Improving my chances at matching

[annro]

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I am very interested in opthalmology. I never thought I would of liked it as much as I did when I took call with one of the residents during my 3rd year.

I am a very average candidate with average grades, average board scores, and I attend an average medical school. I have 2 summer projects and 1 year of research at top-tier med schs before med school, but no publications. Any way , I REALLY think optho rocks. After reading many of the forums, it seems like my chances are very slim, based on numbers, for the match this January. What could I do to improve my odds?

Would it be worth it to do a year of research in optho while taking more electives and then apply for the next year? Would you recommend going ahead and doing a prelim year and reapplying then? Also, if I applied this year and did not match what would be my next step? Do most candidates reapply? Thanks.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Originally posted by annro
I am very interested in opthalmology. I never thought I would of liked it as much as I did when I took call with one of the residents during my 3rd year.

I am a very average candidate with average grades, average board scores, and I attend an average medical school. I have 2 summer projects and 1 year of research at top-tier med schs before med school, but no publications. Any way , I REALLY think optho rocks. After reading many of the forums, it seems like my chances are very slim, based on numbers, for the match this January. What could I do to improve my odds?

Would it be worth it to do a year of research in optho while taking more electives and then apply for the next year? Would you recommend going ahead and doing a prelim year and reapplying then? Also, if I applied this year and did not match what would be my next step? Do most candidates reapply? Thanks.

How average are your board scores? 215-225? If you have strong experiences in ophthalmology and good letters of recommendation, then I think you'll be okay.

If you lack ophthalmology experience, then taking a year off to do eye research and spend time with an ophthalmology faculty will definitely increase your competitiveness and demonstrate your interest in the field.

Reapplying is tough if you've done nothing to add to to your application. Most candidates who don't match, end up doing something else. Some do reapply. I don't have any exact numbers for you though.

 

[annro]

I scored around 200. I know it is pretty bad. I am hoping to do much better on Step 2 this August.

Can one still match at a low-tier score if their step 1 score is low?

Is it possible to apply for another residency spot in a different field in case one does not match in optho?

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Board scores aren't everything, but they are a widely used screening tool. On the other hand, I know people who matched that scored around 210, but the rest of their application was strong.

What people end up doing is completing a preliminary year in internal medicine or surgery and then go from there. Ophthalmology is an early match so you have about 2 months to "scramble".

 

[annro]

Thanks for the replies. How important do you think step 2 is in my case? I would like to take it early (August) and show a lot of improvement, but I am not sure if it will help. Do optho programs pre-screen with step 1 scores?

Also, how often do you think people in optho scramble. How difficult is it to get a spot if one scrambles? Can you recommend a website or journal that ranks optho programs in terms of competiveness? I am interested in finding out what programs are low-tier?

 

[ckyuen]

Basically there is no scramble in ophthalmology, there usually are no positions left unfilled. According to eras there maybe a few positions unfilled, but i know for a fact that the year I matched, a program that reportedly had unfilled spots had filled them internally. This accounted for all the unfilled spots that year.
How important is it to take step 2, I would say in your case it's critical. If you do well include it in your application, if not, don't send it out. But /c your step 1 score, you have to take step 2 early, like in july, to show that you believe your score was a fluke and you can improve on it. Most likely you will do well on step 2, b/c most people don't study much for it, and that will reflect well on you. I was in the same position as you are. I had some difficult times during step 1, so I did not do very well. I responded to this by taking step 2 early and improving my score significantly, and I'll tell you I was asked more than once about this. Your step 1 score will keep you out of the screening for a lot of schools but apply widely. My mentor who is ophtho faculty at Hopkins in ophtho also did poorly on step 1 and did well on step 2, and look at him now.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

What I meant by "scrambling" (as mentioned in my reply above) is finding another residency because ophthalmology is an early match. You will not be able to scramble into an ophthalmology position because there won't be any spots open. When I applied, there were 2 open spots and they were immediately filled.

Taking Step 2 and doing well will help a little.

Good luck!

 

[Primate]

With regard to step II, is it necessary to take this early in the application cycle (as in, before schools make decisions on whom they will interview)? As my return to clinics is later in the year than typical and I have to finish my required rotations and a couple Ophtho electives, I'll have little time to spend studying for the second step and would like to delay taking it until after interview season. Is this unwise? My step I scores were pretty good (b/w 1 and 2 std devs above the mean for the year I took them), but just shy of what a friend has called "smite my enemies good." Wish I'd studied more for it (sort of). 😉

Thanks for general responses to a specific question,

P

 

[Andrew_Doan]

It's not necessary to take Step II before applying. I didn't take Step II until by intern year.