<p>Just some minor points first:
-I have tons of research experience so I know about the field in some small sense.
-I have over 300 hours of shadowing with tons of different doctors so I'm pretty set on my career unless other things change.</p>
<p>1) My state has Direct MD and it has a 50/250 chance of acceptance. Everyone I know who was serious and applied got in. It's ranked about 50/120 out of medical schools. Would that make it hard to become a cardiac surgeon later on? Is #50 still good?</p>
<p>2) What are the criteria for residency in cardiac surgery? Does it matter where I do it in getting a job? I really want to work at a hospital in a city like New York or even New Haven (NEVER YALE).</p>
<p>3) "Statistically, a current U.S. medical school graduate, applying for the first time, has an excellent chance - greater than 80% - of obtaining a residency position in cardiac surgery." Is that really true?</p>
<p>4) Is it better to do Direct MD or Bachelors and MD? A friend of mine did Direct MD at our local school and then during her later years of Bachelors applied for MD and got into Pit Med (#9) for what she wants. I think that's the best route because you have a safety. What do you think?</p>
<p>5) Does it really matter which medical school you attend? Is going to Pit Med going to increase your chances at a better USMLE score?</p>
<p>6) What are the criteria in general for the NRMP?</p>
<p>Earning a residency in a competitive surgical specialty is dependent upon your performance in medical school and on your USMLE exam scores. Also your surgical clerkship grades and recommendations from your surgical praeceptors. Most successful surgical applicants also had ~1-5 surgery-related publications. </p>
<p>There were 1185 categorical surgical residency positions available in 2013 and 2415 applicants for those positions.</p>
<p>Cardio-thoracic surgery is fellowship level program. According to FRIEDA, there are only 65 training programs and they accept 0-3 students/year. (Not all programs accept new students every year.) Last year only 84 fellowships positions were available thru match.</p>
<p>RE: BA/MD programs (which I assume are the direct MD programs you’re talking about). If you have already completed any college coursework (other than co-enrollment classes in high school)—you’re ineligble for these programs.</p>
<p>BTW, all BA/MD have conditions for med school admissions. All have minimum GPA requirements. Some have minimum MCAT requirements. Some will allow you to apply out; others won’t.</p>
<p>If the pocket of your parents is not deep, and that med school could provide you some need-based assistance to help reduce your total indebtness, why not?!</p>
<p>A CCer who is a surgeon posted that, to get into a competitive specialty, the “old boy network” is still a big factor. (Of course, the manority of the applicants still need reasonae credential,) So I would guess that a sweet personality and a good luck to have a good mentor could go a long way. Do teachers/professors generally like you in your education career?</p>
<p>I can understand the Yale statement-having grown up near there and having worked there at the medical school–I know it’s a large bureaucracy that is daunting for some folks…however, if you want to work in a hospital in New Haven-you will be working at Yale as ALL of the New Haven hospitals and clinics are Yale affiliated whether its Yale-New Haven, St. Raphael’s, or the Smilow Cancer Center.</p>
<p>Yeah. I don’t want to work at Yale because of aberdeen said but I forgot about the whole merging problem. </p>
<p>Anyway, my question would then be if I went to UCONN BaMD at CPiM would it help rather than going to say Brown Alpert BaMD? Does it really matter? I’ve heard that getting research opportunities is easier at public medical schools that are large like Michigan.</p>
<p>not all ba/md programs let you apply out or hold a spot for you if you do (e.g. at Brown if a PLME tries to apply out they forfeit their guaranteed spot and have to reapply to Brown if they want Alpert as an option).</p>
<p>I agree with the above, rather than basing your decision based on where you’ll work post residency (which is of course skipping over the steps of getting into college, med school, and residency), why don’t you at least wait until you have results before you start splitting hairs. You can easily apply to a mix of BA/MD and BA programs and wait until the dust settles to make your decision.</p>
<p>I admire your confidence…and your feeling of being self assured about so many of your objectives…I can tell you that the road to medicine is paved with lots of ups and downs…and is a lifelong pursuit not necessarily determined by where a student attends medical school but how well they can work in an environment based upon diligence to patience and teamwork…I just don’t believe that anything in medicine is a given for opening the door to success for any student…including acceptance to an Ivy Medical School…or accumulating many hours of research and shadowing experiences…I do want to wish you great success…I know as an MS2 at UConn…I have been very happy with my education and my patient experiences to date…and I also know there will be many, many challenges down the road with healthcare and the great amount of people who will need care…my hope is that you will be able to find the right school that will allow you to take on the challenge of becoming a cardiac surgeon…keep after it</p>
<p>BS MD programs are notoriously unpredictable for the best of the students. There was someone this year who applied to 15+ programs, got a few interviews and no admissions. This person got into a top 15 school with a lot of merit money.</p>
<p>There are few tests clinically that UConn and Yale medical students would be expected to share {in terms of their respective facilities}…as Yale has tremendous clinical facilities in New Haven…and UConn does as well being the state’s flagship medical school in Farmington…I performed research at Yale Med one summer and I did not recall hearing about any student exchanges for going up to Farmington and taking clinical tests at UCONN MED…that being noted—UConn’s penchant for great clinical diagnosis instruction of its medical students continues…In addition, UConn Med and the UC Health Center is undergoing a huge transformation as The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine has decided to move its entire operation–their biomedical research institution and National Cancer Institute-including a designated Cancer Center that was formally based in Bar Harbor, Maine, (and a facility in Sacramento, California with a total staff of about 1,500)–and centralize its headquarters at the UConn Health Center in Farmington. The Jackson Labs will continue its mission to discover the genetic basis for preventing, treating and curing human disease, and to enable research and education for the global biomedical community. This will enable UConn Med to assume a position of global leadership in developing new medical treatments tailored to each patient’s unique genetic makeup…it’s a very exciting time to be a UConn Medical student as Jackson Labs pumps in $809 million and the state pumps in $291 million in funds to upgrade the medical school and lab environment of the entire Health Center facility…this will provide medical students and researchers an opportunity to be on the cutting edge of studying and working in great state-of-the art training facilities for all of us who are part of the UConn Medical School student body…the first part of the project will be completed in 2014…all of the funding will create a new clinical Simulation Center, a new Primary Care Institute, a National Comprehensive Cancer Center…and will allow the UConn Med School to increase its student body from about 80-90 in a med school class to about 130 in a class…with an increase in faculty, as well, BTW, the ride from New Haven to Farmington and the UConn Health Center/Medical School is an easy drive…about 30-40 minutes all interstate highway as New Haven to Farmington is only about 30-35 miles…New Haven to Hartford is 37 miles…travel in CT is relative as the cities are all close together…its a great time to be a UConn Med student with all of the incredible advancements in Immunology, Neuroscience, Neurology, Molecular Biology, Cell Biology, and Surgery…along with the Clinical Research Center…</p>
<p>^ I think the reason is because the ceiling of the high school level achievement is not high enough to distinguish the pool of applicants except in the ECs. Also, other “more soft” critera are varied from one BS MD program to another, IMHO.</p>