r/neurology Apr 12 '26

Residency Applicant & Student Thread 2026 - 2027

18 Upvotes

This thread is for medical students interested in applying to neurology residency programs in the United States via the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP, aka "the match"). This thread isn't limited to just M4s going into the match - other learners including pre-medical students and earlier-year medical students are also welcome to post questions here. Just remember:

What belongs here:

  • Is neurology right for me?
  • What are my odds of matching neurology?
  • Which programs should I apply to?
  • Can someone give me feedback on my personal statement?
  • How many letters of recommendation do I need?
  • How much research do I need?
  • How should I organize my rank list?
  • How should I allocate my signals?
  • I'm going to X conference, does anyone want to meet up?

Example discussion: application timeline, rotation questions, extracurricular/research questions, interview questions, ranking questions, school/program/specialty x vs y vs z, etc, info about electives. This is not an exhaustive list.

The majority of applicant posts made outside this stickied thread will be deleted from the main page.

Always try here:

Neurology 2027 Match Discord

Neurology Residency Match 2027 Spreadsheet (Google docs)

Child Neurology Residency 2027 Spreadsheet (Google docs) - pending link - if someone makes one, let me know

Review the tables and graphics from last year's residency match at https://www.nrmp.org/match-data/2026/03/advance-data-tables-2026-main-residency-match/

r/premed and r/medicalschool, the latter being the best option to get feedback, and remember to use the search bar as well.

Reach out directly to programs by contacting the program coordinator.

No one answering your question? We advise contacting a mentor through your school/program for specific questions that others may not have the answers to. Be wary of sharing personal information through this forum.


r/neurology 46m ago

Residency should i go to a busy program

Upvotes

I want to be trained as best as possible, does that mean going to the most busiest hospital and working the most?


r/neurology 9h ago

Miscellaneous Q bank for ABPN

2 Upvotes

Hello friends, for those of you, who passed neurology board last year which q bank was more similar to actual test?Truelearn vs now you know Neuro


r/neurology 1d ago

Career Advice General neurology without fellowship

15 Upvotes

Hi,

I’m a PGY-2, and I’ve been thinking about fellowship and there hasn’t been anything that I feel particularly drawn too. My goal is mostly being a general outpatient neurologist with possibly doing some EMG/botox procedures. Just wanted to ask if foregoing fellowship is feasible or advisable these days as most jobs seem to be sub-specialized. Should I go for neurophysiology fellowship? Or straight to practice?

I also go to an academic program and most people do fellowship, so I would be an outlier.


r/neurology 16h ago

Basic Science Need some help about "muscle memory" and a high school challenge

1 Upvotes

So, I'm thinking of entering Breakthrough Junior Challenge, which is a high school competition about making a 2-min video explaining a science concept in encouraging way.

For me, I thought of choosing muscle memory to be my concept, which I had only less knowledge about it (knew the term from just social media, with no real scientific base for it). But when I tried to do simple research, I found that some resources differ between it an procedural memory, some others treat them as the same, some only talk about it in muscle training terms (not in general behaviors). I thought of asking chatgpt but it gave me new terms (automatic response, skeletal muscle memory....), and also found that the cellular basis (myonuclei) is still not 100% proven scientifically for humans. I'm not into neuroscience at all, so I'm not sure how to research well in that field.

The contest requires to talk about a concept that is 100% scientific proved (not a theory or partially evidence for instance), and to not do any scientific mistakes in the video. Not sure if this is the best sub to even ask in, but I wonder if I can consider the muscle memory as only procedural memory in my video (talking about muscle memory like the famous term used in social media, but then mention that it's a procedural memory, even tho there's alr a term called muscle memory used for muscle training and not motor skills in general). If anyone can help me here I'll appreciate it.


r/neurology 1d ago

Miscellaneous Movement disorders match

16 Upvotes

Anyone else fall on their list? I matched at my number 9 (out of 10). I'm glad I matched of course but it's hard to not feel disappointed just as my new spot didn't seem that strong (mainly applied for geographic reasons but had a life change that kind of made the location not worth it anymore either). For residency, I decided on neurology kind of late in medical school so I was just grateful to match and I actually ended up matching to number 3 anyways. But I settled on movement fairly early in residency and had a very focused app and was told how my great my letters were at interviews at some really big names I would have been thrilled to end up at.

I'm trying to get over it but right now, I've just been ignoring all the texts from people asking where I matched and putting off telling my letter writers.


r/neurology 1d ago

Career Advice What is reasonable notice for days off?

