hosskp1
OSRR Newbie
Posts: 1
(2/5/02 9:27:29 pm)
Reply What to do if you do not match on your first try?
This question is for everyone ( I especially would like to hear what Dr. Silverstein has to say). I am a third year medical student, I have not done as well as most (not that good grades, and not that good on the boards), but I believe I could still be a good orthopedist. I am determined, but unsure of what will happen. I am going to orthopedics rotations at places in my fourth year and see what happens. I have a few questions.
If you do not match the first time, what can you do if you still really want to be an orthopedist? (or is it a one shot deal? -- one year to try and that is it)
Can a better step II score help overcome an average step I score?
I realize I am not a gazelle when it comes to academics-- I am more like a Mac truck-- I plow along. I really believe that Orthopedics is my calling and I willing to try for as long as it takes to get where I want. God willing, things may work out..
Any comments or criticism will be helpful-- even rude or blunt ones.
Edited by: hosskp1 at: 2/6/02 7:39:55 pm
BoneWax
OSRR Intern
Posts: 18
(2/5/02 9:36:03 pm)
Reply re:
since this is all anonymous, why don't you give us (and Dr. S) a better idea of your grades and board scores so we can help more.
In any case, by doing electives at well-thought-out programs, you can give yourself a good shot the first time. I definitely think that if you love ortho so much, you should try again if you don't succeed the first time.
hosskp1
OSRR Newbie
Posts: 4
(2/5/02 9:42:31 pm)
Reply Re: What to do if you do not match on your first try?
Here are a few motos I use to make it through the day
"Who Dares, Wins."
British Special Air Service (SAS)
"Not by strength, but by guile"
- British Special Boat Service (SBS)
"The only easy day was yesterday."
US Navy SEALs
"Pain is weakness leaving the body."
- Various Special Ops Instructors
"Sure I am this day we are masters of our fate, that the task which has been set before us is not above our strength, that its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our own cause and an unconquerable will to win, victory will not be denied us."
- From sign in SEAL training facility (Sir Winston Churchill)
If you're in a fair fight, you didn't plan it properly.
-- Nick Lappos, Chief R&D Pilot, Sikorsky Aircraft
"It is not the critic who counts, not the one who points out how the strong man stumbled or how the doer of deeds might have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred with sweat and dust and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause who, if he wins, knows the triumph of high achievement, and who, if he fails,at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
- "The Man in the Arena"
"I have not yet begun to fight."
- John Paul Jones (aboard the Bon Homme Richard),Sept. 1779
It is better to live one day as a lion than a hundred years as a sheep."
- Italian proverb
Cowards die many times before their deaths, the valiant never taste death but once.
- Shakespeare: Julius Caesar
I don't mind being called tough, since I find in this racket it's the tough guys who lead the survivors.
- Colonel Curtis LeMay
carlos
OSRR Intern
Posts: 10
(2/5/02 10:26:28 pm)
Reply Not getting into ortho the first time around...
Hosskp1: I heard a story from a reliable source about a guy who made it into ortho the fourth time around.
Also, if the front doors to ortho are grades and board scores, the side door is research.
And in reply to your quote "God willing, things may work out..." Amen, brother... except that I would rather say "will" instead of "may."
BigDiesel44
OSRR Newbie
Posts: 2
(2/6/02 12:42:10 am)
Reply Re: What to do if you do not match on your first try?
The research thing can be big. If you don't match the first time, you can do a year of ortho research, perhaps even at a program you think you might eventually have a decent chance at.
Some people do a prelim year of general surgery and then try again, which you could not pay me enough to do.
As for me, I don't know what the h$%& I'd do. The year of research would probably be the best bet, although I would not want to go through all of this again.
The most important thing for you to do now is pick those away rotations wisely. If your numbers are just OK, but you have a great month, that can make a big difference.
Then again, I haven't matched yet, so I don't know just yet how valuable my advice is...
Ortho3n1
OSRR Intern
Posts: 11
(2/6/02 6:25:08 am)
Reply 2nd time around?
to continue the advice, I think there is still hope but I am not going to lie, you are in the fight of your life trying to get into ortho with mediocre scores/grades. I suggest you rotate at wise places, what I mean by that is dont rotate at places that would never consider if you never rotated there. I would rotate at places that I thought I had a realistic shot of getting in, rotate there and kick @#$, and see what happens. What are these programs? In my opinion, the big name programs are a waste of your time because they will not consider you. Not that smaller community programs are much less competitive, many times they are more, I just think it is easier to work hard and make a good impression without getting lost in the crowd. Also it is easier to get noticed when making a bad impression, so be careful. When I ased a chairman about taking rotaters, he told me from his experience, rotations tended to hurt more people than it has helped. As far as not getting in, if this happens to me, I am going to do a prelim g surg year at a program that has an ortho program and one that has a history of taking prelim surg candidates into their program. Hopefully this exhaustive reply helps, good luck, if need any more advice, email me at my profile
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