Best med. school to maximize good plastic surgery match?

[ksimonelic]

I will be an M1 in the fall of 2007. I've been accepted to the University of Miami and Indiana University. I have a Master's degree in biology and a PNAS publication. I am also planning to do research while in med. school. As of now I am interested in plastic surgery and am trying to decide which med. school to attend. They are both good schools and I would love to live in Miami since I'm from Indiana. Do any of you think one of these schools would be better considering my desired future speciality? Any feedback would be much appreciated. Thanks.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[EndSong]

Given UM's close proximity to South Beach, I would go for that one. I believe that area is second only to Los Angeles in terms of Plastic Surgeries performed (at least as far as the US is concerned).

 

[cdql]

Is there a difference in tuition?

I might be inclined to head to IU if the in-state tuition is significantly less than the tuition of UM. I think solid grades and a solid Step 1 score are probably more important factors than where you attend medical school.

That being said, it would be pretty hard to give up attending a school in sunny, bright Miami 😛

 

[Ergo]

Although there are alot of plastic surgeons in Miami that doesnt mean it will help you get a spot. The beach and night life is fun though.

If you really want to do plastics look on www.plasticseducation.com and www.plastics2002.com at the match list data. The lists of people matched and from what schools is posted from the last 4 years. Also it has a list of schools with integrated plastic surgery programs.

There are around 400 applicants for 93 or so spots, depending on the year.
You dont have to be AOA and 250 boards to get in, although if they dont know you then it helps.

To inprove your chances go to a med school that has an integrated plastic surgery program that you can apply to straight out of medical school.
Your very best chance of matching is at your home program where they know you and where you maybe did summer research etc. Next best chance is where you do away rotations during fall of 4th year. After that its a free-for-all. Tough to compete against all the gunners and chameleons in just one interview day.

University of Texas Medical Branch matched 11/12 of their plastics applicants the past 2 years. No other school has that kind of a track record. Although when you look at the lists over the past few years you will see that the same few schools match a few people most years. The posts on this site will be helpful, also look at the predecessor website <www.plastics2002.com> which has the match lists for 2002-2005 and lots of informative posts over the past few years.

<www.plasticseducation.com>