How to improve chances at academic surgery programs

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Getting close to planning aways and want to start making a list of programs to which I will look to apply to. Below are my stats and some questions. Any feedback or strategies to improve my competitiveness would be appreciated.

Stats:
~240 step 1
preclinicals: mostly high pass with few honors
clinicals: half high pass and half honors so far (no surgery grade yet)
ranking: probably somewhere in top 50% maybe top 30%

Research:
- should have ~2 pubs by application
- have ~ 3 presentations
- bench and some clinical review type stuff

Extracurriculars:
- clubs and projects at school I can talk extensively about


1. Could anyone shed some light on how competitive I am for different tier programs? I am not from the east coast so I assume chances there are slim at the big academic programs there.

2. Looking to do research so would like to apply to the 6+ programs. Would like an academic career after residency/fellowship.

3. Not sure about which fellowship I would choose after but as of now I am definitely interested in pursuing one. Just not sure which yet.

4. Will try my best to improve on step 2 but hopefully, I can at least score in the same percentile.

Some questions:
a) when should I take step 2?
b) do I need to do aways?
c) no research in surgery so far, will that hurt or any research is fine?
d) any hope at the top 20 places (according to doximity ranking)?

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Getting close to planning aways and want to start making a list of programs to which I will look to apply to. Below are my stats and some questions. Any feedback or strategies to improve my competitiveness would be appreciated.

Stats:
~240 step 1
preclinicals: mostly high pass with few honors
clinicals: half high pass and half honors so far (no surgery grade yet)
ranking: probably somewhere in top 50% maybe top 30%

Research:
- should have ~2 pubs by application
- have ~ 3 presentations
- bench and some clinical review type stuff

Extracurriculars:
- clubs and projects at school I can talk extensively about


1. Could anyone shed some light on how competitive I am for different tier programs? I am not from the east coast so I assume chances there are slim at the big academic programs there.

2. Looking to do research so would like to apply to the 6+ programs. Would like an academic career after residency/fellowship.

3. Not sure about which fellowship I would choose after but as of now I am definitely interested in pursuing one. Just not sure which yet.

4. Will try my best to improve on step 2 but hopefully, I can at least score in the same percentile.

Some questions:
a) when should I take step 2?
b) do I need to do aways?
c) no research in surgery so far, will that hurt or any research is fine?
d) any hope at the top 20 places (according to doximity ranking)?

a. Late. 240 is good enough.
b. No. Don't. It will only hurt your chances.
c. Any research is good. But without surgery research, what has been your surgery involvement? How can you demonstrate committment when applying to academic programs.
d. Doximity rankings are worthless. You have a good chance at good programs. But top places are competitive.

Do you have a surgery mentor? Find one, that will be more useful than anything online.
 
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a. Late. 240 is good enough.
b. No. Don't. It will only hurt your chances.
c. Any research is good. But without surgery research, what has been your surgery involvement? How can you demonstrate committment when applying to academic programs.
d. Doximity rankings are worthless. You have a good chance at good programs. But top places are competitive.

Do you have a surgery mentor? Find one, that will be more useful than anything online.

Thanks for the reply!

Not so much surgery involvement but hoping to get on a project after meeting with the department faculty in the next few months.

I do not have a mentor yet. I was planning on meeting with faculty as I mentioned and would hopefully find a mentor after that.

Anything I can do to get a chance at top places? much better step 2 or multiple pubs in surgery? Thanks!
 
Do your homework. Lots of big name “academic” gs programs don’t teach you squat and treat you as a scut monkey sub-PA for 5 years.
 
Do your homework. Lots of big name “academic” gs programs don’t teach you squat and treat you as a scut monkey sub-PA for 5 years.
How do I find this particular information? Will I find this out by speaking to residents during interviews?
 
How do I find this particular information? Will I find this out by speaking to residents during interviews?
Second this. It seems like my older classmates don't really know much either. I have heard of a few programs to avoid, but I worry about being blindsided.
 
Get a mentor, really get to know the people in your department. Good LORs from people that know you well are important - and if you want big-name academic, having LORs from people well known in their field doesn't hurt. On your general surgery rotation now?

Even if AOA not possible, still important to continue to get good evals and grades (I know it goes without saying...)

Aways are tricky, they can really help or really hurt. Might be most helpful if you wanted to go to a specific region but didn't otherwise have evidence of ties there, or a smaller more community based school and wanted to experience the academic setting (or vice versa). But be very ready to be blackballed at your away rotation site...with solid grades, probably not recommended. With my N of 9 fellow med students/residents who rotated away at a desired site, 0/9 matched to their away rotation site.

It is really tough to evaluate programs. Talking to residents is helpful...talking to other medical students from those programs is also helpful. I tried to see how the residents interacted at the pre-interview dinners - did they want to sit together, were there inside jokes, how did they talk about each other? Some questions I asked: favorite memories/moments in residency? How does the program handle remediation/being 'written up'? What are the consequences of low ABSITE scores? What is the administrative load like? What does your daily routine on your primary general surgery rotation look like as a junior, midlevel, senior? Who holds the pager when you're in the OR (if anyone)? Who does the consults, do you go alone, have a service, etc? How do you contact the attendings - senior only reporting, or does everyone have immediate access? What's the relationship w/ the nurses, scrubs, NP/PAs?
 
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