what's your take on this...

[timhost]

I was not able to find good info on match rates for US Sr/Grad/FMG for recent years and was wondering if anyone knew the rough breakdown.

Also, I have read on this forum that average scores are around 235+ for people who match, and around 220 for people that do not. Is it fair to say that board scores are VERY important in ENT (more so than other specialties)? With such a spread (about 1 SD), are there a lot of people that just "throw-in" apps to see if anyone bites... I'm interested to hear other peoples thoughts on this.

Thanks

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[TheThroat]

I don't think that Step I scores are any more important in oto than they are in any other competitive specialty. Its just that programs have to have some way to compare applicants on a somewhat objective scale. The only thing that I see that can elevate someone with a low score to be highly desirable is research. BUT, even with a high score, you still need a well-rounded application.

 

[maxnm]

The average matching board score from last year was 236. I think that the match rate was somewhere around 75%, snd closer to 80% if you take out FMG's. I think that there were only 4 FMG's that matched last year. The stats are out there, but a little harder to find because it was SF match last year. I think that I found it somewhere online but I can't remember where. The program director at my school showed it to me. I do think that step one scores are very important. Schools might say that they do not have a cutoff but with so many applicants there are only so many things that they can use to weed out applicants for interviews. Most schools get over 200 applications and will interview 10-15 applicants per position. I think that a lot of people do just throw applications out there, but I was told that you should apply to about 40 programs, espically it you are not such a compeditive applicant.