Chances of matching into an academic Ob/gyn program

[pinthetailonthemedstudent]

Hello everyone. So I've seen quite a few people posting about their chances of matching into their desired specialty but I haven't quite seen someone in my situation.


So I come from a pretty small medical school in the midwest, not top 40. I got a 224 on the USMLE Step 1 in June of 2017, which was lower than I was hoping but nothing I can do about that now. I'm doing alright on clerkships, but I've found it much harder to honor clinically than I expected. Our school recently changed their grading policies too so it's just been a mess. I haven't had my Ob/gyn rotation yet, but I have it in 6 weeks. I have a couple abstracts and a publication in the works. I also have some global health experience in India as well as a graduate certificate Bioethics (don't know how much that matters...). I'd like to match at an academic institution or if that's not possible then a community hospital but in a city, preferably on the east coast. Would that be possible, considering I'm coming from a very small school with a lower than average Step 1 score? Also, I'm worried about my LORs because they probably won't be coming from big names unless I get to go somewhere pretty big for my Sub-I next year.

So basically, what should I be doing to beef up my CV to have a decent chance at an academic institution? Thanks!

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[Dr G Oogle]

You should be relatively fine. There are plenty of academic hospitals out there with good programs. Just apply broadly. Maybe figure out 1 or 2 places you really want to go to and then do an AI or two there. You're step 1 score is average for obgyn (not sure what the actual obgyn average step score but you can loook that up on charting the outcomes of the match), it's just what I see at our program (academic, 2nd tier). Also if you have resources at your school try to do some outreach like working at a free clinic, doing sex Ed stuff for schools (most PDs value this experience over research, except for the very top top programs).