Here to Answer Questions

[scubaboy]

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Hey all, I just matched into orthopedics this cycle and have a lot of free time on my hands. If anyone has questions/needs advice, I would be happy to try my best to answer anything honestly, or you can message me.

 

[ACKjp]

Congrats on the successful match! When did you start research in med school? I’ll be starting in the fall and wondering if it’s looked down upon to reach out for opportunities right after I start. I know how important it is to have research for ERAS and I have some ideas of actual clinical research projects (versus case reports, lit reviews, retrospectives) I’d love to work on, but they’ll take time to set up.

 

[scubaboy]

I started research around the spring semester of my first year. Please make sure to put school first, get the hang of studying the tremendous amount of information taught in med school, and get your feet grounded before jumping into research. Starting the spring semester, if and when you feel comfortable with your workload, start getting to know residents at your school if they offer shadowing through the interest group at your school or work with attendings in the clinic to show your interest. This is how you can be sure to set up a nice proposal for a project after showing interest and meeting people rather than just cold emailing people who don't know who you are. Once you have some connections, I found it really easy to pump out research when I had a mentor who knew who I was and residents who knew I had a good work ethic and had a ton of projects they needed help with over the years. Getting those early connections is key, and IMO, once you have it, it makes it a lot easier to get and propose research.

 

[Howdie]

Incoming MS1 here. Curious if you had any other ECs (volunteering, shadowing, clubs, leadership)? How important are ECs, outside of research, compared to audition rotations, LoRs, and Step/shelf scores?

 

[ACKjp]

I started research around the spring semester of my first year. Please make sure to put school first, get the hang of studying the tremendous amount of information taught in med school, and get your feet grounded before jumping into research. Starting the spring semester, if and when you feel comfortable with your workload, start getting to know residents at your school if they offer shadowing through the interest group at your school or work with attendings in the clinic to show your interest. This is how you can be sure to set up a nice proposal for a project after showing interest and meeting people rather than just cold emailing people who don't know who you are. Once you have some connections, I found it really easy to pump out research when I had a mentor who knew who I was and residents who knew I had a good work ethic and had a ton of projects they needed help with over the years. Getting those early connections is key, and IMO, once you have it, it makes it a lot easier to get and propose research.

Appreciate it!

 

[scubaboy]

Incoming MS1 here. Curious if you had any other ECs (volunteering, shadowing, clubs, leadership)? How important are ECs, outside of research, compared to audition rotations, LoRs, and Step/shelf scores?

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.

In order of importance:

LORs are monumental if you can get a good mentor and stick with them from the first year. If they really get to know you, they will go to bat for you when the time comes and write you an outstanding letter. I started shadowing my mentor in the first year and still work with him.

Audition Rotations: Crush them. I did 3, This is your time to impress. Be HUMBLE and know your place as a med student; if they know you are competent, they will begin to give you autonomy. Start anticipating what is needed, and if you can help residents (setting up for splinting, etc..), that can go a long way, but you have a while before this time comes so for now focus on doing med school.

Step 2: It goes without saying step 1 is p/f... That leaves step 2 as pretty important especially with getting interviews. Aim for 260+, if you get in the 250's not the end of the world but you will need other aspects of your app to pull you up.

Research: If you like it, do a ton!! If you go for Harvard or HSS, number and quality matter (12-15+ pubs). If just trying to match, I think the sweet spot for a number of pubs is 6-10+. If you do some presentations and abstracts as well, it should be enough to be solid in your app. However, I have seen kids with 20+ pubs not match and some kids with one pub match....

These are solely based off of my experiences and people may feel differently, I am just going off of what I have seen on my path to applying ortho.

 

[Picachu]

Hi. How did you balance/manage your time during MS1 and MS2 with all the research, ECs, volunteering, studying for STEP, etc?

 

[scubaboy]

Hi. How did you balance/manage your time during MS1 and MS2 with all the research, ECs, volunteering, studying for STEP, etc?

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.

