Hey everyone. I am going to be entering into med school next fall and I have a lot of interest in this specialty. I realize that it is a tad early to be worrying about residencies but my curiosity has gotten the best of me. I just have a few questions about this type of program.
What is the general vibe that you guys are getting on how difficult it is to match to one of these programs since the spots are so limited? Are there a lot of people applying which would make crazy-good board scores a must? Do they look for a lot of research? Are these types of programs on the rise and will there be more popping up in the next few years?
I'm just trying to get a feel for what I need to do in med school if it does turn out that this is definitely what I want to do. Thanks for the help.
Warning- in an effort to try to avoid studying and being productive, I decided to write a long response to your questions. Other readers, please correct me where I'm wrong. Enjoy!
Board scores need to be good. I don't think Step 1/Step 2 scores necessarily have to go into the range that you see for integrated plastics for RIGHT NOW but they need to be at least above the national average. However, I think in a few years, you'll see vascular follow similarly to integrated plastics in terms of competitiveness, increasing program numbers, and applicant numbers. As the newer programs start graduating their residents into productive vascular surgeons and demonstrating that this model of training can work, you'll likely start seeing increased numbers of programs, but at the same time, many more applicants which translates to more competitive CV's. I think that this is where the field will be trending towards by the time you'll get to fourth year.
As for what you might want to do to plan for a possible career- most applicants will need a letter from a vascular surgeon- and preferably from the chairman or a well known attending. Of course, this means that you would have done some time in a vascular rotation- be it an away elective, as part of your core, your Sub-I, etc... Keep this in mind when you start figuring out your third year schedule. Find a mentor in the Vascular Dept early and get some groundwork into basic research going. I recommend Vascularweb.org as a great resource to start off getting to know the field as a medical student.
I think having multiple published or significant research/presentations in Vascular or Cardiovascular Surgery will be commonplace on most matched applicants' CV's in a few years- if they aren't already. A study by Stanford, one of the oldest integrated vascular programs in the country, seems to suggest that successful applicants tended to have a strong research background with publications, amongst a variety of other academic and personal traits. That study suggested that applicants offered interviews to integrated programs had profiles similar to Top GS applicants. Read the article with a grain of salt but suffice it to say, if you're interested in the field- you've gotta work hard for it. It'll be nice for you starting out now, believe it or not, since you'll have time to build your application with better foresight- for many of us, a good chunk of these programs and the new training model itself kind of emerged halfway through med school. Take home message- Start early!
(
http://med.stanford.edu/profiles/su...oiceId=showPublication&pubid=4520233&fid=5927)
WARNING- A lot of numbers and pseudo math below, could be boring
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Lastly, in reference to your questions about numbers and how difficult it will be to apply and so forth, I suggest reading through some of NRMP's released data about the match per specialty - (
http://www.nrmp.org/data/index.html) The numbers for 2010 doesn't seem too ridiculous but every subsequent year probably gets more competitive. If I had to guess, I'd say that the 2011 ratio of overall US applicants to Vascular spots probably increased, despite implementation of new programs this year.
Umass released a study in
2009 that queried AAMC for full applicant numbers, which revealed that there were a total of 152 Vascular applicants that year and from that pool, only 32 US seniors were interviewed for one of the 19 positions. Ultimately, 88% of ALL integrated vascular applicants did not match into vascular. Looking at 2009's Results and Data for the Match, 32 US seniors ranked 19 positions at 17 hospitals a total of 166 times (At least 166 interviews given out for US Seniors, with each of them making it to their respective rank order lists [ROL])- It's roughly about 5-6 interviews per applicant (166 ranks/32 interviewees). That year, only 15 US Seniors matched of the 32- (Although to be more accurate, 8 applicants of the 32 ranked vascular as a second choice specialty, effectively removing them from vascular match pool) --> That leaves 24 US Seniors in the mix, with only 15 matching.
<-- (15/24 US Seniors end up matching) or ~ 60%
2010 had 39 US Seniors that ranked 21 vascular positions at 20 hospitals about 316 times (at least 316 interviews given out). I'll assume that most people interviewed at least 8-10 times (316 ranks/39 applicants-quite an increase) and ultimately of the 39, 19 matched (although to be fair, it seems that 9 applicants of the 39 most likely took themselves out of the match pool by ranking vascular second preference)--> so it's more like
(19/30 US seniors match) ~ 60%
So if you make it to the interview stage, it seems like 60% will match. Of note- although the numbers in terms of match percentages has been relatively stable the last two years at around 60% if you're a MD Senior, it does not reflect total applicant numbers, which likely exceeds 2009's figures. More importantly, the most noticeable change from 2009 to 2010 and also likely to continue through to 2011, is the
doubling of vascular programs (166 to 316) making it to the final rank list. Since there hasn't been a drastic doubling of PGY1 positions overnight, or any significant relative change in the number of ranking applicants in 2010 (39 students) relative to 2009 (32 students), the doubling of vascular programs making it to ROL's is a probably an indicator that recent applicants are getting twice as many interviews as before and likely reflects an increasing caliber of students.
(
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19958993)
Anyhow, if you're interested in it, you can definitely find the right venues to go about finding out if it's the field for you. Good luck! Hope the information here was at least somewhat accurate and if not, please point them out.
