE A VERY COMPETATIVE YEAR THE WAY I SEE THINGS GOING.
Welcome to the forum! Students don't have to come from research eye departments to be competitive. You should be fine if you have strong LORs from ophthalmology faculty. In regards to being as good as a PGY-2 when doing an away rotation, you may not have as much knowledge, but you can work just as hard and know how to do the exam. I was just making the point that away rotations are a good way help the program know you better, but it's not an easy way to matching.
Hey everyone!! WOW, many good applicants for ophtho this year. I am too applying for various away rotations and July has given me a hard time. Hope all of us land good residency positions!!
I'll be applying this year. I will be doing an away elective at USC at Doheny. Anyone gonna be out there? Should be fun.
Hi everyone! I am applying for ophthalmology too and just stumbled upon this forum today....its already given me great advice! Good luck to everyone
what the hell...count me in too. This is going to be tough. Does anyone know what are the chances for an American FMG from England with Step 1 of 235+ and 2 good LORS from US faculty. I'm concerned because these letters are not from really "big names" or phenomenal letters but still they're fairly decent. I've done 4 ophtho electives and have few months of research experience with no publications as of yet. Just based on this info, do I have at least a 50% chance of going to a medium tier program? to any program?
goniolens, sounds like our applications are pretty equal, except I was an american grad and did slightly better on step I, yet here I sit, waiting to re-apply. Give it a shot though, it's a bit of a crap shoot.
Thanks for the encouragement. I just wanted to hear from one of you guys that there is a chance... From your previous posts, sounds like you got a bit unlucky. Surely, with your re-application you'll show a degree of persistence that comes from a passion for the field. I think this is a positive point. Best of luck!
Whats up Geddy? Glad to hear you are still in the game, I'm sure we'll see each other around on the trail again. Just thought you'd like to know, I'm going to see your namesake on wednesday night, should be a good show.
To everyone: The best advice that was given to me was to "wear the belt and the suspenders". That is, apply to a ton of programs, do ALL your interviews, and rank ALL your programs. I know of one student who gave up and withdrew because he only got one interview. He would have matched if he stuck it out.
