Andrew_Doan said:
Interest and love for the field of ophthalmology is essential.
With numerous high caliber applicants, strong conviction to pursue ophthalmology differentiates outstanding candidates from the average applicants.
Programs want to know which applicants will not quit. Without love for the field, individuals may quit when cataract surgery becomes 'boring' or 'routine'; or, people may quit when optometry pushes harder for scope of practice expansions and achieves them.
An applicant's dedication and desire to pursue ophthalmology are illustrated by their extracurricular pursuits, academic/research interests, and performance during ophthalmology electives. All of these examples are outlined in the CV and discussed in the personal statement and letters of recommendation.
Well, the either the system is flawed, or PD's don't have a good eye for committment to the field in some cases. One of my classmates with a fairly average application, no OPH research or extracurriculars, and only one 3rd year OPH elective matched. Where's the proof of commitment and love for OPH there? I'm sure this isn't an isolated case. In fact, one of the new residents at my institution told me he routinely skipped days during his OPH elective, never read during that rotation, and had no research. Yet he honored his OPH elective and matched at one of his top choices. If a student is AOA with boards >250, I'm certain they'd match, even with minimal evidence of committment to the field. And I won't even comment on the fairness of evaluation, given the example I just cited.
How can anyone tell who is truly interested in the field? You might have students who pad their CV's with meaningless research to show committment. Then, you may have students with average scores and no evidence of committment who take a "lottery" approach and squeeze into a spot someplace, all the while having their ace-in-the-hole in another "lifestyle" specialty. How does one grade committment, when committment is a key factor in being a successful resident and future ophthalmologist?
Then there are folks on this forum who are re-applying this year...and even folks I met at interviews who were re-applying for the third time. Obviously, that shows profound committment. However, success rates for re-applicants are considerably lower than first time applicants. The stats say that about 85% of US seniors matched, while only about 50% of US graduates matched last year. If committment is truly so important, one would reason that re-applicants would have at least an equal chance, unless their grades truly are horrendous. The stats don't seem to support that notion, however.
Dr. Doan, I'm not taking issue with your comments. I believe that honest committment to any field of medicine in absolutely necessary to achieve the most you can in that field. But medical students have been trained since college to pad their CV's to prove "committment". The first thing any pre-med will be told by their advisor is to go do volunteer work and complete some research to make their application look attractive. How many of them volunteer purely for the love of helping others, and how many do it just to mark something else off the pre-med checklist? The same applies to applicants for competetive residencies. How many times have you witnessed the med student proclaim their love of whatever rotation they are on, in hopes of persuading a good evaluation? All in all, I think medical students have been very well groomed and trained in the art of deception and manipulation.
My point is, if you are truly committed to OPH, and truly are excited by it, you probably would have done those things that show evidence for that, without regards to you CV. You wouldn't start doing it just in time for you OPH interviews or application, ie. jump through hoops. THe proof, so to speak, is in the pudding.
At any rate, best of luck to you all. I've decided to pursue a different path. Despite my most earnest and sincere love of ophthalmology, I didn't want to put my family or myself through the stress of another OPH match. I've found a career that will be equally rewarding that I find equally exciting for many of the same reasons as OPH, and will likely be easier to get into. I just couldn't see the point of re-applying this year when my application is essentially unchanged, and I just couldn't wait out another year to improve it. It is very difficult to change your application. During internship, you don't have time to do anything really meaningful in the field of OPH. Which means, you really don't have much time to improve you application even for the year following internship. But I see no sense in re-applying until something significantly changes, and it would just take too much time to change...at least a year, if not two. I will sincerely miss being in the ophthalmology clinic. But, times change, people change, and I think what I'm doing will end up making me happy in both the short-term, and the long-term. Who knows? I'm very excited about my direction now.
Geddy
