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Hello all,
I've created this resource and thought it worth sharing with all of you as a guide to help people decide what residency programs within neurosurgery they may be most interested in and want to apply to; please see the attached. I'll also go through what each category is / how I filled them in for those interested, and for columns which aren't completely self-explaining. Feel free to download this and use it as a basis for your own working through.
Population density, city population, and urban population data were gathered from the Wikipedia articles for each city. Like all other columns with blue-colored heading cells, this information was all used in my calculation of the personal score I attributed to the program, based on my interests and cares.
Cost of Living + Rent I gathered from Cost of Living Index 2018 Mid-Year
The In City? column was used to adjust the population data from the earlier columns
The Region column is a bit finnicky to my interests and definitions; when I wasn't sure what column a state should go in, I tried to figure it out based on what its climate was most similar to, as climate is the main reason (outside where I'm from, where family is, where I am now) I like certain regions over others.
The required research months and possible months toward fellowship reflect my interests - I would want to do as little research as possible and to be able to do an enfolded fellowship if possible, so if time could be spent in research or a fellowship, I put it in as time for possible fellowship. If it said required research time and either doesn't specify what that means (because sometimes it can actually be used for fellowship) or says it must be basic science or clinical research, I put it in the required research months column.
The Fellowships column refers to what enfolded fellowships are available; when not specified, I just put the fellowships they have in general. I know that there are cases when you can do an enfolded fellowship at another institution, but this seems like a huge hassle to do in the middle of residency, and thus I didn't include those here.
Dox rank is the rank of the program on doximity based on "reputation"
Residents/yr is, on average, how many residents they have per year. So if it's always 2, then it's 2. If it rotates between 2 and 1 every other year, I put 1.5. If they used to have 1, but are now approved for and do 2 every year, I put 2.
Personal Score is the culmination of all the blue column data; I will get to this derivation in a minute.
Average pay comes from the hospitals' GME pages, where pay is usually listed clearly; I added the first 7 years and divided by 7. I did not include the effect of other benefits because of the complexity which would be involved in figuring out how much they are all worth.
Required board scores refer to what you must score on the ABNS exam to continue in the program. Most programs either explicitly state or are assumed to require only a passing score, which from my research appears to be approximately at or above the 10th percentile on the exam. Some programs explicitly state that they require higher scores, however.
There are a bunch of other columns I haven't filled in yet which would be quite important, but things you probably wouldn't be able to figure out well until you can ask residents during interviews.
Special considerations are things that simply don't fit into other categories; adjustments thereto are my own personal amount I want that consideration to affect my personal score for the program.
Malignancy adjustments are based on what people with experience with the residency program / department have reported.
Application requirements are not used in calculations of score because they are pretty superfluous to what the program is about in my opinion. But they are good things to know about. For the most part, the requirements were all just about the same, and there are few surprises. But there are a few programs that require step 2 scores or have strict cutoffs for step 1 scores, so it is good to be aware of.
Just a note: this covers the ACGME-approved programs, but also has the osteopathic programs as well, because, though I am to be an MD and am interested in ACGME-accredited programs, (a) some of these programs are working on ACGME accreditation, and (b) with the dawning single-accreditation system, I don't believe this will matter by the time I would be entering residency (2021).
My personal score adjusts largely based on the size of the city (I preferred small), the amount of research required (I preferred little to none), the possibility of an enfolded fellowship (which I preferred), and some regional preferences, with smaller adjustments coming from cost of living and pay, which fellowships I preferred (I thought I might want to do spine when I started doing this, and rolled with it, even though I'm much less certain what I want to do anymore, which is honestly not a bad thing), and program size (I preferred smaller; not sure if that's still true, but I rolled with it). You can look at the formula I used to see what I did precisely, and can adjust it to reflect your interests.
Some may ask why I did this, especially so early on in med school. When I applied to medical schools, I didn't go much beyond a couple regional preferences and what schools had the best reputations, statistical likelihood of me being accepted, and interesting curriculum quirks I wanted (or did not want) in my education. I ended up at a great school, but even so, that was due in large part to luck, and the fact that med schools seem much less different on paper than neurosurg residencies do. Since neurosurg residency is long, and the curriculum can change quite a bit from program to program, I wanted to be logical about this, and not overlook a program that might be great for me just because other people wouldn't be interested in it, and I thus never hear about it.
I think that just about covers it! I hope this is useful to some people interested in neurosurgery, and it may even be useful as a template beyond just neurosurgery. If you have questions, let me know!
