Harvard Neurologist vs bottom-tier NS: What is more prestigious?

[Guest]

(10-07-2021, 02:38 PM)Guest Wrote: Walk into any hospital and I guarantee you the smartest doctor there is not a neurosurgeon. You've badly missed the point if you think prestige = smart. or if you think the gateway into neurosurgery is intelligence. Pay attention to this forum even a little bit and you'll understand that.

What's the gateway then?

[Guest]

(10-07-2021, 03:39 PM)Guest Wrote:

(10-07-2021, 02:38 PM)Guest Wrote: Walk into any hospital and I guarantee you the smartest doctor there is not a neurosurgeon. You've badly missed the point if you think prestige = smart. or if you think the gateway into neurosurgery is intelligence. Pay attention to this forum even a little bit and you'll understand that.

What's the gateway then?

Being taken under the wing of a prolific attending as an MS1/2 and getting put on 5+ pubs for minimal analysis of a database or 2 and then presenting that same research 10+ times and being introduced by your parent figure attending to PDs and then having that strong LOR and phone call to programs

[Guest]

This is such an asinine question… if you’re a HMS and MGH trained neurologist you’re probably smarter than the vast majority of neurosurgeons. Neurosurgery typically doesn’t recruit the best and brightest med students… those typically go into more comfortable and more benign specialties (my experience coming from T20 med school and residency).

[Guest]

Newsflash: almost all doctors are of average intelligence. The really smart people don’t do medicine in the first place. Think about how much of clerkships and preclinicals requires minimal brainpower. It’s just a grind. And NS is the grindiest grind.

[Guest]

(10-07-2021, 03:39 PM)Guest Wrote:

(10-07-2021, 02:38 PM)Guest Wrote: Walk into any hospital and I guarantee you the smartest doctor there is not a neurosurgeon. You've badly missed the point if you think prestige = smart. or if you think the gateway into neurosurgery is intelligence. Pay attention to this forum even a little bit and you'll understand that.

What's the gateway then?

It's definitely not social skills or humility. Seriously what kind of psychopath asks this kind of question? OP needs to go outside.

[Guest]

Neurosurgery definitely does not recruit the best or the brightest.

[Prestige matters]

(10-07-2021, 03:57 PM)Guest Wrote:

(10-07-2021, 03:39 PM)Guest Wrote:

(10-07-2021, 02:38 PM)Guest Wrote: Walk into any hospital and I guarantee you the smartest doctor there is not a neurosurgeon. You've badly missed the point if you think prestige = smart. or if you think the gateway into neurosurgery is intelligence. Pay attention to this forum even a little bit and you'll understand that.

What's the gateway then?

Being taken under the wing of a prolific attending as an MS1/2 and getting put on 5+ pubs for minimal analysis of a database or 2 and then presenting that same research 10+ times and being introduced by your parent figure attending to PDs and then having that strong LOR and phone call to programs

Thank you for this answer. I am actually trying to get a prolific attending to work with. I guess that was a really smart decision by me. 

From reading the comments here I also have to work on my social skills. I didn't get into a top-tier med school because I interview badly.

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(10-07-2021, 04:41 PM)Guest Wrote: Newsflash: almost all doctors are of average intelligence. The really smart people don’t do medicine in the first place. Think about how much of clerkships and preclinicals requires minimal brainpower. It’s just a grind. And NS is the grindiest grind.

I've read somewhere that the average IQ of a doctor is 120, which I believe is 1 sd above the mean.

[Focus]

(10-07-2021, 04:41 PM)Guest Wrote: Newsflash: almost all doctors are of average intelligence. The really smart people don’t do medicine in the first place. Think about how much of clerkships and preclinicals requires minimal brainpower. It’s just a grind. And NS is the grindiest grind.

I guess it depends on your definition of average but my impression is that most physicians fall between one and three standard deviations above the mean. Below that and it becomes increasingly hard to process the necessary information to get through medical school and the entrance exams. Above that it becomes increasingly hard to relate to people/ establish medical rapport. The smartest medical student I ever met went into pathology.

[Guest]

(10-07-2021, 05:07 PM)Guest Wrote: Neurosurgery definitely does not recruit the best or the brightest.

I know a few kids who went into NS. Admittedly, not directly, but indirectly as I am early in med school. All were in the top 1/3 of class in terms of grades, and all did tons of research on the winter/summer breaks and throughout school as well. STEP was in top 1/2 at least. I'm not sure about IQ but I would guess a high IQ, as they had to learn the med school material and do research on top of that (research takes up some time). 
From my high school, the smartest kids in terms of IQ went into law, computer science and finance. However, they were not really the hardest working or most ambitious.

[Guest]

This thread screams inferiority complex. Just embarrassing and proof enough that nsgy does not recruit, or at least appeal to, the brightest