Match Question

[icantthinkofausername1]

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Hello Everyone,

I am interested in pursuing a competitive specialty and would like to know what I am getting myself into. I have aspired to become a surgeon since I was 15 years old and have obviously been informed of the competitiveness of this specialty. Is there anyone that can speak about their experience trying to match into a competitive specialty. Like what happens if you don't match? What can you do to prevent that besides having a strong application?

 

[gyngyn]

Like what happens if you don't match? What can you do to prevent that besides having a strong application?

You put surg pre-lims at the bottom of your rank order list.
You get another chance to interview for a categorical surg program in the next cycle and are eligible for advanced positions if any pop up.

You could also apply for a less competitive specialty in the first application cycle. Just rank all the surgery programs you would prefer ahead of the second specialty.

 

[Dral]

I think for your prelims at the bottom after your cats, it generally helps to rank your large academic programs first.

I didn’t match but landed in the first med prelim on my list. It was a large academic program. I scrambled into a spot in my specialty, but had a co-intern who also failed to match into our specialty. They had access to the department for the specialty to which we had applied and the IM program was large enough to be able to ‘absorb’ some of the time to interview. The latter is a little less of an issue with virtual interviews. They ended up getting a spot that year in the match.

 

[M&L]

Hello Everyone,

I am interested in pursuing a competitive specialty and would like to know what I am getting myself into. I have aspired to become a surgeon since I was 15 years old and have obviously been informed of the competitiveness of this specialty. Is there anyone that can speak about their experience trying to match into a competitive specialty. Like what happens if you don't match? What can you do to prevent that besides having a strong application?

Also - adding to what others said . You are only an M1. You have YEARS ahead of you . I know it’s stressful, but try to focus on the present, get good grades, get research, etc . Don’t worry about “what ifs”

 

[GoSpursGo]

I agree with everything that others have said. I would also add that while it's great to aspire for a competitive specialty, you also need to be realistic and take stock as you go along as to whether you are on track to meet your goal. If you're getting honors in most of your classes and getting the research and pubs that are expected from applicants to these sorts of competitive specialties, then you're probably on track. If you're struggling, then it's important to recognize that not everyone gets to have their first choice specialty. The math is the math and not everyone is going to be happy with their match outcome.

 

[DarkBluMage]

Hello Everyone,

I am interested in pursuing a competitive specialty and would like to know what I am getting myself into. I have aspired to become a surgeon since I was 15 years old and have obviously been informed of the competitiveness of this specialty. Is there anyone that can speak about their experience trying to match into a competitive specialty. Like what happens if you don't match? What can you do to prevent that besides having a strong application?

You might have better luck posting this in the surgical residency thread section. I noticed people don’t really respond much for students looking for advice for surgical residencies.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Is general surgery even considered “competitive” for MDs? I’m assuming you mean general since no subspecialty was referenced in your post

If you’re talking about ENT, ortho, neurosurgery etc., I think the best answer is dual apply general surgery then fellowship into something like trauma, plastics (not sure how long this will be viable) etc.

What is the percentage of people who don’t match a competitive subspecialty the first time but then do the second time? This is why I think that dual applying is better than prelim but obviously there are different opinions

 

[DOVinciRobot]

Is general surgery even considered “competitive” for MDs? I’m assuming you mean general since no subspecialty was referenced in your post

If you’re talking about ENT, ortho, neurosurgery etc., I think the best answer is dual apply general surgery then fellowship into something like trauma, plastics (not sure how long this will be viable) etc.

What is the percentage of people who don’t match a competitive subspecialty the first time but then do the second time? This is why I think that dual applying is better than prelim but obviously there are different opinions

General surgery is medium competitiveness. It’s kind of like IM, if your goal is to match anywhere, it’s not overtly competitive, but the good programs get their pick of qualified candidates. The top academic general surgery places are as competitive as anything else.