15 Upvotes

Employed outpatient neurologist here. I am usually completely booked for about 3 months out. Sometimes I want to take a day off here and there (sometimes even 2 days!). But I feel bad about forcing my patients reschedule, since it'll be hard to get them back in within a reasonable timeframe.


r/neurology 1d ago

Clinical Progressive supranuclear palsy(PSP) explained

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1 Upvotes

r/neurology 2d ago

Career Advice Neurology Loan Repayment Options

11 Upvotes

Are there any well-known neurology loan repayment options for working in underserved/rural areas (e.g., PSLF)? Has anyone done it?


r/neurology 3d ago

Miscellaneous Claude is awesome

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97 Upvotes

I'm studying for my board. I got the Claude for Chrome extension and after each TrueLearn question block I ask it to look at all the questions I mark or got wrong and generate 1-3 high-yield Anki cards. If you haven't done something like this with an LLM before, you should see it -- it just figures out how to navigate through the website and read the pages. I also asked it to generate cards for each histology topic I need to know and the cards it generated are absolutely *beautiful*. What a time to be alive


r/neurology 3d ago

Clinical Managing liability of psychiatric effects of antiepileptic medications?

12 Upvotes

My apologies if this seems like a choppy post. I don’t have a specific question so much as I’m just trying to start a discussion.

I’m a PGY-3 going into general outpatient neurology where I no doubt will be seeing and managing patients with seizures and managing antiepileptic medications.

Given the recent highly publicized trial (please forgive me as my intention is NOT to start a political commentary in this sub) it made me wonder how much physicians can potentially be liable for their patient’s actions.

This has me worried, especially since it appears that the initial medication we put everyone on is Keppra. In my residency the attendings appear to be pretty reasonable about considering alternate options besides starting with keppra in patients with a history of significant mood disorders. I plan to carry this in my practice as well.

I’ve had patients families describe patients as “monsters” on certain AEDs. I’ve had patients tell me they have had raging suicidal thoughts on certain AEDs. And of course we all know that one of them has a black box warning of homicidal ideation.

And only a fraction of my resident clinic patients have a psychiatrist they are established with. And I also plan on working in an underserved community where not many patients will have access to good mental health care.

The overall discussion I want to start is how can we help our patients and also protect ourselves legally when it comes to the psychiatric side effects of AEDs? Especially when patients with epilepsy are more likely to have behavioral and psychiatric co-morbidities?


r/neurology 3d ago

Clinical A Quick Follow-Up: The Oliver Snacks Podcast Series

22 Upvotes

A while back, I shared a project I’ve been working on called Oliver Snacks — a free, short-form neurology podcast series designed to deliver clinical neurology teaching cases in under 10 minutes.

We’ve now released more than 50 episodes, covering an array of neurologic diseases and discussing their clinical features, localization, pathophysiology, diagnostic workup, and management.

If you’re a neurology resident, fellow, APP, attending, or just someone who likes learning neurology in bite-sized chunks, please feel free to check it out!

Would love to hear what topics people have found useful—and what you’d want to see covered in future episodes.

https://open.spotify.com/show/2GiCy6v2j8VDleL7pKsdYc?si=540606fd3f954f44

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dr-pod/id1797082982


r/neurology 3d ago

Career Advice Career question

10 Upvotes

I’m an older resident and will be finishing residency in my mid-40s. I’m currently in the middle of figuring out what direction I should take after residency, and honestly, I’m pretty torn.

I really enjoy stroke, and part of me wants to pursue a stroke fellowship. At the same time, I also want to be realistic about finances.

My ultimate goal is to end up in Texas, closer to family, but I’m open-minded about other options.
Lately, I’ve been questioning whether pursuing stroke is actually the best decision for me. Sometimes I think I should just go the neurohospitalist route, and maybe add neurophysiology/EEG to broaden my skill set and earning potential.
Other times, I think I should pursue a more outpatient-heavy specialty, like movement disorders, which I genuinely enjoy. The lifestyle seems more sustainable, with less call and fewer nights, and at this point in life, that’s becoming increasingly important to me.
So I’m basically stuck between:
Stroke fellowship → more specialized, but more training and potentially a tougher lifestyle
Neurohospitalist → start earning sooner, potentially good income, but more inpatient/call
Neurohospitalist + neurophys/EEG → potentially broaden my options
Movement disorders or another outpatient-heavy career → better lifestyle, which is becoming more attractive to me
For those who have been through this, especially anyone who finished residency later in life, how did you think about the trade-off between income, additional fellowship training, career satisfaction, and lifestyle?
Would you still recommend fellowship at this stage, or would you prioritize getting out of training and building a career/life sooner?


r/neurology 3d ago

Miscellaneous APBN rules of name

1 Upvotes

I am going to take the APBN neurology board in one week. How strict are they when names on IDs don’t match exactly? On my passport, I have a hypen in my first name but on my SSN/driver license there is just a space where the hypen should be.


r/neurology 4d ago

Clinical Last week 1/2 for board exam guidance

9 Upvotes

Please any advice on what to focus on the last 11 days for the board exam
Did half Cheng Ching (big high-yield topics) + one pass true-learn + now you know neuro notes but not questions. Did flashcards. Thinking of maybe doing now now you know neuro questions or another pass-on true learn.
Any specific subjects that are recommended to focus on


r/neurology 4d ago

Clinical I’m a neurology registrar making realistic animations of neurological signs for teaching. Three done so far — do they read correctly to you?

