The Gateway to Your Orthopaedic Career.
  Tuesday, 18 May 2010
  23 Replies
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The information you guys give to each poster is really helpful. So I'll make an attempt at giving my information:

State medical school in the North East
Step 1: 225
Grades: Mostly Passes with 1 HP in basic sciences
So far have P in Ob/Gyn, Medicine, and Psych. HP in Family and Rads
Peds and surgery grade pending.
1 publication in rads with several case reports online.

Initially was thinking of going into medicine. Never thought I would be a surgery person until starting surgery recently. I loved ortho when I did the rotation, and now I see myself doing it in the future. I have an engineering background and love the biomechanics aspect of ortho.

What do you guys think? Should I go for ortho? It is kind of late 3rd year so I will have to do an sub-I right away and try to get some solid recs from the attendings and do an away in september/october. I will take step 2 in july/august and definitely try to improve my score.

If I apply broadly (I don't mind applying to 80-100 programs), how many interviews do you think I can land? How are my chances overall for matching?
16 years ago
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#56250
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Tablchee,

It is hard to say what your chances are as there are too many variables to count. That being said, my app was very similar to yours as far as step 1 and grades. However, personality goes a long way. I applied broadly and got several quality interviews that my peers with better CV's did not. Also, once I got an interview I had staff go to bat for me making phone calls etc. I even had great post interview contact from programs letting me know that they were really interested in what I had to offer.
On the interview trail (and at my home program), it was pretty easy to see who would not match. If you are a douche bag it will be known. Even if your staff writes a decent letter, PD's talk to residents and to each other. So if you are a genuinely cool person that works well with others "fits in" and loves to work hard, you will match. If you are all brains and do a mediocre job in the OR and on the wards, and undercut your peers to make yourself look better, the residents will see it and relate that info to the powers that be. So, long story short. If you want it, go for it. I know rock stars that did not match and below avg. guys that matched at great programs (myself being the latter). Hope this helps.
16 years ago
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#56249
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Man there is no way anyone could answer that question, because we do hear of people with lower scores matching all the time. You are a unique person, with a unique personality and CV, all of which we don't know enough about to answer anything.

All I can tell you is that the PD of my ortho program (on the west coast) would never see your application because he sets his filter at a step 1 of >230 or higher. With that being said, if you rotated at my program, you would get an interview. And if they loved you, who knows.

But from simply looking at charting outcomes, it seems like you would definitely have an uphill battle. You would probably need to jump on top of your sub-i's immediately as many are probably booked now. but yeah, sorry but that is all I can say based on what I know about you and my program.
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