Question about UWa Neurosurgery

[titanmoon]

Hi everyone, new poster, recently discovered this great site. I have some questions for those who are currently at the University of Washington pre-med or medical school, any help would be greatly appreciated.

How good is the UW in preparing students for neurosurgery, both in undergrad and in its med school? Does the UW undergrad have a lot of neuroscience classes and research opportunities? Is neurosurgery part of UW med school's required clinical rotations? If not, can you still sign-up for it ? How good is the UW med school in placing its graduates into neurosurgery residency? Which Seattle area hospitals do most UW med school grads do their residency at?

My apologies if this is in the wrong forum. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

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[Temerit]

UW's undergraduate neurobiology major is a strong program.

The focus of the school of medicine is rural primary care. UW Medicine does indeed have a strong neurosurgery department however.

 

[redpanda]

Hi everyone, new poster, recently discovered this great site. I have some questions for those who are currently at the University of Washington pre-med or medical school, any help would be greatly appreciated.

How good is the UW in preparing students for neurosurgery, both in undergrad and in its med school? Does the UW undergrad have a lot of neuroscience classes and research opportunities? Is neurosurgery part of UW med school's required clinical rotations? If not, can you still sign-up for it ? How good is the UW med school in placing its graduates into neurosurgery residency? Which Seattle area hospitals do most UW med school grads do their residency at?

My apologies if this is in the wrong forum. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Nothing you do in undergrad and most of what you do in med school outside of a neurosurgery elective and some sort of neurosurgery research will specifically help you become a neurosurgeon at UW or anywhere else. Neurosurgery is almost never (actually, probably never) part of anyone's required rotations and is an elective for fourth year medical students. Do not pick an undergraduate program or a medical school based on a particular specialty you think you are interested in, because, quite frankly, you probably will not end up in the same specialty (or even medicine if we're being very frank) based on what you think when you graduate high school.

 

[BABSstudent]

Nothing you do in undergrad and most of what you do in med school outside of a neurosurgery elective and some sort of neurosurgery research will specifically help you become a neurosurgeon at UW or anywhere else. Neurosurgery is almost never (actually, probably never) part of anyone's required rotations and is an elective for fourth year medical students. Do not pick an undergraduate program or a medical school based on a particular specialty you think you are interested in, because, quite frankly, you probably will not end up in the same specialty (or even medicine if we're being very frank) based on what you think when you graduate high school.

At UW, we have a neurology clerkship that is required but we can substitute neurosurgery for it if we want. Both are 6 weeks long. In addition, you can do elective rotations and a sub internship there or throughout the WWAMI region.

With that being said, OP, don't worry about the med school and beyond quite yet. You still have a long ways to go. But with that being said, you did ask about it so here is some info for you. There is one neurosurgery program in all of Washington and it looks like they take 3 people per year, with one year having four people. It looks like either they took 2 people some years or some of the residents decided they didn't want to do neurosurgery. Of all 19 of them, 2 went to medical school at UW.

Here are the current residents: http://www.neurosurgery.washington.edu/education/residency/current.asp

If you will notice, quite a few of them did an MD/PhD program but not all of them.

As for what hospitals you will be at and more information: http://www.neurosurgery.washington.edu/education/residency/

Basically you will rotate at Seattle Children's, Harborview, University of Washington Medical Center and the VA.

 

[titanmoon]

Thanks for the info everyone!

BABSstudent, with only 2 out of 19 current neurosurgery residents from UW, I'm wondering if that's because neurosurgery is just not a popular specialty at UW Med school? Or is it because most of the UW med school grads who are interested in neurosurgery do residency out of the area? What about Swedish or Overlake, they are two large hospitals in the area, do they not take residents? Can you tell me what are some of the more popular specialties for UW med school grads?

Also, can anyone tell me where I can find info on how many UW undergrads applied to UW Med school and how many got accepted?

 

[BABSstudent]

Neurosurgery is just not a popular thing most people go into from any medical school. It's high stress, long hours, and training is the longest of all specialties.

And it's the only residency program in the state. No other hospital is training people.

As for medical students at UW, many go into primary care. 60% of the class did that last year (but that includes internal medicine).

And you can find out more information about undergrads applying to med school by exploring the aamc website. Last year I think about 420 people from UW applied to medical school. In my class, there are about 50 UW alumni.

https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/applicantmatriculant/86042/table2.html

 

[titanmoon]

Thanks for all the great info BABSstudent, really appreciate it.