Depends where you work. Starting salary is only that low if you want work in the heart of a big city, like NYC or LA. Do you think it's much different for other specialties in terms of starting salary and the job market? No. Most starting is ~$200k and doubles to ~$400k at 3-5 years. $400k is about the average. And if you do retina, you start and average much higher. If you really want more info, go search for it in the ophtho forum. This has been discussed many times.
The class that just matched took it in 2012 and the national avg was 224. The average in the 2013 class, who will be applying in a few months, is 227 according to all my friends took it that year. I remember seeing the stats provided in First Aid, and they were usually off. I don't know where they get them. Regardless, a 227 vs 228 is basically the same thing anyway. This is why I said you need to figure out the mean and standard deviation for past years to get an idea what type of percentile you need on your test. And of course, ppl always forget these are averages for getting in and as long as you are near it you'll be fine. Derms last average was 244 but tons of ppl with 230s got in. You mainly don't want to get screened out and then after that the rest of your app matters a lot more. Ppl on SDN put too much weight on Step 1 scores. If you have 250s, that'll help you a lot. But if you have a 244 vs 239, no one cares.
