Clerkships

[lsutiger14]

I am an OMS-3 with a >550 COMLEX. I fell in love with my ortho rotation this past year and currently have 2 auditions set up for this upcoming season.

However, I realize my score is below the typical average for DO ortho. I think I'll have ER as my back up and I'm toying with the idea of General surg as well.

Am I at a disadvantage to just try and ortho audition as many places as I can at the expense of no auditions for EM or GS?

Thanks for any and all help

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[Bucks901]

DO programs tend to heavily weight audition rotations to secure interviews. If you were to do no EM auditions I highly doubt you would get any EM interviews especially because the standard letter of evaluation (SLOE), which is a specific letter for EM, is becoming more important for osteopathic EM programs. Think of it from a PD perspective, amongst the hundreds of applications they get why would they chose to interview someone who hasn't even spent a month in that specialty? EM is becoming extremely competitive on the DO side. I have several friends with 500+ COMLEX who got 5 or 6 interviews with most of those interviews being secured by doing audition rotations at those programs. If you are going to go ortho I would go all in. Do 3 or 4 auditions with at least one or two at less competitive programs and hope for the best.

 

[hallowmann]

You don't really have a good backup, especially if you're applying DO only. You have a very competitive field, another competitive field, and moderately competitive field with only somewhat above average board scores. And on the DO side, all of those fields pretty much require auditions. As Bucks901 said, more and more DO programs are relying on the SLOEs, and you better believe auditions are important in EM.

I would honestly narrow it down to one of those fields, and then something less competitive as a backup. It would be terrible if you applied to a bunch of Ortho and EM programs and got very few interviews at both, and potentially have to scramble. I know a lot of people toss past year that didn't match in Ortho or GS. Honestly, if you want you can apply to as many fields as you want, but I'd consider throwing in something that you'd be happy with as a backup that is actually not particularly competitive.

 

[lsutiger14]

You don't really have a good backup, especially if you're applying DO only. You have a very competitive field, another competitive field, and moderately competitive field with only somewhat above average board scores. And on the DO side, all of those fields pretty much require auditions. As Bucks901 said, more and more DO programs are relying on the SLOEs, and you better believe auditions are important in EM.

I would honestly narrow it down to one of those fields, and then something less competitive as a backup. It would be terrible if you applied to a bunch of Ortho and EM programs and got very few interviews at both, and potentially have to scramble. I know a lot of people toss past year that didn't match in Ortho or GS. Honestly, if you want you can apply to as many fields as you want, but I'd consider throwing in something that you'd be happy with as a backup that is actually not particularly competitive.

Thanks for all the insight. I have an ED rotation set up for July with the hopes of having at least one SLOE from an ED doc

 

[lp430]

Thanks for all the insight. I have an ED rotation set up for July with the hopes of having at least one SLOE from an ED doc

Most EM programs, especially ACGME, want to see 2 SLOEs at minimum. One SLOE could get you screened out of the interview process at some programs.

 

[Bucks901]

Thanks for all the insight. I have an ED rotation set up for July with the hopes of having at least one SLOE from an ED doc

Is this at a program with an EM residency? If not I would strongly suggest not doing this type of rotation. I also totally agree with @hallowmann that you should really try your best to do one or the other with maybe FM as a back up. While your numbers are on the low end for Ortho if you do enough rotations you may be able to impress enough people to match.

 

[BinderClip]

I am an OMS-3 with a >550 COMLEX. I fell in love with my ortho rotation this past year and currently have 2 auditions set up for this upcoming season.

However, I realize my score is below the typical average for DO ortho. I think I'll have ER as my back up and I'm toying with the idea of General surg as well.

Am I at a disadvantage to just try and ortho audition as many places as I can at the expense of no auditions for EM or GS?

Thanks for any and all help

Agree with what most people here have stated. You're choosing 2 of the more competitive specialties and that may prove to be difficult to you later on when applying. The reason being is that the well-regarded DO programs tend to expect auditions, which is really your constraining factor. You'll need to be on the top of your game with respect to specialty knowledge, because that's what other students will be doing. I've spoken with students from my school and they were concerned about not having enough audition time and feeling nervous about the amount of Ortho knowledge other students had. Just something to consider.

 

[GimpGenius]

Also keep in mind that AOA EM programs may not take residents next year (personally got burned this past audition season d/t a program closing, and it really messes things up). I know of a few people who tried the "Ortho/ENT with an EM backup" plan; they scrambled. There's just too much investment required to be competitive in both specialties.

My advice would be to take a good look at your scores, your long-term goals (i.e. can you see yourself never setting foot in the OR again? What's your endgame? Where do you want to be in 5/10/20 years?), and go from there. Also consider talking to attendings in the field, if you haven't already.