Concerned about chance - MD/PhD with few honors and no clinical research

[ophthohopeful2017]

Hi all,

Long-term lurker here, would appreciate your advice on my chances of matching into ophtho.

MD/PhD from top 10 program
Step 1 254

1st author basic science paper in a mid-high impact journal on neuro circuitry in the visual cortex. Did a lot of microsurgery for my project and loved it. Numerous co-author papers in high impact journals, none related to ophtho.

MS3 honors in surgery and neurology, pass in the rest (no HP at my program). Likely not AOA.

Did a 2-wk ophtho elective in 3rd year with a junior faculty and working on a clinical project with him, manuscript in preparation but unlikely to be published before interviews. Doing a 4-wk ophtho rotation next month.

I'm from a neuro research background and continue to be interested in neurodevelopment and regeneration, so ideally would like to get into a program with good support and resources for research. But such programs tend to be top tier and ultra competitive; would my lack of honors and clinical ophtho research may put them out of my reach? How big of a selling point would my microsurgery experience be?

I'm also debating whether I should do my ophtho rotation in glaucoma with the junior faculty to get a more personal letter, or a big-name in cornea for a likely more generic letter. I know a more personal letter is always better, but most of my ophtho experience has been in neuro-ophtho and glaucoma, and the ophtho advisor at my program questioned if I like the rest of the eye (I do!). I wonder if program directors would echo his concerns, and whether I should go for cornea to demonstrate that I know and like the anterior segments as well...

Thanks in advance for your helpful input!

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[Trichromatic]

Hi all,

Long-term lurker here, would appreciate your advice on my chances of matching into ophtho.

MD/PhD from top 10 program
Step 1 254

1st author basic science paper in a mid-high impact journal on neuro circuitry in the visual cortex. Did a lot of microsurgery for my project and loved it. Numerous co-author papers in high impact journals, none related to ophtho.

MS3 honors in surgery and neurology, pass in the rest (no HP at my program). Likely not AOA.

Did a 2-wk ophtho elective in 3rd year with a junior faculty and working on a clinical project with him, manuscript in preparation but unlikely to be published before interviews. Doing a 4-wk ophtho rotation next month.

I'm from a neuro research background and continue to be interested in neurodevelopment and regeneration, so ideally would like to get into a program with good support and resources for research. But such programs tend to be top tier and ultra competitive; would my lack of honors and clinical ophtho research may put them out of my reach? How big of a selling point would my microsurgery experience be?

I'm also debating whether I should do my ophtho rotation in glaucoma with the junior faculty to get a more personal letter, or a big-name in cornea for a likely more generic letter. I know a more personal letter is always better, but most of my ophtho experience has been in neuro-ophtho and glaucoma, and the ophtho advisor at my program questioned if I like the rest of the eye (I do!). I wonder if program directors would echo his concerns, and whether I should go for cornea to demonstrate that I know and like the anterior segments as well...

Thanks in advance for your helpful input!

You have an MD/PhD and a 254 from a top 10 program. You can match anywhere. As far as microsurgery, I did this too in a translational lab. Most people asked about my clinical stuff, but those who asked about my basic stuff (which was much, much more time and effort) liked it. It's more of the different experience and work it took, nothing to do with microsurgery itself. I can't do an ILM peel because of my 2 years of lab lol.

 

[EyeDR_oo]

Taking it back to the eight ball.....Outlook good....Who's next?

 

[DrZeke]

Taking it back to the eight ball.....Outlook good....Who's next?

Please don't encourage this


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