Tips for an M1 interested in neurosurgery

[BeTheBallDanny]

What would your best tips be to successfully match into neurosurgery aside from the obvious like grades and Step 1? In retrospect are there things you would have done differently, things you could have changed from the start, to make yourself more competitive/have a better experience? Are there things you wish you would have known?

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[BeTheBallDanny]

Get involved in research early. If not only helps build your research portfolio, but introduces you to the field, helps make connections, and gives you the opportunity to explore neurosurgery early on in the beginning of your medical career. I would recommend shadowing once, maybe twice, but it really has limited utility at this point.

When you say early do you mean during M1?

 

[WedgeDawg]

When you say early do you mean during M1?

Not like immediately during the beginning M1, but once you've gotten the hang of classes (maybe in the second half of the year), I would start looking for and reaching out to labs as well as looking for funding if you're trying to do research over the summer. If you find a good lab and you decide to do a summer project, it's good to get acclimated before the summer starts and go through all the training/paperwork that inevitably accompanies it.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Agreed. Be aggressive with research funding for next summer. There are several early awards available (I believe one through the AANS) that early birds can snatch up. I believe the deadline is like December/January so few people apply.

 

[fossaoval]

What kind of research do you guys recommend? Basic science or clinical? Would just any kind of neurological research be helpful later down the road? Kinda lost haha

 

[mmmcdowe]

Do whichever interests you. You will be much more likely to seenit tthrough to publication if you like it.

 

[libertyyne]

How does one avoid being in the groups with arrows?

 

[libertyyne]

Be a normal human with a decent personality

I'm sure you'll be fine

I figured it was bad interviewing/ interpersonal skills that prevented matches there, but I would love to hear from some PD's. Its hard to look at the rest of the charts to see if those apps were missing research or had other problems since the scores are not linked.

 

[mmmcdowe]

I figured it was bad interviewing/ interpersonal skills that prevented matches there, but I would love to hear from some PD's. Its hard to look at the rest of the charts to see if those apps were missing research or had other problems since the scores are not linked.

Poor research and poor letters and bizarre behavior plus the one or two who maybe didnt apply or interview at enough programs account for those who didnt match. Every now and then someone gets busted for falsifying parts of their resume as well or has a major red flag (serious disciplinary or criminal record, previously unmatched, repeated a year, failed clinicals).

 

[kitsunepixie]

The one guy I knew who had over 260 & good pubs and didn't match into neurosurgery the year before I applied was actually blacklisted by the residents at the institutions at which he had sub-Is...one of the places even sent him home before his month-long rotation was up. Apparently, at the institution where he did his away there is a very strong "brotherhood" mentality (i.e., if something went wrong the PD could never find out what resident was "responsible," because all of the residents would take the blame to cover each other), to make himself look good he threw one of the residents under the bus. It wasn't just this outside institution that noted that behavior; the residents where I trained complained bitterly about him being "weird" and difficult to talk to. I kind of felt bad for the guy because I think he was probably on the spectrum (as many neurosurgeons probably are), but our chairman helped him scramble into a very nice spot in a different competitive, albeit non-surgical, specialty...

So long story short, the residents' feedback matters. When the time comes to ask for letters, guess who the attendings ask for what to put in the letter about the students who request a letter from them...we'd get e-mails that are literally "I don't remember this student...what can you tell me about him/her??"