Surgery Matching

[NorthwesternHPME]

Please don't accuse me of being naive for positing this question, but I had a question about Match lists. So I'm applying to the following BS/MD Program Medical schools and I was doing some simple statistical analysis. I am only interested in surgery, so I compiled data on matches into surgical specialties. I understand that numerous confounding variables exist but here is my methodology:
1. Sum all students that match into a surgical specialty (disregard prestige of match)
2. Divide by class size

I received the following data:
1. UPitt SOM: 20/148=13.5%
2. NU Feinberg SOM: 4/163=2.5%
3. Baylor COM: 19/186=10.2%
4. CWRU SOM: 38/217=17.5%
5. URochester SOM: 10/102=9.62%
6. Brown Alpert SOM: 14/144=9.72%

Don't these results at least sound kind of bizarre (esp NU)? Please let me know of some errors in calculation (without condescension). Thanks.

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[Hangry]

Please don't accuse me of being naive for positing this question, but I had a question about Match lists. So I'm applying to the following BS/MD Program Medical schools and I was doing some simple statistical analysis. I am only interested in surgery, so I compiled data on matches into surgical specialties. I understand that numerous confounding variables exist but here is my methodology:
1. Sum all students that match into a surgical specialty (disregard prestige of match)
2. Divide by class size

I received the following data:
1. UPitt SOM: 20/148=13.5%
2. NU Feinberg SOM: 4/163=2.5%
3. Baylor COM: 19/186=10.2%
4. CWRU SOM: 38/217=17.5%
5. URochester SOM: 10/102=9.62%
6. Brown Alpert SOM: 14/144=9.72%

Don't these results at least sound kind of bizarre (esp NU)? Please let me know of some errors in calculation (without condescension). Thanks.

1. You are naive. Not an accusation, just a fact.
2. If you are in high school as your post suggests this belongs in a different forum (hSDN, mayyybe pre-allo since combined BS/MD)
3. Your data analysis is useless because you have no idea how many students per year want to go into a specific specialty. A slightly better way would be to look at multiple year's data to control for inter-class variation, but that would still be fairly useless.
4. This is a terrible way to pick a school to go to. Odds are you will switch specialty interests by the time you match, and there is no way you currently have a well-informed perspective regarding which specialty you might like at this time. Go to the school whose undergrad program you like the best, don't even worry about the med school. Almost no one in those BS/MD programs actually ends up matriculating to their program's med school (which is why many of the programs have disappeared in recent years), and heck you might even decide not to go to medical school after starting!

 

[Winged Scapula]

Where did you get only 4 matching into surgical specialties from Northwestern?

I count 28.


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[evilbooyaa]

1. You are naive. Not an accusation, just a fact.
2. If you are in high school as your post suggests this belongs in a different forum (hSDN, mayyybe pre-allo since combined BS/MD)
3. Your data analysis is useless because you have no idea how many students per year want to go into a specific specialty. A slightly better way would be to look at multiple year's data to control for inter-class variation, but that would still be fairly useless.
4. This is a terrible way to pick a school to go to. Odds are you will switch specialty interests by the time you match, and there is no way you currently have a well-informed perspective regarding which specialty you might like at this time. Go to the school whose undergrad program you like the best, don't even worry about the med school. Almost no one in those BS/MD programs actually ends up matriculating to their program's med school (which is why many of the programs have disappeared in recent years), and heck you might even decide not to go to medical school after starting!

Agree with 1-3, but disagree with bolded.

Out of the BS/MD program I went to, I would say about 35 out of the 40ish students in my class went to medical school together after completing undergrad. All others wanted to medicine, but didn't meet MCAT requirements; most of them have ended up in other medical schools.

If OP is set on going to medical school, then BS/MD is a good idea.

However, do agree that you absolutely cannot determine how good your prospects at surgical sub-specialty are based off the rank lists from one year. That, specifically, I wouldn't worry about and just pick the best med school (Northwestern, UPitt, Baylor likely the top of that list) you can get into it.

 

[Slack3r]

Please don't accuse me of being naive for positing this question, but I had a question about Match lists. So I'm applying to the following BS/MD Program Medical schools and I was doing some simple statistical analysis. I am only interested in surgery, so I compiled data on matches into surgical specialties. I understand that numerous confounding variables exist but here is my methodology:
1. Sum all students that match into a surgical specialty (disregard prestige of match)
2. Divide by class size

I received the following data:
1. UPitt SOM: 20/148=13.5%
2. NU Feinberg SOM: 4/163=2.5%
3. Baylor COM: 19/186=10.2%
4. CWRU SOM: 38/217=17.5%
5. URochester SOM: 10/102=9.62%
6. Brown Alpert SOM: 14/144=9.72%

Don't these results at least sound kind of bizarre (esp NU)? Please let me know of some errors in calculation (without condescension). Thanks.

The more appropriate calculation would be (# match surgery) / (# applying to surgery). It's not surprising someone applying for family med isn't matching surgery. And since it's pretty much impossible for a high school student to know how many people applied to surgery in a given year, you're best picking the school you like best.

 

[thedrjojo]

The more appropriate calculation would be (# match surgery) / (# applying to surgery). It's not surprising someone applying for family med isn't matching surgery. And since it's pretty much impossible for a high school student to know how many people applied to surgery in a given year, you're best picking the school you like best.

A school that puts a lot of people into surgical subspecialty and gen surg likely has a strong experience for the medical students. . . I echo that northwestern is probably the biggest powerhouse, followed by Baylor and UPMC .

 

[bannie22]

Doesnt seem like Northwestern is the place for OP if you are lookin at going into surgery based on the research here

 

[Hangry]

Doesnt seem like Northwestern is the place for OP if you are lookin at going into surgery based on the research here

Do you try to give bad advice on the surgery subforum or does it just come naturally to you?

 

[Winged Scapula]

Doesnt seem like Northwestern is the place for OP if you are lookin at going into surgery based on the research here

What research are you talking about?

The OP miscounted the number of people going into surgery from Northwestern. It has a well deserved reputation as a surgical powerhouse. Whether it's a good fit or not for the OP remains to be seen but I'm stymied by your conclusions here.


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[swoopyswoop]

Northwestern had 6 people match into categorical general surgery this year. 1 of those people applied to another subspecialty but did not match into that and matched into gen surg instead. There was one other student who failed to match categorical but scrambled into a prelim surgery year.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Northwestern had 6 people match into categorical general surgery this year. 1 of those people applied to another subspecialty but did not match into that and matched into gen surg instead. There was one other student who failed to match categorical but scrambled into a prelim surgery year.

So 6 > 4. Hmmm...

(I included all surgical specialties except OBG because the OP didn't specify GS).

 

[swoopyswoop]

So 6 > 4. Hmmm...

(I included all surgical specialties except OBG because the OP didn't specify GS).

I guess the numbers that matter are 7 applied, 6 matched categorical.

 

[Winged Scapula]

I guess the numbers that matter are 7 applied, 6 matched categorical.

Yep.

What matters is that no one's application to GS is going to suffer having attended NW.