I applied and matched orthopaedic surgery, but I think info like this can be helpful to other competitive stuff.
I promised a write up in the match thread, and here is my attempt to provide information I think is valuable. Stuff said here is mostly just my opinion and what I noticed from my experience plus having a pretty wide network among DO ortho applicants due to serving on national student ortho boards.
As a pre-med student I always wished medical students would come back and talk to us and give honest advice and numbers, and they never did. Unfortunately, the same can be said for those who match... they frequently ride into the sunset and are still vague about their stats and experiences and the rest of us are left with vague rumors and anecdotes from their friends who say they "think" that they must have had 260+ just because they had great success but we never actually get the full story.
This is my attempt to give y'all my full story because 1. I wish more people had done this so I could have gauged my own chances, and 2. with the merger and COVID it is a weird time to apply to residency and y'all might have to be even more selective about where you rotate and apply. This is not a meant to be a braggy post, and I am keeping it real in here even though I am somewhat embarrassed of my scores and rank and such so if you think this post is stupid just move on because it will be valuable to some people.
Stats:
USMLE Step 1: 237
USMLE Step 2: 241
Comlex 1: 634
Comlex 2: 650
Comlex PE: First time pass
GPA ~ 3.7
Rank: 41/110
Publications: 32 (all during med school, all original research, no case reports)
Presentations: 30+
Letters: One from home PD, one from chair of top 5 MD ortho program, one from a attending at my home program, and one from my research mentor.
Bench Max: ~20 pushups lol
Leadership: Multiple national and school ortho leadership positions held.
Applications:
Number of DO ortho auditions: 3 months
Number of MD ortho auditions: 1 month (mayo rochester)
Number of DO ortho programs applied to: ~30
Number of MD ortho programs applied to: ~140
Interviews:
Number of DO ortho interviews: 8 (6 attended)
Number of MD ortho interviews: 4 (Locations: Harvard/Mass Gen, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Univ. Buffalo, MSU Ascension
MD wait lists for interview: 3 (Oregon health science, St. Lukes, U. Kentucky)
So the elephant in the room is obviously my average scores combined with pretty crazy research numbers. However, something that people often down play the importance of is letters of recommendation. It was disclosed to me during other interviews that my letter from my home PD was one of the most positive letters multiple programs had ever seen, and disclosed where I would be ranked. I was told my letter from Mayo was "glowing", and my other 2 were also extremely extremely strong. I don't know anything else about them other than what programs told me so, kind of here-say on this one.
MD side commentary:
So, despite having (reportedly) killer letters, averaging almost 1 publication per month in medical school, excessive leadership etc. I only received 4 MD interview invites out of almost 150 applications. This to me honestly was slightly surprising, because I thought I would get a look from a few of the 6 year research programs (no offers from them). But, I understand my boards are lower and not being above 240 on USMLE 1 likely cost me a couple, and had I been above 250 I probably would have gotten a few more. However, most DO applicants I know with 240/250+ that applied to 100+ MD programs still only had 1-4 MD interviews so I basically got the same amount as them. I would have been a perfect case study for how far a DO could go if I was smarter (sorry fam lol). The DO that fared the best on the MD side that I know of did 6 MD auditions, had very high scores, met diversity inclusion, and got 4 non-rotator auditions from MD programs. So basically, if you are a DO with a good app you will likely get 0-5 MD non-rotator interviews. HOWEVER, my application is actually an amazing case study for the ceiling of DOs in ortho AFTER USMLE becomes pass fail. Once this metric is gone, I suspect DOs will fare worse on the MD side of things, and even with an extremely well rounded app they will probably only get around the same amount of interviews as me. Another important point is that this year DOs FLOCKED to programs that had taken DOs before. I know of AT LEAST 8 DOs that rotated at Mayo Rochester this year (nearly 15-20% of total rotators) and mayo usually takes mostly rotators and NONE of them matched at Mayo. The ones I personally know all put Mayo #1 besides me. So, if you are rotating MD, I would actually think outside the box and rotate somewhere without a DO so that you aren't competing in a flooded DO market. Also, in the upcoming COVID year I would suspect DOs will fare worse in the non-rotator aspect because MD programs will sending these interviews to MD applicants as their rotator pool will not be as robust. Just my suspicion. I did have pretty positive feedback from 2 of the MD programs and suspect I would have matched there if I put them above where I matched, so matching MD can be done and a good number of people did it this year.
