The first thing to do is to take some good self-inventory. What exactly do you like about it? Glancing through your past posts, you seem to have been very drawn to OB but were concerned about post-residency hours and family life. Perhaps, then, you liked the mix of medicine and surgery, and you feel comfortable with procedures, but you want something with 'controllable hours'?
There are other reasons to like ENT. Perhaps you're drawn to neuroscience and neuroanatomy? Neurology would be an obvious answer there. The big head & neck cancer ops can be done with an HNS fellowship out of general surgery (or you could head into surgical oncology proper). Like scopes? There's always GI. Enjoy the clinics + procedures? Consider a procedural subspecialty of medicine or peds, or even anesthesia (they have pain clinic, after all). I think your "differential" will say a lot about your motivations & attraction to the field.
I think a lot of people make a grievous mistake in assuming that the surgical subspecialties are somehow 'lifestyle' residencies. No bones about it-- ENT, urology, plastics, etc are all 5+ years of surgical residency. The hours are slightly better than, but still similar to, general surgery (much more similar to surgery than to internal medicine, especially in the sense that there are few 'light months'). And the culture is distinctly surgical.
That being said, you're rotating through ENT right now. And while it is currently hot on the heels of derm and plastics in terms of overall competitiveness, matching into any field is not purely a numbers game. Let's examine the most recent Charting Outcomes data:
39% of successfully matched applicants were AOA.
Mean Step 1 score was 238; 25th %ile was 229.
The vast majority of successful applicants (96%) had at least one research project to their name.
However:
61% of matched applicants were not AOA.
1/3 (33%) US seniors with a Step 1 score in the 180s matched.
1/3 (33%) " in the 190s matched.
6/10 (60%) in the 200s matched.
19/35 (54%) in the 210s matched.
And 10/14 US seniors applying with no research matched.
There are certainly lots of caveats here. Firstly, all of these people *ranked* at least one ENT program, meaning they were offered at least one interview. Many others with subpar stats doubtless applied but simply weren't granted any interviews. Secondly-- and this is the big one-- the non-AOA, low Steps, no research groups are not likely to contain the SAME person. It's possible, but it's highly unlikely.
You can certainly consider taking a year off to do research. This will help you, and your application, in innumerable ways (connections, publications, conferences, etc). If you and your husband are already off-cycle then it won't make much of a difference ( you could even set up your research year at the hospital where he matches, in case it's not your current med school's metro area).
I'm obviously no program director but I think that when PDs are selecting candidates they definitely use board scores and grades, but only as proxies. At the end of the day they want smart, hard-working, capable, reliable residents who will both serve the program well when they're there, and promote the name when they leave. If you think there is something compelling about your interest in ENT and that you would make an exceptionally good resident, average stats be damned, then go for it.
All this is my opinion only obviously-- I'm applying a competitive surgical sub (PRS), and am not quite in your same boat, but I definitely believe that if you're more than your numbers, then you're more than your numbers.
So, really no exaggeration- I'm simply not competitive, I don't think. I guess I could just apply and see- of course my dad is like do it! they'll love you! but you know, that's my dad... not such a reliable judge. especially after reading the posts on sdn, I'm pretty sure it's a complete waste to even apply. But I am trying to take the fact that I love the field and maybe find something else that would have a lot of the same aspects that I enjoy and go that route instead. if such a career actually exists.
