Great Surgery Residency Program Database

[surgeon6]

Hello all. I've been reading the forums hear at studentdoctor.net for quiet awhile and now I would like to contribute.

I am currently a 4th year medical student applying for general surgery residency. A professor at my medical school has created a database on general surgery residency programs that can be accessed at www.residencyreviews.info

There you can look up any surgical residency program in the country and view what things past applicants have said about the program as well as statistics regarding board scores, grades, etc.. of past applicants. You can also input you own statistics to determine how competitive of an applicant you would be at a particular program. This database is still young so it needs more input from other general surgery applicants across the country. Right now the data is primarily from medical students in the Philadelphia area so not all programs have data but as more and more students participate in this it will become very useful for any general surgery applicant in the future.

I hope you all find this useful.

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[M. furfur]

wonderful, very much needed. thanks for the post.

 

[surgeon6]

I glad you like. Tell your friends who are applying for surgical residency to use it also.

 

[sml1120]

this would have been nice to have known about before yesterday.

 

[surgeon6]

I realize this would have been nice to have back in September/October for all of us applying this year, but work still needed to be done on the interface and more data needed to be gathered. Still more data needs to be gathered to make it better so definitely help out by putting in your stats so that future applicants can gain from this.

 

[Dr. V]

This site has some MAJOR problems.

You shouldn't use med student evals for the program unless that med student goes to school there.

People that are interviewing have preconcieved notions and other expectations and don't see what the program is truly like, all they see is the show put forth for them on interview day.

I know people in several different programs and the information on the site isn't anywhere close to correct on some of them, as a matter of fact some of them are 180 degrees off of reality simply because the ones rating the program only have a limited amount of information to go by.

It's tough but it may be more helpful to find a site where the actual residents rank the program, or med students that went to that school (they can get a really good scoop about their home program after being there for 4 years).

All that med students ranking their interview opinions tells you is what kind of interview that program puts on, not what it is really like in the program. I agree that ideally they would be one and the same, but we all know this isn't the case. Malignant programs don't advertise the fact they are malignant during the interview process, and disgrunteled residents are hidden away. On the other hand, the opposite can just as easily be true, a program may not present themselves the best way and could be really great through and through but you would never know it just based on the interview day.

I am not badmouthing what you are trying to accomplish, just saying to take it with a grain of salt and consider that most of the time the sources only saw a snapshot of one day.

 

[surgeon6]

The main purpose of this database is to help medical student determine whether they have a good chance of getting an interview or matching at particular program. If enough applicants input their data about grades, board scores, etc... and whether or not they got an interview or matched, very valuable information for future applicants can be gained. For example, you may be able to determine if a program uses a Step I cut-off score for granting interviews or how important research experience is at different programs.

Obviously the subjective data is just that, subjective and as any other website you must consider the source. The difference with this site is it actually collects objective data so that you can more accurately determine what chance you have at getting an interview or matching at a particular program.

Also, by going to the calculated score section you can specify the relative weight of certain factors at programs you consider important such as, location, fellowships at a program, operative experience, etc... and a score will be generated based on your own input of a program so you can determine how well the program fits what you are looking for.