General Surgery Residency

[tyler]

Does anyone know that absolute deadline for taking Step 1 if I want to participate in the upcoming general surgery match (I am a 3rd yr medical). Also, does applying early increase my chances of getting in? Thanks!

- tyler

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[Stinky T]

Your profile says you are from Baltimore, Maryland. I'm not sure if this means that you are from JHU. Most schools require that you pass the USMLE Step 1 in order to move on to the clinical years. Considering that you are near the end of your third year, I am surprised that you haven't taken the USMLE. I would advise that you take the Exam as soon as possible. In other words, forget about program deadlines, take the USMLE ASAP !!!

Applying early for the match does not increase your chances. Selection of residents is not based on a rolling admissions process. The rank list is usually made after reviewing and interviewing all the candidates. You might want to consider talking to a MS IV or an administrator from your school. Considering that you will be a MS IV soon, you better start getting some better information !!

Stinky ? Copyright 2001 Stinky Tofu & Co, Inc.

 

[tyler]

thanks for the reply. you're right, i'm at hopkins and we are not required to take the boards to move on to the clinical years. most of the students, though, have already take them, but i personally think that the extra clinical years have helped me to digest all the information from 2nd year.

do you know when the deadline is for most general surgery programs? thanks again.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Stinky Tofu:
Your profile says you are from Baltimore, Maryland. I'm not sure if this means that you are from JHU. Most schools require that you pass the USMLE Step 1 in order to move on to the clinical years. Considering that you are near the end of your third year, I am surprised that you haven't taken the USMLE. I would advise that you take the Exam as soon as possible. In other words, forget about program deadlines, take the USMLE ASAP !!!

Applying early for the match does not increase your chances. Selection of residents is not based on a rolling admissions process. The rank list is usually made after reviewing and interviewing all the candidates. You might want to consider talking to a MS IV or an administrator from your school. Considering that you will be a MS IV soon, you better start getting some better information !!

Stinky ? Copyright 2001 Stinky Tofu & Co, Inc.•

 

[Winged Scapula]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by tyler:
thanks for the reply. you're right, i'm at hopkins and we are not required to take the boards to move on to the clinical years. most of the students, though, have already take them, but i personally think that the extra clinical years have helped me to digest all the information from 2nd year.

do you know when the deadline is for most general surgery programs? thanks again.

•

Please ignore the piddily little Member and Post Total count of 1 to your left...for some reason I (formerly kimberlicox) have become "Unregistered" and my hard won 800+ posts no longer show. Admin is working on the problem - but I couldn't WAIT any longer. Therefore, this is not an attempt to create another user name but just, for once, to actually be useful here at SDN!

Ok...Tyler back to you...

I agree, Step 1 has become increasingly clinical and your clinical clerkships will undoubtedly help you, as long as you keep on top of the basic science knowledge. Heck, my Step 1 had very little Biochem and what little there was was ALL clinical - no naming of missing enzymes, etc. The benefits are that you will be easily able to recognize the clinical scenarios depicted on Step 1 after having done your clinical rotations.

Most General Surgery residencies take applications through ERAS until November 1. Your university likes to be different and therefore sets its deadline 2 weeks earlier, or around October 15.

Given that it can take up to 4 weeks to receive your Step 1 scores and another 2 or so to get them uploaded to the ERAS server. I would recommend taking the test no later than mid-August of this year just to give yourself some breathing room to get the scores in, uploaded and processed by the programs.

Hope this helps!



------------------
PGY1
Penn State University
Department of Surgery

 

[tyler]

Dear Kimberli,
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. How is your intern year coming?

My plan is to take the boards by the end of June and then work on my application. I'm partly nervous and excited at the same time, but this is what makes the whole process so fun.

Do you have any thoughts on, say, the top 10 programs in the country? Also, do you know of any other useful links for those interested in general surgery.

Thanks again,

 

[Winged Scapula]

Hi Tyler,

Glad I could be of some help. I am not much of a fan of "Top 10 Lists" - they are often manipulated by the programs themselves to increase their visibility and reputation. US News & World Report ranks the US hospitals every year, and although they include rankings for 16 specialties general surgery is not included. A search here will yield a thread dealing with the USN&WR rankings - take them with a grain of salt.

But there are programs I hear mentioned frequently: JHU of course, Mass Gen, Duke, UCSF, NYU, Georgetown, Pitt, etc. Every hospital has something they are great at. I would imagine that your department chair at Hopkins would have better insight into what is considered the best programs for Gen Surg. But bear in mind, all in all, it comes down to personal preference. I've been to some programs ranked highly and wouldn't have ranked them very highly on MY list.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Oops...forgot about the links:

http://www.facs.org
American College of Surgeons

http://www.students.medschool.com
Description of the field

http://www.ama-assn.org/freida
List of Graduate Medical Education Programs in the US

These are a good start to learning more about the field.

Hope this helps.

 

[SW-Adrian]

Just testing if my account is still valid...

 

[Winged Scapula]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by SW-Adrian:
Just testing if my account is still valid...•

Only troublemakers with 800+ posts get "unregistered" like me!