General surgery with 227 step 1

[fusurg]

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Hi all- had honestly never heard of sdn until the other day. But here goes nothing...

I'm a rising 4th year allopathic student interested in general surgery with ideas of doing fellowship (not really sure yet). I'm nothing like the superstars on these forums it seems- I got a lowly step 1 of 227 but I think I'm on track for 240's step 2. Anyway, I really don't have anything exciting about me: minimal involvement in some interest groups, occasional volunteering at a free clinic, and a little bit of research in urology that wasn't ever published or presented. I guess my question is, with this background, can a normal guy with nothing really special about him match into a gen surg program that will keep doors open for potential fellowships in the future? obviously not shooting for hopkins or stanford, but still. Thanks in advance and sorry if this is posted in the wrong place!

 

[Redpancreas]

Hi all- had honestly never heard of sdn until the other day. But here goes nothing...

I'm a rising 4th year allopathic student interested in general surgery with ideas of doing fellowship (not really sure yet). I'm nothing like the superstars on these forums it seems- I got a lowly step 1 of 227 but I think I'm on track for 240's step 2. Anyway, I really don't have anything exciting about me: minimal involvement in some interest groups, occasional volunteering at a free clinic, and a little bit of research in urology that wasn't ever published or presented. I guess my question is, with this background, can a normal guy with nothing really special about him match into a gen surg program that will keep doors open for potential fellowships in the future? obviously not shooting for hopkins or stanford, but still. Thanks in advance and sorry if this is posted in the wrong place!

Welcome to SDN, but you've got the wrong forum. Post here in the future if you want advice from General Surgeons: Surgery and Surgical Subspecialties

Found a post on the first page that answers your question. Looks like ABSITE will make up for that Step 1 🙂
Cardiac Surgery fellowships, USMLE scores?

 

[ERDOC555]

Gen Surg Match rate is nearly 90% for 220-230 so you should be fine to match in general. Things don't tend to get dicey until you hit below 220 on Step 1 and even then they the odds still aren't horrible. I doubt you'll have first choice of desirable locations/top programs, but if you apply broadly there isn't a good reason why you couldn't match general surgery somewhere, and hopefully a nice midtier program that's a good fit for you and will prepare you well to match for fellowship.

 

[fusurg]

That’s great! Thanks for the insight guys and sorry about posting it in the wrong section!

 

[solitarius]

Matching into Gen Surg is not hard.

Making it through Gen Surg is hard.

 

[Raney Schauer]

How does one self-assess as "rising"?

 

[ndafife]

How does one self-assess as "rising"?

"Rising" usually means early in the year. AKA a "rising 4th year" is someone who just started their 4th year

 

[MSTPlease]

"Rising" usually means early in the year. AKA a "rising 4th year" is someone who just started their 4th year

I’d say it usually means “upcoming” rather than early. Like at this point of the year some schools are still in 17-18 academic year others already in 18-19.

But either way, yeah, it’s a very common phrase and has nothing to do with a self assessment of OP’s abilities. It helps to clarify that OP didn’t graduate/is about to graduate and also someone who didn’t just take step 1 and start MS3.