Ortho Dilemma

[Krazykritter]

Here's my situation...

There is a group of orthopods in the city that I am from that I have been around & worked with a lot. Every time my father goes to the clinic to get his knee injected w/ Cortisone, the docs always ask about me & tell him that they have a job waiting for me.

Here's the problem though...I am worried about gunning for ortho due to the possibility of not matching in such a competitive field. My MSI grades put me (somehow) in the bottom half of the class. I expect to do well on boards & will put in the time needed. But at this point, are my MSI grades going to come back to bite me?

I am an extremely hard worker & expect to do very well in the clinics b/c I have always seemed to excel under stress & long hours. Am I getting too far ahead of myself? Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts? Thanks.

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[sscooterguy]

Don't worry about your MS1 or 2 grades at ALL. The only advantage of doing well during those 2 years is possibly getting AOA as a junior, which I'm sure helps a little, but not a big deal at all. I guess another advantage would be that it proves to you that you learned the material thoroughly. In any case, a lot of my friends did not honor/letter one block during the first 2 years (we're on pass/fail/letters/honors system), but they did well on step 1, which is widely accepted as the key for preclinical work.

Probably equally important is your 3rd year clinical grades. You should try to honor as much as you can, that can only help. I do have a friend who's first honor grade was during his Sub I during the beginning of 4th year though, and he did match.

Don't sweat MS1/MS2 grades. Do learn the stuff well, concentrate on honing your personal study habits/techniques during this first half of M1, and have fun. When boards come along, shoot for 230+ on step 1 to be comfortable applying for Ortho (at least at my school, preclinical grades/block exam scores did not absolutely correlate with step 1 scores). Keep in contact with the ortho group in town, that can only help and also solidify your desire to do ortho, with that connection as an M1, you're ahead of the game. Good luck.

sscooterguy

 

[Krazykritter]

Thanks for the reply...

In my original post I forgot to mention one thing & I don't know how much it changes things...I am a DO student. Does this change at all my situation in any way other than the obvious difficulty of a DO applying to allopathic programs?

 

[sscooterguy]

Thanks for the reply...

In my original post I forgot to mention one thing & I don't know how much it changes things...I am a DO student. Does this change at all my situation in any way other than the obvious difficulty of a DO applying to allopathic programs?

There are a few threads here targeting the DO route. I'm not DO, but I think its pretty much the same, do well on your boards and rock your rotations. My brother in law is a DO in training heading towards ER, and he set up all of his away rotations in the specific geographical locations in which he wants to apply. He made sure he got to know the ER department no matter what rotation he was doing. I'll let the DO's talk more about applying and requirements for DO ortho programs vs MD ortho programs.

sscooterguy

 

[dawg44]

I didn't want to even bother with thinking about the allopathic route. Who wants to take more tests and it is undoubtedly more of an uphill battle. Add in the accreditation issues, I don't know why a DO student would want to do an allopathic ortho residency when there are plenty of good osteopathic residencies and you consider all of the headaches involved. That is unless you like answering questions about your school and training to date, worrying if you can practice in a state if your internship is approved or not and love taking the USMLE.

 

[Krazykritter]

Why go allopathic...let's see: Many more options in location (I'd love to stay in the Midwest) & let's face it, the majority of allopathic programs are superior to osteopathic ones. I am definitely taking the USMLE anyway, so no problem there. There is also no issues in accreditation if you go allo from the start & screw the five 'mean' states. I know that may seem like sort of an immature response, but I think many of us are getting sick of the AOA its consistent failure to work as a governing body for osteopathic medicine.

 

[dawg44]

Why go allopathic...let's see: Many more options in location (I'd love to stay in the Midwest) & let's face it, the majority of allopathic programs are superior to osteopathic ones. I am definitely taking the USMLE anyway, so no problem there. There is also no issues in accreditation if you go allo from the start & screw the five 'mean' states. I know that may seem like sort of an immature response, but I think many of us are getting sick of the AOA its consistent failure to work as a governing body for osteopathic medicine.

So you would love to stay in the midwest and you have more options. What exactly are those options when you lop 5 states right off of the top right there. What does staying in the midwest and doing an allopathic residency have to do with more options? Are you talking jobs? Do a job search hundreds and hundreds of jobs anywhere anyplace and they don't really care where you did your residency or fellowship, just that you did one and you aren't a J1. I went on 8 job interviews groups with mostly MDs and had a contract put on the table at every single one. There is such a big shortage right now that is only going to get bigger. Maybe you say fellowships. Every single one of our chiefs got their 1st choice for a fellowship 3/3. I would put my operative skills up against any PGY5 MD or DO right now thinking one place is superior to another is absolutely subjective anyway. The superior program is the one you get into.

 

[Krazykritter]

So you would love to stay in the midwest and you have more options. What exactly are those options when you lop 5 states right off of the top right there. What does staying in the midwest and doing an allopathic residency have to do with more options? Are you talking jobs? Do a job search hundreds and hundreds of jobs anywhere anyplace and they don't really care where you did your residency or fellowship, just that you did one and you aren't a J1. I went on 8 job interviews groups with mostly MDs and had a contract put on the table at every single one. There is such a big shortage right now that is only going to get bigger. Maybe you say fellowships. Every single one of our chiefs got their 1st choice for a fellowship 3/3. I would put my operative skills up against any PGY5 MD or DO right now thinking one place is superior to another is absolutely subjective anyway. The superior program is the one you get into.

Fair enough.