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Would it be smart to pick PCOM-GA over CUSOM, if hoping to eventually place into a surgical specialty?
PCOM-GA vs CUSOM
- Thread starter Etm5515
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I liked CUSOM much better than PCOM-GA and there are residencies for surgery that the school has already established at its rotation sites!
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Given the rarity that DOs match into these specialties, I don't think it's going to matter.
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I would go PCOM because of their extensive network, well established school, POMA connections, and pretty great clinical years. They are also known for turning out good Physicians. I don't know quite as much about CUSOM, other than that they are a newer school.
I continue to disagree with Goro, CUSOM hasn't even graduated their first class. At least with PCOM you can see the success of students. The nonsense that barely any DOs get those spots doesn't make any sense, when at least 14 students from PCOM-GA matched into some kind of surgery. It will definitely be difficult to get one of those spots, but that's better than not knowing how many spots there are at all.
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AnatomyGrey12
You also have no idea what you are talking about. Your logic is so flawed I don't even know where to begin.
OP, mandatory attendance can be a real drag, I would go to PCOM for that reason alone.
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What do you even mean? What exactly do I have no idea about? How does it not make sense that applying to a school that has students actually graduating and obtaining residencies is a better choice than one that has not even graduated their first class?
Seriously, explain to me how that is flawed logic. You haven't given a single well explained reason as for why anything I have said is wrong, other than pointing out that some random adcoms don't think match is important, and that my logic is flawed.
At least we can agree PCOM is the better choice.
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AnatomyGrey12
Ok let's break this down then.
Bolded- all this says is that by the time the match came around there were probably only around 14 students who wanted surgery and were competitive for whatever surgical field they wanted. I'm guessing there were some who didn't match into surgery who applied to surgery. This has nothing to do with PCOM-GA as a school.
Italics- what? Get one of what spots? It's not like PCOM-GA has 14 surgery spots. What you are saying literally makes no sense. All that the list tells you is that there were some students there who wanted surgery and matched.
Underline- again, what? Knowing how many slots there are? It's not like each school has a quota to fill of surgical matches and after the quota is met people can't match anymore. It doesn't matter what school you go to, if you want surgery you had better have the CV for it. How many people matched surgery in year X has zero, absolutely zero bearing on how many will match in year Y.
This isn't what you said. If this is all you meant then you are 100% correct because an established school is usually better than a newer one, especially one with mandatory attendance.
Match lists tell you nothing. There are so many unknown variables involved that there is no way someone can accurately interpret what it means. If you want to gain anything at all from a match list stop looking at the specialty matches and start looking at the IM matches, see how many are consistently matching at university level programs year after year.
It's not just me or some random adcoms saying match lists don't mean anything. Almost every medical student on these forums has said it time and time again.
If you really want to gain an advantage to get into surgery then go to one of the state schools or PCOM-PA because they have their own, not just an affiliate but honest to God home programs that prefer their own students. That gives someone an advantage in those fields.
tldr. Don't pick a school by match list. It shouldn't even be in your top 5 considerations. Choose a school for fit, board score performance (scores, not pass rate), research opps, and affiliated residencies or residencies in the region. These things will help you get the residency you want, how many students matched the year before won't.
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So you agree that some programs are bias in selecting their own students to fill spots?
Just like when a person is applying to medical school, where they went to school has almost no bearing on where they will get accepted to, only their CV counts. You talked about this in the context of applying to residency spots, and I agree with you.
The problem is, as we have both said, is that some PDs will want students from their affiliated schools.
So looking at match in that way is useful, because you can look at which schools have more affiliated residencies, and how many of their students get into those.
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AnatomyGrey12
You don't look at the match list for that.... just look at a schools OPTI. Even OPTI isn't a great indicator in the competitive (i.e. surgical) specialties because they aren't true home programs like the ones found at state schools, and they often don't give that much of an advantage to the applicants from their parent school.
That's not necessarily true. Most programs will not take a weaker applicant simply to "keep it in the family". You have to have the corresponding CV for the specialty you want.
Yes, but there is absolutely no way to get this from a match list, and that is the point.
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Don't bother. I literally linked this poster to 4 threads where ADCOMs say explicitly not to bother looking at match lists to pick a school, and his response was that he knows better. You will not convince him that match lists are pointless.
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It’s pretty clear that the OP chose PCOM-GA.
As an addendum to the above (discussion on match lists):
Match lists aren’t totally useless, but there are a couple factors you need to keep in mind...
- match lists never show who matched their first choice, second choice, etc. This is a big deal. For example, let’s say a school matches 60 people to family medicine. But, 45 of them ranked family medicine programs at the top of their lists, and another 30 matched their top choice. Of those 60 people, I’d hazard a guess that many of them want to be there and never had any interest in a “competitive” specialty. Hell, many of them were likely at least a little competitive for those specialties but liked family medicine anyways.
- view the whole match list, not an individual match, not an individual specialty. How many people from that program are going into ACGME? How many are taking a traditional/transitional year? How many didn’t match at all? Is there an abundance of university programs? And, even then, keep my first point in mind - some people want to match close to home or otherwise keep family in mind and wouldn’t highly rank a top-tier program even if they got paid to do it.
- match lists often vary wildly from year to year. If you have access to multiple years of match data, utilize it and verify consistency or lack thereof.
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CUSOM
