Can he match?

[raiderette]

Truly writing for a friend. He abandoned SDN after pre-med, but recently called me in a panic. He had high pass on almost all his core rotations ( missing honors because of his NBME score). His Step 1 was 235, but Step 2 was 225. He had a good amount of research on undergrad, but only one summer of med school research. Attendings love him and his LORs will basically say he is a "child whisperer". Parents love him.
I tried to tell him his Step 2 won't matter, but I am not sure. He didn't study much because he spent his time on the wards, how much will this hurt him in child neurology? He doesn't care about reputation, but seems to want to study epilepsy.

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[Postictal Raiden]

He’ll match

 

[raiderette]

Should he focus on lower ranked schools, or can he look at any 20-50 schools? He would like Pittsburgh or Mayo. He doesn't want to end up in a place that ith oppressive political environment ( deep South).

 

[babybrains]

The low Step 2 won't help him, but he can still match. Looking at this year's spreadsheet, someone with a 220 step 2 (albeit an improvement on their step 1) got 17 interviews out of 24 applications, and another person with 227 step 1/227 step 2 got 19 interviews out of 30 apps. He'll certainly need to apply relatively broadly, but that doesn't mean he can't toss in Pitt or Mayo to see how they go. This year was less of a shoo-in than last year, per charting the outcomes (only 1 unmatched US senior!), but the odds are still in his favor as a US student.

Also, as a note, he should list his undergrad research on ERAS in addition to his med school research. Research was a pretty big topic at most of the child neuro interviews I went to.