Too late?

[2nd year]

After spending a few years fighting my desire to pursue orthopedics because I thought the lifestyle would be too much, I'm realizing that there really isn't anything else I'd rather do.. Unfortunately, I now have no Ortho research experience and I'm in my 3rd year. My grades are decent, but not unreal and my step 1 is 220. Is it too late to get things together to be competitive for the Ortho match or are there still things I can do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[O'doyleRules]

You'll be fine -- contact some faculty members in the ortho department at your school and jump on a research project or two. Try to get involved with more clinical data mining or reviews/case reports so that you can get something published. A 220 on the boards will get you weeded out at a lot of the top top ortho programs, but for the rest you will be fine.

 

[monique]

2nd year,

Before I give you any advice let me warn you that I have not matched yet but I am in my fourth year applying for Ortho. I'm kind of in the same boat, I didn't realize that I wanted to do Ortho until halfway thru my 3rd year. I think it is a good idea to get involved in some kind of ortho research: I did, and although I in absolutely no danger of getting published, I did get to know a faculty member well and he's going to write me a letter. Another thing I think you should do is find somewhere you really want to go, do an away and do really well there. My final advice to to blow away Step 2 if you can. I've had program directors tell me that although they don't care how well you remember the Kreb's cycle or whatever from first and second years, they do care how well you can take a standardized test.

Good luck,
Monique

 

[2nd year]

in addition to the deck that is already stacked against me, I now know that I got an "S" in my 3rd year surgery rotation. How negatively will this effect me? Can an "H" in an Ortho. rotation make up for this? Thanks again.