What's the ONE THING a medical student could do to guarantee they match into the specialty of their choice?

[doctor15]

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Just finished the book "ONE Thing" by Gary Keller which talks about disproportionate returns and suspending disbelief when setting goals.

If someone wanted to make it impossible to fail and guarantee they matched into the specialty of their choice, but they only had 12 months in M3 to do it, what would that look like?

IMO:
260+ Step
10+ publications
Honors as many clerkships as possible
Serious EC's.

The book talks about applying the Pareto principle to different aspects of the goal. So what theoretically would be the ONE most important thing to get 10+ pubs in a year? Etc.

 

[Ho0v-man]

Be the child of the PD.

 

[EthylMethylMan]

For the uber-competitive stuff (plastics, CTS, etc.), there really isn’t a single thing that guarantees it. You need to have multiple “one thing”s. Everyone applying is insane. What’s more, red flags can cancel out achievements if they’re big enough.

But I guess if you’re asking, “if you had to pick one, what’s the stat you’d invest all your skill points into?” Answer would probably be Step 2. If you wanna match something middle-of-the-road and don’t have any red flags, high Step 2 can carry a ton of weight.

 

[Med Ed]

The book talks about applying the Pareto principle to different aspects of the goal. So what theoretically would be the ONE most important thing to get 10+ pubs in a year? Etc.

Being a biostatistician, so you can get mid-authorship on all the publications you run numbers for.

Keller and his co-author are real estate guys who have no doubt padded their bottom line by writing best sellers. The world's appetite for "one weird trick" solutions is bottomless.

 

[Nontrad_FL_LGBT]

Being a biostatistician, so you can get mid-authorship on all the publications you run numbers for.

This is so real. Software engineer in another life, now running numbers for one of the biggest labs on campus.

As a current M2 who joined the lab under a year ago, I've churned out 1 first-author pub, 2 mid-author pubs, a few case reports, and a few posters/abstracts. There are reasonably another 2-3 papers coming down the line before the end of this calendar year that I should be listed on too.

 

[Starr_key]

My spicy take? Connections, connections, connections.

Scenario:

PD of specialty has one seat left. It's between applicant #2 with 260+ step, 12 pubs, etc. and applicant #2 who has 250 step, 5 pubs, etc. but #2 worked with Dr. McNetwork, who's PD's best friend. Dr. McNetwork tells PD that applicant #2 is a great person and can vouch for him.

Who's PD gonna go for? Applicant #2.

Why? Because PD doesn't know applicant #1. Yea he looks great on paper, but he's known Dr. McNetwork for years now, he's trustworthy. If Dr. McNetwork says he's great, heck, I'll trust him!

 

[Rachapkis]

I am reminded of a quote from The Princess Bride: "You keep using that word [ONE]. I do not think it means what you think it means."

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[Goro]

A six figure bribe to the PD might work

 

[RangerBob]

Just finished the book "ONE Thing" by Gary Keller which talks about disproportionate returns and suspending disbelief when setting goals.

If someone wanted to make it impossible to fail and guarantee they matched into the specialty of their choice, but they only had 12 months in M3 to do it, what would that look like?

IMO:
260+ Step
10+ publications
Honors as many clerkships as possible
Serious EC's.

The book talks about applying the Pareto principle to different aspects of the goal. So what theoretically would be the ONE most important thing to get 10+ pubs in a year? Etc.

Yes.

Do all those things and your odds are extremely high for many specialties, and likely decent for many surgical sub-specialties, but still not guaranteed.

There is no "one thing" in medicine. The closest guarantees would be bribing a PD (more likely to get you blacklisted though), being the son/daughter/boyfriend/girlfriend of the PD (more likely to get them blacklisted or fired...)

And do an audition rotation.

You ask rather unusual questions for someone who is a med student and should presumably know more about the process.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Agree nepotism is probably the only one thing. I've seen kids with nature articles not match because they were so bad at their sub is and interviews