How to know if I am good enough

[hopefull!!]

With step being pass fail at this point how do i know if i will be good enough to match a competitive specialty? ( i am interested in ENT) I worry that i will put all effort into a specialty then not ace step 2 and it be too little too late. I do not want to get my hopes up to not match or to put effort into a specialty i never had a chance with over picking a specialty i couldve succeeded in

TLDR: how to tell now (OMS2) that I am within the standards of a specialty without board scores

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[Calizboosted76]

Easy, you bust your butt and do the best that you can. If ENT is your goal then you work your butt off to be able to match it.

Work on doing well in your OMS 2 classes, getting published, and making connections. Then when boards come you can do practice exams before the real thing to make sure that you are within the range that you need to be.

TLDR: Do your best in your classes as of right now. Make connections. Get published.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

How much research do you have?

 

[MDMechEngr]

If you are 1st quartile from M1 through M3, you are good enough. Top students tend to do well on everything in my experience. Weaker students wanting to match competitive specialties likely will need to do a research year if they want to improve their chances of matching. This allows them to focus more and do well on academics and boards without worrying about research. Some even take 2 research years to get the pubs needed to match competitively. If you are average, you are facing a strong headwind in anything competitive.

 

[PandaBaer]

There are also lots of NBME practice exams (CBSSAs). It'll give you a % correct and convert to 3 digit score based on past takers. Most 3rd party qbanks also offer mocks with 3 digit converters, ie UWorld, Amboss.

 

[hopefull!!]

How much research do you have?

Publication 1 coming out hopefully in spring. Two posters. Other random things I am working on but not sure if will yield.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Step 2 is not as much of an insurmountable mountain as step 1 in my opinion.

Honestly research is amazing and of benefit.

But what really is going to get you the most bang for the buck is connections and mentorship. You need to get hooked up with ENTs now. Get connections from your program at first. Then go to regional or national conferences. Have your mentors reach out to programs for you. Be able to get auditions in programs where you're known and do well enough to get Letters that actually mean a damn.

If you have a letter from a random community ENT, great. If you have a letter from an academic ENT who publishes methods for the treatment of complicated head and neck cancers, you've got backing.

Medicine is extraordinarily about networking. You leverage who you know. And this is unfortunately where DO programs fail miserably. Most DO schools don't have an ENT on staff. And most DO school have utterly no one of credible name recognition, which means that to most programs they have no idea who is writing a letter for you.

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

With step being pass fail at this point how do i know if i will be good enough to match a competitive specialty? ( i am interested in ENT) I worry that i will put all effort into a specialty then not ace step 2 and it be too little too late. I do not want to get my hopes up to not match or to put effort into a specialty i never had a chance with over picking a specialty i couldve succeeded in

TLDR: how to tell now (OMS2) that I am within the standards of a specialty without board scores

Be realistic here. It's one of the hardest specialties to match by DOs. Do you consistently score in the top 5% of your class? Are you in the 2 standard deviation above the average when you do UWorld? Did your step 1 practice exams correlate with a 260+? Are you getting honors on every shelf 3rd year? If the answer to these is no, you don't have a chance in hell. Even then, it's a hard road up. Nothing is impossible, but also be realistic and honest with yourself

 

[hopefull!!]

Be realistic here. It's one of the hardest specialties to match by DOs. Do you consistently score in the top 5% of your class? Are you in the 2 standard deviation above the average when you do UWorld? Did your step 1 practice exams correlate with a 260+? Are you getting honors on every shelf 3rd year? If the answer to these is no, you don't have a chance in hell. Even then, it's a hard road up. Nothing is impossible, but also be realistic and honest with yourself

this is the mentality I want to know is true? Do others agree it is not worthwhile to pursue if this is not the case?

 

[AlbinoHawk DO]

this is the mentality I want to know is true? Do others agree it is not worthwhile to pursue if this is not the case?

Ask your school for their 5 year plot of grades to board score correlation. I've never seen one where students outside the top 20% have board scores >250. Exceptions exist of course

 

[gyngyn]

There were 361 total ENT positions offered in 2022. Of the 35 DO applicants who received interviews in ENT, 21 matched, 14 did not (p.3). We do not know the total number that applied as the NRMP only includes those eligible to submit an ROL.
Their characteristics can be found here starting on page 158: https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Charting_Outcomes_DO_Seniors_2022_Final-Updated.pdf

 

[hopefull!!]

There were 361 total ENT positions offered in 2022. Of the 35 DO applicants who received interviews in ENT, 21 matched, 14 did not (p.3). We do not know the total number that applied as the NRMP only includes those eligible to submit an ROL.
Their characteristics can be found here starting on page 158: https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Charting_Outcomes_DO_Seniors_2022_Final-Updated.pdf

Thank you!
Correct me if I am wrong but ENT is one of the specialties in which DO's tend to former AOA institutions. I am curious as to what peoples thoughts are on how that may reflect on the 21 who matched due to the number of AOA positions offered. (I am basing this off a conversation with a current PGY1 from my institution) to rebound off this thought do we think that because it is more restricted in programs you apply for this makes it more or less competitive?

 

[gyngyn]

Thank you!
Correct me if I am wrong but ENT is one of the specialties in which DO's tend to former AOA institutions. I am curious as to what peoples thoughts are on how that may reflect on the 21 who matched due to the number of AOA positions offered. (I am basing this off a conversation with a current PGY1 from my institution) to rebound off this thought do we think that because it is more restricted in programs you apply for this makes it more or less competitive?

It is generally recognized that DO's will fare somewhat better at formerly exclusively DO residencies than they will at other residencies.
I don't know which of the current ENT residencies were previously reserved exclusively for DO's.
If you do, it would be wise to see if they maintain a preference for DO applicants.
Sadly, it does not tell you what the odds of success are at these residencies at this point in your path.

 

[MateoGM416]

It is generally recognized that DO's will fare somewhat better at formerly exclusively DO residencies than they will at other residencies.
I don't know which of the current ENT residencies were previously reserved exclusively for DO's.
If you do, it would be wise to see if they maintain a preference for DO applicants.
Sadly, it does not tell you what the odds of success are at these residencies at this point in your path.

Unrelated but my unpopular residency hunch with no basis in fact or precedence is that more programs are willing to accept DO's than programs that have only historically taken DO's, DO students have just been conditioned to not apply for them

 

[gyngyn]

Unrelated but my unpopular residency hunch with no basis in fact or precedence is that more programs are willing to accept DO's than programs that have only historically taken DO's, DO students have just been conditioned to not apply for them

In my experience , ENT applicants apply to (just about) every program!

 

[Calizboosted76]

In my experience , ENT applicants apply to (just about) every program!

To my knowledge this is 100% true. Students who apply to uber competitive fields do not care if programs dont have DOs already in them. They still apply with similar hopes as OP.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Every DO applying ENT should have a backup. I strongly recommend rads, but I’m admittedly biased as that’s my field.

Even if you do everything “right”, there’s absolutely no guarantees. The pool of data we have is so incredibly small, it’s impossible to draw conclusions from it.

There’s a DO bias of course, but there’s also just the reality that a not insignificant number of DOs apply to these small super competitive fields despite having no business doing so. They get a courtesy invite from a sub-i/audition and it skews the data.

 

[gyngyn]

Every DO applying ENT should have a backup.

I would add that everyone applying to specialties like ENT should have a back-up plan (not just DO's!).
You can be "perfect" and not match.