Endovascular neurology - ranking residency programs

[bowler_13]

Very interested in Neuro-IR. Factoring this in when deciding on my rank list (residency).

Should I rank a community program with an in-house fellowship (that generally is available to the residents at the program) higher than big-name/prestigious programs w/o the fellowships? Honestly have no idea how to approach this and it just seems wrong to be ranking the community program above some of the others. Could be that my med-school isn't exactly elite and that I want a big name behind me, but worried that this could mean I don't get neuro-IR which is very competitive to match into.

Any advice would be appreciated as I really have no idea how to rank my top 3 programs.

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[Thama]

If you know for sure that neuro-IR is the only thing in neurology you want to do, then go to the best residency with an in-house fellowship available to neurologist residents that you can. It's a whole lot easier to stay home for small, competitive fellowships like that.

If you are interested but not committed to neuro-IR, I would go to the best overall program with the most diversity of fellowships and subspecialties that you can get into. Theres a real difference in exposure and quality of faculty between programs, and unless your goal is to do the bare minimum to be board certified, it's not worth sacrificing that experience for a better shot at a fellowship you may or may not end up pursuing.