Is colorectal fellowship possible for a no-name community DO gen surg applicant?

[hpgryffn]

Yesterday was match day and while I am truly grateful for matching general surgery I am heartbroken to have fallen down my rank list and matched at a community general surgery program. The program has not graduated it's first class yet but apparently the (only? apparently theres only 1 pgy5) pgy5 has landed a trauma fellowship.
My dream has been colorectal surgery from the start, problem is the program barely gets any colorectal cases. Is it even feasible for me to consider colorectal surgery as a DO gen surg applicant from a no-name institution? If it's at all possible how can I begin to prepare myself to be competitive for applying to fellowship? Additionally will it be possible to gain any kind of fellowship? thanks in advance.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[armybound]

Paging @SLUser11

My FIL was at what is likely one of the "big name" colorectal departments for a long time. I've had the opportunity to talk to him about his choice in fellows a number of times.

It seems to me that pedigree does matter to an extent, but isn't the end-all of the decision. They were really big on research as well as recommendations from surgeons they knew. If the resident was local, they expected to have met the resident at their conferences and such. They also had a research fellowship which usually led to being admitted to the clinical fellowship when that was done.

So what can you do? Research at home. Try to publish at ASCRS meetings, meet & mingle when there. Consider research fellowships.