Unmatched Applicants

[ARCOS]

My Program Director has asked that I reach out to all of you to see what your Program Directors would rather see from a qualified applicant who does not match the first year and has to reapply the next year. Would your PD rather see the qualified unmatched applicant complete a prelim year in general surgery or would they rather the student complete a year of orthopaedic research? What would make your PD want to take a look at application from a prior graduate? Any thoughts and suggestions that your PD would like to share would be greatly appreciated.

[ARCOS]

We would opt for the GS year. They are still honing skills in surgery. Performing research in that year would also be important. Everything is a piece of the puzzle as far as the application goes…The statement explaining what they did to improve in order to match the next time, board scores, how did you stand out in the GS year? NEW Letters. In this highly competitive specialty, you need to have what our PD calls the X-Factor. My heart still goes out for those that do not match.

[ARCOS]

My PD read this over and contributed the following info:

-I would recommend for the unmatched applicant complete a year of research over general surgery. Reason for this, this shows me their determination in sticking with ortho rather than the possibility of switching programs. I will look at an application of a previously unmatched applicant and see what they have done to advance themselves in the world of orthopaedics even if they did not match into it initially. I also believe if they are taking a high risk chance of trying again to get into ortho, they are very committed to becoming an orthopaedic surgeon. I appreciate their perseverance.

Hope this helps. I tend to agree with Laurel in that I personally think a GS year is particularly helpful in developing surgical skills required. Either way, in my personal opinion, the ones we have accepted into our program that had to wait a year to try again, are some of the more outstanding performers in that they were able to gain a bit of life experience before getting into Ortho.

[ARCOS]

From my PD…This is a broad question with more than one answer. A person who has not matched needs to identify the short-coming and remedy it, be it research, interview skills, performance and LoR, etc.
Most overcome this with a year of research. Some improve their package with a surgical internship and strong letters of recommendation. Some do other degrees (phD, masters, MPH, etc).

Artina

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