What else am I supposed to be doing?

[Superior_Colliculus]

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If my goal is to match into a residency, what other factors do programs look at besides board scores and class grades? Is there anything else I should consider doing besides class and board exams to strengthen my application?

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Which specialty?

 

[EthylMethylMan]

Which specialty?

This is the most important question. Second most important question is are you gunning for prestigious programs? If you’re all-in for Hopkins neurosurgery, you’re gonna have to do research, other ECs, networking, etc. If you’re trying to match into a community FM/IM/peds/EM program, you basically just have to not fail anything, and even that isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker.

 

[Superior_Colliculus]

Since I haven't done any rotations yet, I'm not sure which specialty yet. As far as leadership, research, volunteering, etc.-is quality or quantity more important to residency programs? And if quantity is more important, how many leadership positions, how many publications, how many hours of volunteering are they looking for?

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Again it depends entirely on specialty. I would say that surgical subs are probably out of the question without a research year at this point since they are looking for a lot of pubs (assuming you are a rising M2 not M1)

 

[Superior_Colliculus]

Again it depends entirely on specialty. I would say that surgical subs are probably out of the question without a research year at this point since they are looking for a lot of pubs (assuming you are a rising M2 not M1)

Are you saying that if you haven't done any research during M1 year, then research during M2 and M3 wouldn't be enough for surgical subs?

 

[RapidEyeMovementLearning]

Are you saying that if you haven't done any research during M1 year, then research during M2 and M3 wouldn't be enough for surgical subs?

Depends who you can get in contact with. If you meet the right residents or PI, you could easily publish 10+ papers (not case reports) in just M3 year with minimal effort. There are DO students who have done this. It's easier with some surgical subs than others because of the nature of the data collected. Think ortho and hardware/implants data.. you get the picture.

 

[chilly_md]

It would be good at this point to start narrowing it down. You should have an idea of whether surgery is something you may want to do or you have no interest in.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Are you saying that if you haven't done any research during M1 year, then research during M2 and M3 wouldn't be enough for surgical subs?

As a DO student, yes, unless you get very lucky and find a PI who cranks out papers. From what I’ve seen, these investigators tend to be at top schools. PIs at DO and low tier MD schools barely publish for the most part. Keep in mind all research for eras should be completed by end of M2 or beginning of M3 at the latest. General surgery would be doable with minor research but the subspecialties would probably be off the table unless you had connections (ie father is an Ortho program director)

 

[Superior_Colliculus]

As a DO student, yes, unless you get very lucky and find a PI who cranks out papers. From what I’ve seen, these investigators tend to be at top schools. PIs at DO and low tier MD schools barely publish for the most part. Keep in mind all research for eras should be completed by end of M2 or beginning of M3 at the latest. General surgery would be doable with minor research but the subspecialties would probably be off the table unless you had connections (ie father is an Ortho program director)

Why does it have to be done at the beginning of M3 at the latest for ERAS? I thought the ERAS application was done in the fourth year?

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

Why does it have to be done at the beginning of M3 at the latest for ERAS? I thought the ERAS application was done in the fourth year?

Publications can have a turnaround time of 8-12 months

 

[Surgeon D.O.]

Research

Anything else isn't going to impress anyone. Only pursue ECs if its something that you genuinely want to do for fun, interest, free stuff, catharsis etc.

When the MS1-3s at my school and rotation site would ask me about volunteering and "undergraduate" type of activities I would give them the same answer.

 

[DrZoidbergDO]

As a DO student, yes, unless you get very lucky and find a PI who cranks out papers. From what I’ve seen, these investigators tend to be at top schools. PIs at DO and low tier MD schools barely publish for the most part. Keep in mind all research for eras should be completed by end of M2 or beginning of M3 at the latest. General surgery would be doable with minor research but the subspecialties would probably be off the table unless you had connections (ie father is an Ortho program director)

this makes no sense lmao, almost all of my pubs went out in 3rd year. as long as it's before eras opens i dont see why that matters

 

[DOVinciRobot]

Since I haven't done any rotations yet, I'm not sure which specialty yet. As far as leadership, research, volunteering, etc.-is quality or quantity more important to residency programs? And if quantity is more important, how many leadership positions, how many publications, how many hours of volunteering are they looking for?

Real talk: this isn’t premed anymore. No one cares if you were the president of 5 student orgs. No one cares about how many volunteering hours you have. Do those things only if you want to, not because you think it’s what PDs want to see.

Publications matter. Quality AND quantity matter. The majority of applicants and matchees, yes even to the surgical subs, have 3 actual publications or less on average. The numbers get inflated because you can get multiple abstracts and posters from the same project before it’s finally published.

As a DO student if you wait for rotations to decide on a specialty and that specialty is something competitive you are behind the 8 ball unless you are literally a number 1 in your class, 800/260 on COMLEX/USMLE and 10 pubs type person.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

The caveat being that for some things like AOA leadership matters but this is internal. Like at my school it’s grades + research + leadership + service

 

[Dr_Jan_I_Tor]

The caveat being that for some things like AOA leadership matters but this is internal. Like at my school it’s grades + research + leadership + service

What are you talking about? Are you saying "for AOA leadership positions" like student government? Or are you talking about AOA the honors society?

 

[DOVinciRobot]

The caveat being that for some things like AOA leadership matters but this is internal. Like at my school it’s grades + research + leadership + service

DO schools don’t have AOA. We have SSP, which isn’t really relevant and most programs have no idea what it is.

Leadership and service is not a consideration for who gets interviews at my current program. And it wasn’t a consideration at any of the surgical programs affiliated with my med school either. I spent 4 years spending significant (read: too much) time educating myself on what it took for DOs to match competitively into surgical specialties. I personally know DOs in every surgical specialty, and that includes some of the “most impressive DO match ever” people.

Stuff like that can be interview fodder, but it isn’t going to get anyone interviews or significantly change where they go on the rank list.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

DO schools don’t have AOA. We have SSP, which isn’t really relevant and most programs have no idea what it is.

Leadership and service is not a consideration for who gets interviews at my current program. And it wasn’t a consideration at any of the surgical programs affiliated with my med school either. I spent 4 years spending significant (read: too much) time educating myself on what it took for DOs to match competitively into surgical specialties. I personally know DOs in every surgical specialty, and that includes some of the “most impressive DO match ever” people.

Stuff like that can be interview fodder, but it isn’t going to get anyone interviews or significantly change where they go on the rank list.

So just step and research?

 

[KaiBuzz]

As a DO student, yes, unless you get very lucky and find a PI who cranks out papers. From what I’ve seen, these investigators tend to be at top schools. PIs at DO and low tier MD schools barely publish for the most part. Keep in mind all research for eras should be completed by end of M2 or beginning of M3 at the latest. General surgery would be doable with minor research but the subspecialties would probably be off the table unless you had connections (ie father is an Ortho program director)

So if mother is an Ortho PD that won’t help?

 

[Cornfed101]

So if mother is an Ortho PD that won’t help?

Depends on how your mother feels about nepotism