I'm a USIMG who is extremely interested in matching into Orthopaedics. Only problem is when I was in elementary school I was diagnosed with moderate to severe dyslexia. My teachers never understood why I could do so well in their classes, but I would consistently falter on standardized tests. After years of dealing with this learning disability, I eventually ended up attending an caribbean med school. Currently, I'm in the midst of my 3rd year and so far I've HP or H all of my core rotations, but unfortunately I only HP my Surgery core. Another problem with my application is I didn't score well on my Step 1 (<200) which I understand is strong determining factor in one's application. I've been prepping for Step 2 with the goal of scoring as well as possible (>235). On the extracurricular side of things, I have 2 outstanding LOR; one from an IM PD and the other from a Surgery PD. I plan on doing an Ortho elective sometime early next year as well. I have recently started conducting research with a world-renowned foot/ankle orthopaedic surgeon in the Mid-Atlantic region, in which I will have my name attached to potentially 4 research articles if all goes well. I've also won over the endorsement of the chief of orthopaedics at the hospital, who is willing to write a LOR and speaks highly of me. Both of the orthopaedic surgeons I have mentioned are well-known and highly respected in the Mid-Atlantic region. I'm going to miss the 2009 match because I'll be graduating in December '09, so in my time off I was planning on continuing to conduct more orthopaedic research with the forementioned orthopaedic surgeon.
I know have an uphill battle, but I wanted to get the opinion of Dr. Levine since he's an ortho PD.
from the caribbean, step 1 less than 200, and potential to not pass your orthopaedic boards (poor previous performance on standardized tests). it doesn't matter who your letters are from, you don't have a snowballs chance in hell of matching unless you have some really, really strong personal ties to a specific program. sorry, but that is the honest truth.
