ANOTHER "chances" question

[Stax]

Just wanted to hear some opinions from those who know more than I do since I recently became interested in plastics.

I'm an M3 at a southeastern medical school. Short stack on me is that I'm 3.9 GPA currently, USMLE step 1 of 239/97. Found out yesterday that I have been elected Junior AOA at my school.

Research has included one project that has carried through since summer after M1 year to now. I am still working on it, and it is not plastics related (i.e. Pediatric Gastroenterology). Our team is expecting 2-3 abstracts and me presenting at a national meeting early this summer approx. May-June (but everyone in research KNOWS how deadlines can get extended).

First of all do I have a good shot at getting interviews for an integrated program? I am still researching the pros/cons of integrated vs. traditional. If there are any main posts that I may have missed please feel free to direct my ignorance to them!

Next my school does not have an integrated or a "top" rated plastics program. In addition to the service here would you recommend a plastics rotation at another program as well?

I have read the other posts and realize that matching is as much a game as anything else, but does this foundation give me a shot at all of getting interviews?

Thanks for your help and all the best!

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[Stax]

no replies usually means that the answers can be found in previous posts. I'll check there. Droliver are you or anyone else out there?!
thanks again

 

[droliver]

Sounds like you'd be very competative just by your CV & #'s. It will be important to try & do at least one away rotation & get a letter from a "name" in the field, preferably from an integrated program. There really are no integrated programs of reknown in the Southeast so you'd likely have to travel out of the region for one of these "audition roatations". As competition for the integrated spots has grown, I think applicants are feeling more pressure to do not one, but multiple rotations away from home now.

Check out www.plastics2002.com for the gossip among the integrated wannabe crowd. Very gossipy as all these boards are, but you'll be able to get an idea of the paranoia people were feeling for the match & exactly what they did to position themselves for success.

Where exactly are you located ? (you can PM me if you feel the need). I could make some recommendations in your area, region, or nationally for you to get a rotation set-up. Maxheadroom would prob. have even more insight into some of the integrated programs.

 

[maxheadroom]

In the SE, Wake Forest is pretty solid. Lots of people from my class thought very highly of it. The only drawback is that the general surgery years are considered to be very difficult there. Rumor has it that Emory took people in a combined program starting this year. If so, that's a strong plastics program, but again, the general years are difficult (and I don't think highly of combined programs). Florida also took someone this year in a combined position, but it was rumored to be a one-time only thing.

Good luck. You can PM me with any questions that you have.

 

[droliver]

Sorry Max,

as an Alabama native I don't tend to think of North Carolina as the southeast (I tend to think in terms of the SEC ). I too got the impression that Wake Forest was somewhat more popular among the integrated folks which surprised me somewhat as it used to get made fun of by the General Surgery Program there (which I really liked when I interviewed there back in the stone age & one of my friends just took a staff position there). There's an urban legend about a graduate from there who failed his oral boards because his answer to every question was "I'd put a VAC on it" (to the uninformedr. Luis Argenta, Chief of Plastics @ Wake, is a developer & patent holder on the VAC system & they've written up clinical applications for it ad nauseum).

If you include North Carolina & Kentucky in the southeast (which I don't) the programs @ Wake Forest, LSU-N.O.,& University of Kentucky are pretty much your only options in the area & all are somewhat 2nd tier in the prestige factor. That being said I know one of the Chiefs who finished last year @ UK who is very,very well-trained. The Chief there, Dr. Henri Vasconez, is a really pleasant person as well. For the purpose of getting an integrated spot, I wouldn't do a roatation @ them unless you knew you wanted to match specifically @ one of them. Lexington & Winston-Salem both seem like really comfortable places to live & train. Emory & UF have gone back & forth on whether or not they really can make an integrated/combined program work & as Max pointed out, they irregulary have an off the record spot, but seem to be giving these mostly to some of their own students.

If you want to stay in the South & rotate for a letter at a non-integrated program the larger figures with full academic appointments are Dr. Luis Vasconez (UAB), Dr. Hester (who is kind of involved again @ Emory I think), and Dr. Bruce Shack (Vanderbilt).

If you expand you region outside the South a little bit (but not really out west or too far North) then I would consider rotating @ one of the two powerful Texas integrated programs UTSW (Dr. Rohrich) or Baylor (Dr. Shenaq), Northwestern (Dr. Mustoe), Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins (Drs. Manson & van der Kolk), or Georgetown (Dr. Spears) if you want to try a get a LOR from one of the heavy hitters