throwaway_ortho
New Member
- Joined
- May 23, 2024
- Messages
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Hey everyone, I just wanted to make this thread to give back to this community as I wouldn't have been able to match ortho without the endless advice from many people who may or may not still be active on these forums. Special shoutout for @Goro to helping me getting into medical school, @DNC127 and @TheBoneDoctah for their advice on ortho, and @Ho0v-man for their advice on radiology. I was a dual applicant to both ortho and diagnostic radiology. This account is a throwaway for obvious reasons lol.
Stats:
Class Rank: top 15%
Boards: Passed step 1/level 1 first try; Step 2: 258, Level 2: 650
Research: 20+ publications (12+ first author), 14+ abstracts/posters
LORS: For ortho- I know I had a strong ortho LOR from a PD and non ortho research letter because they came up during my interviews. I also had 2 other ortho letters and not sure if they were average or what.
For radiology- research letter, 1 PD DR letter, 1 obygn letter, and 1 IM letter
DR: Of course the most important thing to have is sky high board scores. That is what will separate yourself from other DOs and MDs applying and to have something interesting on your application. My research did come up on my interviews and they were all impressed and if you are going to dual apply try to have an interesting story in your PS and interview to show that you wanted X field and but through Y experiences you're heart is set on DR. For DR aways (I did 1), yes you do not do much. Basically show up for 2-4 hours and then leave. However, it is important to meet with the PD and introduce yourself to him/her and have them get to know you. You would surprised how many students do not do this. Out of 5 students on my rotation, I was the only one and there was me and only one other student who showed up everyday. Yeah it's a chill rotation but try to act like you want to be there. For applying, you get 12 or so signals and I ended up receiving 8 interviews, all were only signals and within 4-6 hour drive my address on ERAS so geography definitely has a role. If you want to open up a certain part of the country, try to do a rotation at a program in that area and get a LOR from said PD. The other thing with applying to DR is that you will have to miss some time during your rotations to do interviews. Fortunately I had to only miss one day out of all my rotations. Some people will say be honest and tell the program its a DR interview, some will say tell them its a school thing. I would never recommend to lie but I know some people get rubbed the wrong way if you tell them you are dual applying so just try to do what's best for you.
Ortho: I will admit that matching ortho as a DO is a crapshoot and you have to have a lot of things work your way to end up with a spot. There have been many posts about this so I will keep this short. Of course the biggest hitters are grades/boards, research output, LORs/connections/networking/auditions there really is no secret formula. In my opinion as a DO, the best thing you can do to separate yourself from others is going to be research. That is what really helped separate me from the pack but it is important not to sacrifice time to do research if you are tanking your grades and end up with mediocore boards. If I were to go back in time to first year, I would have started shadowing an academic orthopedic surgeon maybe 1-2x a month and when it came time, to have them write me a LOR. In regards to doing well on rotation there have been so many posts but the biggest thing is to work hard (ALWAYS), have a good attitude even when you're being reamed, be nice to everyone, and learn as much ortho as you can. The biggest thing you can do is ask to help the resident with rounding. Even if you aren't on the trauma service I would still ask said resident if there isn't a student already with them, measure splints and have them supplies ready before the resident walks into the ER and anticipate in the OR and helping grab stuff. In essence, when you end the rotation and leave and things become less efficient, you're a top 1% rotator. For learning ortho, the best resources for a student is pocket pimped, orthobullets, and vumedi. For x-ray reads, I would highly recommend nailfractureconference website and of course practicing whenever you can.
For interviews, I applied to 30 programs (all DO except 3 MD programs) and only 1 MD program gave me an interview with a total of 7.
I hope this helps at least one person out there. Matching ortho as a DO is tough but it's definitely not impossible. If you grind from day 1 of medical school, set yourself up for success, the odds will be in your favor. And if anyone wants to DM for specific advice my inbox is always open.
Stats:
Class Rank: top 15%
Boards: Passed step 1/level 1 first try; Step 2: 258, Level 2: 650
Research: 20+ publications (12+ first author), 14+ abstracts/posters
LORS: For ortho- I know I had a strong ortho LOR from a PD and non ortho research letter because they came up during my interviews. I also had 2 other ortho letters and not sure if they were average or what.
For radiology- research letter, 1 PD DR letter, 1 obygn letter, and 1 IM letter
DR: Of course the most important thing to have is sky high board scores. That is what will separate yourself from other DOs and MDs applying and to have something interesting on your application. My research did come up on my interviews and they were all impressed and if you are going to dual apply try to have an interesting story in your PS and interview to show that you wanted X field and but through Y experiences you're heart is set on DR. For DR aways (I did 1), yes you do not do much. Basically show up for 2-4 hours and then leave. However, it is important to meet with the PD and introduce yourself to him/her and have them get to know you. You would surprised how many students do not do this. Out of 5 students on my rotation, I was the only one and there was me and only one other student who showed up everyday. Yeah it's a chill rotation but try to act like you want to be there. For applying, you get 12 or so signals and I ended up receiving 8 interviews, all were only signals and within 4-6 hour drive my address on ERAS so geography definitely has a role. If you want to open up a certain part of the country, try to do a rotation at a program in that area and get a LOR from said PD. The other thing with applying to DR is that you will have to miss some time during your rotations to do interviews. Fortunately I had to only miss one day out of all my rotations. Some people will say be honest and tell the program its a DR interview, some will say tell them its a school thing. I would never recommend to lie but I know some people get rubbed the wrong way if you tell them you are dual applying so just try to do what's best for you.
Ortho: I will admit that matching ortho as a DO is a crapshoot and you have to have a lot of things work your way to end up with a spot. There have been many posts about this so I will keep this short. Of course the biggest hitters are grades/boards, research output, LORs/connections/networking/auditions there really is no secret formula. In my opinion as a DO, the best thing you can do to separate yourself from others is going to be research. That is what really helped separate me from the pack but it is important not to sacrifice time to do research if you are tanking your grades and end up with mediocore boards. If I were to go back in time to first year, I would have started shadowing an academic orthopedic surgeon maybe 1-2x a month and when it came time, to have them write me a LOR. In regards to doing well on rotation there have been so many posts but the biggest thing is to work hard (ALWAYS), have a good attitude even when you're being reamed, be nice to everyone, and learn as much ortho as you can. The biggest thing you can do is ask to help the resident with rounding. Even if you aren't on the trauma service I would still ask said resident if there isn't a student already with them, measure splints and have them supplies ready before the resident walks into the ER and anticipate in the OR and helping grab stuff. In essence, when you end the rotation and leave and things become less efficient, you're a top 1% rotator. For learning ortho, the best resources for a student is pocket pimped, orthobullets, and vumedi. For x-ray reads, I would highly recommend nailfractureconference website and of course practicing whenever you can.
For interviews, I applied to 30 programs (all DO except 3 MD programs) and only 1 MD program gave me an interview with a total of 7.
I hope this helps at least one person out there. Matching ortho as a DO is tough but it's definitely not impossible. If you grind from day 1 of medical school, set yourself up for success, the odds will be in your favor. And if anyone wants to DM for specific advice my inbox is always open.
