I am very interested in ortho and am trying to assess my competitiveness for getting an ortho residency and what I might be able to do to increase the likelihood of getting the ortho residency that I want. What can I do now, as a third year student, to build my resume and what should I plan on doing as a fourth year student? As far as residency goes, I am more interested in getting the location that I want as opposed to going to the "big name" programs. Any feedback about what I can do to increase my chances would be greatly appreciated. My stats thusfar are:
Step 1: 229 (somewhat pedestrian, so I realize i will need a resume booster)
Preclinical: Upper 1/2 to 1/3 of a competitive class
Clinical: Only 1 rotation done so far, received an A (we are still on the A-F grading scale)
No research as of yet in medical school
If you can get involved, even very minimally, on a research project, that would be important. There is a portion of the application that asks about research, and I also feel like you should have a response for every part of an application (i.e. I hate haveing to leave an "N/A" or blank on an application).
Other than that, rock Step 2 (Do it early), continue your A's on your clinical rotations, and do some good aways. Getting into orthopedics isn't rocket science in the sense that all programs look in general for some basic things. I've essentially highlighted those things above.
Of all of those, I think the most important is doing aways. If you are truly interested in a specific location, aways in that location will help solidify your ability to get a residency spot. Of course, aways can backfire, but they also can significantly help. I don't know what the numbers show, but I would guess that > 67% of all ortho applicants match into a program where they rotated.