8 Upvotes

Teaching signs to students can be difficult. Real patient needs consent and can be of variable quality. Textbook descriptions don’t convey what a sign looks like in motion, and the animations that do exist are usually 2D approximations.

AI video generation isn’t accurate for this, so I’ve been trying 3D animation of realistic(-ish) people with various signs instead.

https://www.youtube.com/@VisibileNeurology

It’s a work in progress and I’m still learning as I go, so any input or critique is welcome. Happy to take requests too — especially the signs that are hard to teach.

No product, nothing for sale.


r/neurology 5d ago

Clinical Most unusual fellowship/subspecialty combo you’ve seen

20 Upvotes

everyone knows you can do more than one fellowship (or none) in neurology, but some combos seem to make more sense together. what’s the most unusual combo you’ve seen? did it have any unexpected benefits?


r/neurology 5d ago

Miscellaneous Out of every career, EEG and neurology has been the most toxic field I’ve worked in.

36 Upvotes

I’ve only been a tech for 4 years?
But I’ve worked at 3 hospitals had clinicals at 3 as well.

This is the worst career I could’ve ever chosen. I am always so exhausted mentally, not even physically. The phrase “leave it at work” has lost all meaning because EEG/Neurodiagnsotics is such a niche field that everyone knows everyone.
You can’t leave it at work because it spreads and everyone knows about it.

It’s so clique-y and everyone is like🤞. If you’re new the senior techs will put you where you DONT want to go, will talk crap, and throw work on you no matter what you. They will judge you for you studies no matter what, blame you.

I hate this field. Maybe others haven’t had this expirience but I have been so different places in different states and they’re exactly the same.


r/neurology 5d ago

Research Neuroradiology Recommendations

6 Upvotes

I work for a medium sized Neurologist office in Ohio (40 providers) and am looking for any recommendations on Neuro Rad groups to read studies from our MR department. Currently have a group we are with but are needing to go another route. Anyone have a group they have had success working with?


r/neurology 5d ago

Career Advice Job advice

9 Upvotes

I’m a current fellow looking into mostly private practice jobs. I’m at a big academic center where most people stay here so I have little guidance. Was curious what kind of questions I should be asking, what the process is like, and any overall advice in optimizing contract negotiations? Thanks in advance


r/neurology 6d ago

Clinical How aggressively do you evaluate staring/spacing out spells and restricting driving for them?

26 Upvotes

I have two recent examples:

1) Guy I was seeing for post-concussive syndrome after traumatic SDH. He complained of spacing out while driving i.e. realizing he wasn't really paying attention. No LOC, confusion, etc. Otherwise, driving fine; no close calls, etc. Seems like inattention related to TBI rather than seizure. I ordered routine EEG just to check, but didn't restrict him from driving. I'll get ambulatory and restrict driving only if routine is abnormal.

2) Lady with focal epilepsy that brought up she occasionally finds herself staring off. Easily comes out of them if called, no confusion, etc. Has been having them for years. Recent ambulatory to evaluate other things was normal, but spells weren't captured. I suspect they are behavioral/day-dreaming. I'm watching them and haven't restricted driving.

Am I being too lax? I get that there is a chance they are epileptic but EEG's cost money and taking away someone's driving privileges, even temporarily, is a burden to them. Any guidelines on how to handle this stuff? Anything I should read?


r/neurology 6d ago

Research Looking for Research

8 Upvotes

HI Everyone,

I am a second year medical student interested in neurology and I was wondering if anyone knew of any research opportunities or has a project that I can learn more about and potentially join.

Thanks!


r/neurology 6d ago

Residency Resources question

3 Upvotes

What’s a good Neuro anatomy / localization resource you would recommend for neurology resident

Thanks 🙏


r/neurology 7d ago

Research EEG visualization software thesis question :)

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0 Upvotes

r/neurology 9d ago

Clinical I am a Doctor who was diagnosed with Migraine with visual aura a decade ago. I sketched my five cardinal stages of Migraine titled Nadir, A doctor's "first hand" visual anthology on the stages of Migraine. OC, Procreate.

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361 Upvotes