ATC good chance to be orthopedist?

[southpawcannon]

I've got some pre-med courses to take, and of course getting in. I have had plenty of work experience as an athletic trainer and will have some more while taking night classes over the next couple of years. Say I get into med school and take care of business, would you guys think I'd have a good shot at getting a match to be an orthopedic surgeon? A couple of other fields have capture some of my attention, but it seems like with my knowledge of sports medicine and interest in the area, I would have an edge over others.

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[Tired]

... it seems like with my knowledge of sports medicine and interest in the area, I would have an edge over others.

Maybe a small one, but it's still a numbers-driven field, and you have a ways to go. The athletic training won't make up for a poor app, but if you have a good app, it'll probably make your interviews more interesting.

Also, remember that Ortho is a surgical field. Sports med, while having some overlap with Ortho, is a medicine sub-specialty. Be careful that you don't equate the two when you talk to an Orthopod. No Sports Med doc ever put in a prosthetic hip.

 

[southpawcannon]

Maybe a small one, but it's still a numbers-driven field, and you have a ways to go. The athletic training won't make up for a poor app, but if you have a good app, it'll probably make your interviews more interesting.

Also, remember that Ortho is a surgical field. Sports med, while having some overlap with Ortho, is a medicine sub-specialty. Be careful that you don't equate the two when you talk to an Orthopod. No Sports Med doc ever put in a prosthetic hip.

Believe me, I know the difference. While we had a Family Doc with a specialty in sports medicine, we also had our share of orthopedic surgeons who specialized in the shoulder, knee, wrist, etc. I've associated with the latter much more than the former.

 

[Debridement]

Believe me, I know the difference. While we had a Family Doc with a specialty in sports medicine, we also had our share of orthopedic surgeons who specialized in the shoulder, knee, wrist, etc. I've associated with the latter much more than the former.

Non sequitur comment of the evening.

 

[sscooterguy]

The little advantage of knowing you want to do ortho now as an athletic trainer before medical school is that you know what specialty you want to do. Many students, including me, found out late in 3rd year. So knowing early lets you do directed research as well as precept with the right people. Oh, and maybe you will have an extra thing to talk about in your personal statement. Other than that, you don't have much of an advantage in my opinion.

Many people "know" what they want to do before getting into medical school. Don't worry if this changes. In any case, you should concentrate on actually getting into medical school before even worrying about residency. Before you learn to fly, you must learn to walk.
goodluck.
sscooterguy

 

[southpawcannon]

Non sequitur comment of the evening.

I apologize if you didn't understand the relevance between my posts. I do, however, appreciate your boldness of nettling me with a Latin philosophical expression.


Thanks to the other posters. I'll keep in mind your opinions and advice along the way.

 

[Wahoos]

Having the Athletic training background will help you with something to talk about during the interviews, it will not give you much of an "advantage" when it comes to getting interviews. Orthopedics is very competitive and getting more and more so by the year. You would first need to get into medical school and do well. Good boards, grades, ortho research, rock your 3rd year clinical rotations, and honor your ortho home + away rotation, get very solid letters of Recs from ORTHO attendings, and if you make AOA, it will open many doors for you. Then it comes down to the interviews, usually with any where between 4-10 attendings and residents depending on the program. The program is looking for the right fit which is what you are looking for as well. In order to get a spot, you need to convince your interviewers why you would be a better residents than the other outstanding canidates, why they should pick you.... basically, if you are interview for 3-4 spots, you need to be in the top 15 to have a good chance of matching. Each program will interview about 10 per spot with most programs getting >100 applications per spot. So to give you an example, my program received ~420-430 apps and interviewed 50 for 4 spots this year, and we ranked about half that number on the list. I have seen some very very good applicants that came through this year, and most of them were all very nice guys or girls.

Basically, work hard in everything you do in life and the above is a very simplified formula for you to get an spot in Orthopedics Surgery. The above things are much eaiser said than done, but missing one or the other will NOT prevent you from matching, b/c you need the complete package but not perfection. Although I did see a kid come through this year for our program that was pretty much perfection in terms of his acomplishments. Honored everything in yr 1-3 med school (top 20 school), AOA, was one of those scholars as an undergrad (Marshall or Fulbright?) that spent 1 yr over sea in ortho research with over 30 publications /abstracts/presentation, honored all ortho rotations, letters from his home program chair that said he was the best in last 10 years and another attending said he was the best in the last 30 yrs, oh,... did I mention this kid also has a mid 260's on Step I. Hmmm.... And he was a very nice guy, I did not think he was this qualified until I seen his app.

 

[southpawcannon]

Having the Athletic training background will help you with something to talk about during the interviews, it will not give you much of an "advantage" when it comes to getting interviews. Orthopedics is very competitive and getting more and more so by the year. You would first need to get into medical school and do well. Good boards, grades, ortho research, rock your 3rd year clinical rotations, and honor your ortho home + away rotation, get very solid letters of Recs from ORTHO attendings, and if you make AOA, it will open many doors for you. Then it comes down to the interviews, usually with any where between 4-10 attendings and residents depending on the program. The program is looking for the right fit which is what you are looking for as well. In order to get a spot, you need to convince your interviewers why you would be a better residents than the other outstanding canidates, why they should pick you.... basically, if you are interview for 3-4 spots, you need to be in the top 15 to have a good chance of matching. Each program will interview about 10 per spot with most programs getting >100 applications per spot. So to give you an example, my program received ~420-430 apps and interviewed 50 for 4 spots this year, and we ranked about half that number on the list. I have seen some very very good applicants that came through this year, and most of them were all very nice guys or girls.

Basically, work hard in everything you do in life and the above is a very simplified formula for you to get an spot in Orthopedics Surgery. The above things are much eaiser said than done, but missing one or the other will NOT prevent you from matching, b/c you need the complete package but not perfection. Although I did see a kid come through this year for our program that was pretty much perfection in terms of his acomplishments. Honored everything in yr 1-3 med school (top 20 school), AOA, was one of those scholars as an undergrad (Marshall or Fulbright?) that spent 1 yr over sea in ortho research with over 30 publications /abstracts/presentation, honored all ortho rotations, letters from his home program chair that said he was the best in last 10 years and another attending said he was the best in the last 30 yrs, oh,... did I mention this kid also has a mid 260's on Step I. Hmmm.... And he was a very nice guy, I did not think he was this qualified until I seen his app.

Thanks, Wahoo. Just was curious about the process. I know I have to first work my tail off(along with a positive attitude) just get in and then of course worry about the rest when I get there. That kid sounds amazing from what all he did, by the way. Maybe you should get his autograph before he invents the next big orthopedic breakthrough.