r/Ophthalmology

I'll try to keep this post as short as possible:

• About me: Rising M2 @ newer US MD school, no home ophthalmology program. No history of previous classes matching ophtho.
• Preclinical scores: pretty poor. School is technically P/F unranked, but I have been able to discern where I fall in the class - faculty also release stats so we can see where we fall relative to our peers. I have never been above the median on an exam. No failed courses so far, but I am in the bottom 1/3 of my class.
• Does my school have AOA: Yes. Already confirmed with admin that I probably won't qualify unless I honor all my core rotations > research output = community service
  • Note: rotations are graded H/HP/P/F.
• Do I have an ophtho mentor: no, still searching for one. However I am hesitant to continue cold-emailing knowing how poor my preclinical grades are
• Research: One project that I am slated to be first author on, if I can get it done, but not related to ophthalmology. I know ophthalmology-related research isn't a requirement, so I'm grateful that I have this one project. That being said, I really, really want to get involved in an ophthalmology-related project -- that was one thing I didn't get to achieve in my gap years that I regret.
  • Note: no research at my institution, so I had to really bug people to connect me to a research group.
• Community Service: lackluster. Trying to do more of it this summer and also trying to find opportunities related to equitable vision access/care.
  • Note: no free health clinic at my institution.
• Leadership: 2 leadership roles (started 2 clubs on campus).

Reflections I've had over the past year:

• I am aware building a competitive ophtho app is difficult - I have classmates at more established MD schools who had to either take a research year or dual apply (and ended up matching into a different specialty). I think I would only be OK with taking a research year if I knew I was academically strong (like top 20% of my cohort in preclinical, Step 1 Pass, and 260+ Step 2). Because I will be graduating med school in my early 30s, I do feel more inclined to take the route that will get me a job vs. delaying my career for an outcome that is not exactly guaranteed.
• I think I could be studying harder/more hours/more efficiently. I could be doing more Anki (all the top scorers in my class use Anki daily, and I tend to cram it 7-14 days prior to the exam). I have 6 more months of preclinical to show faculty that I can actually score well on exams.

I would appreciate any & all honest feedback. I'm definitely leaning towards giving up on building an ophtho app altogether because it has become very discouraging. There are days where I think I should've just gone the optometry school route. If this does not work out, I am most likely going to apply internal medicine because I think other systems of the body are interesting & it fits with my other interest in primary care.

Hello, everyone! I hope you're well. I am an MS2, and I am super interested in ophthalmology. I was wondering what steps you recommend that I take to make me competitive and that would provide me wonderful experience and opportunity for knowledge growing (besides a great step 2 score). I am trying to find ways to tap into the community/connect with mentors, but it is proving a bit difficult. I am still not discouraged though, and I welcome any insight you all may be able to give me! Thank you in advance!

Jiansong Zhao et al. ,Harnessing semen-derived exosomes for noninvasive fundus drug delivery: A paradigm for exosome-based ocular fundus therapeutics.*Sci. Adv.*12,eadw7275(2026).DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adw7275

Genuinely curious...when someone is on call for the practice, does that mean you are simply on call for established patients who have ocular emergencies? What counts as "established"? In other words, if I saw someone for a corneal abrasion five years ago and they're now calling in the middle of the night with eye pain, is it fine to send that person to a resident staffed ED or must I see them in my practice in the middle of the night? Or what if it's someone who's never been seen at the practice before?

And...from a safety POV...what do you guys do if you do have to open the practice in the middle of the night to see a patient, with no one else there? As a resident I've been hit by patients before and admittedly am very petite and short-have also had patients hit on me even when I asked them to stop...what would one do if such a patient asked to be seen in the middle of the night? Do you have provisions to have an escort/security?

Oliver Sacks wrote in "The Island of the Colorblind" that he met someone with achromatopsia who could see constellations of stars better than normal? Is that experience confirmed by others?

Sacks explained his theory to explain this phenomenon in an endnote. He noted that people can sometimes see dim stars better if they look slightly away from the star, because then they are using their rods, rather than their foveal cones. Because people with achromatopsia don't have functioning foveal cones, they don't have these foveal cones competing with the rods. In other words, they always fixate with their rods.

I am wondering if Sacks' observation is shared by others, because I don't see it in the literature (other than his book).

For instance, someone who does glaucoma fellowship and works out in private practice but wants to still mainly do cataracts, premium IOLs, MIGS as their main surgeries with some days for tubes. And then dedicating 1 day purely for glaucoma clinic but have the other days be a mix of cataract evals, lens discussions, dry eyes, retina disease, etc.

Is it bad practice to be glaucoma trained but not dedicate a big portion of your practice to it?

Is it a waste of time to do glaucoma fellowship if you don't want to focus your OR days solely on glaucoma surgeries?

Hi!

I am a last year medical student in a european country and have a great interest in ophthalmology. I have quite good chances to match as a resident in ophthalmology but I have a quite severe red green color blindness which makes me question if this is right for me and the how this can affect patient safety.

Are you color blind or know someone that is that practices as an ophthalmologist? I have seen obvious cases of retinal pathology in the clinic but I am afraid that there is risk of missing something that is less obvious. What do you think?

Considering doing a hybrid two year program while working my current job as a technician. I came in with no experience and feel like the formal education would be good/ make me a better technician. I’m not sure though if it would be a good ROI. Any other techs in here that could share their perspective?

I’m a US ophtho resident possibly interested in peds.

What are some of the best comprehensive pediatric ophthalmology fellowships in the US? I have heard that some fellowships focus on strabismus and less so, for example, on cataracts or other procedures. Some programs also may not expose you to adult strabismus.

I think high volume and no “shadowing” culture are pretty important. I have heard some programs have a bit of shadowing especially if there’s complex surgery such as pediatric corneal transplants.

Thoughts?

He replied "pretty groovy"

I explained to her that sometimes we do chop, sometimes we do stop and chop, and other times we do D&C, depending on the hardness of the nucleus.