I'm a MSIV that's very interested in going into orthopedics. Great letters so far and great experiences with attendings and such on away rotations. However, my board scores are definitely not up to par with other applicants. I want to know what options are available if you dont match, is it still possible to go into ortho say a year later? How do you go about doing this? Any help on this topic is greatly appreciated.
What if you dont match?
- Thread starter Pluto6
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It is hard to match after not matching previously. At my institution, there is a guy doing a prelim year in sugery right now, and the only people that know about his interest in ortho are we ortho interns because we work with him on our rotations. The seniors have never heard of him, and he gets absolutely no exposure to the attendings, as there are no prelim rotators on our ortho services.
I'm at an academic institution, and truthfully, its pretty malignant to the prelims. They get only 2 weeks of vacation and get the worst weeks off, one guy who didn't match in rads but is doing prelim surg here has his 2 weeks of vacation at the END of the year. I don't think that leaves much time off for interviewing.
I know one guy who did a prelim year and matched into ortho at a program where he didn't apply previously. He had 3 former classmates/good friends that were residents at that small 2 resident/year community program that were pulling for him.
I know of 2 people who did match after a dedicated ortho research position. They were basically the research bitch for a year writing up everyone else's papers, but they got 20 papers out of it (mostly 2nd author, but several first too). They worked their asses off, thats an average of one paper every 2-3 weeks, which is no small feat even if everything is lined up and ready to be written. They were never guaranteed a spot, but their institutions have always taken them, although they were told to apply broadly. I don't know how competitive these research positions are, and I don't know how much they are paid either. I know that these were a little more flexible with taking time to interview for the guys I knew.
If you're gonna do a prelim year, ask if the prelims at the institution have exposure to orthopods. I would personally suggest doing a prelim at a community hospital, cuz I've heard of some really nice cush prelim programs. Why suffer unnessessarily at an academic institution?
If you are going to do research, important things to keep in mind are the track record for matching into ortho, where they match, are you paid and how much, and are you ready to be a research bitch?
I matched, but in hindsite, if I didn't match, after seeing how miserable the prelims here are and hearing how miserable my gen surg friends are, I would have done a prelim at a community hospital known to be cush (there are malignant comm gen surg programs abound). I would have made some money, taken one last crack at applying to ortho but also apply to family medicine (with plans to do sports med fellowship and enjoy the location of my choice) and/or anesthesia (with plans to have a cush life, make some money, with possibly slipping into a 2nd year spot out of my prelim year).
Good luck. Apply broadly.
I'm at an academic institution, and truthfully, its pretty malignant to the prelims. They get only 2 weeks of vacation and get the worst weeks off, one guy who didn't match in rads but is doing prelim surg here has his 2 weeks of vacation at the END of the year. I don't think that leaves much time off for interviewing.
I know one guy who did a prelim year and matched into ortho at a program where he didn't apply previously. He had 3 former classmates/good friends that were residents at that small 2 resident/year community program that were pulling for him.
I know of 2 people who did match after a dedicated ortho research position. They were basically the research bitch for a year writing up everyone else's papers, but they got 20 papers out of it (mostly 2nd author, but several first too). They worked their asses off, thats an average of one paper every 2-3 weeks, which is no small feat even if everything is lined up and ready to be written. They were never guaranteed a spot, but their institutions have always taken them, although they were told to apply broadly. I don't know how competitive these research positions are, and I don't know how much they are paid either. I know that these were a little more flexible with taking time to interview for the guys I knew.
If you're gonna do a prelim year, ask if the prelims at the institution have exposure to orthopods. I would personally suggest doing a prelim at a community hospital, cuz I've heard of some really nice cush prelim programs. Why suffer unnessessarily at an academic institution?
If you are going to do research, important things to keep in mind are the track record for matching into ortho, where they match, are you paid and how much, and are you ready to be a research bitch?
I matched, but in hindsite, if I didn't match, after seeing how miserable the prelims here are and hearing how miserable my gen surg friends are, I would have done a prelim at a community hospital known to be cush (there are malignant comm gen surg programs abound). I would have made some money, taken one last crack at applying to ortho but also apply to family medicine (with plans to do sports med fellowship and enjoy the location of my choice) and/or anesthesia (with plans to have a cush life, make some money, with possibly slipping into a 2nd year spot out of my prelim year).
Good luck. Apply broadly.
