DO thinking about surgery

[ipressurexd]

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Hi guys, I recently had my surgery rotation and absolutely loved it. On top of that, the attending also suggested pushing myself towards surgery rather than EM/IM I had planned. I'm wondering about my chances though.

My research experience is mostly pre medical school with 2 years as RA and 2 years in undergrad. No pubs unfortunately...

I haven't taken step 2 yet but what would be a good score floor to aim for?

On top of that, I picked IM as my second elective, meaning I would not be able to get another surgery rotation for more LoR. Is it too late to arrange surgery rotations in 4th year?

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

240-250

 

[DOVinciRobot]

Hi guys, I recently had my surgery rotation and absolutely loved it. On top of that, the attending also suggested pushing myself towards surgery rather than EM/IM I had planned. I'm wondering about my chances though.

My research experience is mostly pre medical school with 2 years as RA and 2 years in undergrad. No pubs unfortunately...

I haven't taken step 2 yet but what would be a good score floor to aim for?

On top of that, I picked IM as my second elective, meaning I would not be able to get another surgery rotation for more LoR. Is it too late to arrange surgery rotations in 4th year?

240/600 Step/Level 2 should be your goal, ideally 250+ on Step 2 as that will open some doors. Goes without saying the higher the better but above 240 puts you in the running.

You will need 3 general surgery letters, programs will expect this. I would plan to rotate at 2 DO and 2 MD programs in 4th year. You don’t start setting up 4th year aways/auditions until spring so you’re good on that front.

Welcome to the dark side. Feel free to ask any questions you have, because I know first hand how bad DO advising is for surgery hopefuls

 

[DrCoolWhip]

240/600 Step/Level 2 should be your goal, ideally 250+ on Step 2 as that will open some doors. Goes without saying the higher the better but above 240 puts you in the running.

You will need 3 general surgery letters, programs will expect this. I would plan to rotate at 2 DO and 2 MD programs in 4th year. You don’t start setting up 4th year aways/auditions until spring so you’re good on that front.

Welcome to the dark side. Feel free to ask any questions you have, because I know first hand how bad DO advising is for surgery hopefuls

Hi. Do you know anything about if you are well rounded DO applicant planning on taking step 2 but did not take step 1 because it was not scored and you don’t need step 1 to take step 2? Will that massively screen you out even with a good step 2 score? No other red flags at all.

 

[DOVinciRobot]

Hi. Do you know anything about if you are well rounded DO applicant planning on taking step 2 but did not take step 1 because it was not scored and you don’t need step 1 to take step 2? Will that massively screen you out even with a good step 2 score? No other red flags at all.

Not taking Step 1 will get you screened out.

If you want to do surgery you need to take Step 1.