Hey everyone, this is my first post here and I have to say this is an incredible resource.

I am an MS1 at a decent but not top-tier med school in the heart of the country. I actually was not interested in neurosurgery until the a couple of months ago; I was hoping to do some basic neuroscience research and I actually wound up getting on very good terms with the chair of our department of neurosurgery who let me shadow him. I was hooked.

I am trying to figure out what I can do know to make my application strong in 3-4 years. I realize that I may change my mind after actually going through a surgery rotation, but as of right now this is my leaning and I hope to make myself as competitive as possible assuming I enter this field. I would appreciate any advice about my current plan of action:

1) USMLE; I recently started collecting Step 1 books and annotating First Aid. I hope to review some of the core principles study guides I have and then really bear down near the end of my MS-2 year. I am very good at standardized tests and cramming info quickly so I am warily confident that I can get the necessary scores.

2) Research: The chief of our department put me in touch with this up-and-coming faculty member who is a publishing machine; he sends out at least 8-10 publications every year it seems (by his PubMed profile at least). That faculty member then referred me to a resident who is starting his research year and wants me and one other student to work with him starting in July. I hopefully will get published but the one doubt I have is whether I will get a LOR from this resident’s superior who is influential but seems too busy to directly interact with an MS-1

3) Shadowing/Clinic/Grand Rounds: My school has these grand rounds each week for neurosurgery that are open to all students. I am thinking of attending weekly just to stay current and hopefully get some contacts in the department. My other option is shadowing the chief of neurosurgery when he attends in the hospital and also going with him to clinic. Which do you think would be more useful? I am thinking the shadowing might be a better way to spend my time but I am not sure.

Finally I am young (<20) and I wonder if that will be a problem in this field; I don’t look or act any younger so it may not be an issue.

Thanks for any help!

1) Study and learn the material and you’ll do well. There are no tricks to it.

2) Do a good job on the research project and you’ll likely get a letter. Most of the time they won’t offer the letter, you’ll just have to ask when it comes time to apply. Even if they don’t know you all that well, they’ll get the information they need from the people you worked with and probably sit down with you at some point to get to know you beter.

3) No reason not to do both. Attending Grand Rounds starting this early will show your interest and you’ll learn a lot.

being young...i can relate.  i grow facial hair very fast and thick though; so i schedule my meetings with them three days in advance and get a good scruff going to make them think i’m a little older

it worked, we all went out for a beer once, and the bouncer didn’t catch my fake id

of course, now i’m of age, but i can relate to the being young thing

mpp - 13 April 2007 06:54 AM

1) Study and learn the material and you’ll do well. There are no tricks to it.

2) Do a good job on the research project and you’ll likely get a letter. Most of the time they won’t offer the letter, you’ll just have to ask when it comes time to apply. Even if they don’t know you all that well, they’ll get the information they need from the people you worked with and probably sit down with you at some point to get to know you beter.

3) No reason not to do both. Attending Grand Rounds starting this early will show your interest and you’ll learn a lot.

Thanks for the advice. I am definitely trying to learn the material well, following along with First Aid and annotating. That’s good for the research, if I get a letter from this guy it will be big.

praying - 16 April 2007 01:30 PM

being young...i can relate.  i grow facial hair very fast and thick though; so i schedule my meetings with them three days in advance and get a good scruff going to make them think i’m a little older

it worked, we all went out for a beer once, and the bouncer didn’t catch my fake id

of course, now i’m of age, but i can relate to the being young thing

Yeah I don’t look too young (thankfully!) because I am pretty physically big and I look tired a lot (makes one age!). I am as of yet able to grow a good sized beard so that is out of the option.

I agree.

1) The step 1 score, besides research, is probably the most important piece of your application, because when it comes down to it, they will rank candidates in some arbitrary order, and when one candidate looks like everyone else, the higher board score comes out on top.

2) Neurosurgery research is very well received when it comes to your application, and probably 30-50% of the applicants have some sort of research on their application.  Getting one paper published while you’re a medical student will look very favorably, no matter which specialty you eventually choose.

3) Making yourself seen around the department occasionally will help when it comes to your clinical years, and your chairman has to decide who is going to get his most glowing letter of recommendation.  Don’t be a pest to the overworked residents, but if you show enough interest, these residents will stand up for you when the inevitable question comes, “which of these medical students do you want to work with?”