- Joined
- May 16, 2008
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Hi all.
I registered to this site because I was hoping someone could help me out, since I've been extremely down lately, and was hoping that there was some information out there that I just haven't seen - because my school has been extremely unhelpful to me, and seems to just expect us to fend for ourselves now that we're paying them (a very different reality from the one they painted during the interviews and post-acceptance tours).
Basically, I failed a block a few months ago (by .02%...), mainly due to my having a lot of problems in my personal life with various things (not a legitimate excuse in medicine/academics, I know, but I felt as though I may as well say it).
I'm not really in the top of the class by any means, but at the same time, I'm not in the business of failing my classes and I've always gotten extremely positive clinical evaluations, and have generally impressed every doc I've worked with closely - I have received multiple evals stating that I was the best student that they've worked with/best in the group. I'm not just sitting around stewing over this personal failure either, since that's just counterproductive - I'm trying to look to the future and move forward. I have worked with other MS-IVs to create a very intensive study schedule for the USMLE, and have been doing well with Q-bank questions, which is weird, because I'm much better with Step-I questions than I am with my school's multiple choice exams - I think the reason for this is that my school tests your ability to regurgitate minute details, and I'm not a very good rote memorizer - I'm a critical thinker, which is also what has helped me do extremely well clinically and in small groups. I'm also trying to get involved in some research this summer, but it's difficult as I'm being forced into remediation that will use up most of my summer.
My school has not been very supportive of my situation from the get-go, and have just said that I won't have trouble matching at all, and that I'd always been welcome into Internal Medicine if I happened to not match. When I asked for help starting a study schedule for the Step 1, they just scoffed and said that I should worry about it when I'm a second year. This school/hospital doesn't even have a plastics department - all cases are handled by general surgeons.
I wanted to know if my chances of matching into plastics is over based on this one 4 week long block. Would this also preclude me from matching into general surgery and then moving into a plastics fellowship? I don't really care what route I have to take, so long as I ultimately arrive at my goal.
At the same time, if I'm doomed into internal medicine as a result of this, I think I'd probably like to leave medicine, since I've not enjoyed my experiences outside the OR, and feel that I would always be unhappy in that position.
Basically, I don't mean this to be a sob story, or a "please say some encouraging words to me!" kind of post. I just want to know if I should pack my bags and go home then do some soul-searching to think of a career that would make me happy, because I don't really have a legitimate chance anymore, or if I do still have a possible route to practice as a reconstructive/plastic surgeon in the US, what I can do to help optimize my chances to achieve that end. Like I said, I don't mind going general surgery, then plastics fellowship, so as long as that option is realistically open, then I'll keep moving forward.
Thank you for your time/input, I really do appreciate it.
I registered to this site because I was hoping someone could help me out, since I've been extremely down lately, and was hoping that there was some information out there that I just haven't seen - because my school has been extremely unhelpful to me, and seems to just expect us to fend for ourselves now that we're paying them (a very different reality from the one they painted during the interviews and post-acceptance tours).
Basically, I failed a block a few months ago (by .02%...), mainly due to my having a lot of problems in my personal life with various things (not a legitimate excuse in medicine/academics, I know, but I felt as though I may as well say it).
I'm not really in the top of the class by any means, but at the same time, I'm not in the business of failing my classes and I've always gotten extremely positive clinical evaluations, and have generally impressed every doc I've worked with closely - I have received multiple evals stating that I was the best student that they've worked with/best in the group. I'm not just sitting around stewing over this personal failure either, since that's just counterproductive - I'm trying to look to the future and move forward. I have worked with other MS-IVs to create a very intensive study schedule for the USMLE, and have been doing well with Q-bank questions, which is weird, because I'm much better with Step-I questions than I am with my school's multiple choice exams - I think the reason for this is that my school tests your ability to regurgitate minute details, and I'm not a very good rote memorizer - I'm a critical thinker, which is also what has helped me do extremely well clinically and in small groups. I'm also trying to get involved in some research this summer, but it's difficult as I'm being forced into remediation that will use up most of my summer.
My school has not been very supportive of my situation from the get-go, and have just said that I won't have trouble matching at all, and that I'd always been welcome into Internal Medicine if I happened to not match. When I asked for help starting a study schedule for the Step 1, they just scoffed and said that I should worry about it when I'm a second year. This school/hospital doesn't even have a plastics department - all cases are handled by general surgeons.
I wanted to know if my chances of matching into plastics is over based on this one 4 week long block. Would this also preclude me from matching into general surgery and then moving into a plastics fellowship? I don't really care what route I have to take, so long as I ultimately arrive at my goal.
At the same time, if I'm doomed into internal medicine as a result of this, I think I'd probably like to leave medicine, since I've not enjoyed my experiences outside the OR, and feel that I would always be unhappy in that position.
Basically, I don't mean this to be a sob story, or a "please say some encouraging words to me!" kind of post. I just want to know if I should pack my bags and go home then do some soul-searching to think of a career that would make me happy, because I don't really have a legitimate chance anymore, or if I do still have a possible route to practice as a reconstructive/plastic surgeon in the US, what I can do to help optimize my chances to achieve that end. Like I said, I don't mind going general surgery, then plastics fellowship, so as long as that option is realistically open, then I'll keep moving forward.
Thank you for your time/input, I really do appreciate it.