But would you need above-average Step 1 to match at a place like Cleveland Clinic? I wasn't planning to apply there because I thought you'd need to be an exceptional applicant to match.
CCF largely does not post their resident lists because their doximity ranking belies the caliber of applicants (purely from a statistical standpoint, I'm sure they're all great physicians) that they get. In terms of the applicants and matched residents they get, a large percentage of them are IMGs and DO's. It is a solid residency, and while I admittedly did not rank them highly because I was not a fan of the program and my perceptions of the program on interview day were less than rosy, they do match to some respectable fellowship spots. My understanding, however, is that they do not favor their own residents for their own (often quite prestigious) fellowship spots, which makes them much less desirable for residency training. By contrast, University Hospitals right across the street is usually thought of as the superior program for medicine (disclaimer: I trained at one of these two programs, and you can probably guess which one.).
That being said,
application time is not the time to strategize beyond applying to places you might have a chance at. If you're looking to match at a place that is academic and they have taken a DO in the last couple of years, just put in an application. These apps are much less expensive than applications to medical school.
If anyone who trained at the clinic would like to chime in, I would love to hear your perspective as well.