DO side commentary:
I was even more surprised at how much the DO programs cared about my letters and research than that the MD programs didn't seem to care about it at all. In the DO world, prior charting outcomes basically said 5 interviews was the magic number. So basically, if you go on all your 5-6 audition rotations do well and get interviews at all of them then your odds will be pretty good. I only did 3 months of DO auditions, because my last 2 gave me really good feedback and I just felt like my odds were good so I pulled back. I also, did not get an interview at one of the programs I rotated at. So 6 of the 8 DO interviews I got were non-rotator interviews. I did not expect this, and I did not think DO programs would care about research but they did, A LOT. If you are a DO with good ortho research, it will carry you far. Same goes for ENT, my best friend had a similar number non-rotator interviews in the DO world (12ish pubs) despite similar average scores. Including the 2 programs I rotated at that gave me good feedback, I had 4 non-rotator programs that gave me VERY reassuring PIC, mostly citing my letters and that those combined with my interview really set me apart. I did the White Coat Coaching interview training and felt like I crushed my interviews thanks to this so definitely check it out (Not affiliated with them at all just really appreciate their work). However, the other people I know that faired EXTREMELY well on the DO side were those with insane board scores. The DO world still LOVES board scores and they can take you very far IF you are also a cool person and easy to work with. However, my experience shows you can have a great application season despite having average board scores if you have other aces up your sleeve such as letters or research. Another ace I had up my sleeve is that I went to didactics and fracture conference from my first semester of medical school until even this last semester at my home program. This was a huge advantage because I really didn't study a whole lot of "basic" ortho stuff throughout auditions and was able to focus more on the cases and such because I wasn't busy memorizing fracture classifications because I was pimped on them and committed them to memory as a first year. I do feel like my knowledge really helped me relax on auditions, and I didn't feel stressed at all.
Overall:
I fell VERY blessed to have ended up where I did and it was where I wanted to end up from day 1 of medical school really. I worked my balls off for the spot I got for all 4 years of medical school and it ended up working out in the end. I matched at a formerly AOA program (by choice) despite feeling confident I could have matched MD due to the post interview feedback I received. Main considerations I had for not going MD was 1. location (didn't like any of the MD locations I interviewed at) 2. My wife and her ties to the city we matched in 3. Wanting to be at a program that felt like family (both mayo and harvard have 13 and 12 residents in EACH class, and I really didn't like this when I was at Mayo), and where all the residents were extremely tight. 4. operative volume and 5. housing market and availability to afford a house that would fit my family comfortably.
Recommended resources for ortho:
Pocket pimped (I made this into an anki deck and that helped me study it)
White coat coaching videos and interview prep
Orthobullets anatomy questions
Talking to people who want to be a mentor and pick their brain.
If any of you have ANY other questions please ask. I really enjoy trying to help others out, and just thought I would try and pass this information along. As stated above, this post was not meant to be braggy, just very matter of fact. It is tough for me to post publicly that my stats and ranked were meh (for ortho), and I always played this card close to my chest as many classmates (who know who I am on here) assumed I was much higher. Many people on here know who I am in real life, so posting this information for sure stings my pride but I have matched and it doesn't matter anyways and I hope others in medicine will follow suit with candid information because it can help set expectations and goals for future applicants.
I hope this helps someone in the future, because if I had read a post like this last year I would have for sure altered my strategy a little bit. Seeing this post would have also eased my mind because I literally had nightmares that my board score would hold me back from ortho the second I saw my USMLE and class rank at the end of 2nd year, but I stuck with it and it turned out AMAZING so if you are an aspiring ortho bro / girl bro just know that hard work and dedication can carry you very far.
