Chance me - ortho or dual apply?

[throwabanana24]

Good morning everyone,

I'm in the process of trying to figure out my plans for next year while I have some time. I just got my step 2 score back and I'm in the 248-252 range. I'm currently in a gap research year in an orthopedics program and I'm anticipating around 17+ research items (both clinical and non-clinical) by the time that I start ERAS in September of 2024. I did honor my surgery rotation and have strong leadership positions at my school. I'm in the process of trying to figure out what my chances are solo applying to Ortho with these stats as a female minority medical student from a US MD school and whether I should dual apply to another specialty like anesthesia or obgyn just in case.

I'd love to hear from anyone who was in a similar situation to me or who dual applied and how that went. I'd also love some advice on how to handle getting additional LORs if I dual apply because I have only 3-4 months for my away rotations before ERAS.

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[GoSpursGo]

I generally advise students who know they want to apply to a competitive specialty is: go all-in, but know what your plan B is in case you don't match.

Dual applying may make it more likely that you MATCH, but I generally think it hurts your chances to match to your PREFERRED SPECIALTY. Putting together a whole second application is a TON of work, and that is time that could that could be spent on additional research experiences, polishing your essays, or even simply getting time in the OR during your auditions. You have worked so hard to create a competitive application, and even at the top of the curve your match rate is only 70-85%, so why would you hurt your chances if you really want ortho? That said, as you get your letters together and prepare to apply, you SHOULD have an explicit conversation with your school about what you should do if you fail to match. Every year there are many students with good apps who just lose out because it's a numbers game. So have a discussion of what that would mean--would you delay graduation by a year to either do more auditions or another research year? Would you just take whatever you can get in SOAP? Would you re-apply to one of these less competitive specialties in the fall? The options available to you will vary by school, and you don't want to make plans on the fly while you're reeling from from failing to match--so think about this ahead of time.

Finally, there is nothing wrong with "settling" for a less competitive specialty, but if you dual apply then your backup specialty is going to know that they are your backup because your whole application screams ortho. Some programs will just be happy to get a highly competitive applicant, but others will avoid you because they don't want to waste an interview slot on someone who doesn't want to come. Short of having LOR writers explicitly say that you had a last second change of heart and that you are absolutely not applying to ortho, you're not going to be as successful in applying to your backup as if you were to fully commit to that specialty up front.

 

[operaman]

Agreeing completely with my colleague above. So far it seems like you have a modestly competitive app for Ortho. Your step score is a bit low, but it sounds like you have some strong research and strong grades (assuming that surgery H wasn’t a fluke).

Dual applying is tough. I generally recommend it to marginal applicants who truly have little to no chance of matching their preferred field. You actually do appear to have reasonable though modest shot, so it might be worth going all in so long as you have a viable plan B.

I would not count on the SOAP for much as there’s usually little available and they’re rarely good programs. If one pops up and you can get it, great. But they often pick up unmatched applicants who were already interested in their field.

Plan on maybe a prelim surgery year reapply another field. Gas or OB would be very doable from this position and you’d have your pick of much better programs too. You can also arrange your schedule now with some electives in those for after match day, and reach out to any contacts you have to strategize for those fields.

 

[GoSpursGo]

I would not count on the SOAP for much as there’s usually little available and they’re rarely good programs. If one pops up and you can get it, great. But they often pick up unmatched applicants who were already interested in their field.

Completely agree--meant to say that this would be accepting something else and not trying again for ortho, either a prelim spot or some other categorical spot in a field that would palatable.

 

[throwabanana24]

Dual applying is tough. I generally recommend it to marginal applicants who truly have little to no chance of matching their preferred field. You actually do appear to have reasonable though modest shot, so it might be worth going all in so long as you have a viable plan B.

Dual applying is tough. I generally recommend it to marginal applicants who truly have little to no chance of matching their preferred field. You actually do appear to have reasonable though modest shot, so it might be worth going all in so long as you have a viable plan B.

Thank you both so much! I'm really just worried about not matching but what you both are saying makes a lot of sense. I will definitely talk with my school more about alternatives just in case things don't go my way.

 

[operaman]

Thank you both so much! I'm really just worried about not matching but what you both are saying makes a lot of sense. I will definitely talk with my school more about alternatives just in case things don't go my way.

Good plan. At some point you’ll also want to sit down with your Ortho mentors and go over your application and get some good personal advice for your situation. There are often nuanced points that someone who knows you and is looking at all your real info can see that get lost on an anon forum.

Best of luck!

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Depends on school tier imo. If T20 then very likely to match