Should I still apply for anesthesia?

[yeetus]

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At a lower-tier MD state school.

I've completed 4/7 of my clerkships so far, and I've only received Passes. No fails in pre-clinical years.

My school requires a shelf exam score that's 60-80% percentile for LC, and 80+% for Honors. My shelf scores are usually in the ~50% percentile range, so I just Pass.

For 2/4 clerkships, I had honors for performance eval, but since you need an honors shelf score as well, they count as Pass.

I have Surgery and IM coming up, so I'm gonna try my best for those and hope I buck the trend, but we'll see.

Other stats: Passed Step 1 on first try, will take Step 2 this June. Will also be doing two aways.

Research: I've done chart reviews in anesthesia and presented an anesthesia case report at the school research conference. I have a first-author publication in a surgical specialty for a Basic Science Research project that took about ~18 months.

I know that anesthesia has gotten competitive in the past few years, so I'm trying to keep my expectations in check.

 

[Tarsal-Tunnel]

I had straight passes and matched at a top program, but I also had great comments on my MSPE, which were referenced a lot during my interviews. I also had a pretty extensive research background which helped me stand out (particularly to the research heavy programs). I would try to focus on getting honors on your last 2 rotations, but if that doesn't happen, don't sweat it and try your best to do well on Step 2

 

[Golden_Fox]

I had straight passes and matched at a top program, but I also had great comments on my MSPE, which were referenced a lot during my interviews. I also had a pretty extensive research background which helped me stand out (particularly to the research heavy programs). I would try to focus on getting honors on your last 2 rotations, but if that doesn't happen, don't sweat it and try your best to do well on Step 2

Did you learn to do clinical research during med school or beforehand? Any tips on how to get better at Biostatistics as an incoming M1?

 

[collegestud2013]

At a lower-tier MD state school.

I've completed 4/7 of my clerkships so far, and I've only received Passes. No fails in pre-clinical years.

My school requires a shelf exam score that's 60-80% percentile for LC, and 80+% for Honors. My shelf scores are usually in the ~50% percentile range, so I just Pass.

For 2/4 clerkships, I had honors for performance eval, but since you need an honors shelf score as well, they count as Pass.

I have Surgery and IM coming up, so I'm gonna try my best for those and hope I buck the trend, but we'll see.

Other stats: Passed Step 1 on first try, will take Step 2 this June. Will also be doing two aways.

Research: I've done chart reviews in anesthesia and presented an anesthesia case report at the school research conference. I have a first-author publication in a surgical specialty for a Basic Science Research project that took about ~18 months.

I know that anesthesia has gotten competitive in the past few years, so I'm trying to keep my expectations in check.

Depends largely on step 2 score. If it's competitive (ie median or higher for matched anesthesiology applicants based on recent charting the outcomes data), probably still good shot if applying broadly with no geographical restrictions.

If it ends up lower or you have significant geographical restrictions, then it becomes more uncertain (anesthesiology match rates have hovered around 85% in recent matches for U.S.M.D. grads applying to it as their top choice specialty, as opposed to high 90s% match rate seen in the less competitive years) and I would apply to anesthesia but with a backup specialty that you would still be happy doing.

 

[Tarsal-Tunnel]

Did you learn to do clinical research during med school or beforehand? Any tips on how to get better at Biostatistics as an incoming M1?

I did mostly basic science research prior to medical school. I did some clinical research during med school, but most of the biostats work was done by our dedicated biostatisticians so I didn't have as much proficiency in that area haha

 

[yeetus]

Just wanted to update: I didn't get honors for any clerkships. Just Passes except for one High Pass for a clerkship that is not related to Anesthesia (neither IM nor Surgery).

My Step 2 score is in the low 250s. Regarding research updates, I completed another project that was presented at the regional anesthesiology conference. Don't have any away rotations lined up, so I'm aiming to get strong LORs from my home anesthesia program plus related fields.

Would appreciate any advice and thoughts on what I should do going forward.

 

[vm26]

Just wanted to update: I didn't get honors for any clerkships. Just Passes except for one High Pass for a clerkship that is not related to Anesthesia (neither IM nor Surgery).

My Step 2 score is in the low 250s. Regarding research updates, I completed another project that was presented at the regional anesthesiology conference. Don't have any away rotations lined up, so I'm aiming to get strong LORs from my home anesthesia program plus related fields.

Would appreciate any advice and thoughts on what I should do going forward.

Given that your work will be reimbursed at the same rate as a CRNA, I would recommend not applying. I'm not an anesthesiologist so you may want to check out their form for more insight into the field.