I'm a chief at the Campbell Clinic right now, and in my experience both as an applicant and now as a resident, the best way to get a leg up here, and anywhere for that matter, is to come here and rotate. While your numbers and research will definitely help your cause (Congrats, BTW), our program seems to really care much more about how well your personality, attitude, and work ethic will mesh with the clinic attendings and residents. I got a 229 on step 1, was not AOA, and was in about the top quarter or third or so of my medical school class...all solid and I'm proud of them, but not exactly jumping off the page. But the rest of my application was strong and I rotated here and feel like I made a great impression, which made all the difference. I'm not sure whether I'd have been interviewed here without a rotation, but since I did, I matched here.
Luckily for you, if you do choose to rotate here, it's easy to schedule and easy to do. As far as I know we still take all comers for rotations, regardless of your stats. I don't think we ever turn a potential rotator away. When you're here you'll spend 1 week at The Med, our very busy Level I trauma center, and 3 weeks on private rotations at the Campbell Clinic offices/local hospitals with attendings on the education committee. I don't believe that rotating here guarentees you an interview, but obviously the vast majority get one. When I was a visiting student, Dr. Azar, our program director at the time, sat down with me and had a very honest conversation with me about my chances. I'm sure Dr. Richardson, the current program director will do the same.
This is one of if not the easiest away rotations you can do. At the trauma center, you show up at 7 for fracture conference, go watch whatever cases you want, go to clinic if you want, and help the desk doc (our ER consult resident) work up new patients, do reductions, put on splints, etc. Call is voluntary, but I'd definitely do it a couple times, because if you are serious about being a resident here, you need to see and experience The Med while on call. You don't do any of our scut work (hunting down labs, writing notes, seeing floor patients, etc.) though any help you can provide is in your best interest to do. It's really more about getting to know the residents, getting a feel for the program, and us getting to know you and your work ethic and personality.
Being a DO applicant will make matching at an MD ortho program an uphill battle anywhere and I'm sure it's no different here. But, I don't know anything about whether we've interviewed and/or ranked highly any DO applicants in recent history.
If you're really interested, come for a month and check it out. Let me know if you have any more questions.
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