Mmmm-k: need advice please

[noodle soup]

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Apologies up front: this is a little long-winded.

I'm a nontraditional (read older) third year osteopathic medical student.

Here is my situation:

Second year I had to remediate two classes that I missed entirely due to a family situation that required me to fly home and take care of. I had no real options, I was the only person who could deal with it. I passed remediations. Then...

During the time I was preparing for boards (usmle and comlex), unfortunately (I think I'm cursed) another serious situation involving someone very close that lasted about a month arose that served as a distractor to study. I pushed both exams back into my first rotation.

I knew I wasn't in my prime for the exams when I took them, but I was afraid to push them back any further due to fear of forgetting more, and having to pay again for both exams. Result: 182 usmle, and 422 comlex (pass is 400). Ouch. I am going to usee my vacation month to study and retake the usmle. I am reasonably certain that I can do well.

My true concern, as I learn more about the process, is what this means in terms of matching. These specialties are what I am leaning towards, in particularish order: psych, neuro, IM, PM&R. What I would like to know is:

1) How worried should I be about not matching?

2) Should I address these issues in my personal statement? I hate to sound like "Mr. Excuses", but this is what happened, and I don't feel that my career options should be ruined because of bad timing. If yes, how best to address it?
Personal stress was not involved to a high degree in the first situation, but was in the second, because what was going on (actually two things one after the other) were pretty damn serious. So yes, it affected my board study during my first rotation, but I passed my rotation.

3) Am I ruined for the allo and/or osteo match? There are programs that I am interested in in both osteo and allo, but due to location, I will probably forego the osteo match.

4) What things can I do to improve my application? I am going to try to honor as many rotations as I can, take both usmle step 2and comlex step 2. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Apollyon]

The main thing is to just CRUSH Step II/Comlex 2. That will trump a bad performance on the first steps.

 

[Ariee]

Apologies up front: this is a little long-winded.

I'm a nontraditional (read older) third year osteopathic medical student.

Here is my situation:

Second year I had to remediate two classes that I missed entirely due to a family situation that required me to fly home and take care of. I had no real options, I was the only person who could deal with it. I passed remediations. Then...

During the time I was preparing for boards (usmle and comlex), unfortunately (I think I'm cursed) another serious situation involving someone very close that lasted about a month arose that served as a distractor to study. I pushed both exams back into my first rotation.

I knew I wasn't in my prime for the exams when I took them, but I was afraid to push them back any further due to fear of forgetting more, and having to pay again for both exams. Result: 182 usmle, and 422 comlex (pass is 400). Ouch. I am going to usee my vacation month to study and retake the usmle. I am reasonably certain that I can do well.

My true concern, as I learn more about the process, is what this means in terms of matching. These specialties are what I am leaning towards, in particularish order: psych, neuro, IM, PM&R. What I would like to know is:

1) How worried should I be about not matching?

2) Should I address these issues in my personal statement? I hate to sound like "Mr. Excuses", but this is what happened, and I don't feel that my career options should be ruined because of bad timing. If yes, how best to address it?
Personal stress was not involved to a high degree in the first situation, but was in the second, because what was going on (actually two things one after the other) were pretty damn serious. So yes, it affected my board study during my first rotation, but I passed my rotation.

3) Am I ruined for the allo and/or osteo match? There are programs that I am interested in in both osteo and allo, but due to location, I will probably forego the osteo match.

4) What things can I do to improve my application? I am going to try to honor as many rotations as I can, take both usmle step 2and comlex step 2. Any other suggestions?

Thanks for any help!

You can not retake the USMLE once you have passed.
Good luck. Item 4 above seems like a great idea, work on packing up the rest of your application with great things and u should be fine...

 

[gutonc]

You can not retake the USMLE once you have passed.

But since he got a 182 and passing is 185, he gets to re-take it.

As to the questions. No, you're not ruined for the Match but you're not going to Hopkins. The specialties you named are not particularly competitive and have LOTS of programs.

What can you do now? Rock your USMLE 1 re-take and then nail Step 2. This cannot be emphasized enough. A mediocre or poor showing on these will give lie to the theory that your initial performance was stress-related. Do well on your rotations (HP and Honors are the only grades you should get). Get good LORs. and apply broadly in both the Osteo and Allo matches. I understand there are geographic issues with the Osteo match but beggars cant be choosers. Besides, if you apply in both and then get a bunch (15+ would be a good target) of allo invites, bail out of the osteo match and go straight allo. As to the PS, you will have to address it but you can pull the old "family emergency" thing and hope for the best.

 

[Ariee]

Woops, sorry about that. I totally misread the post and thought you were upset about an average Step score...
Noodlesoup, you can totally give me the smack down for that one:
Ya, I totally agree with gutonc above. I don't think it's the end of the road, I think you'll match if you work on improving. You'll just need to retake Step 1 and study hard (I highly recc Kaplan/FA, they were the best for me, but you should figure out your study habits and what works best for YOU) and do well on Step 2 as well. Figure out some other ways you can stand out on your ERAS application, such as extracirrics, publications, etc. I hope your family problems are taken care of now and you can focus on yourself and flourish. Sounds like you've been so busy taking care of others, you've let yourself suffer...

G'luck friend,
A 🙂

P.S. Here is the link to the worksheet form of the ERAS application, so you can check out what parameters are asked about when you apply to residency (i.e- area's you can flourish on from now on): http://msa.iusm.iu.edu/StudentRecords/MyERAS Worksheet 20090001.pdf

 

[toothless rufus]

double post

 

[toothless rufus]

You are probably allright.

 

[peppy]

apply broadly in both the Osteo and Allo matches. I understand there are geographic issues with the Osteo match but beggars cant be choosers.

I have to agree with this. Many others in your situation have overcome these kinds of issues, so there is certainly still hope. However, you will be competing against a lot of people who have flawless grades and passed the USMLE the first time, so you can't take anything for granted. Unless you dislike the osteo programs so much that you would consider it preferable to be unemployed for a year than to go to them (that's the worst case scenario, but for many people scrambling last year was hopeless), I think you should do the osteo match. If there is an allo program you like better, you can try talking to them about how you would love to pre-match there...but I really do not think it is worth the risk of bypassing osteo programs to hope for an allo program.

The osteo match is your best chance. Even in non competitive fields, there are some programs where MDs are given preference over DOs. It is not always obvious which ones programs are like that until you start interviewing, which can make it tough if you have financial/time limits on how many interviews you can do. Plus, of course, the interview process is full of wild cards...even at a program that you should have a good shot at based on your stats and credentials, you might get an interviewer you don't click with and suddenly be out of the running. This is why I recommend being cautious.
I hope everything works out for you though! Good luck.

 

[noodle soup]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to answer and for the sound advice. I realize that no matter the reason, I am now at somewhat of a disadvantage, but am relieved that this situation may not be the excommunication from medicine that I was starting to dread it might become in a worst case scenario. 🙂