Would md-phd help?

[jinhwalin]

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Hello! I am a md-phd student, and I am very very interested in ophthalmology and staying in the academic tract. I had a very solid phd training at top school with top neuroscience publications (nature, etc). My board score was just average (step 1= 219). I had a couple of honors in my first 2 years, and a few honors in my clinical rotations (including ophtho). Can anyone give me some advice as to my chance of matching into a good ophtho program? Due to my spouse's work situation, I prefer going to California. Please help!!! Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

[Andrew_Doan]

Welcome to SDN!

Being a MD-PhD, I know that certain programs will favor you - mostly the top 10 programs with an emphasis on training academic ophthalmologists. Otherwise, many programs will view MD-PhDs as a risk because they do not want their residents "running to the lab" all the time. Your board score is a little low, so you'll need other strengths to increase your competitiveness. You need strong letters. California consists of really competitive programs, so I recommend that you broaden your search beyond this state.

Good luck!

 

[kassie]

I came from a similar background as you with and matched last year. Being a mudphud can help and hurt.

With your board score, you will get filtered out by a lot of program secretaries doing the first pass look so you will need to use contacts to get past that. Community programs tend not to be interested in us either but it doesn't hurt to apply.

Being geographically limited will hurt you a bit, especially in CA where things are very competetive. I wouldn't limit myself. I say apply broadly.

But hang in there, if you really love it you can match! If I did anyone can! Part of it is just luck.

Iris