Army MS III considering ortho

[busychild]

I'm not 100% sure of what field I want to go into yet but ortho is right at the top of my maybe list. Is there anybody that can give me some info like how competitive is ortho (should I forget it with middle of the road boards)? where are good places to do clerkships? and how has residency been for anybody? I'm in a place with nobody to answer any questions so any help will be greatly appreciated.

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[Mirror Form]

B/c the army's match involves a much smaller number of people then the NRMP does, the competitiveness of fields such as ortho is quite variable from year to year (eg radiology actually didn't fill a slot this year). I'm not sure what ortho was like this year though. In the two years before this year, ortho varied from having over twice as many applicants per slot (two years ago) to having almost a one to one ratio (last year). How badly do you want ortho? Would you be willing to do a gmo tour if you didn't match and then reapply?

Anybody know that stats for army ortho this year?

One way you can try and get this info is by calling the army gme info line:
1-877-med-army

 

[s42brown]

Why do people insist on using that GMO term. The Army doesn't have GMOs for incoming residence if they don't match into their specialty. The Army gives you a civilian deferment.

 

[edmadison]

I believe that only one person didn't match last year in Ortho.

ed

 

[Neuronix]

Why do people insist on using that GMO term. The Army doesn't have GMOs for incoming residence if they don't match into their specialty. The Army gives you a civilian deferment.

It seems more like the Army gives you an internship spot in the Army. What's not clear is whether or not you can really get out of that internship if you want to go do a civilian residency or if you could get stuck trying to apply for PGY-2 positions from within the military. If you fail to find a PGY-2 spot (getting one isn't easy), then it's choose from what's available in the military or take your GMO.

Still, this is just my speculation from the forums and what we've been told from the higher-ups. It seems impossible to actually find concrete information about HPSP, but that's why I still post to see if anyone has a nugget of truth once and awhile.

 

[Mirror Form]

Why do people insist on using that GMO term. The Army doesn't have GMOs for incoming residence if they don't match into their specialty. The Army gives you a civilian deferment.

They army may give you a civilian deferrment, but it's definitely not gauranteed. I was told by Col Raynes (who has since retired) that if I didn't match in to my field, I'd definitely get a civ defferement. However, once I rotated at some military hospitals I found out that the army rarely gave out civilian deferments in my specialty, even though several people had not matched in the past.

That said, I think that most people in the army who did not match into my specialty (within the army's gme system), probably wouldn't have a very good chance in the civilian world either. Perhaps if you were a competitive candidate for the civilian match, they'd be more likely to hand out a deferrment.

 

[kedhegard]

Is there a way to find out what spots at which programs were filled last year? Like a comprehensive match list? Thanks.

 

[Mirror Form]

Is there a way to find out what spots at which programs were filled last year? Like a comprehensive match list? Thanks.

I don't believe that there is any comprehensive list. However, the numbers are out there. You can try calling 1-877-med-army. Last year they gave me those statistics for a bunch of fields I was curious about. However, for awhile they stopped giving out that information. Their reasoning was that since the numbers fluctuate so much from year to year, they did not want people applying to residencies just b/c they were easy to match into last year. Hopefully that isn't the case anymore.