thanks for the advice
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DO Student taking a year off
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I'm a Class of 2012 student, so take my advice with lots of salt...
1. It never looks good to have a failure or repeated year on your transcript. That being said...
2. The extra year will give you extra time to study for the boards. I'd make that your top priority. Spend that extra time CRUSHING step 1.
That's about all I've got for you...
1. It never looks good to have a failure or repeated year on your transcript. That being said...
2. The extra year will give you extra time to study for the boards. I'd make that your top priority. Spend that extra time CRUSHING step 1.
That's about all I've got for you...
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You are already at a disadvantage b/c you're DO. Then you added more disadvantage with your mishap. The best advice I could give is to abandon anything not related to grades and really shine academically. PD's want somebody who can handle the residency and pass the boards, and there's no shortage of those people applying to Rads every year.
The best way to shine academically is to study, study, and study. It's easy to say, oh yeah, I'll just compensate for repeating the year by crushing Step 1. But if you have the same study routine, you are gonna get the same results. You gotta make drastic changes if you want drastic results. Study every day/night until you see that envelope w/ the name of the Radiology Residency program you matched to.
Research and EC activities are like buying a nice suit. Grades/Step 1 are like having a home. If somebody has a house and is wearing an expensive suit, you may say, 'wow, he looks nice'. If somebody is homeless, yet he went out and bought an expensive suit, you may say, 'what a fool, he doesn't have a place to live and he spent all his money on a suit'.
The best way to shine academically is to study, study, and study. It's easy to say, oh yeah, I'll just compensate for repeating the year by crushing Step 1. But if you have the same study routine, you are gonna get the same results. You gotta make drastic changes if you want drastic results. Study every day/night until you see that envelope w/ the name of the Radiology Residency program you matched to.
Research and EC activities are like buying a nice suit. Grades/Step 1 are like having a home. If somebody has a house and is wearing an expensive suit, you may say, 'wow, he looks nice'. If somebody is homeless, yet he went out and bought an expensive suit, you may say, 'what a fool, he doesn't have a place to live and he spent all his money on a suit'.
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Sorry to hear that this happened to you. I agree that focusing on putting in a strong performance on the boards is probably the best way to recover from this. If you have the time for ECs though then I think it might not be a bad idea to try to get involved in something that will help you feel more comfortable on your rotations in 3rd year (if some of the students volunteer at a free clinic or something of that nature). Many times, interviewers will pay more attention to clinical evaluations than they will to pre-clinical grades. If you are able to shine on your clinical rotations and use rads electives to get to know the right people who have rads connections then that might end up outweighing this setback.
I would also suggest trying to identify a less competitive specialty that you think you would feel good about and building a decent application for for it just in case residency programs are not understanding about this. It's hard to predict how residency programs a few years in the future will perceive this.
I would also suggest trying to identify a less competitive specialty that you think you would feel good about and building a decent application for for it just in case residency programs are not understanding about this. It's hard to predict how residency programs a few years in the future will perceive this.
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Just crush the boards ... get over 240 and most people will forgive any miss step in the first two years.
