sunymed
Registered User
Posts: 7
(5/21/01 5:07:42 pm)
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How many applicants from your school?
How many students applied/are applying in your year. I'm getting worried because in my school (middle
of the road in rankings) I have at least 7 (maybe more) applying for orthopedics. I have average
pre-clinical grades (some honors/mostly high passes), good board scores (240's), and mostly honors in
my third year rotations, but NO AOA/no major research. Sucks that my year has so many ortho
applicants (three of whom are junior AOA)
IamNikolas
Registered User
Posts: 20
(5/21/01 5:27:37 pm)
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Re: How many applicants from your school?
Man you think you have it tough? In my class there's over 20 people applying for ortho !! Consider
yourself lucky.
sunymed
Registered User
Posts: 8
(5/21/01 6:11:02 pm)
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Yeah, but...
20, damn, that's a lot. But are you from a top medical school (i.e., Ivy league, UCLA, etc...) or an
average med. school. Even if 30 people applied from Harvard, they'd still all get in.
IamNikolas
Registered User
Posts: 21
(5/21/01 8:07:07 pm)
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Re: Yeah, but...
No it's not a "top" medical school like Harvard or Hopkins, but it's no slouch either. Every year 6-8 people
match from my school. So the competition is pretty intense for my year. But the fact that people may
apply to different geographic regions may make the number of applicants somewhat irrelevant.
UCCOM
Registered User
Posts: 3
(5/21/01 9:21:33 pm)
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Re: Yeah, but...
I feel everyone's pain. In my class there are between 12-15 people applying this year anywhere from
Junio AOA to poeple in the middle 50% whom are dying to get in.
I don't understand how there are so many Junior AOA people out there. At my school, they took 5 out
of 160. Only people with all honors the first 2 years and all honors up till the application process were
taken. Seems kind of like some schools don't do junior AOA the same way and don't take it as seriously.
3 people alone in one school are Junior AOA applying to Ortho, other people whom have gotten average
grades (some passes) third year who get junior AOA. Seems like people still aren't comparing apples to
apples.
I don't know, just rambling.
OrthoStud
Registered User
Posts: 16
(5/21/01 10:20:22 pm)
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Huh?????
UCCOM -- no offense, but what are you talking about?
Ortho2002
Registered User
Posts: 18
(5/22/01 6:29:11 am)
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i hear ya
i believe that he is making reference to the completely subjective nature of AOA selection at some
schools in the country. every school has there own formula. some take more, some take less. some take
a boat load of butt kissers with average grades over outstanding candidates. thankfully, our school has a
standardized solely numerical way of calculating AOA.
ABC123
Registered User
Posts: 14
(5/22/01 11:20:59 am)
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Re: How many applicants from your school?
U.Wash--3/~180 applied my year vs. rumors of 10 or more planning to the year behind me. The ~ trend
the last few years...7,5,6,4 (3 this match)...now a big jump.
bonepain
Registered User
Posts: 16
(5/22/01 2:23:23 pm)
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relax
You guys need to chill...
Just 'cause a bunch of people apply doesn't mean much in terms of your match chances. Every school
has a bunch of ortho wannabe's who are probably just reaching a bit.
However, those Junior AOAs/240+ are the real deal, and will probably have more interviews than they will
know what to do with.... those opening up spots for the rest.
We only have 1 JAOA guy applying this coming year, with a lot of smart folks going radiology and derm.
Last year, about 12 apps, 6 or 7 matched. 2 guys were Jun AOA/250s and got interviews absolutely
EVERYWHERE! It was amazing the places they were interviewing... I mean the top places in the country,
and I go to a middle of the road med school. They got their No. 1 and #2 I believe.
The bottom line, there are not a whole lot of star applicants out there, and they will get the spots they
want most likely.... most schools will have a star... but after that everyone is in a similar boat.
Thoughts?
Ortho2002
Registered User
Posts: 19
(5/22/01 4:32:08 pm)
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others?
how did the other 4-5 candidates that matched look on paper? just wondering coming from a non-junior
AOA that is intent on matching!
bonepain
Registered User
Posts: 17
(5/22/01 9:21:02 pm)
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others
Actually, they were not all that great. I mean, some of them made up for slightly lesser numbers with
research and good recs. I would say most guys were in the 230 range, top third of the class. The funny
thing was that the supposed "stars" did not match at programs that were THAT much better than the
other guys. However, they did match at programs with reps for having good lifestyles. I don't think the
other guys mind going to a harsher residency, though, they all seem pretty happy to me.
So maybe if you have slightly lesser #s, but are willing to go through a tougher residency, that would
help your chances.
Ortho2002
Registered User
Posts: 20
(5/23/01 6:04:04 am)
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others
what was the range of the guys that didn't match from your school. And why do you think that they did
not match (ie. did they have the personality of a door?!)
wyo bone doc
Registered User
Posts: 4
(5/23/01 9:13:13 am)
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others
Some more numbers for you all from an average midwestern med school:
2000: 9/9 matched with board scores 200's-250's (four of those people were under 230)
2001: 5/5 matched with board scores 210's-240's (2 under 230)
I think the numbers just lend strength to the argument that good numbers definitely open the doors,
but your grades, recs and away electives seal the deal.
UCCOM
Registered User
Posts: 4
(5/23/01 7:55:16 pm)
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Re: i hear ya
Yes, thank you Ortho2002. Orthostud, I was unaware that between schools, AOA is choosen differently.
From what I was told by an administrator at my school, there is only a certain percentage of people who
get Junior AOA, and since AOA is first and foremost an academich honorary, my school goes by the top
5 in the class, usually people who have gotten soley honors.
From some of the posts by others, I was underthe impression people had gotten Junior AOA with much
less than all honors. I guess each school does their own thing.
bonepain
Registered User
Posts: 22
(6/1/01 4:20:04 pm)
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unmatched
No, I would not say they had bad personalities or anything. I would say that they just didn't have
extremely competitive numbers. I would say the unmatched folks were mostly in the 220 range,
non-AOA. They all matched in backup specialties like peds.
I think that as long as you numbers put you into the "big group" of applicants out there you should be
fine. The middle of the bell curve is probably like 225, so to make yourself pretty competitive a 230 or
above would help. Also, don't worry too much about the 250 dudes, they are not your competition.
good luck.
g2001
Registered User
Posts: 8
(6/11/01 12:40:20 pm)
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applicant #'s
The best advice I can offer is that the applicants from each school should work together and help each
other out. This past year at my school, we had 7 guys all match at good programs. We basically worked
together and avoided applying to programs that we had very little interest in since we would just be
wasting an interview that someone else may have been offered. A program is not going to interview 5
applicants from the same school, they invite 2 or 3 and it gets pretty random at times which people do
or don't get an interview. If the really strong candidates from a school will apply everywhere, there's a
good chance they will be offered interviews instead of the lesser applicants (by numbers), they won't be
able to make all the inteviews and decline the interview last minute. Unfortunately, this is an interview
that other students from the same school could have had. It worked out well for our school, but it's
tough if you're not all friends or there are some gunners in the group. Sounds like ortho is getting more
popular every year. Good luck.
