As I sit here pulling my hair out and banging my head, thinking about my slim chance of matching, I can't help but think how much better life would be now applying IM/Peds/FM/OB...basically anything else.  

#life of a non 250s, non elite medical school applicant

Anyone know what this entails or what they're looking for?  Anyone from prior matches care to weigh in?

Institution: Georgetown
Length: 4 weeks
Hours: 5:30 AM - Finish (if all the OR's are done early, around 6:30-7pm, latest I've left was close to midnight)
Days on/off: Dependent on how many students are on the rotation. Also, senior resident dependent.
Rotation: 3 weeks at Georgetown, 1 week at Washington Hospital center
Presentation: During neurosurgery grand rounds. Mostly faculty/residents only. Wear scrubs. Give your talk and you may get a question or two. Non-stressful experience


Good: It's like a "frat". Residents get a long very well. Cohesive group of guys. Attendings are fairly benign/happy and treat the residents well. If you like spine, you will get a huge MIS experience. More than one hospital but you only cover one during your call day. This is great since it diversifies the attendings that you work with. The chair and program director are awesome. No pre-rounding (the overnight resident will jot down important vitals/events)

Bad: Heavy MIS experience which leaves junior residents not much to do. Since it is D.C., most patients are on the upper scale which leaves most attendings scrubbing into most cases. No neurosurgery based labs, albeit Georgetown is regarded as an amazing neuroscience institution. The system is 50/50 EMR and paper-based.

Neutral: 3 OR's going at a time typically. Mostly MIS. Not much of a cranial experience at the main hospital but you get more out of it at Washington Hospital center.

Other: NIH experience (new), they want residents to take advantage of this research opportunity.

Overall, Georgetown is a pretty great program. The residents and attendings get along very well. It provides a great MIS experience if you want it. They have a great track record, no major debacles in recent years...no one being fired like at other institutions that you have to worry about. The PD and chairman are great. Despite the scut work that it puts you through the first 2 years, it is a great program. Their residents go on to obtain great fellowships and they are very well trained. Wouldn't sleep on this program.

Just wanted to ask what the etiquette was regarding emails after the interviews. You know to thank the people that interviewed you?

I hate my program and want out.  Anyone else interested in going somewhere else?

Does anyone know much about this program? Specifically how do they cover the hospital call with one resident on research and another in Utah? It sounds brutal and curious what their case volume and diversity is like?

Which programs have you guys seen / heard of that have good amounts of resident autonomy / opportunities to actually operate as opposed to watching the attending operate?

A lot of the “top tier” programs seem to be more about academics and less about the surgically experience

Anyone who has rotate/ interviewed there have any insights? Seemed like they lost a resident recently?

how is loyola chicago looking this year amongst the chicago programs?  several new faculty- https://ssom.luc.edu/neurosurgery/faculty/index.cfm . no longer on probation?

Hey everyone, 

I am still confused about how Step 2 CK is used in the application process. My PD seems to think that ~15-20 programs require a score to send you an interview (ie. there is an algorithm in place that will screen out applications that lack a score). However, it seems like many on these forums, if not most, are getting lots of interviews without having a score available. 

That said, would people mind listing the schools they've received interviews from without having a Step 2 CK score in their application? I'll start by listing a few schools I'm interested in following the order of the list on the Interview Invites thread. 

Indiana
University of Florida
Houston Methodist
University of Virginia
Baylor
Tulane
UAB
Duke
Arkansas
LSU New Orleans
Kentucky
LSU Shreveport
Oklahoma
Wake Forest
UNC
University of Miami
University of Mississippi
Carolinas Med Center
WashU
Vanderbilt
UT Southwestern
University of South Florida
Mayo Clinic Jacksonville

Thanks everyone!