Advice

[corona 247]

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I am a 4th year DO student that just found out that I will not be ranked by any of the programs I have applied to (awesome! Great feeling).

I have to decide now whether to find a intership year in the DO match or skip it and find a prelim spot in the allo match.

I wanted to ask if there are there a lot of medicine prelim spots avaliable in the MD scramble that a DO could concevably get? I would rather land a allo prelim spot, since I plan on later applying to a MD residency, but would hate to skip the DO match and not land anywhere in the allo match.

Any advice?

Thanks!

 

[dragonfly99]

I think there are pretty much always IM intern spots available in the Scramble, but I don't know how a DO student would generally do in the Scramble to get one. If I were you, I'd sign up for FindaResident and scope out any open IM spots right now...there might be one/some open on there.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

That's very interesting, given some of the things you've revealed about yourself:

Say my top program is "A". Another program "B" is my second choice.

Program B has unofficially told me that they will rank me very highly, I respect the PD and believe he will keep is word.

My top choice A is my home institution where I have gunned the hardest, but the PD refuses to let any applicant and the residents know until Match day. The PD is really unpredictable and its hard to get a read on him.

and

I am a 4th year DO student who just got off his EM rotation and loved it tremendously. I have previously been shooting for a surgical residency but find myself seriously wanting to switching to EM.

I am pretty sure the answer to my first question: is it too late for me to grab a spot for next year, is a resounding no, but if I'm wrong please let me know!
...

While I would love to enter EM next year, I know realistically I'll have to match a prelim and then reapply. Any advice for this? Should I try to scramble into a MD EM spot, and then try to scramble into a MD prelim? Or apply directly for a MD prelim spot? I did well in medical school, top 1% in my class, decent USMLE @ 225, but I lack the LORs from EM attendings being that all mine are geared towards surgery.

Are you withdrawing from the Match? Did program 'B' tell you you would no longer be ranked highly? Any reason why someone with decent stats would be told point-blank he wouldn't be ranked-- some looming red flag, personality issues, something?

If you're serious about switching specialties, I'd sit out this year rather than do a wasted prelim year. Generally I'd say that if you're applying to something surgical and there's *anything* non-surgical on your 'differential' (like EM) it's a good sign you probably shouldn't be a surgeon. I'd listen to yourself.

 

[corona 247]

BlondeDoctuer,

Your research on my previous posts highlights my problem exactly. I found out yesterday that Program B, who previously assured me they would rank me high, had in fact sent letters to applicants they decided to rank late December.

Attempts to contact said PD to find out if there were any glaring problems that dismissed me from consideration have not been returned. I was surprised and shocked yesterday, and now am trying to figure out what the next step for me is.

I am looking into all possibilities, one being maybe trying to enter EM. The other taking a intern year and reapplying to a surgical residency, or doing the intern year and re-evaluating myself and "listen" to myself as you say.

 

[dragonfly99]

I'm not sure doing a prelim year is going to help you decide very well...plus if you do a surgical prelim year you will have a really hard time finding time to go to interviews. Ditto for a medicine year, although it would be less bad...it would still be really, really hard IMHO.

It seems like your stats would make you competitive for some ER residencies, wouldn't they? Can you not do an ER rotation or two this year, get some LOR's for ER and then try to find an ER spot some back door way (i.e. by trying to scramble, looking on Findaresident, seeing if you can get a medicine prelim year @some institution that has an ER program that you like, and seeing if they might take you after a year of doing medicine, etc.).

Did you apply only to ER, or to ER plus general surgery? I think if we were less confused about the situation, we might be able to give more helpful advice.

The situation with the program "sending letters" to applicants they are going to rank sounds kind of weird. It doesn't sound like you KNOW you aren't going to get ranked...plus they could rank all those people who they sent letters to, but maybe those folks won't rank that program high...it all sounds kind of weird.

It seems like with average USMLE score and a high class rank, you ought to be able to match somewhere for ER, and I would think also for surgery (if it's general surg.) if your LOR's are strong. How did you do during your surgery subI? Did you do an ER rotation during 4th year?

 

[NotAProgDirector]

Reviewing your old posts, it appears that you are interested in ortho, not GS. Not sure if that changed.

If you applied in Ortho, this should be no surprise.

636 ortho spots last year, 635 filled in the match. Guess how many were filled by DO candidates? Answer: Two.

You could always be one of the two, but it's an uphill battle. A couple of points:

1. A prelim surg year is very unlikely to get you an ortho spot. Maybe, just maybe, if your prelim is at a program with an ortho program and you really impress them, you might get a spot. Else, very unlikely.

2. A prelim surg year might get you a cat spot, given your application. You should be reasonably competitive for GS, although that's not guaranteed. regardless, the best chance you will have at a cat spot is in the same program as your prelim, so choose carefully (in the scramble, if you do so).

3. If ortho is your dream, you really should consider the DO match if at all possible. I speak from ignorance regarding the quality of DO ortho residencies, however.

 

[SOUNDMAN]

I think as a DO, and applying with a Step I of 225 to ortho programs is a long shot for sure even if you are in the top 1% of the class at your DO program. If it was me, I would be looking into the DO match very seriously and trying to find something there, even though you want to do an allopathic residency. I'm sorry for your situation, hope it works out for you, but as someone who maybe in a similar situation as yourself next year, my back up plan is definitely to try to find something in the DO match. Good luck.

 

[corona 247]

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Let me clarify some of the confusion I made. I applied to DO ortho and this is where the I had the trouble with the PD sending letters and everything.
I also only applied to DO ortho spots.

I agree with the OP stating that as a DO scoring a MD ortho is pretty much not happening.

I am now faced with either taking a TY and reapplying to ortho next year or re-evaluating my career plans. I have been told by 2 DO ortho attendings that attaining a ortho spot the second time is much harder. This is because in the DO ortho world, rotating at the institution is virtually a requirement to attain an interview, and has a intern i doubt i will have the opportunity to do so. I could find a TY at a DO institution with an ortho program and try to gun there for a spot. So, i am faced with attempting ortho again, or another course of action and thus why I wanted to explore the possibility of EM.

Again, thank you all for your replies, it is much appreciated.