Any shot at an academic Ophthalmology program?

[osprey099]

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currently MSIII so don't have clinical grades yet
230 step 1
1 first author ophtho paper
3 coauthor on non-ophtho papers
Presented at ARVO (national ophtho conference)

Is there any chance I can get into an academic Ophtho residency? I know my step score is low and that the average Ophtho score is in the high 240s. Location does not matter to me since I'm single and don't have any family to support. I'll most likely be applying to all the academic ophtho programs.


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[GoldenFish]

Yes.

Have a solid back-up plan and mentally prepare for actually having to go through with it. Clinical grades are huge and yours are TBD - knock those outta the park. Also, be a likable person and team player, and get good letters; that alone is perhaps the biggest x-factor here.

 

[Donald Juan]

Just curious, is there any truly non-academic ophtho programs?

Aside from that, know that small fields like ophtho are the places where good letters (all should be from academic ophthalmologists) and your performance on home sub-I and away rotations are very important. I agree with above you really need strong grades to help out with your below average step score, but I don't think you're too low to be out of the running and you have a good research background already that you could add to in the next year.

 

[WilliamofOckham]

Just curious, is there any truly non-academic ophtho programs?

Aside from that, know that small fields like ophtho are the places where good letters (all should be from academic ophthalmologists) and your performance on home sub-I and away rotations are very important. I agree with above you really need strong grades to help out with your below average step score, but I don't think you're too low to be out of the running and you have a good research background already that you could add to in the next year.

There are a few programs at community hospitals, but these are few and far between. A couple in the NYC area come to mind (e.g., NUMC and Bronx-Lebanon).

 

[osprey099]

Yes.

Have a solid back-up plan and mentally prepare for actually having to go through with it. Clinical grades are huge and yours are TBD - knock those outta the park. Also, be a likable person and team player, and get good letters; that alone is perhaps the biggest x-factor here.

Are you allowed to apply to 2 different specialties when you say backup plan?


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[jih]

Are you allowed to apply to 2 different specialties when you say backup plan?


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Not a medical student yet, but you can apply to as many residences as you want AFAIK.

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[mimelim]

Are you allowed to apply to 2 different specialties when you say backup plan?


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Yes, but the vast majority of people do not unless they are really reaching. When I was applying to integrated vascular surgery, there were only ~20 programs that I could apply to (35 programs total and wife couldn't end up where a lot were), so I applied general surgery as well. That meant that I needed another personal statement and an entirely different set of LOR (some overlapping authors, but different letters).

 

[Psai]

Are you allowed to apply to 2 different specialties when you say backup plan?


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Applying to 1 different specialty is bad enough. But many people do 2, like plastics/gen surg or derm/im

 

[WilliamofOckham]

Is it reasonable to think I could apply to the SF Match for Ophtho and then apply to another speciality in the regular match?

Yes. You'll have to pay more for interviews and get one or two more letters than a student applying to just one, but it can most certainly be done.

Bear in mind, though, that you'll be interviewing for three types of programs: ophtho, specialty #2, and Prelim/TY programs.

 

[Donald Juan]

Is it reasonable to think I could apply to the SF Match for Ophtho and then apply to another speciality in the regular match?

I believe that ophtho is a specialty that highly encourages a home ophtho rotation plus 2 away rotations. Depending on when your school finishes m3 you might need to be pretty prudent in how you plan the first half of your M4 year if you plan to do all of those 3 rotations, an IM sub-I (to get letters for the backup), and some time to study/take step 2, which I would think would be high on your priorities given your mediocre step 1.

 

[WilliamofOckham]

I believe that ophtho is a specialty that highly encourages a home ophtho rotation plus 2 away rotations. Depending on when your school finishes m3 you might need to be pretty prudent in how you plan the first half of your M4 year if you plan to do all of those 3 rotations, an IM sub-I (to get letters for the backup), and some time to study/take step 2, which I would think would be high on your priorities given your mediocre step 1.

Two aways are not generally necessary, but given the OP's Step 1, you're right that he should aim to do two.

 

[GoldenFish]

Two aways are not generally necessary, but given the OP's Step 1, you're right that he should aim to do two.

Also be very strategic in where OP does the aways - "regional" programs that are not high-powered academic institutions.

This can all be done, OP - just know that it is a gigantic pain.

 

[osprey099]

Also be very strategic in where OP does the aways - "regional" programs that are not high-powered academic institutions.

This can all be done, OP - just know that it is a gigantic pain.

What factors go into determining where to "apply" for away rotations? Should I do them at places geographically close to home or at places where I think my stats match up?


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[Crayola227]

it's not that hard to manipulate your app for different specialties, just do a bunch of different stuff in med school, you should be good at boxchecking by now

sign up for everything FM, IM, gen surg, and optho related in your school as far as student and interest groups
same for psych, path, rads, anesthesia, neuro depending what backups you want
do well on those rotations, good news is schools require a clerkships in 5 of 9 I listed

do underserved work of some sort as your EC, that will help if you have to go FM/IM/psych backup, and can't hurt your optho app

I don't know how best you put together 4th year for optho, you'll have to look into that

if it were me I would put a couple of backup specialties down that might help a scramble or another match
FM, IM, rheum, neuro, path at least are tangentially relevant and allow you to continue to cultivate backup specialty interest cred and aren't the worst rotations for 4th year

when you are on these "backup" rotations before 4th year, claim that you are split between them and maybe a specialty, you're not sure which (hopefully this is true? if you're optho or die and can't say anything else, keep it to yourself?),

treat your IM rotation very seriously, since you'll need to apply IM prelim anyway, and maybe you'll want IM cat as your backup and then specialize into something else with fellowship, but know that you're not supposed to plan to go from IM cat --> optho, (I wouldn't, you'll burn a bridge, the only thing worse than burning a bridge is doing so premeditatedly), you can go IM prelim --> IM cat sometimes

treat your surg rotation very seriously, I think one pathway is surg prelim --> optho but I thought surg prelims were more difficult than IM prelims to not only obtain but actually *do*

neuro --> neuro-optho can be one pathway that is similar work, but not at all surgical
neuro is less competitive than optho but I don't know if it's a good backup for you, and I don't know how competitive it is or easy it is to go the neuro-optho pathway, the person I have seen practice this way I think just sort of created their practice to be that way but I'm not sure

just my ideas on worst case scenario career planning for all students