Appreciate it!
Yes!! Although it is only part of the application, it is more impactful for an experience to be meaningful and longitudinal rather than having short random experiences (like getting into med school). I was on two exec boards all the way through, heavily involved in my school's ortho interest group (highly recommend trying to do this if offered at your school as it gets you connections with people, and you can work with faculty and residents to plan events). Also had heavy volunteer work with student clinics throughout my four years at several health fairs.
Great question, haha, and honestly, it was a grind. I think the main thing that helped me was staying organized and not overcommitting to activities right off the bat. Ease into one thing at a time and ensure your studies are not suffering. I started with research in the second half of the first year and did not commit to many projects right away; I made sure to focus on getting one thing done at a time. EC-wise, I did things when I had time and organized events when I could, but it is nice when you have a good team to work with you so you aren't doing things alone. Health fairs were held at different times throughout the year, so sometimes I gave up a weekend to participate. Most likely, for STEP, you will have dedicated time, and it is exactly that .... Do not do anything but study during this time, research and ECs can wait, but you need to do as well as you can on the step. Honestly, it seems impossible and overwhelming, but I promise you will find time for a lot of stuff once you get the hang of school.
Thanks!
Do not try to do too much ortho. I’d say all of us knew basically nothing going into the beginning of electives but the learning curve happens really fast when you are in it and working super hard all day. I did do some work with residents on overnights my first two years a bit but ortho knowledge comes a ton during your electives and then will be at its maximum on Subis especially when you are studying cases and looking up pathology on orthobullets every time you see something. Don’t stress about it at all!
I think school prestige is definitely a factor but how much is hard to say. If you look at your school match lists there def seems to be trends of where your institution will match people so keep that in mind but i would say in general if you work your tail off and have good mentorship, good step scores, and good letters, you will be in good standing coming from almost any institution. I’m sure there are some exceptions, and it definitely doesn’t hurt being from a well known school because those are schools that tend to have better connections!
A mentor would be anyone who can guide you through the process. A resident is a good mentor because they are more recent in the process, can tell you the ins and outs, and can introduce you to people worth knowing in that specialty of interest. If you meet an attending in the specialty, that is really important to have, especially if you can work with them more than a couple of times, and they can end up writing a strong letter for you, and that can make a huge impact with residency applications.
I personally was interested going into medical school, but several people decided later on. It does help for a specialty like ortho to at least know you are interested from the start, and beginning to form connections with residents and faculty earlier is beneficial so that by the third or fourth year, they will know you. Even if you are not 100% sure right now, get involved in some way (shadowing, research, interest group) to get an idea if you truly love ortho or if you see yourself doing something different. I will not lie; you really have to love it, and you will know once you begin to experience it for yourself. You should be passionate about any specialty you decide to go into, but ortho is definitely its own unique surgical field, and I know a lot of people who said at the beginning, "I am ortho all the way."... They indeed were not ortho all the way, and that happened once they experienced it on electives and rotations. Overall, don't worry too much right now, and enjoy getting to know and learn about all of the specialties medicine has to offer. As you go, you will naturally begin to know how you feel about what you like and don't like. For example, if you are on your surgery clerkship and are filled with anxiety and dread when you have to go to the OR and feel that way even at the end of the rotation, ortho is not for you. If you cannot live without the OR, great, surgery is for you, and if you do some ortho electives or shadow and are fascinated by the biomechanics and instrumentation and can't wait to help a resident do their 50th sugartong splint of the day, ortho may be for you.
