MD/PhD student interested in neurosurgery

[smithers]

Currently in the second year of my PhD. First paper out, expect two more before I graduate.

Step 1 mid 250s, haven't taken step 2. 

I come from an institution where clerkships are done before the PhD. I already rotated on neurosurgery, loved the cases, acuity of the patients, technology. Interacted well with the residents and got good evals.

One potential "snag" is that I haven't really kept in touch with the department since rotating. I tried to set up a clinical project to do on the side the first year of my PhD, but after several months of back and forth it was apparent that I needed to be dedicated 24/7, so that quickly faded away.

Does this matter? Is there anything I should be doing to stay relevant before my home sub-I? The PD and the chair are aware of who I am but I haven't interacted with them much. Our associate PD is a strong advocate, I sat down with them after I completed my rotation and was generally assured about my situation, but wasn't given any specific instructions.

[Guest]

(04-15-2017, 06:43 PM)smithers Wrote: Currently in the second year of my PhD. First paper out, expect two more before I graduate.

Step 1 mid 250s, haven't taken step 2. 

I come from an institution where clerkships are done before the PhD. I already rotated on neurosurgery, loved the cases, acuity of the patients, technology. Interacted well with the residents and got good evals.

One potential "snag" is that I haven't really kept in touch with the department since rotating. I tried to set up a clinical project to do on the side the first year of my PhD, but after several months of back and forth it was apparent that I needed to be dedicated 24/7, so that quickly faded away.

Does this matter? Is there anything I should be doing to stay relevant before my home sub-I? The PD and the chair are aware of who I am but I haven't interacted with them much. Our associate PD is a strong advocate, I sat down with them after I completed my rotation and was generally assured about my situation, but wasn't given any specific instructions.

nope. keep a low profile. focus on grad school.

[Guest]

I'm curious.. what did you decide to do your thesis topic on.

[Guest]

Looking at the 2016 match report for US seniors, out of 20 MD/PhD neurosurgery applicants 4 failed to match. Looking at older data, it seems that every cycle there are a few PhD holders that are unable to match. Can anyone explain generally what would cause this? Low step scores? Non-relevant PhD or non-productive PhD? Poor foresight in selecting how many/tier of programs to apply? I get that a number of factors are at play here but with such a small number of dual degree applicants applying one would think that a focused MD/PhD shouldn't go unmatched if they apply intelligently...

[Guest]

(07-23-2017, 03:51 PM)Guest Wrote: Looking at the 2016 match report for US seniors, out of 20 MD/PhD neurosurgery applicants 4 failed to match. Looking at older data, it seems that every cycle there are a few PhD holders that are unable to match. Can anyone explain generally what would cause this? Low step scores? Non-relevant PhD or non-productive PhD? Poor foresight in selecting how many/tier of programs to apply? I get that a number of factors are at play here but with such a small number of dual degree applicants applying one would think that a focused MD/PhD shouldn't go unmatched if they apply intelligently...

Low step scores, inflated sense of self-value, socially awkward/difficult to get along with. Might not match if you tick 2 out of the 3 boxes.