I am a third year medical student and very interested in neurology especially at UM's Jackson Memorial hospital. I have been very impressed by some of the residents impressions and from their news letters. Can anyone give me some good advice on ways to increase my chances at the program. I know it maybe early but I would like to be the most prepared. Thank you.
University of Miami neurology
- Thread starter I am MD
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Rather than ask for advice from random people on the internet about your home program, I would suggest expressing interest to the faculty, especially the PD, and doing very well on your rotations.
Also, keep in mind that there are other good places to train outside of Miami and that you should have an open mind when you apply.
Also, keep in mind that there are other good places to train outside of Miami and that you should have an open mind when you apply.
??It's not his home program.
OP, given how early it is in 3rd year, just focus on doing well on your rotations, getting excellent LORs, making sure you're prepared to impress when it comes time to doing audition rotations, and confirming that neuro is the right choice for you (I think it has the biggest discrepancy between clinical experience and didactics at many schools). Aside from doing an audition rotation at a program and impressing them, there is for the most part nothing you're going to do to increase your chances specifically at Miami. You can start working on Neuro research, but it won't make up for poor clinical performance/LORs, so the latter should be your priority.
There are several programs at the caliber of Miami and I wouldn't get attached to a program based on some resident newsletters.
It looks from prior posts that you're at WVSOM -- You need to find out if Miami is DO friendly (I don't recall any DO residents), and if it is, you probably want to take Step 1 if you only took COMLEX.
Agree with pietachok above. If you're at a DO program you'll need good grades, letters, and high step 1/2 as well as an away rotation there. I interviewed at Miami with a DO from NOVA Southeastern who was doing his away at Miami so they are at least considering DOs who do aways with them, although I don't think they have any currently in their residency. To be brutally honest I think it would be difficult (but not impossible) for you to match there for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with your strength as a candidate. All programs with good reputations that happen to be located on sunny beaches are extremely competitive even for U.S. MDs. You'll have the added challenge of competing for a spot against the DOs from NOVA (a DO school close by) going into neurology most of which will probably do aways there and will probably also rank Miami highly. That said, schedule a rotation there early in your 4th year and try to get a good letter from one of their faculty. In addition, apply broadly to a variety of different programs all over the country because there are a lot of programs on the same level as Miami and many of those will want good DOs. Get good advising from your mentors; find out who is going into neuro this year from your school and email those 4th years to find out what they think about the places they've interviewed, how many they applied to, which programs in your regions of interest are more DO friendly, etc. I've done most of my interviews at this point and the places I applied to on a whim or because someone told me to apply there are going to be at the top of my rank list and some of the others I thought were my dream programs will be closer to the middle or the bottom. You really won't have a clue which programs actually fit your goals and values best until you start actually seeing these places.
