--Board Scores: Step 1: 263 Step 2: 253 (took after submitting, only asked about it at one interview)
--AOA and class rank: Not AOA, top 25%
--Reputation of medical school: Top 25
--Research: Zero pubs, 1 ophtho grand rounds presentation, 2 non-ophtho podium presentations, multiple projects
--Honors in clerkships: N/A (school does A-F, mostly A's and one B+)
--# and where you did away rotations: 1, USC
--# of programs you applied to: 65ish
--Where invited for interviews (both offers and the ones you actually attended): Attended: Iowa, Michigan, USC, UTSW, Emory, UPenn, Washington, NYU, Georgetown, BU, CPMC, LSU - New Orleans, Offered: Northwestern, UAB, Arkansas, Virginia, Wake Forest, Tulane
--Where matched: #1
--Anything that helped/hurt your app:
1. Home Ophtho Program/LORs: pretty big factor that is relatively out of our control (and often under the radar compared to scores and research). I chose letter writers that knew me well > big names. But also was strategic about using a joint letter so that one attending who is very involved with AAO and was a previous PD would be on my letter
2. Step score: helped with securing a few interviews, but once at the interview it was a non-factor
3. Non-traditional personal statement: non-science major in college and wrote my PS around this. Was commented on in every interview without fail, had a quick blurb ready about how that jived with ophtho
4. Away rotation: probably did not help get me many extra invites besides the away institution, but did help open up the "West" region. I did not impress anyone on my away and I did not go out of my way to do so. Was a super fun month, met a lot of great people, but the role of the away month is not the same as in plastics/ortho.
5. Extracurriculars: was often asked about one-two of these during my interviews, had a wide variation but not anything super impressive.
6. Research: I did very minimal research in med school. Helped on a couple of non-ophtho projects, had zero publications. Had one main ophtho project that I discussed at interviews. From my experience knowing the in's and out's of the project was as or more important than the fact that we had not published anything from it.
7. AOA/grades: never was discussed, grades vary so much from school to school I think if you have decent grades, they will not hold you back in any way
--Comments on specific programs:
It is pretty obvious on interviews where places fall on the hand-holding to very autonomous spectrum, which I found to be the most important to me. Most places nowadays have very similar things with a few +/-'s (cataracts numbers, nightfloat, integrated TY, etc...)
Very Autonomous: UTSW, Emory, USC , Washington (all happened to have a county hospital AND a VA, ended up with good surgical numbers)
More hand-holding: Iowa, Michigan, UPenn (not that residents do not have autonomy at these places, but there is more emphasis on attending to resident instruction)
Others fell in between on the spectrum
