Scrambling for help!

Started by jj2006
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jj2006

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So I was hoping you guys could help me. I never thought I would be interested in surgery starting medical school, but after doing my general surgery rotation then a few other rotations I became more interested. I was going to go into Emergency Medicine then I took an ortho rotation and fell in love. Here are the problems, I didn't do a real ortho rotation instead it was a community ortho rotation that was more dedicated to learning ortho for primary care. So now I am a 4th year and I am scrambling to hopefully match in ortho. I will list my application

Step 1: 245
Grades:
Surgery: Pass (It was my very first rotation, again I didn't think I would ever do anything surgery related)
Peds: Honors
EM: Honors
Medicine: Pass
Psych: High Pass
Urology: Pass (on a Pass/Fail scale)
ENT: Pass (on a Pass/Fail scale)

I have NO RESEARCH, nothing, 0. I didn't plan on taking step 2 until really late like November being that I was competitive for EM. Because of that my schedule is relatively inflexible other then making time for a core ortho rotation and MAYBE a sub I. I don't have any red flags, never took a year off, no failures, but I was never top of my class or anything just passes in the first 2 years. I don't know what to do from here. Now I can't imagine doing anything but ortho, but don't really feel very competitive. Would I stand a chance with these stats and no research? I might be able to get in some small research project, but don't expect an publications. What can I do from here? Do I need a backup specialty? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you
 
Get in contact with your home program director ASAP. Sit down and chat about your application.

Scramble and get sub-I's going now. Away rotations are necessary for everyone but more so if you have some weaknesses (no research, some passes in big core rotations).

It never hurts to get a project going. When you meet with your PD you can ask if any prolific publishers need a hand. This may get difficult as you're going to need to focus on Sub-Is.