What specialties can I match into?

[AcademicNeurosurgery]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Honestly. I should probably give some background. Despite me having a low step 1 score, I have many other things that I did throughout my medical school career. I TAd during the first two years, was very active in the Ortho/Gen surg department, I honored all rotations but two, I was involved in curriculum stuff, and I guess I left a good impression on some people during these past years. I simply emailed the chair and said hey, I'm having trouble deciding how to put my application together, would you be willing to give me a few minutes of your time? I met with them, and I gave them my CV. After 2minutes of looking it over, my chair said that if I wanted a spot at my home program they would love to have me but that they will also call up some of their friends at other programs to put in a word for me. I guess 221 doesn't get screened out at too many places but for the few that do, some phone calls will be made. I did not ask for anyone to make phone calls for me. They offered. I'm not trying to gloat or anything like that but despite my step 1 score being low, I crushed all my shelf exams and I think I was/am generally liked and I feel like that made a difference. My chair also said my step 2 score will definitely help because the improvement shows I can learn from my mistakes and improve.

tlr --> I think you can ask if you want, but I think if you go to your chair if they know you they will offer.

Awesome. Thanks for the background. Your story sounds very similar to mine even with this addition, with the exception of an outright offer to call on my behalf. A few attendings have implied but haven't quite said those magical words. I'll keep working on them 🙂

Just from reading (horror) stories on these online forums, it is in your best interest to not put too much weight into the "we'd love to have you here" line. They aren't magical words and you can get still screwed.

 

[mrphysique]

Just from reading (horror) stories on these online forums, it is in your best interest to not put too much weight into the "we'd love to have you here" line. They aren't magical words and you can get still screwed.

I'm not worried. At my school you meet with the chair before they let you apply to residency. They let you know if they are in favor or disfavor of you applying (essentially if they think you are competitive or not). For the past 15 years, they have not had a single student not match that was favored to apply. Anyhow, like I said previously I will most likely be applying to two specialties. I appreciate your concern but I'm not applying without a backup....so I'm not sure how I'd be screwed either way. I'll post back later to let people know how it went.

 

[mrphysique]

I'm not worried. At my school you meet with the chair before they let you apply to residency. They let you know if they are in favor or disfavor of you applying (essentially if they think you are competitive or not). For the past 15 years, they have not had a single student not match that was favored to apply. Anyhow, like I said previously I will most likely be applying to two specialties. I appreciate your concern but I'm not applying without a backup....so I'm not sure how I'd be screwed either way. I'll post back later to let people know how it went.

Also, just an extra tid-bit. I'm not sure how it is at other schools, but my chair said they really try to discourage people they think or know won't match from applying. It looks bad on the school and the department. Anyhow, I'm doing a PM&R away rotation soon so I'm hoping I will like it.

 

[mrphysique]

Just figured I'd update this before I forget. I'm really enjoying my PM&R rotation and can really see myself doing this in the future. I'm leaning towards just applying to PM&R only to save the headache of applying to two specialties. Looks like I'll probably be competitive enough for a top PM&R program too. Thanks for everyone's contributions.

 

[iBS1972]

Check out the NRMP data. For US allopathic seniors there were 42 applicants who matched and 27 applicants who didn't match into ortho with a step 1 of 221-230 in 2016. So based off of your step 1 score it's not automatically off the table (although there is no way of knowing what else those applicants had on their application to help).

Applying to ortho with PM&R as a backup might be a great idea for you, as long as PM&R is something you think you would actually enjoy. Realistically matching ortho is going to be a huge uphill battle for you, but if it's something you're interested in there is no reason not to try as long as you have a solid backup plan.

https://www.nrmp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Charting-Outcomes-US-Allopathic-Seniors-2016.pdf

I've seen these charts on the net and in first aid. what I don't understand is some of my friends and I are looking at neurology or internal medicine. My friend have spoken to neuro faculty at our hospital, and they were told that even with step scores 200-210, they remain competitive for most schools in the east coast. But according to to these charts, it looks like scores like that, any residency anywhere would be a battle, except maybe family medicine or psychiatry. Am I missing something there?

 

[sinombre]

I've seen these charts on the net and in first aid. what I don't understand is some of my friends and I are looking at neurology or internal medicine. My friend have spoken to neuro faculty at our hospital, and they were told that even with step scores 200-210, they remain competitive for most schools in the east coast. But according to to these charts, it looks like scores like that, any residency anywhere would be a battle, except maybe family medicine or psychiatry. Am I missing something there?

Look at data. For neurology, there were 41 US allopathic seniors who applied with a step 1 of 201-210. Only 1 out of 41 of those applicants didn't match.

 

[iBS1972]

Look at data. For neurology, there were 41 US allopathic seniors who applied with a step 1 of 201-210. Only 1 out of 41 of those applicants didn't match.

I see, thanks for the clarification!