 

[scubaboy]

I am a no undergrad pubs noob and I seem to have forgotten all statistical analysis knowledge during my gap year scribing. How can unpublished noobs lock in to start productive research in your first year? Is it a good idea to take a review course to refresh?

I think the best thing is to stick to what you can do. For me, I was not great at stats either, so at first, I would offer to do the manuscript writing. It is really easy to find your niche and contribute your part. Later on, I did learn some basic stats, but when I needed more advanced analysis, I found it really easy to get help from either friends who knew stats or even courses on YouTube that could walk me through stuff. So, the main point is do not worry at all. There are so many parts to a research project, and stats are just one component. So, if you are like me and can write good manuscripts and submit an IRB, you are a valuable member of the research team, and it is enough to get started!

 

[CakeMan27]

I think the best thing is to stick to what you can do. For me, I was not great at stats either, so at first, I would offer to do the manuscript writing. It is really easy to find your niche and contribute your part. Later on, I did learn some basic stats, but when I needed more advanced analysis, I found it really easy to get help from either friends who knew stats or even courses on YouTube that could walk me through stuff. So, the main point is do not worry at all. There are so many parts to a research project, and stats are just one component. So, if you are like me and can write good manuscripts and submit an IRB, you are a valuable member of the research team, and it is enough to get started!

Thanks!

 

[nibhighfootballrules]

Hey thanks for doing this. Did you feel like you had an ability to study orthopedics prior to away rotations or do you feel like it is normal for most people to come into rotations with minimal baseline knowledge? I am definitely finding it difficult to dedicate any time to studying ortho being in my final clinical rotation and step 2 coming up soon. Figured during away rotations and AI would be the best time to learn. Also for aways what skills would you recommend focusing on prior to starting (suturing skills, casting, etc).

 

[indebtedsaddle23]

How much do you think school prestige helped/mattered in you matching ortho?

 

[scubaboy]

Hey thanks for doing this. Did you feel like you had an ability to study orthopedics prior to away rotations or do you feel like it is normal for most people to come into rotations with minimal baseline knowledge? I am definitely finding it difficult to dedicate any time to studying ortho being in my final clinical rotation and step 2 coming up soon. Figured during away rotations and AI would be the best time to learn. Also for aways what skills would you recommend focusing on prior to starting (suturing skills, casting, etc).

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!

 

[scubaboy]

How much do you think school prestige helped/mattered in you matching ortho?

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!

 

[SpicyHotSauce]

Thank you for doing this! What do you mean by having a good mentor (a resident/doctor), and how did you find them?

I have a friend who I know for a long time who is also an incoming PGY in a specialty that I am interested in (although at a different school which is considered T30). Is it worth reaching out to them as a mentor? or find someone more local?

Edit: I am an incoming med student.

 

[NotADoctor1]

Thanks so much for doing this! Were you decided on ortho from day one of med school or did you take some time to figure it out? I'm starting med school this year and interested in ortho but not 100% decided. What would you recommend for someone in my position?

 

[scubaboy]

Thank you for doing this! What do you mean by having a good mentor (a resident/doctor), and how did you find them?

I have a friend who I know for a long time who is also an incoming PGY in a specialty that I am interested in (although at a different school which is considered T30). Is it worth reaching out to them as a mentor? or find someone more local?

Edit: I am an incoming med student.

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.

Finding a mentor can be difficult, but any connection you have (e.g., the pgy that you discussed) is a good start. Even if they go to a different school, they may be able to add you on projects or get you into contact with someone else. I would also try to examine the faculty in your specialty of interest and their research. If anything specific aligns with your interest, it can always help to contact them and ask if you could shadow them to show your interest. I recommend against immediately asking them for research without first introducing yourself and working with them in some capacity.

Hopefully this helps a little 🙂

 

[scubaboy]

Thanks so much for doing this! Were you decided on ortho from day one of med school or did you take some time to figure it out? I'm starting med school this year and interested in ortho but not 100% decided. What would you recommend for someone in my position?

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.

The main point is to get some exposure to the field, and you will know if you truly love it or not.