General Surgeon recs?

[WERD11]

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Hi all,

I'm in the process of selecting my surgery schedule and I'm interested in ortho.

Amongst my options are to:

1. have my general surgery at a hospital where I mostly work with residents, but I will learn alot of bread and butter surgery (overall more well rounded experience, and hence better prep for the shelf)

2. have my general surgery rotation with the all the big name attendings at my school, but see more specialized surgery and work longer hours (less study time).

so my question is, how helpful are recs from non-ortho surgeons? should i opt for the better shelf score or try to rub elbows with the dept head?

 

[Pir8DeacDoc]

I can't speak to your specific question as I'm not in Ortho. However, I would imagine you'll want all your letters from ortho folks, with the possible exception of the chair of the dept of Surgery.


If you don't think you have an interest in general surgery then I would take the easier rotation with more study time. Being around a bunch of big name surgeons doing monster cases all day isn't super helpful to a third year medical student, IMHO. You'll most likely get to be more involved/do more at the community hospital as well. Good luck!

 

[McAllenHopeful]

do the easier hours with the most time to study. LOR that aren't from ortho RARELY, and I mean RARELY matter. I'm ortho and I had my 4th letter from a medicine attending...it NEVER got brought up and I thought it was probably my strongest. Just get an Honors in surgery (and anything else you can 3rd year). You won't even need a letter from the Chair of Gen Surg there...every letter you have should be ortho unless otherwise specified.