Top tier school vs mid tier for neurosurgery matching - does it matter?

[drizzt3117]

It's not rocket science that the top programs will have high step 1 scores, but high step 1 scores + top medical school = top match. All of the top 25 neurosurgery programs will have high step 1 scores, there won't necessarily be a correlation between their step 1 average and their "rank" per se. I know multiple 260-270 people who didn't match at one of the top 6 programs. It takes more than just a top step 1 score to match at top programs in competitive specialties.

Yes, drizzt3117 I agree. However, I think the point everyone is missing here is that it is NOT the school that is landing these residencies. If you were to poll every single one of these kids off this list and ask their Step 1 score, they would be on the right hand side of the bell curve for neurosurg matches.

Yeah, Randy matched BNI, but you should also know his board score (which I won't disclose) before you make any assumptions. The same should be noted for those MGH residencies. How do you not know that they didn't destroy the boards, and THAT is what got them those spots. Name is not going to make up for a 220 in NS.

We see scattered prestigious residencies on every match list at (nearly) ever school. Why? Because there is bound to be at least 1 kid who destroyed the boards at said school AND wanted that type of residency. It's easy to take a year off of medical school and gain a few pubs, it's not easy to get a 240+ on the Boards.

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[drizzt3117]

That alone should be proof that the med school you attend doesn't really matter.

Uh, 70% of the people at the top programs were from top 25 schools. 50% or more of the residents at 5 of the top 6 programs were from top 25 schools including 100% at arguably the top 2. Mayo is well known for yield protection so my contention that this is the exception to the rule and not the rule.