Anesthesiology with Low Step 1

[killacat82]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Hello, I know this has been asked before but I wanted to get an updated answer, if there is one and any advice. I'm starting my 3rd year rotations currently, and I made a 218 on Step 1. My school is Honors/Pass/Fail for pre-clinicals, and I have 1 Honors and all others are Pass. Middle 50% of my class.

I am currently doing 8 weeks of clinical research in anesthesiology with an MD in the dept. and am really enjoying it, but I'm unsure of how realistic it is for me to match into anesthesiology. We get 1 elective during 3rd year and mine isn't anesthesia (too late to change it because it starts later this month - really had no idea what I wanted to do until after 3rd year schedule requests were due.

I'm not in the anesthesiology interest group at my school (though I plan on joining when the regular school year starts in August), and I won't have any opportunity to rotate through anesthesiology until 4th year AIs/electives. Now that it's too late to pad my CV with really great extracurriculars related to anesthesiology, should I bother with pursuing a career in it? I can't assume I'll make an exponentially higher score on Step 2, so I ask this under the assumption that I do better than my 218 on Step 1 but not spectacular.

I feel like there isn't enough time in my schedule to make a competitive application for anesthesiology, and it seems like most programs judge applicants mostly by their Step 1 scores. Basically, is applying for anesthesia likely going to be a terrible uphill battle? Or is it doable? Also if anyone has any suggestions to make myself more competitive, please share! Thank you very much!

 

[anbuitachi]

Just apply broadly and you will be fine assuming you have no other red flags. Anesthesiology is a huge field with many spots and you'll likely match somewhere in the lower tiers. Anesthesiology residents are one of the most valuable residents to hospitals so they really want to fill those spots.

 

[NeurologyHopeful2018]

@Goro - how did that anesthesiologist who is now killing patients match into this specialty?

 

[Goro]

@Goro - how did that anesthesiologist who is now killing patients match into this specialty?

God only knows.

 

[Gurby]

Are you at a USMD school?

Do programs actually care at all about whether you were a member of an interest group? I was under the impression that for the most part extracurriculars other than research are just fluff.

Seems to me like you have a whole year+ to crank out research and network/build relationships with anesthesia faculty for letters.

 

[killacat82]

Are you at a USMD school?

Do programs actually care at all about whether you were a member of an interest group? I was under the impression that for the most part extracurriculars other than research are just fluff.

Seems to me like you have a whole year+ to crank out research and network/build relationships with anesthesia faculty for letters.

Yes, I'm at a top 50 USMD school. Do you have any recommendations for how to network during my 3rd year, since I won't be on any anesthesia rotations? Shadowing, attending interest group meetings?

 

[anbuitachi]

Yes, I'm at a top 50 USMD school. Do you have any recommendations for how to network during my 3rd year, since I won't be on any anesthesia rotations? Shadowing, attending interest group meetings?

find a friend whos anesthesiologist or friend of friend/family. or shadow

@Goro - how did that anesthesiologist who is now killing patients match into this specialty?

which one are you guys referring to?

 

[Gurby]

Yes, I'm at a top 50 USMD school. Do you have any recommendations for how to network during my 3rd year, since I won't be on any anesthesia rotations? Shadowing, attending interest group meetings?

I'm only a soon-to-be-M2 so I don't know about how to do it during 3rd year specifically, but I would try to continue your involvement in research and shadow every now and then. At least in my experience, when you tell people you're thinking about going into their specialty they get excited and will go out of their way to help you and connect you with people - "networking" seems to just kind of happen on its own if you show interest.

 

[Anicetus]

People failed step 1 and still matched anesthesiology. It was pretty easy this last year.

 

[Oso]

Disclaimer: I didn’t go into anesthesia

My thoughts:
-Do well 3rd year
-Do well on step 2
-Get a medicine letter
-Do anesthesia early 4th year and get a letter
-Get at least one more letter, a sub-I would be great
-Ask someone from anesthesia (either from your 4th year rotation or just contact whoever the main student adviser person is) to be your mentor/find you a mentor who can help you put together a good list of programs to apply to as well as look over your PS
-apply/interview
-match into anesthesia

Forget about useless interest groups and shadowing. Also, I hear they don’t really care about research.

 

[bananafish94]

Looks like 97% of people between 211 and 220 matched. I'm only an M3 so I don't have any real credibility to answer this question, but I'd say I like your odds.

 

[DocWinter]

Although it has long been considered a super competitive specialty, anesthesia is actually pretty attainable with average or below-average scores. As posted above, a 97% match rate with a sub 220 is what we are looking at now. Someone in my class failed a level and still matched last cycle.

You're not screwed. Just do all the right things and you'll be ok

 

[anbuitachi]

Disclaimer: I didn’t go into anesthesia

My thoughts:
-Do well 3rd year
-Do well on step 2
-Get a medicine letter
-Do anesthesia early 4th year and get a letter
-Get at least one more letter, a sub-I would be great
-Ask someone from anesthesia (either from your 4th year rotation or just contact whoever the main student adviser person is) to be your mentor/find you a mentor who can help you put together a good list of programs to apply to as well as look over your PS
-apply/interview
-match into anesthesia

Forget about useless interest groups and shadowing. Also, I hear they don’t really care about research.

The interest group and shadowing would only be for more experience/connections.
Some places do care about research and it can help compensate a little for a low step 1 score.

 

[Oso]

The interest group and shadowing would only be for more experience/connections.
Some places do care about research and it can help compensate a little for a low step 1 score.

On second thought I agree with you on the Shadowing/IG as a way to see some anesthesia stuff and get to meet some people before the m4 elective. Would help to just get hooked up with a mentor even though OP hasn’t done the rotation yet. In retrospect I did a similar thing by requesting a peds advisor about a month before my peds rotation (last rotation of m3) because I was strongly considering it.


I agree that research can be nice, but since it’s not essential like it is in other fields, I would suggest the OP focus on getting good grades and getting strong letters over trying to do some research on the side. Especially since doing well will set him/her up nicely to ace step 2.

Again, just random thoughts from a random dude.

 

[killacat82]

Thank you all so much for your replies! Follow up question - would I have any shot at a program that would set me up to be competitive for a critical care fellowship? I'm not sure how competitive fellowships are, and how much the program you do residency at matters.

If you don't think a anesthesia critical care fellowship is in the cards, do you think an internal medicine residency followed by a pulm/critical care fellowship would be attainable? (I'm still very undecided in exactly what I want to do, but these are likely the most competitive options I'm considering)

 

[akinetopsia]

Critical care fellowships aren't as competitive out of anesthesia as Pulm/Crit is out of IM. Try searching the Anesthesia forum. My understanding is the competitive fellowships out of anesthesia are cardiac & pain.

 

[Psai]

Critical care fellowships aren't as competitive out of anesthesia as Pulm/Crit is out of IM. Try searching the Anesthesia forum. My understanding is the competitive fellowships out of anesthesia are cardiac & pain.

Pulm crit is not very competitive.

 

[anbuitachi]

Critical care fellowships aren't as competitive out of anesthesia as Pulm/Crit is out of IM. Try searching the Anesthesia forum. My understanding is the competitive fellowships out of anesthesia are cardiac & pain.

Pulm crit is not very competitive.

Cc after Anes is not competitive. If you want to do ccm Im is a better path in terms of job availability

 

[idkididk]

View attachment 235162
Looks like 97% of people between 211 and 220 matched. I'm only an M3 so I don't have any real credibility to answer this question, but I'd say I like your odds.

If this doesn't put OP at ease idk what will