Advice on specific backup plan

you'd probably be better served posting this on an ER message board....or talking to ER staff at your institution. I know that the ER people at my school are very involved and really help those that apply to ER and don't match into ER find scramble spots. don't know, but think the ones I know would be helpful/open to helping someone who initially applied to ortho get into ER on scramble (assuming you had good reasons etc for liking ER)...good luck, hope it doesnt come to this for you...

I guess the big question is how much do you love ortho?

You need to think pretty hard about this because this isn't like picking a backup college or medical school. This is going to be your career for the rest of your life. There are enough people who match ortho the second time arond to make it a viable option. Sure, it's a hard road. But if you TRULY LOVE ortho what's an extra year or two compared to the rest of your life? Do you want to scramble into ER and always have to ask yourself what "could've been" if you gave it an extra try?

I truly do love ortho...

damn this is hard, ok thanks guys i know what i have to do

For the record, I'm a reapplicant.

I went to college to do ortho
I went to medical school to do ortho

It was ortho or bust. When people asked me what my backup plan was, I told them "Ortho. I will do whatever it takes, research, surgery, prelim, etc. But my backup is Ortho." and then sometimes they would ask "what if you don't get it after that.?" .."I'll keep trying until I do. I'm young."

Orthopaedics is one of those fields where you typically don't 'fall into'. It's not like medicine, where people accept that you want to do 6 different things because you want to help people in general (which is admirable). It's a demanding residency and lifestyle.. you have to really want it, otherwise you'll be miserable.

Don't get me wrong, it's wise to have some form of a backup plan, but it should be to backup your ultimate goal. For me, it was ortho, so my backup plan was research. But, if you're undecided, then you should really think about it, especially when it comes to ortho. It's a huge commitment. Anyone can match into ortho, it's a matter of how badly you want it. I've seen low step scores, no honors, unheard of med schools, etc. and people still match.. I've seen high scores, perfect records, and people not match.. it goes both ways.

No matter what you do, you should do it 100% in life. If you're going to apply to ortho, but don't think you have the grades or whatever, go full force, give it your all. don't say "i'm going to try, but if I can't get it then I'll just do ER." If you do, you're just going to set yourself for failure.

I dunno, it sounds preachy, and actually egotistical about the specialty, but I guess what I'm getting at is that any surgical subspecialty is a big commitment, and there's a huge difference between ER and surgery, as opposed to say Ortho vs Neurosurgery (in terms of life commitment, not the actual discipline, hehe.. b/c we all know they're way different.)


Good luck in whatever you do!

ER had something like 20 open spots this year but planning to scramble is bad.

If your board scores are within the "ortho range", which is much wider than you think, then your application strategy is as important as your actual application. You have to use the shot-gun approach (which is what everyone in almost every specialty did this year*) and rank every program. You'll probably interview at 1 program that you don't really like and you'll have to decide if you can do 5 years at that program or if you'll leave it off your list.


* Maybe this was just my experience but it seemed like everyone, regardless of specialty choice, was told that "this is an extremely competitive year--programs are getting way more applications than last year" so go ahead and freak out.