Neuro Match 2025, My Experience

[yellowstoneranch1234]

Hello all. Long time lurker, first time poster. Wanted to make a post about my match experience this year with hopes it can be of some value to those applying neuro in the future. Senior DO student in the south. Low preclinical GPA. No failures or remediations. Pass first attempt on Step and Comlex 1. 248 Step 2, 585 comlex 2. No research. All honors during clinical rotations. Strong LOR from 2 neuro and 1 IM. Did no away rotations. Had very little volunteer/meaningful extracurriculars. Honestly not sure my school even knows I exist. Applied to about 70 programs in the south and midwest. Got 17 interviews and attended 16. Mostly academic with a couple community programs. 7/8 on signals. Matched #1. More than available and happy to answer questions for those about to go through this process as well.

Also, want to shout out @DrStephenStrange . Have been following you since you applied to medical school and have followed 99% of your advice. You are the man!

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[Cere-berus]

Hello all. Long time lurker, first time poster. Wanted to make a post about my match experience this year with hopes it can be of some value to those applying neuro in the future. Senior DO student in the south. Low preclinical GPA. No failures or remediations. Pass first attempt on Step and Comlex 1. 248 Step 2, 585 comlex 2. No research. All honors during clinical rotations. Strong LOR from 2 neuro and 1 IM. Did no away rotations. Had very little volunteer/meaningful extracurriculars. Honestly not sure my school even knows I exist. Applied to about 70 programs in the south and midwest. Got 17 interviews and attended 16. Mostly academic with a couple community programs. 7/8 on signals. Matched #1. More than available and happy to answer questions for those about to go through this process as well.

Also, want to shout out @DrStephenStrange . Have been following you since you applied to medical school and have followed 99% of your advice. You are the man!

thanks for sharing your story. I'm in a similar position passed Step 1 and Comlex 1 on first attempt, decent grades and 2 or 3 extra curricular. I don't have a Step 2 score yet and i have pass/high pass rotations. I'm northeast. When you say no research, do you mean literally no written scholarly work like case reports etc? I guess I'm having some anxiety as it gets closer. Any advice on Studying for Step 2? Would you advise doing aways?

 

[yellowstoneranch1234]

Yes, no written scholarly work in medical school. Nothing. Was asked about it most interviews, just said that it wasn't something I was passionate about. Followed it up by saying I want be the best clinician I can be. It was well received by the interviewers. As far as step 2 studying, grind Uworld. Do not do the silly comlex Q banks as that is a recipe for scoring bad on the step. Focus on step and you will do good enough on comlex by default. He is controversial, but I highly recommend Mehlman Medical. I read all his step 2 pdf files multiple times and watched basically all of his youtube videos. Also, all the NBME practice tests and free 120s are a must. Review them, understand them. Away/audition rotations - double edged sword. If you are weird, then do not do them. If you are well liked, get along with folks, easy going, and integrate into team settings well - then they are probably good to do. Not a requirement by any means. I just didn't do them cuz I was super broke and couldn't afford them. But by all means, if there are 2-3 places are you really interested in matching, and you have 5000 bucks you can light on fire, go for it.

 

[Cere-berus]

Yes, no written scholarly work in medical school. Nothing. Was asked about it most interviews, just said that it wasn't something I was passionate about. Followed it up by saying I want be the best clinician I can be. It was well received by the interviewers. As far as step 2 studying, grind Uworld. Do not do the silly comlex Q banks as that is a recipe for scoring bad on the step. Focus on step and you will do good enough on comlex by default. He is controversial, but I highly recommend Mehlman Medical. I read all his step 2 pdf files multiple times and watched basically all of his youtube videos. Also, all the NBME practice tests and free 120s are a must. Review them, understand them. Away/audition rotations - double edged sword. If you are weird, then do not do them. If you are well liked, get along with folks, easy going, and integrate into team settings well - then they are probably good to do. Not a requirement by any means. I just didn't do them cuz I was super broke and couldn't afford them. But by all means, if there are 2-3 places are you really interested in matching, and you have 5000 bucks you can light on fire, go for it.

thanks for the advice. I've never been interested in the whole research thing just to pad resume with junk volume, but I feel pressured because everyone is doing it and says its a "must". I'm more interested in clinical medicine and education. I'll definitely grind UWorld, and all the NBME, thanks. I've been listening to Divine but I'll check out Mehlman. Thats my fear with Aways, the odds of offending someone in an entire departed is pretty easy to do plus the money is an issue too. How long do you think is enough time to study? How many blocks of UW per day?

 

[yellowstoneranch1234]

Yeah board studying is very user dependent. I would try to find at least 6 weeks where you could go hard on the dedicated study. I know its difficult but if you could find a chill rotation with a vacation month following it, that would give you lots of time to grind. For UW blocks per day, 120 Qs a day until you finish the bank; then your sole purpose in life is mastery of the NBME material. There is endless info on this website and reddit regarding Step 2 prep, study schedule, strategies.

 

[Cere-berus]

Yeah board studying is very user dependent. I would try to find at least 6 weeks where you could go hard on the dedicated study. I know its difficult but if you could find a chill rotation with a vacation month following it, that would give you lots of time to grind. For UW blocks per day, 120 Qs a day until you finish the bank; then your sole purpose in life is mastery of the NBME material. There is endless info on this website and reddit regarding Step 2 prep, study schedule, strategies.

thanks I appreciate it.