Last name: Ever. First name: Greatest.

[ArtfulDodger]

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I was looking back over the Match statistics threads from the last few years, and thought I'd ask this question just for fun (and because I have a morbid curiosity for ultra-gunners): What is the greatest ophtho application (in terms of Board scores, research, great letters, etc) you have ever seen/heard of? I saw this one from 2009 and think it would be tough to beat:

--Board Scores: 267 / 99 on Step 1, no Step 2 yet
--AOA and class rank: junior AOA, school does not rank
--Reputation of medical school: I don't know... top 5? top 10?
--Research: 1 year HHMI-NIH research fellowship in ophthalmology; 9 publications (8 in ophtho), 6 presentations (5 in ophtho)
--Honors in clerkships: All of them
--# and where you did away rotations: Did not do any aways
--# of programs you applied to: 38
--Where invited for interviews: invited to 35, went to 15..the usual suspects for academic programs... Mass Eye and Ear, UCLA/Jules Stein, Wilmer, Bascom Palmer, Wills Eye Institute, Duke, USC/Doheny, UCSF, Baylor, Univ of Michigan, WashU, Stanford, NYEEI, NYU...
--Where matched: Mass Eye and Ear Infirmary (#1)
--Anything that helped your app: luck, supportive faculty and research mentors

This guy/gal was invited to interview at 35 of 38 places they applied to! OMFG!

Anyone seen anything better?

 

[dannylee718]

wow those stats are pretty incredible.
better stats? I can't find one... NEMO. 😛

 

[MR1]

My question, why did they feel the need to apply to 38 places. They could have applied to 10 and been okay.

Second, what 3 schools rejected this guy??

Lastly, "luck" helping his app. Yeah that makes sense.

 

[clayito]

i know this person, and she is definitely one of the top applicants in the field over the past few years.

definitely no "luck" involved in her application process, but that's the way she rolls, pretty humble person considering how talented she is, her grades, board scores, etc.

she did apply to more places than necessary, but in her defense, she was applying from a school that had something like 13 or 14 people applying her year, so the program director recommended that people go a little overboard in applying just to be safe. but again, she could have applied to like 10 and been just fine.

by the way, the 3 places that turned her down for an interview likely did so because they knew they had no chance of getting her, as they were "middle-tier" programs.

i'm guessing there's a better application out there somewhere, but probably not many.