I have been doing research on how to match, and this is what I have found:
The rule of 26
260: Min USLME Step 2 score
26: Min number of publications (all decent or good quality, mind you)
26: The max-age at interview. PDs prefer young, as youth=more intelligence=more neuroplasticity=more energy.
26: Be from a top 26 med school.
Of course, good grades and recs are a given.
If you have all 4 26's, you are gold.
If you are missing 1, good luck, because you will need it. Better compensate.
If you are missing all 4, WOW, your dad better be Chair emeritus of the neurosurgery department.
I am 0/4. PGY3 neurosurgery.
Very interesting. Can you describe your stats in more detail, please? Also, did you have connections? Are you URM? Thank you.
a lot of underperforming idiots here spent the past 3 years of medical school drinking and having sex and now they are jealous of guys who have 30 pubs and 260s. guess what idiots we spent the past 3 years in the lab and doing anki all day and now we will reap what we have sowed. it is only fair all you are a bunch of idiots who think partying and having sex and enjoying life is what PDs want. PDs nowadays want workhorses like us who will push the field forward. neurosurgery is a big deal and even elon musk is getting involved, and the field has no time for idiots who only want to have sex and enjoy life. only the best of the best and now the supreme court is gettting rid of affirmative aciton.
better get ready to scramble for family medicine
also why is hard work being demonized here? why not encourage achievement and progress in the field? why must be put down people who publish?
Are the 26 publications including abstracts and posters and such, or are you saying we need 26 individual PubMed-indexed papers? Also, how is a max age of 26 even possible now given people take research years in medical school, let alone before (I haven't but just saying).
26 pubs, according to my research, include posters and abstracts--although I may be wrong. You should have a number of publications prior to medical school, and use med school to further your existing research. sorry but if you are just starting research in med school you better work real hard to catch up.
of course, boomers here who claim to read applications say otherwise. they say that having sex, partying and body building is the most important thing (just read some posts by Focus), so I may be wrong, but I am basing this on what I have seen in my own research
Some really terrible advice in this thread. When I went through the interview process, the Chair's didn't really care much for the research or step scores. In fact, some of the most distinguished chair's like Bobby C., Mitch, and Spetzdog focused on how many tendies I had crushed in college and medical school. If I wouldn't have been a third generation fratking I don't think I would've matched. So while some medical students above will talk about their academic accolades hoping that will get them a spot in residency, in my own personal experience, it was a trophy case of dimes that got me through. Just my experience I guess?