I've created this resource and thought it worth sharing with all of you as a guide to help people decide what residency programs within neurosurgery they may be most interested in and want to apply to; please see the attached. I'll also go through what each category is / how I filled them in for those interested, and for columns which aren't completely self-explaining. Feel free to download this and use it as a basis for your own working through.
Population density, city population, and urban population data were gathered from the Wikipedia articles for each city. Like all other columns with blue-colored heading cells, this information was all used in my calculation of the personal score I attributed to the program, based on my interests and cares.
Cost of Living + Rent I gathered from Cost of Living Index 2018 Mid-Year
The In City? column was used to adjust the population data from the earlier columns
The Region column is a bit finnicky to my interests and definitions; when I wasn't sure what column a state should go in, I tried to figure it out based on what its climate was most similar to, as climate is the main reason (outside where I'm from, where family is, where I am now) I like certain regions over others.
The required research months and possible months toward fellowship reflect my interests - I would want to do as little research as possible and to be able to do an enfolded fellowship if possible, so if time could be spent in research or a fellowship, I put it in as time for possible fellowship. If it said required research time and either doesn't specify what that means (because sometimes it can actually be used for fellowship) or says it must be basic science or clinical research, I put it in the required research months column.
The Fellowships column refers to what enfolded fellowships are available; when not specified, I just put the fellowships they have in general. I know that there are cases when you can do an enfolded fellowship at another institution, but this seems like a huge hassle to do in the middle of residency, and thus I didn't include those here.
Dox rank is the rank of the program on doximity based on "reputation"
Residents/yr is, on average, how many residents they have per year. So if it's always 2, then it's 2. If it rotates between 2 and 1 every other year, I put 1.5. If they used to have 1, but are now approved for and do 2 every year, I put 2.
Personal Score is the culmination of all the blue column data; I will get to this derivation in a minute.
Average pay comes from the hospitals' GME pages, where pay is usually listed clearly; I added the first 7 years and divided by 7. I did not include the effect of other benefits because of the complexity which would be involved in figuring out how much they are all worth.
Required board scores refer to what you must score on the ABNS exam to continue in the program. Most programs either explicitly state or are assumed to require only a passing score, which from my research appears to be approximately at or above the 10th percentile on the exam. Some programs explicitly state that they require higher scores, however.
There are a bunch of other columns I haven't filled in yet which would be quite important, but things you probably wouldn't be able to figure out well until you can ask residents during interviews.
Special considerations are things that simply don't fit into other categories; adjustments thereto are my own personal amount I want that consideration to affect my personal score for the program.
Malignancy adjustments are based on what people with experience with the residency program / department have reported.
Application requirements are not used in calculations of score because they are pretty superfluous to what the program is about in my opinion. But they are good things to know about. For the most part, the requirements were all just about the same, and there are few surprises. But there are a few programs that require step 2 scores or have strict cutoffs for step 1 scores, so it is good to be aware of.
Just a note: this covers the ACGME-approved programs, but also has the osteopathic programs as well, because, though I am to be an MD and am interested in ACGME-accredited programs, (a) some of these programs are working on ACGME accreditation, and (b) with the dawning single-accreditation system, I don't believe this will matter by the time I would be entering residency (2021).
My personal score adjusts largely based on the size of the city (I preferred small), the amount of research required (I preferred little to none), the possibility of an enfolded fellowship (which I preferred), and some regional preferences, with smaller adjustments coming from cost of living and pay, which fellowships I preferred (I thought I might want to do spine when I started doing this, and rolled with it, even though I'm much less certain what I want to do anymore, which is honestly not a bad thing), and program size (I preferred smaller; not sure if that's still true, but I rolled with it). You can look at the formula I used to see what I did precisely, and can adjust it to reflect your interests.
Some may ask why I did this, especially so early on in med school. When I applied to medical schools, I didn't go much beyond a couple regional preferences and what schools had the best reputations, statistical likelihood of me being accepted, and interesting curriculum quirks I wanted (or did not want) in my education. I ended up at a great school, but even so, that was due in large part to luck, and the fact that med schools seem much less different on paper than neurosurg residencies do. Since neurosurg residency is long, and the curriculum can change quite a bit from program to program, I wanted to be logical about this, and not overlook a program that might be great for me just because other people wouldn't be interested in it, and I thus never hear about it.
I think that just about covers it! I hope this is useful to some people interested in neurosurgery, and it may even be useful as a template beyond just neurosurgery. If you have questions, let me know!
