What are my chances as a reapplicant?

[EyeDidNotMatch]

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My stats
AMG, State school without a home ophtho department, no idea about ranking probably low
Step 1 251, grades honors in peds/neuro, rest pass, CR 17/80 CK 253,CS pass
Letters: from 2 private practice ophthalmologists I worked with, the non ophtho letter from an department chair who I worked with and respected.
Aways: 2 places- both passes
Applied to ~40 programs. Led to 4 interview offers, of which I was only able to attend 3. I was nervous at the first, flubbed the second, the third went fairly well but it was at a program that is out of my league.

I did not match into ophtho this past year. I tried unsuccessfully to line up an ophthalmic path year but was unsuccessful. I opted to go into the match and will be doing a prelim year. Before CAS, I'll be doing an ARVO poster, publishing 2 case reports, and possibly have a paper submitted. I've talked to the PD at one of my away rotations who offered to write me a letter for this next year. I plan on applying more broadly this year. Do I have any hope of matching? Any suggestions of things that I should look into? Thank you so much for reading and your advice.

 

[DrZeke]

Your step score is great and should get your foot in the door. I suspect the combination of no home program, only letters from private practice ophthalmologists and applying to 40 programs are what signed your death certificate in this match. Apply to every single program or at least double what you did last year. You need at least 10 interviews. Get a letter from a known academic ophthalmologist. Find out if you had any deficits from the programs you did aways at. Talk to everyone that has ever worked with you closely in ophthalmology and ask them to be EXTREMELY honest about any weaknesses you might have. Have that PD that is willing to write you letter go through your personal statement and application if he is willing and to criticize it.

Also, why do you think you could not secure a path year? I know they are coveted and competitive but were there any particular reasons given to you?

 

[EyeDidNotMatch]

Your step score is great and should get your foot in the door. I suspect the combination of no home program, only letters from private practice ophthalmologists and applying to 40 programs are what signed your death certificate in this match. Apply to every single program or at least double what you did last year. You need at least 10 interviews. Get a letter from a known academic ophthalmologist. Find out if you had any deficits from the programs you did aways at. Talk to everyone that has ever worked with you closely in ophthalmology and ask them to be EXTREMELY honest about any weaknesses you might have. Have that PD that is willing to write you letter go through your personal statement and application if he is willing and to criticize it.

Also, why do you think you could not secure a path year? I know they are coveted and competitive but were there any particular reasons given to you?

I only applied to three path years because if I was going to delay my career for a year, I wanted to do it in a way that had some sort of track record of success. I didn't get offered an interview at SLC, there were 17 people at BPEI, and iowa interviewed after rank lists were due. I'll definitely seek feedback

 

[Bluesclera]

I only applied to three path years because if I was going to delay my career for a year, I wanted to do it in a way that had some sort of track record of success. I didn't get offered an interview at SLC, there were 17 people at BPEI, and iowa interviewed after rank lists were due. I'll definitely seek feedback

When you say you passed your two aways, was there a reason as to why you did not honor them? Also apply to every single program.

 

[elementals]

Everything DrZeke says.

Also consider recalibrating your expectations. I realize this is going to sound harsh, but only applying to 40 programs, only going to 3/4 interviews, and then only applying to 3 path fellowships (all three paid and competitive, I believe) without considering any other sort of ophtho-related research path comes off as overestimating your own competitiveness/choosing whilst begging. You faced pretty steep set of challenges last year that should've made you nervous about applying to a below-average # of programs:

- No home ophtho dept, mid-tier(?) school
- No honors in important rotations (med/surg/ophtho)
- No publications
- No academic ophtho letters

#1 and #2 can't be changed now. It sounds like you're working hard on fixing the last two, which is great because those are the ones you can change. Your step scores are also above-average, which is a point in your favor -- however, be aware that there are plenty of people with 250s steps, and even some with 260s. You also have new challenges this year:

- Busy intern year
- Reapplicant

There's nothing you can do about the intern year now; make the most of it and try to arrange it so that your vacation days/lighter rotations, if any, are around the interview months.

Being a reapplicant is, unfortunately, a significant handicap -- I speak as someone reapplied myself. You need to be able to make up for that by really demonstrating that you're someone that was overlooked the first time around, and shouldn't have been. The best way to do that is to 1) be productive in research and 2) have a lot of people -- A LOT -- saying good things about you. They need to be people who know you well who can say things that aren't on your CV. Have people write you glowing letters; send in extra letters; have people call on your behalf if they're willing.

And finally, yes, just to reiterate: if you're serious about ophtho, apply absolutely everywhere. It is totally fine to decide that you'd rather be a ______ somewhere nice and have that as your backup, or simply switch specs -- but if it's ophtho or bust for you, then don't make the same mistake of only going for 40 programs. Or 80. Or 100. Do all 113, or however many there are next year.

 

[Flibberty]

Hi, guys. I had to delay ranking Ophtho programs this year for familial geographic considerations, and will be reapplying this coming cycle (with the geographic concern no longer being an issue). I was wondering how much being a US grad (I am starting my PGY-1 year in July) will stigmatize my app. As background:

Step 1: 263
Step 2: >270
Clerkships: Honors where possible except for one 4th-year IM subspecialty elective (HP)
AOA: yes
Research: some, but unimpressive

Thanks for the input!

 

[DrZeke]

Hi, guys. I had to delay ranking Ophtho programs this year for familial geographic considerations, and will be reapplying this coming cycle (with the geographic concern no longer being an issue). I was wondering how much being a US grad (I am starting my PGY-1 year in July) will stigmatize my app. As background:

Step 1: 263
Step 2: >270
Clerkships: Honors where possible except for one 4th-year IM subspecialty elective (HP)
AOA: yes
Research: some, but unimpressive

Thanks for the input!

Was it death in the family, family trauma, family illness??

You need to make sure you have a good story. I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but some things people really understand and some things they just won't. There are hardships I went through that Certainly affected my grades and step 1 that I never discussed with anyone, because I know it wasn't a good idea. The death and illness of my father was something I probably should have discussed more, because I realized when some prelims found out that that situation contributed to some of my time off they cut me more slack.

You have a very competitive application. Those steps are awesome and everyone LOVES AOA. But still, apply everywhere and talk with people who know you and ask them how to frame what what happened to you or whether or not it can be mentioned at all... It's hard for us to judge without knowing the details...


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile app

 

[elementals]

Agree with Zeke -- you're going to need a fantastic story or at least a fantastic spin on your story. I suspect the biggest danger you're going to face, ironically, is that people might look at your stellar stats and assume that the only reason you didn't match this year is that you were suuuuuuch an almighty jerk that everyone hated you xD Which obviously isn't the case -- it sounds like you didn't even try to match -- so that's something you have to make clear in a clear, concise, 150% non-jerkish way. In fact, I think it'd be worthwhile to ask your letter writers to begin to tell that story for you; most reasons sound a lot less like excuses when they come from someone else.