Help me out Please

Hey, I doubt two Ps will mess you up, as long as you pull it together a bit from here on out. You're early enough in med school to certainly still pull together a pretty decent CV/application.

Residency programs will look more at your MS3 clerkship grades, Step 1 and 2 scores, research, LORs, etc. (plus away rotations and interview) more than MS1/2 grades (though you still should definitely push for the HP).

Get involved in research, too, if you haven't already. Summer between MS1 and 2 is a great time to get some major projects done.

For a top ortho program, what range of scores should I be shooting for? 240-250?

I've also heard that if you do well enough on Step 1, you don't have to rush Step 2 since residency directors won't see that until after you've already been accepted.

Yep, you're done for. Top ortho programs require that you honor micro. You better just go into family or psych.... You should probably spend a little less time worrying and have a beer and relax.

thanks. very helpful

I got some very good advice when I changed my preferences from a different specialty to Ortho. You've gotta remember that the top applicants will honor every pre-clinical class, honor every rotation, get a 240+ on their boards, be published, AOA, etc. There aren't THAT many applicants with all of these things but that is the kind of applicant that the top programs are looking for. The farther down the applicant totem poll you are it means you'll need to do a couple of things:
- Apply to more programs
- be more realistic about the program you're going to end up at
- Take control of things you can change. This means getting useful, detailed letters of rec, doing well on Step 1 (if you haven't taken it), develop some good contacts. You've got to become more actively engaged in your CV then other people that "walk on water"

So no I don't think you're doomed, but you're going to have to apply to more programs and start to control the things you can still change with regard to your application

JMO so don't blast me.

My main point was about the first four classes of med school. Med School kinda crept up on me unexpectedly as far as work load goes. I think I have it down now though.

Hypothetically speaking, if I honor the rest of my preclinicals, destroy the boards, and honor my rotations, I should be game for the top programs?

I only honored like 2 or 3 of my preclinical classes, and I got 21 interview invites in the end (early hiccups notwithstanding). I don't know if I matched yet, but if I don't, I doubt it will be because of my preclinical grades.

Having been through the process, its obvious that every program has its own criteria for who they invite to interview. Its possible that some weigh preclinical grades heavily. But my board score, 3rd year grades, research, LORs were all mentioned frequently. No one seemed to know or care what my preclinical grades were.

The best advice I got M1 year was "do as well as you can without driving yourself crazy. The real action starts once Step I rolls around."

So no, ortho is not out of the question for you. Just try your best.

Great advice! I wish you nothing but the best in your match! However, with 21 interview invites, if I had to play Vegas odds, I'd say you're going to be an orthopod. Knock on wood. Best of luck!

Hey man, dont worry about it. Med school kind of took me by surprise at first. I never had to study like that before. I made a couple of B's to start out with. But eventually, I hit my stride and learned how to study. I turned it around with ending up top 5% in my class, 240+ step 1, and managed to do some decent ortho research on the way. You can do this, too. You just have to out work your classmates. You'll be fine!