Advice on program list for general surgery

[nashtrash]

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Hey guys,

I'm putting together my list of programs to apply to (for general surgery) and have a hard time gauging which programs I'm actually competitive for. I have an ok board score but unimpressive grades (230; 3rd quarter at a top 20 school). I have an advisor that is super nice but does a lot of sugar-coating.

"Stretch" programs are easy to come up with, but the others arent. Do you guys have any suggestions for programs that train their residents well and would interview me?

 

[njbmd]

Hi there,
A good source of info on your competitiveness is the program director of the surgery program at your school. This person generally attends national meetings and knows what is out there. Other good sources of infor are the residents in surgery at your school, especially the PGY-1s who are fresh from the Match experience.

The American College of Surgeons website is pretty good in terms of letting you know how competitive a program is. If a program has more than 50% AOA, you know that it is pretty competitive.

It is good to have one or two stretch programs but not too many. Apply to enough programs to have 10 to 15 interviews. If you don't get enough interviews,then apply to more programs (expensive but worth it).

General Surgery stayed pretty competitive this year so do not plan on scrambling into anything categorical. Get with your Department chair, your program director (or coordinator if they are a reliable source) and your clinical faculty advisor to get a good strong list.

Good luck!
njbmd 🙂

 

[ivan lewis]

It's hard to say just based on numbers alone. Other factors, such as location are important (generally, it's much tougher to match to a NY program than a program in the midwest). However, given your step I score and your med school (I'm assuming Vandy), I'd say you'd be interviewed at above average academic programs but probably not at the elite academic programs. I'm also a big fan of the away rotation (it tells the program that you're really interested and also helps you to decide if the program is right for you). If I were you, I'd do an away at a place such as Emory (if you wanted to stay down south). It's probably a "reach" for you without an away, but if you rotated there and kicked ass, who knows?

 

[ggx12]

Hi there,
A good source of info on your competitiveness is the program director of the surgery program at your school. This person generally attends national meetings and knows what is out there. Other good sources of infor are the residents in surgery at your school, especially the PGY-1s who are fresh from the Match experience.

The American College of Surgeons website is pretty good in terms of letting you know how competitive a program is. If a program has more than 50% AOA, you know that it is pretty competitive.

It is good to have one or two stretch programs but not too many. Apply to enough programs to have 10 to 15 interviews. If you don't get enough interviews,then apply to more programs (expensive but worth it).

General Surgery stayed pretty competitive this year so do not plan on scrambling into anything categorical. Get with your Department chair, your program director (or coordinator if they are a reliable source) and your clinical faculty advisor to get a good strong list.

Good luck!
njbmd 🙂

any links? anything that we can check online?