There's nothing wrong with considering 2 different specialties. In addition to anesthesia, I liked radiology and dermatology. Let me pre-empt the snickers. I actually liked the subject material and the daily work in those specialties, and I could have been happy in either, even though they're quite different. So there's nothing wrong with trying to decide between ER and anesthesia even though they may be more different than general surgery and urology.
220 is an OK board score. It's not 260, but it's also not 200. No honors has different meanings depending on how many honors are given out. If everyone got honors in everything and you didn't, that has a different meaning than if 10% get honors, 10% get high pass, and the rest pass. Our transcripts showed the grade breakdown for each rotation so anyone seeing it could get an idea of what a a grade really means.
If you absolutely have to be in California, and you'd rather be in California than in a specific specialty, then apply to both, and apply to every California program in each specialty. The next question is, "Would you rather match outside California or not match at all?" Only you can decide that.
You can't do much about what is already done. You may want to take step 2 early, but not release the scores until you see them, and if they're better, then release them. For this to work, you have to have your ERAS stuff out before your step 2 scores come back, and you need to make sure you check the correct box when asked about the automatic updating of USMLE scores. However, if you do the same or worse on Step 2, you're probably better of not releasing them. Some people are able to increase their scores. I didn't. My Step 1-3 scores varied by a total of 4 points. So while some may say I didn't improve, I choose to think that it represents consistent performance
Good luck.
Yeah, sheesh, you should have thought of this before you decided to go to UCSF.
