Obtaining ENT Match
Started by highlander11
First priority is navigating medical school before worrying about how to match into a competitive field. BTW. ENT is very competitive. When you feel comfortable with school and are still interested in ENT, reach out to your home program and after your first year, start trying to secure a mentor and some research.
It’s ridiculously competitive right now. Nationally there was about a 60% match rate last year, so quite a few strong applicants were unable to match. That said, it has gone in waves so a few years ago we actually had 2 spots go unfilled and our journals were full of op Eds about why aren’t students interested in ent anymore!
As an MS1, make sure you’re working hard and try to be near the top of your class. Even though you don’t have the step 1 score pressure, that strong knowledge base will be important for shelf exams and step 2 CK down the road. While preclinical grades are less important than other things, it still gets looked at and serves as the foundation for everything else. So try and be scoring near the top.
Once you feel solid in your academics, start working on getting involved in research. The earlier you start, the better that part of your app will be. It also helps you start getting known around your department and building relationships that will translate into very strong letters when the time comes.
Those are the key things for now. To match a field with a 60% match rate, you’ll want to be one of the top students at your school. Even then- keep your eyes peeled for a backup plan just in case.
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ENT is very competitive. If you're sure that you want ENT, you should find a mentor within the first few months, and while you should ensure that you're academically sound first, ideally within the first 6 months you really should start doing research. But I'd find that mentor now so that you can actually be doing research at 6 months in, not scrambling to find the mentors who haven't already found a student.
isn’t this a bit late though. What is the turn around time on most papers. If you reach out second year only have two years to get like 5+ publications or whatever number is required now.
It’s mostly based on luck..
Yes but isn’t it true that the longer one has to get lucky, the better off he or she may be
the key is not how early you get involved, but it's who you get involved with.
This is true. You want to find someone who is productive. That or you do like I did and find someone who loves what you love and then just make it happen yourself.
My tips for research:
1) look for clinical projects because these are faster. Lots of chart reviews and whatnot
2) get to know residents and ask about posters or orals that were presented but never written up. Ask to write them up in exchange for second author
3) case reports - keep your eyes peeled. When on your sub I or electives and you see a case everyone says is cool, write it up.
4) ask upperclassmen who the more productive PIs are and get to know them.
Absouletly not too late. There's some that switch their decision on competitive fields later then that and hustle to get quality papers, 1st authors etc. Also, many take a year of research, depends on a lot of variables.
While luck may play a small part, you create your own opportunities in life to be honest. Key is to get attached with a person that is well known in the speciality field and hope to publish papers.
Unfortunately research has become a means to justify the end in that it is all about securing a match vs trying to publish qualities papers. Either way, working along side a respected person or their team is extremely helpful.
Thank you for this answer. Should I look for research/projects/mentors specifically in ENT or in any field? My school is super primary care focused and is pretty small so there’s not a ton of specialized docs (ENT, etc).
