I went unmatched last year, but everything has worked out great for me. The biggest error that an ortho applicant can make (in my opinion) is to scramble into a general surgery spot. The only thing I would try to scramble into would be an orthopaedic spot that didn't fill. The chances of that are slim, but it happened last year. I went after it and was told that I was their 2nd choice out of 100+ that applied for the spot after the match.
Instead of scrambling into a gen surg, I would talk to the head of your general surgery residency and tell them your concernes about not matching into ortho. My school was willing to hold a gen surg prelim spot for me in case I didn't get the unfilled ortho spot or in case I could not find a good ortho research year. Because my school's gen surg department was flexible, I didn't have to worry about being stuck with nothing. That allowed me to look for a great ortho research year.
I found that at UPenn with Dr. Lackman. I have posted details about my research year (post-doctorate orthopaedic oncology clinical research fellowship) in orthogate before. As an update, I have ranked 11 programs, and I am confident that I will match at my No. 1 or #2 choice. I have gained so much orthopaedic knowledge it's amazing. I have also been exposed to more orthopaedic oncology than any ortho resident will get during their 5 years. Some residency programs have NO orthopaedic oncology. I also have the confidence to write papers/chapters on any subject. Coming into this year with little research experience and 3 months (3 months of 4th year electives) ortho experience, I was able to write two spine chapters (about 9,000 words each) and co-author multiple papers in the first several months. Because I had no experience in spine, I took no knowledge for granted and wrote comprehensive chapters. I have been told by one of the editors that these two chapters are excellent and the most comprehensive of their kind. My CV has grown significantly in this year.
I'm not writing to toot my own horn. I just want to make it clear that YOU CAN GO UNMATCHED AND STILL BE HAPPY AND SUCCESSFUL. I have no doubt that I will be able to accomplish all my goals in the future. I am more confident after this year. I feel like I have something to prove to all those programs that didn't think I was good enough to be in their program last year. I have talked to residents that went unmatched and all of them have done very well in the program where they ended up.
If you are a realistic applicant and do not match, don't give up. My suggestions are:
1) Arrange a tentative gen surg spot for yourself ahead of time, so you don't feel forced to scramble into gen surg.
2) Call Dr. Lackman if you are interested in doing paid clinical research and improving your chances of matching next year (215-662-3350 or [url=mailto]
[email protected][/url]).
3) If there is a open ortho spot in the scramble, go after it.
Thanks and let me know if you have any questions,
Jesse Torbert
[url=mailto]
[email protected][/url]
215-829-5143
