Congrats to those that matched!!! Advice for those that didn't.

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Congrats to everyone that matched. The thousands of dollars spent interviewing and rotating have finally paid off. Enjoy this week and the rest of the year.

For those that did not match think of your options:

1) Don't graduate, do research which allows you to keep your status as a medical student and not an independent applicant. Downside to this is that the next application cycle will be starting even sooner in 2012, so if you don't have anything to show for it (case reports, presentations, etc) then it may not have been worth it.

2) Graduate, do a prelim surgery year. Some people say this a great route, but you really have to make sure that your prelim surgery year has ortho rotations and will give you time off to go on interviews. I've been great things about Greenville's prelim surgery program. With that said, I personally don't think that doing a year of general surgery shows how good of a ortho resident you will be, although hopefully it can help you get noticed by the ortho program at that same hospital. Either way not many make it from the ranks of prelim surgery resident back to ortho.

3) Graduate, do a true research year, apply again after that year. If you look on orthogate, a couple of programs are posting research fellowships that allow you to work closely with the ortho department, get some good publications and apply to the match next year. This is a good options, especially since you have the person you are doing research for making calls for you. Of course, you probably won't be able to apply come October 2012, and you will likely be sitting it out until 2013. But if you want ortho, and only ortho, then its an option.

4) Graduate, and doing something else. For some, ortho is an amazing specialty, but not the only amazing one. Are you will to reapply possibly 3 times, or would you be perfectly happy in gsurg, anesthesia (a favorite), radiology, etc. After doing my 6 months of gsurg in my residency, I have a new found appreciation for some subspecialties of gsurg like Endocrine. I personally also like OBGYN, but to each his own. But its important to think of what else you could do.

Again, if you did not match this day is supposed to be tough. There may be spots available in the new SOAP system. There were 3 open spots last year to "scramble into". If the SOAP system doesn't work for you please consider these options. We are all here for you if you need advice.