No ophthalmology department at my school

[evilmorty1307]

Hello, I am incoming med student this fall and I wanted some opinions on ability to match into ophtho from a non US news ranked school. Unfortunately, my medical school does not have an ophthalmology department and is not really big into research. I understand that I need good grades, step 1/2 scores, and clinicals to even be considered competitive for ophtho. What could I do to make up for the lack of ophtho department? My ideal situation would be to match ophtho at my home city which has six ophtho programs. I will be attending a school approx 2.5-3 hrs away. Any advice would be appreciated thanks!

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[Rhodes]

I was in a similar situation, low-tier school and no home Ophtho program. I got in touch with a local ophthalmologist in my second year who was running a clinical trial and I joined on. I would suggest doing the same. If you're considering ophthalmology, look around for opportunities to shadow or conduct research. From here, you may have a chance to attend conferences, present your work, and network. In my fourth year, I did four away ophtho rotations and tried to make an impression at each. I successfully matched in January with only a handful of interviews. It can definitely be done. All that matters is what you put into it

 

[evilmorty1307]

Hey! Thanks for the response. May I ask what were your stats? Funny enough, I actually did shadow at one of the schools at my metro area today. The resident I was shadowing was really nice!

 

[Rhodes]

I come from an Osteopathic school. I failed to mention that I took a year off in between by 3rd and 4th year to pursue a clinical and research fellowship at an eye clinic!
Step 1: >90th percentile
Step 2: TBD
AOA: Not available at my school
Honors and high passes on my clinical rotations
3 first author pubs, 2 poster and oral presentations/ARVO, 2-3 co author pubs. (all Ophtho)

Shadowing really helps, it's great to reach out. Someone may know of opportunities for you, clinical and/or research. Perhaps you can contact the resident or anyone else you've met.

 

[Doctor.Mario]

Keep an eye on other departments' research for any multidiscipline projects that might include ophtho. It takes a little bit of "right-place-right-time", but my classmates and I have managed to publish some cross-discipline papers with peds, neuro and EM, for example.