2013 Match Results

[tysabri]

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Hey everyone! Congratulations to everyone on matching!

I saw that the internal medicine forum has a thread with info about where everyone matched and their stats, etc - so thought it might be helpful for future applicants if we start one for neurology. Their format was something like this:

Med school rank: top 10, top 25, top 50, etc.

Step scores:

Rank/AOA:

Clinicals: Honors, high pass, etc.

Applied:

Interview Offers:

Interviewed:

Matched:

Anything Special about your app:

Advice for future applicants:

 

[NeurologyDO]

Med school rank: Top 5 Osteopathic school

Step scores: 211/220

Rank/AOA: Third quarter >_<

Clinicals: We don't have honors or "high pass". I passed everything

Applied: 44 programs, ACGME

Interview Offers: about 25 programs

Interviewed: 12

Matched: First choice

Anything Special about your app: Lots of volunteer work. No research or publications. Strong recommendation letter from someone who works for a top neuro program

Advice for future applicants: Don't stress out! I now realize I applied to way too many programs! I didn't apply in the North east, however Neuro interviews overall are pretty chill. I strong advise to do away rotations at programs you are very interested in, and get recommendation letters from those programs! 🙂

 

[EuroDoc]

Med school rank: No clue, but university is top 50 worldwide. European school.

Step scores: 269/264/PASS

Rank/AOA: Say what?

Clinicals: Passed with high marks.

Applied: 35-40 programs

Interview Offers: 12

Interviewed: 5

Matched: First choice

Anything Special about your app: PS was extremely strong IMHO (two PD's told me my PS was the reason why I was amongst the group of applicants who were invited first)

Advice for future applicants: Kill the boards, don't neglect your PS, get great LOR's = will get you the interview. Prep you azz off for the IV = get the job.

 

[magendie]

Med school rank: top 50

Step scores: 250s/260s

Rank/AOA: 1st quartile, AOA

Clinicals: Honors everything except High Pass in surgery

Applied: 28 programs (way too many in retrospect)

Interview Offers: 28 offers

Interviewed: 15 programs

Matched: #4

Anything Special about your app: a lot of research, good LORs (or so I was told by some interviewers)

Advice for future applicants: I was continually told throughout the interview process that neurology is not competitive and that I'd likely get my #1 choice. However, I didn't realize that even if the specialty itself is non-competitive, the top-tier programs still are very competitive, so if you're interviewing at these places, still reach for the stars but realize that you may not get your first choice. If you have your heart set on one of these places, it might not be a bad idea to do an away rotation at one of them.

 

[neuro2013]

I agree with Magendie's comment above - based on the outcomes of 2013 match, after talking to many people, it does seem that if you have your heart set on a specific one of the, say, "top 5 neurology programs" in the country, you should consider an away rotation and doing a fair amount of research on that program too (e.g. find someone at your school that went there, etc). If you are not set on one of those, it appears a bit easier to get your #1 without such directed targeting of a particular program (i.e. you don't need an away etc). Alternatively, if you don't care which of those "top programs" you get into (assuming you've got interviews at them) you're probably good to go also.

My personal approach was to find 3-4 programs I could set my heart on, and I tried my best to maintain that I didn't care which I got -- this is WAY easier said than done b/c uncertainty is much more uncomfortable than starting to make future plans. The season is long, and uncertainty gets annoying, so I think a lot of people start thinking about neighborhoods, calling friends, making decisions in their head. But if you can manage, I would recommend trying not to get attached. It is unfortunate that we are forced to rank programs because I noticed that as soon as people started making the rank list they started getting attached -- even if they actually didn't care two days prior to ranking!

So, in summary, stay strong, and maintain in your mind that there are several "perfect" places (which there are!). Get excited about 3-4 places, do some second looks , meet future mentors at each place, don't just put in the effort to your top 1-2 programs. Maybe even refuse to tell people your final rank list and only tell them your top 3-4 programs if they ask; this may reduce the tendency to start making mental declarations. It is all a mind game. Maybe even use this as an opportunity to practice your meditation skills of non-attachment. There were a lot of disappointed people this year (not just in neurology!), and I think much of it was unnecessary disappointment. Hope this helps : )

 

[drdoomore]

Med school rank: top 50

Step scores: 250/260s

Rank/AOA: no idea/AOA

Clinicals: all Honors

Applied: 20 programs

Interview Offers: 20

Interviewed: 14

Matched: #1

Anything Special about your app: no, did some research (not specifically neuro but related) before med school and had some publications (not 1st author), also had some neuro research experience in med school

Advice for future applicants: apply broadly at places you think you will definitely be a good candidate as well as those which you think you have no shot at as you may be surprised, and try small as well as big programs to get a feel for what you like...the top few places are tough (but not impossible!) to get interviews from but otherwise if you have average scores and grades you will get a lot of really good interviews. Even if you don't you still have a very high likelihood of matching and becoming a Neurologist! Research can boost your application as well and I highly recommend at least a couple of months in med school. I was surprised at how many programs I liked, it was a tough decision but I would have been happy at any of my top 5 choices...GOOD LUCK!