Hey everyone,
First post for me, but have been a long time lurker without an account. I'm an M4 at at a T40 school and have been struggling with picking a speciality since starting med school. I wasn't ever really thinking anything surgical coming in but have come to really like it after my core rotations and other shadowing opportunities. Unfortunately, I had an ortho related injury one month into clinicals that ended up requiring two surgeries over the course of the year (5 months apart). I guess weirdly through this experience I feel like I've really liked ortho, had really good experiences with my surgeon and was able to rotate in the department at the end of the year which I really enjoyed. My school is graded on quartiles and unfortunately I landed in the 3rd/4th quartile. Usually was told that I was at or above the level of my peers, never had a bad eval was just in 3/5 purgatory, usually above average on shelf exams. I guess that equalled 3/4th quartile at my school unfortunately for me. I do feel like my performance was slightly hindered given that I wasn't able to walk for a few weeks after both surgeries as well as dealing with rehab but there was definitely still things that I could've done better on. I was able to do well on Step 2 (263) a few weeks back, which I think could help but not sure the extent of which for ortho given its competitiveness. Have okayish research but it is all medicine and anesthesia related.
Overall, I'd just like an opinion on whether I should try pursing ortho. I am a realist and have a feeling that my chances are near 0 lol and would be okay applying to something else (IM or anesthesia) but just thought I would ask before signing off on the dream forever. I also understand that it would require a research year which I think the ship may have already sailed given that I'm now an M4, but also wondering if there was a way I could still coordinate that?
Thanks everyone!
