Please Advise; am I competitive?

[kafa11]

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Hey all,

I am having a difficult time figuring out how competitive my application is for peds neuro spots and I would really appreciate some feedback.

I am a third year DO student.
USMLE Step1: 248
COMLEX: 670
Top 5 in my class
Rotations to date: Honors in Surgery, IM, Neurology, Peds, and Radiology.
Strong LORS
8 years of unrelated research experience
several abstract publications

I know I have a strong application in general, but I want to know how competitive I am as a DO for top tier programs such as CHOP, JHU, Columbia and Stanford. Also, I have been getting mixed advice about whether I need to take USMLE step 2 or just COMLEX.

Any additional feedback regarding my application and how to make it stronger would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your help!

 

[michigangirl]

with regards to peds residency at hopkins, which is obviously a component of peds neuro training, Hopkins has not interviewed DO applicants in the past. Not sure if this is different if you're on the peds neuro track, but just giving you the info i have. Your Step I scores and other stats look great though. I would recommend taking step 2 eventually, because if you apply to fellowships many will look for those scores when they are primarily MD programs.

 

[kafa11]

with regards to peds residency at hopkins, which is obviously a component of peds neuro training, Hopkins has not interviewed DO applicants in the past. Not sure if this is different if you're on the peds neuro track, but just giving you the info i have. Your Step I scores and other stats look great though. I would recommend taking step 2 eventually, because if you apply to fellowships many will look for those scores when they are primarily MD programs.

Thanks for the feedback. I really did not know that my step 2 scores could play a role in applying to fellowship. Knowing that, I will definitely take them. Do you think it important to take them early enough that the scores are available for my residency application, too?

 

[michigangirl]

I'm not sure about the importance of taking Step 2 before residency apps-- what have others in your school done and what do your advisors recommend? It can't hurt if you do very well (as you did on Step 1) but I don't know the answer to this.

 

[J-Rad]

What is your plan? An integrated program from the get-go, or are you more on the path of completing a residency and applying for child neuro "fellowship" during the appropriate time frame in residency. While the consolodation of time has some advantages (namely getting an attending pay earlier), the latter path has some advantages as well, both globally*, and, possibly, specific** to you.

*Major one I can think of: allows you time to experience different fields within peds and decide if neuro is really the one you want, or if some other specialty (or gen peds) is really what floats your boat.

**You listed some programs, most of which seem pretty off limits from a residency perspective, for DOs (of note, CHOP has had DO fellows in the recent past). I wonder if just looking at residencies alone (without muddying the picture with attached neuro fellowship) wouldn't open up a lot of programs that you would have excellent credentials for with your very good scores/performance. In turn, your residency pedigree would become far more important than your med school pedigree at many other programs. And of course, remember, there is excellent pediatric training to be had outside the "big names"; places that still put people into fellowships they want. Also remember that (last I knew) child neuro isn't all that competitive on the whole, outside of a few centers.

 

[kafa11]

Again, thanks for the great info. I will ask around and see if any of the upperclassmen have experience when it comes to taking USMLE step 2.

Part of me would rather complete a pediatrics residency first in order to explore the other fields (specifically, I also have an interest in Oncology). But I'm a little unclear as to how the "fellowship" path differs in terms of timing, training, and application -- I was under the impression that the most direct way to get into child neurology was by applying to both a peds (2-3 years depending on whether there is a "protected" spot) and neurology (3 years with 1 adult) residency at the same time. (?)

It's disheartening to hear that these programs might be categorically off limits. I hope that's not true, but I certainly appreciate that it might be. I was hoping that, in large part, the lack of DO presence at these institutions was a consequence of fewer and less qualified DO applicants rather than being outright prejudicial. Also, my thinking (maybe wishfully) was that my numbers could garner an interview, at which point my suffix would become less important. Any thoughts?

 

[dogsnme2]

Hi, I was just reading your post, and you have some pretty impressive numbers! I did the whole application process last year for peds neuro. I graduated from med school last year, and applied for the 2year peds position, as well as the 3yr peds neuro slot. First, the reality is, some programs simply will not interview DO applicants. You'd need to sort through sun, and ask your school, to find out which programs don't look at DO applicants. Unfortunately, I don't know how helpful that would be.

As far as whether to apply for the neuro slots now, here is my thought. Realistically, many of the pediatric subspecialties require you to apply in your 2nd year, some in your 3rd year. By the beginning of your 2nd year of training, you will only have one 1-2 months of electives, depending on your program's schedule, while as a 4th year med student, you have a lot more opportunities for electives. For me, I wasn't 100% sure that I wanted to do pediatric neurology, but I tried out the other subspecialties during my 4th year, and I realized that peds neuro was the path for me. I tell you this b/c truthfully, you won't have a significant amount of additional elective time until your 3rd year of residency. You can definitely wait until then to apply, but I was confident in my decision to do peds neuro, and I wanted to save that additional year of training. (BTW-- many residency programs have interns do heme/onc during intern year).

I also agree with the others above, you should definitely consider taking step 2, because for the most part, many of the subspecialties are filled with MD grads, and we have all taken the USMLE series. In order to be on equal playing field, you should probably have those grades.

I'm happy to chat about my own experiences. I apologize if this posting is fragmented, but it's been a long day.

Cheers, and best of luck!

P.S. I'll be doing Peds Neuro at a program in NYC, and interviewed across the east coast and chicago, so I can answer questions about that.