Specialty interest with the most attrition

[sammiesings]

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So real. I've been feeling pretty good about getting a little bit involved in some research started during second half of M1... come to find out that several classmates (derm/IR/ortho hopefuls) are quietly already almost at the point of submitting 1st author publications They knew what they were interested in, found research mentors early on, had the experience to hit the ground running and apparently know how to push projects through.

me. only to find out there are 12 other me's running around. i think the toughest part of all this though is that its hard to really know what is actually going to set you apart come match day. outside of step lol.

at least that's how it feels reading soap threads last week! 🙁

 

[Anti-PD1]

It was ortho in my class.

Nsurg tends to be that high school answer. What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor. What kind of doctor? Pediatric neurosurgeon of course.

No love for geriatric neurosurg.

 

[MSTPlease]

I meant to match Ortho.
You are mostly, but not entirely, correct. Grades do matter because they correlate with the in training exam and ortho board pass rates. But that grade is well below the average for ortho applicants today. The USMLE score “needed” to pass the boards part 1 is 227; the average for a matched applicant today is 245.
As for what you said re: walking into a specialty. That’s been actually looked at in Ortho, and it’s not actually more competitive now if you crunch the numbers. Link here:
Is orthopedics more competitive today than when my attending matched? An analysis of National Resident Matching Program data for orthopedic PGY1 appl... - PubMed - NCBI


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Whoa, hold up. Are you thinking of Step 2? I know there's some score creep but passing for step 1 was in the high 180s when I took it in 2012...

 

[WiseOne]

Pediatrics for my class, lot of people thought they would love it until they got to peds rotation.

 

[OrthoTraumaMD]

Whoa, hold up. Are you thinking of Step 2? I know there's some score creep but passing for step 1 was in the high 180s when I took it in 2012...

No, step 1. I’m not talking about passing step 1 itself. I’m talking about a study in which they looked at the minimum step 1 score that correlated with passing orthopaedic boards part 1. Everyone who scored above 227 on step 1 passed Ortho boards.


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[AsianPersuasion]

I literally just want to pass my Step 1 on first attempt this Spring T____T

 

[MSTPlease]

No, step 1. I’m not talking about passing step 1 itself. I’m talking about a study in which they looked at the minimum step 1 score that correlated with passing orthopaedic boards part 1. Everyone who scored above 227 on step 1 passed Ortho boards.


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ohhhhhhh, ok. That makes sense. I misunderstood.

 

[Cyphix]

There is some interesting AAMC data for 2017 graduates relevant to this

- Just over 1/4 of med students stick to the same specialty from the summer before M1 year through graduation.

- 50% of graduating med students going into Ortho knew they wanted to do Ortho before 1st year. This is the highest % of any specialty. Neurosurgery is about 30% for this metric.

- For other highly competitive surgical specialties - ENT and Urology, only about 7-8% of med students going into those fields knew they wanted to do it before 1st year. Similar % for Rad Onc