03-20-2018, 02:24 AM
Wanted to give an inside look on what matters, this is one person’s opinion and biased towards how the academic programs I am familiar with handle it, ymmv and the criteria are probably weighted differently at less academic places.
step 1: important as a screening tool, except for subis, applications with a score below 240 don’t get reviewed at our program. Overall it is not as important as people on this website make it out to be. A score below 240 hurts you a lot, but there is not tons of mileage for higher scores though higher is better. A super high score is more important for people who went straight through school or only took one year off. Less important for MD/PhDs and people with crazy amounts of research, but they still need to be above the cutoff to have a good chance.
Step2: not important unless you do different on it than step 1, much better helps a little, almost nobody does significantly worse so if you did I guess you are special
Subi performance: the people who rotate with us are judged mostly on their sub-i. Subis fall into about 5 categories: rockstar, good but not particularly impressive, meh but inoffensive, poor but no major red flags, and horrible. The majority of subis are in the middle 3 categories. Being a rockstar obviously helps your chances at our program. The 2nd tier people can do ok if the rest of their application is stellar. The rest are ranked at the bottom of the list.
One thing that isn’t appreciated on this website or its predecessors is that as more subis hurt themselves than help themselves with their performance.
Letters: super important for people that didn’t do subis with us, letters from away rotations are more useful than home letters. It is hard to get to the top of our rank list without doing a subi or being one of the rare people with outstanding away letters. The reality is that everybody’s research mentor says great things about them. Most home program letters are positive. A relatively small number of people get truly glowing letters from away rotations. Most away letters are pretty generic but that is probably because most sub-is aren’t outstanding. That said, even chairs that write mostly generic letters will write a different letter for the standout applicants with one or two notable exceptions whose letters are always completely useless.
Clinical grades: all honors or close to it is a plus, again more important for people who didn’t Subi with us
Research: very important at our program, probably less important at less academic programs, getting stuff published is what counts so make sure to do a mix of low and high risk projects, important to have some first author stuff, hard match at our program without a history of basic/translational research
Interview: faculty and resident’s impression of you is important, this is a subjective thing, good presence, decisiveness, being well spoken etc all are in your favor, having a good eq is appreciated
Resident input: every program is different, at my current program resident opinion carries a lot of weight, varies some by program, but the residents can blackball people at most places
Calls: we will make calls to the home programs of the people who are in consideration to be at the top of our rank list to get the inside scoop, likewise a concerted lobbying effort from your mentors can help if you are already near the top of the list
Other stuff: if there is something about you that is truly unique or different try to get it into your application somewhere, people with strong records of success in athletics or bootstrapped from humble upbringings tend to get an extra boost, seeing a continued track record of success throughout an applicants educational career is a plus, if you’ve worked a real job put that in your application (residents who have dug ditches, washed dishes, waited tables etc. tend to do well with the slave labor reality of neurosurgery residency)
step 1: important as a screening tool, except for subis, applications with a score below 240 don’t get reviewed at our program. Overall it is not as important as people on this website make it out to be. A score below 240 hurts you a lot, but there is not tons of mileage for higher scores though higher is better. A super high score is more important for people who went straight through school or only took one year off. Less important for MD/PhDs and people with crazy amounts of research, but they still need to be above the cutoff to have a good chance.
Step2: not important unless you do different on it than step 1, much better helps a little, almost nobody does significantly worse so if you did I guess you are special
Subi performance: the people who rotate with us are judged mostly on their sub-i. Subis fall into about 5 categories: rockstar, good but not particularly impressive, meh but inoffensive, poor but no major red flags, and horrible. The majority of subis are in the middle 3 categories. Being a rockstar obviously helps your chances at our program. The 2nd tier people can do ok if the rest of their application is stellar. The rest are ranked at the bottom of the list.
One thing that isn’t appreciated on this website or its predecessors is that as more subis hurt themselves than help themselves with their performance.
Letters: super important for people that didn’t do subis with us, letters from away rotations are more useful than home letters. It is hard to get to the top of our rank list without doing a subi or being one of the rare people with outstanding away letters. The reality is that everybody’s research mentor says great things about them. Most home program letters are positive. A relatively small number of people get truly glowing letters from away rotations. Most away letters are pretty generic but that is probably because most sub-is aren’t outstanding. That said, even chairs that write mostly generic letters will write a different letter for the standout applicants with one or two notable exceptions whose letters are always completely useless.
Clinical grades: all honors or close to it is a plus, again more important for people who didn’t Subi with us
Research: very important at our program, probably less important at less academic programs, getting stuff published is what counts so make sure to do a mix of low and high risk projects, important to have some first author stuff, hard match at our program without a history of basic/translational research
Interview: faculty and resident’s impression of you is important, this is a subjective thing, good presence, decisiveness, being well spoken etc all are in your favor, having a good eq is appreciated
Resident input: every program is different, at my current program resident opinion carries a lot of weight, varies some by program, but the residents can blackball people at most places
Calls: we will make calls to the home programs of the people who are in consideration to be at the top of our rank list to get the inside scoop, likewise a concerted lobbying effort from your mentors can help if you are already near the top of the list
Other stuff: if there is something about you that is truly unique or different try to get it into your application somewhere, people with strong records of success in athletics or bootstrapped from humble upbringings tend to get an extra boost, seeing a continued track record of success throughout an applicants educational career is a plus, if you’ve worked a real job put that in your application (residents who have dug ditches, washed dishes, waited tables etc. tend to do well with the slave labor reality of neurosurgery residency)
