Ophthalmology Residency Competitive?

[deleted272130]

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[MAYOphtho]

I am a 3rd year student interested in ophthalmology. I saw on a website somewhere that always ranks residencies, that for 2009 ophthalmology went from high (for the past few years) --> intermediate for the first time.

I can't find any statistics on average scores to get into D.O. ophthalmology. I was wondering if anyone knew anything about scores or anything to get in, maybe someone who is about to apply? I'm also wondering if it even matters that it went down b/c that's probably just regarding allopathic since there are so few osteopathic programs.

I know 2 LECOM students that matched into MD ophthalmology this year....I thought that was unheard of!

Any info would be greatly appreciated 🙂

Ophtho has always been on the high-intermediate side of difficulty for matching. Plastics, Derm and RadOnc tend to be the most selective based on board scores (and AOA status) and the fact that there so VERY few spots for these fields.

There are some more spots in the other fields (like ENT, Ortho, Rads, Neurosurg, Urology, Ophtho, etc) but the board scores (and percent AOA) still remain elevated to match in any of these fields...so I think that it's just based on the fact there are more spots in these fields that makes them "selective" but not "VERY selective" when compared to Plastics, Derm, RadOnc...but again, this is just a matter of semantics as weak candidates are unlikely to match in most of the above fields (though it DOES happen based on extracurriculars, interesting life experiences, LOR, or something like that)...

However, with specific regard to Ophtho, I've noticed the board scores for matched applicants in Ophthalmology have continued to rise annually so I dont know what technically means "high" or "intermediate" because based on necessary board scores, this certainly hasnt trended down...what precisely makes a field "high" or "intermediate" on your scaling system?

again, I only know about the MD stats and this is only my humble opinion...so I dont know how much this helps you.

Best of luck to you

 

[fizzle]

OP might be referring to this page:

http://residency.wustl.edu/medadmin...51675e1c167df70186256f8f0073a46c?OpenDocument

This page somewhat confuses me, too. 92% of US senior applicants matched into ophthalmology in 2009? Only 36 US Seniors went unmatched out of 459 spots? Even taking self-selection into account, that percentage seems really high for a specialty that I've heard is difficult to get into...

Especially considering that the SFmatch page shows that the average USMLE step 1 score is around 215 for unmatched applicants, and we all certainly hear of applicants with high (>230) scores not matching, which means that there must be even more applicants with extremely low scores (<200) to balance them out, how does this work out to make ophthalmology such a competitive field?

 

[EyeMD116]

I don't know if I would take this site's statistics very seriously. There are no real cited sources (all they say is source: AAMC), and the numbers don't seem right. For example, it says the median neurosurgeon salary is $230,000.. Doubt that is correct.

Here is the real deal, from SF match:

http://www.sfmatch.org/residency/ophthalmology/about_match/match_report.pdf

The 92% US Seniors number means that 92% of the residency SPOTS are filled by US seniors (419 spots out of 458 are filled by US Seniors) -- it does NOT mean that 92% of US seniors that applied matched successfully. According to this, the overall match rate was 70% (70% of the 645 ranked applicants matched=458 total). It probably is slightly higher for US Seniors, to balance out the match rates for IMG's.

OP might be referring to this page:

http://residency.wustl.edu/medadmin...51675e1c167df70186256f8f0073a46c?OpenDocument

This page somewhat confuses me, too. 92% of US senior applicants matched into ophthalmology in 2009? Only 36 US Seniors went unmatched out of 459 spots? Even taking self-selection into account, that percentage seems really high for a specialty that I've heard is difficult to get into...

Especially considering that the SFmatch page shows that the average USMLE step 1 score is around 215 for unmatched applicants, and we all certainly hear of applicants with high (>230) scores not matching, which means that there must be even more applicants with extremely low scores (<200) to balance them out, how does this work out to make ophthalmology such a competitive field?

 

[twintiger32]

agree with above post. many people think that percentage is percentage of US applicants that matched into a spot, but that really means that out of all the ophtho spots in the US, 92% are filled by US seniors.

ophtho is still very competitive, but not as competitive as derm/plastics.

 

[docdoc2012]

hey I just found this thread recently...I was wondering the same thing.. has ophtho been decreasing in competitiveness over the years? if so why?
Also, in regards to those with below 200 on boards matching, from what I have seen ophtho cares about your personality more so than the above listed competitive fields- if the department likes you or if particular faculty members like you and you demonstrate yourself to be a hardworking dedicated student, that weighs in a LOT more in this field than board scores.
Thoughts?

 

[JMK2005]

hey I just found this thread recently...I was wondering the same thing.. has ophtho been decreasing in competitiveness over the years? if so why?
Also, in regards to those with below 200 on boards matching, from what I have seen ophtho cares about your personality more so than the above listed competitive fields- if the department likes you or if particular faculty members like you and you demonstrate yourself to be a hardworking dedicated student, that weighs in a LOT more in this field than board scores.
Thoughts?

Competitiveness is the same. Boards scores of those who matched is in the high 230s. If your step 1 score is below 200, do well on your step 2 and have a back up plan if you don't match because that is a real possibility.